NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 27, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS/THE SMURFS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER:
THAT WAS QUITE A LAP, AND YOU WENT OUT LAST!
“That is the benefit of going out last. You can see, and watch. You have the tracker up there, and you can see where guys are making the most time. I guess I did part of my  home work, and the guys definitely did their homework. The Quicken Loans Chevrolet was really good. I don’t know that we caught a cloud or anything. Just a great effort today for Chevrolet, and all the other things we’ve got going on here. Good day for Stewart-Haas Racing.”
 
ON BEING A HOOSIER AND WINNING POLE AT INDY:
“I’ll admit I was emotional. For me it special because it is the Brickyard, and I hadn’t won a pole her before even though I have won so many poles. It’s been so long since I won a pole, people ask me if I ran out of fuel for the rockets. That type of thing.  So this is special to me for a lot of reasons; being home here in Indiana; being at the Brickyard; being so long since I won a pole. Hopefully we can turn it into a good day tomorrow.”
 
YOU GET THAT FIRST PIT BOX:
“It is really big here. This pit road can lose you a race pretty quick. It is long, the boxes are long, but it is narrow. So that is to our advantage.”
 
WAS THIS SURPRISING TO YOU? “I knew we had a shot at it. I didn’t know what we were going to end up with. I felt like I had a shot at it after practice; we had a good run after practice. Had a little bit of practice. You just never know here if you are going to catch a cloud here or anything. But I don’t think we did.  Great run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet. We have two Chevrolet’s on the front row. See if we can’t turn it into a good day tomorrow.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2nd
ON HIS LAP: 
“That was a good lap.  You always look back on things and wish you could have another shot at it, but very strong lap.  I backed up what I ran in practice and that seems to be the trend out there right now.  I would certainly like to hold on for the pole, but there is a group of really fast cars coming later in the session.”
 
HOW MUCH WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO GET A FIFTH WIN AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY? 
“It is just indescribable.  In the company I am right now with Jeff Gordon and Rick Mears as a four-time winner is beyond my wildest dreams.  I have grown up watching many races here like all motorsports fans do.  Always dreamed about racing here and had a chance to come out here and be a part of it all.  I would be on cloud nine.  It’s hard to find words for it.  I haven’t really thought about it too much.  If I am in that moment I will probably have a better answer for you.  This is a very special race track and I’m very proud of the four wins I have here.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING “This was a pretty good lap for us. We didn’t know how much the track was going lose grip with the sun in the middle of day. We made adjustments between the Happy Hour session and qualifying, and I am really happy with it. I feel like we have a car we can race with tomorrow. So far, so good. I am really, really happy with the changes that Steve Addington (crew chief) and our guys made between Happy Hour and qualifying. It gives us a good idea what we need to do for the race because that is exactly what we working on during practice. I think we have a pretty good shot at this thing tomorrow. There’s about 10 really good cars right now in the field. I feel like we are right there in the hunt. We just have to put the whole day together tomorrow.”
 
DO YOU SLEEP BETTER TONIGHT AFTER SUCH A SOLID EFFORT?
“This is one of those tracks where track position is important, but it’s not absolutely everything. You have got to have a car you can race with. If you can get it to qualify well normally it will race well too. Just having a car that is balanced is the biggest thing.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/BEAUTYREST CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6th:
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP: 
“Real slimy in (turns) one and two I didn’t hit it right.  Just disappointed I didn’t deliver for my guys.  Really I hate dropping speed from my run in practice to the actual run, which we knew we would drop a little bit we dropped way too much. I feel bad I left a lot on the table and didn’t deliver for my guys.”
 
HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT BE TO TAKE THESE GUYS TO VICTORY LANE HERE TOMORROW?
“Well that is what we have to do right now is just close the qualifying book and move into the race and run a smart 400 miles.  Our pit selection should be okay, we won’t have the greatest and we will just work on it from there.  I just feel bad I didn’t deliver for these guys right now at this moment.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 1 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 8th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN: 
“It was okay.  Our car didn’t drive as good as practice.  We kind of missed it there a little bit.  I think more the track changed.  When we finished practice we were pretty happy with the car.  We didn’t touch it for qualifying.  Our Target Chevy for some reason just changed a lot.  I think I have a good race pace, it’s just hoping a little better.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15th:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Well, we would have liked to run a little bit better than that. The guys did a good job They made a lot of changes during practice. It was a decent lap. It will probably be in the Top 20. We just struggled all day in qualifying trim and the guys made some good changes.”
 
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU RACE PRETTY WELL HERE:
“Yeah, we like the speed in race trim. We’ll have to go back to the hauler and talk a lot about the things we can do. It’s always good to be here in Indianapolis.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7th:
ON HIS LAP
“It was pretty good. Our Great Clips Chevrolet is fast. We should be in the hunt tomorrow. I would have liked to qualify a little better than that, but that’s all we had.”
 
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS ALWAYS RUNS WELL HERE. IS THAT ENCOURAGING AS YOU HEAD INTO THIS RACE TOMORROW?
“It’s definitely encouraging to be driving the No. 5 car and know you have a great engine and a great car. There is so much that goes into all that. The guys do an awesome job of that. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think we’ll hopefully stay in the hunt throughout the race and make the right decisions and be there in the end.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 33rd:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING FOR YOUR FIRST SPRINT CUP RACE
“Well, it was consistent the whole lap. In our practice and qualifying runs it was pretty decent and then we’d get really tight off of Turn 4, which is a tough problem to fix because you’re looking for some odd issue that’s making it really tight on the last corner. So the positive side is that it was consistent the whole way around the track. It was just consistently tight. So, I just couldn’t really carry the speed I needed through the center, especially getting flat off.”
 
TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THE TRACK HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS MORNING
“I’m not as experienced and good as the other guys around here to know what that very small difference is, but it definitely feels a little bit warmer. It just felt tighter.  Unfortunately it’s not the 500. You don’t come here and have days and days and days of practice. You have a few hours. So, we’ll work on it and we’ll come back stronger next year.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24
PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 9th:
ON HIS RUN:
“We didn’t get the best of luck there on the clouds. We needed that to compete with Jimmie but it’s all about a good lap. We would have liked to back up what we ran in practice. We would be up there a little bit further, but the car felt great. So I’m real happy with the speed and balance of the car. I got a little greedy in Turn 4 and the car pushed and I lost some time. If any corner you don’t want to mess up, it’s one leading to these long straightaways. So, that was a little unfortunate, but still all-in-all, hopefully we end up in the Top 10.”
 
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RACE?
“Well, we worked on our race set-up a lot; all day yesterday and most of today. And I thought we’d made some really great gains there. I love racing here because it’s such a challenge. You have four corners to set people up to run different lines and to do different things to try to make passes. And track position is key. We know that.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 33 MYCOGEN SEEDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 20th
WAS IT KIND OF LIKE DRIVING A TRUCK ON DIRT?
“No, a long way from there.  It’s all the grip in the world here and just fighting a little tight right there, but we just had to get in this race.  We didn’t have points and I think that (lap) should be good enough.   Little nervous that first lap because it’s always tough to come out and qualify for the first Brickyard.  I am happy with that so we will go and see what we can do in the race.”
 
YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF THIS PLACE AND IT IS SPECIAL
“It is special so it’s going to be an honor to start the first one with Mycogen Seeds on the side of the car.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE
JULY 27, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. GODADDY CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the differences between IndyCar and stock car racing at Indianapolis, her expectations for Sunday’s race, her comfort level and rookie expectations, and more. Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT RACING IN THE SPRINT CUP SERIES AT INDIANAPOLIS AND ALSO HOW YOUR  CAR IS HANDLING AND WHAT YOU EXPECT DURING SUNDAY’S RACE
“I always like coming here. As I’ve said before, many times, it’s a special place. It makes me happy to be here. I feel very comfortable, but at the same time I’m working on a new car and working on making it handle well and like I want it to and also building up the confidence to do what you can do in a Cup car here. So, it’s just a process. We changed the set-up a fair amount from yesterday and it was better. So we used the first couple of runs there in race trim and then went to qualifying (trim). I feel like we’re on to things, but we haven’t quite put it all together. But it’s challenging in a Cup car. It’s definitely now working towards flat. It’s braking, lifting, not lifting all the way; there’s a lot more going on. But I like being here in general. It’s fun for me as the city goes because my family all lives here. So, I’ve been here since Wednesday doing stuff. It feels like a lot less work when you’re doing fun things with your family.”
 
TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN A STOCK CAR HERE VERSUS AN INDYCAR
“I think they are equally challenging. When you get flat in an IndyCar, it’s generally fairly comfortable. But I think building up to that, is grab your gonads and go for it. And I think it’s similar in a stock car. I think (Ryan) Newman said, ‘Go flat ‘til you see God and then lift.’ That’s in a Cup car. So, I think both of them are challenging. The moments aren’t as easy to catch in an Open Wheel car but yet you’re pushing that limit. And especially with how we trim out for Qualifying, you’re really pushing the limits. I think that once you get to the limit of any car, I think it’s challenging, for sure. But there’s just something about an Open Wheel car going that much faster that it sometimes gets a little more hairy.”
 
WHEN YOU SAY YOU’RE COMFORTABLE HERE, YOU SAY THAT AT DAYTONA TOO. HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE TWO?
“I feel comfortable with speed, for sure. That’s not even something I like about racing. Like it’s not like I say I like to go fast. That’s not something I’m concerned about or that feels uncomfortable for me. So, I don’t know if that’s any different between the drivers. But definitely, as far as feeling comfortable at Daytona, has to do with how straightforward the track is. It’s pretty straightforward and pretty simple to drive. But, I guess I feel comfortable here just because I’ve been here so many times and have familiarity with the track and just the visual of it is so familiar to me. So, I feel comfortable here. It’s just a matter of then making the car better, which allows me to go faster, too. The changes that we made all day today, and from yesterday, have allowed me to go in deeper and go in deeper and go in deeper, but it’s still a process. The only common theme there is a little bit of speed, I guess.”
 
IN YOUR CAREER, SOME OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES HAVE COME IN THE INDY 500, AND EARLIER THIS YEAR AT THE DAYTONA 500. WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO?
“I was going to make some joke that was not appropriate, probably. But you know it’s just been some theme with my career that it seems like when the pressure is on, things tend to go better. I can’t explain it. I guess it’s just something inside. It’s some sort of Adrenalin or hormonal change that happens when you have the blood pumping and there is pressure on and you’re nervous, obviously it does all the right things chemistry-wise to make things go a little bit better. I don’t have a full explanation for it. But, I’m grateful for it.”
 
DID RUNNING HERE FOR 38 LAPS IN THE NATIONWIDE RACE LAST YEAR GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT TOMORROW?
“I’m not going to lie. I barely remember those 38 laps. I really don’t remember much about it. I just remember getting frustrated and it ending my day. So, I would say not to specifically answer your question, but I think that’s been a theme this year too is when things aren’t going quite as well as you want them to, my nature or one’s nature is to try harder and try to get more out of it and push the limit that much further and there’s very little return on that. So, in fact, it causes more problems than anything by a lot. So I think that’s something that I feel like I’m really getting the message is that you have what you have and some of the best races I’ve had this year have been the ones where I just take what the car will give me and you’re patient and you work hard and if it comes to you, then it does. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I think that’s just something I feel like I need to do moving forward. If there is one thing I remember about the Nationwide race here is it’s just to not let frustration get to you and you hope for the best in the day and you work hard but, taking yourself out of the game by being frustrated is a complete end.”
 
WERE YOU HERE AT THE BRICKYARD 400 LAST YEAR, AND DID YOU FEEL ANY JEALOUSY THAT YOU WEREN’T IN IT COMPARED TO SOME OF THE OTHER CUP RACES YOU HAD WATCHED? WILL TOMORROW BE ANY MORE SPECIAL THAN OTHER CUP RACES? “Yes I was. No, I didn’t actually. I felt very satisfied with the progression that I have had through stock cars to get to this points, full-time Sprint Cup. So, no I didn’t actually. I felt…I know of felt bored sitting there actually on pit lane, because you can’t see anything. I am sure there was a better perspective to have than sitting on the pit box. That is why I always encourage everyone to get a headset; listen to drivers; get to a place where you can see things and…it helps a lot. That is kind of what I remember. I’m sure it will be far more exciting being in the car. But, too exciting is not good, so…just hopefully more exciting.”
 
YOU CAME SO CLOSE TO WINNING THE (INDIANAPOLIS) 500; DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS ABOUT ANYTHING FROM YOUR PERIOD AS AN INDYCAR DRIVER?
“I’m a firm believer that what I did them is what has led me to where I am now, and they all needed to happen. I think that first Indy 500 probably ended with a little more fuel than we thought we had, so I feel like maybe there was something there that could have been had. But we didn’t really know the exact numbers. Later on I found out that we used different additional systems to know you were getting to the bottom of the fuel tank – fuel collectors that I don’t we had if we had my first year. Maybe we did; I don’t know. That’s just because it’s the Indy 500, they are so hard to get. But it could have turned my career in a whole different direction, and I might not be where I am now, and I’m really happy where I am. Everything happens for a reason; whew…but those Indy 500 wins are hard to come by.
 
“That yellow flag, you know it. That was probably the thing that made me the most mad about the first Indy 500 was that there was a wreck off of (turn) four, I think.  I can’t remember exactly who it was; one of the Japanese drivers – that’s about all I can remember. The pace car was going like 45 miles per hour. I mean, it was going so slow, excessively slower than any other yellow flag we had. I couldn’t even…like you couldn’t even go slow enough. It hurried up, and made it go green again, and if they had just run the normal speed, and done the normal thing, then there would have been probably at least another less lap of green-flag running.  So that’s the only thing that makes me mad about that race, is it seemed out of the norm of what we were doing
to hurry up to go back green, and that just didn’t seem right to me.”
 
DID YOU HAVE TO UNLEARN HABITS OR KNOWLEDGE OF DRIVING HERE (INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY) THAT YOU HAD TO UNLEARN FROM INDYCAR TO DRIVE A NATIONWIDE CAR, THEN FROM A NATIONWIDE CAR TO A CUP CAR? “Well they sure don’t come off the car quite as far as we did in IndyCar. I think my nature is to come off the wall a lot further. But that’s pretty simple. I can fix that. I think it is more about the visual of the line being different in stock car versus IndyCar. I’ve seen a lot of variation out there between a traditional or more early entry; really arcing it out entries, but definitely getting well below the line in every single corner is very important. That is something that can only happen in an Indy car when you are really hooked up and very comfortable. You see a lot of people hooking and spinning in an IndyCar that way too.
 
“I suppose there is that tiny little bit of concern that you are getting too low, and it might step out on you. Or you might catch a little bit of curb on the inside. But these are completely different cars, so I think that I have to get over. You have got to get below that white line every corner and arc it out a little bit more because the cars don’t want to turn. The more you can get done as early as possible, the straighter you can be off, and you carry speed.  That is especially probably important off of turns two and four.”
 
HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR CONCENTRATION TO DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR YOUR JOB WITH ALL THE INTEREST AND INQUIRIES ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE? “It doesn’t really make any difference because I am just continuing to live my life. It is not like I live it more or less because it is known about or talked about. It is just a little bit more talked about because there is a little bit more interest in who the other person is. There is a little more relevance to my situation, and to all of our situation here in NASCAR and reporting on it. I acknowledge and have before that it is unique and different.
As I have experience with being a girl in racing, unique and different tend to draw attention.”
 
HOW ARE YOUR GAUGING YOUR SUCCESS AS A ROOKIE IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP WITH THE SERIES LOADED WITH FAMOUS NAMES AND FACES? “I think it is important to look at how it is going overall with the team. I think that we’ve had some struggles this year, and we are trying to get to grips with the new car. There are times that I feel like here where my inexperience with the car is definitely hurting me more. I wish that I was better off than I am right now, but we are getting better. It’s just that everyone gets better throughout the weekend. I asked Tony after Loudon how I was doing, and what does he really expect out of me. To some degree that’s the real question is what are the expectations of me. Do you think I am supposed to be top-20 and top-15 all the time? Or am I not? He said ‘If I saw there being an issue, or something that stood out as a problem, or an area you needed to work on, I would have come to you already, but I don’t see it. And every time I am behind you, you are doing the right thing’. He said we have to work on the cars and make them better, and he thinks I am doing a good job. That’s the boss…so.”
 
IS IT HARD KNOWING THAT GETTING A WIN OR EVEN TOP-10 THOSE THINGS ARE JUST VERY DIFFICULT AS A ROOKIE IN THIS KIND OF A SERIES?
“You are competing against a lot of experience and good relationships team wise, driver/crew chief wise and familiarity.  It’s just tough.  I think that hoping for top 10’s and wins all the time is fairly unrealistic.  It doesn’t mean it can’t happen.  Daytona was a top 10 to start the year off, but I think it’s far more realistic to hope for top 15’s and top 20’s right now.  If there is one thing I’ve learned it’s about baby steps and it’s about making realistic goals that you can achieve. Otherwise it’s just constantly frustrating because if you had set a goal of top 20 and you finish there then you have something to be happy about where if you don’t set that goal at all and your 20th then you are like ‘I suck I’m 20th’.  You have to set goals along the way and it’s a process.  That is why experience pays off.  For the most part in your whole career you don’t stop learning and you continue to get better it’s just a little bit more so at the beginning.”
 
YOU CAME IN CONTACT WITH A LOT OF LEGENDS HERE WHETHER IT BE BOBBY (UNSER), MICHAEL (ANDRETTI), NOW TONY (STEWART).  WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE THEY HAVE GIVEN TO YOU ABOUT RACING HERE AT INDY?
“Probably the very first year I don’t know if it came from (Johnny) Rutherford or (Rick) Mears but it was just that it is a long race and never give up and you are never out of it.  Which was the case; I started up front and stalled it.  Went to the back came back through, got into the top 10 again, spun and tore the front wing off.  I pitted, started from the back and had a chance to win.  You are never out of it, it is a long race so a lot can happen here and especially being as big of a track as it is, as long as the races are here, strategy comes into it which always throws a huge question mark as to what the outcome will really be and what plays out.”
 
DO YOU STILL HAVE THE SAME BUTTERFLIES THAT YOU DO GOING INTO A 500 THAT YOU DO GOING INTO THE 400?
“I don’t know I haven’t done it yet.  You only really get to that point once you get to race day.  I think that whenever there is a lot of buildup and I always call it pomp and circumstance there are parades and bands and balloons and all kinds of stuff going on.  Special different introductions things like that it has a different feel. It feels different because it’s different.  I don’t think it will probably be quite as much here for the 400 because I’m not sure there is quite as much that goes on.  Although then again I’ve never done it so we will see.”
 
AT ONE POINT YOU WERE A ROOKIE IN THE INDYCAR SERIES AND YOU HAD TO LEARN AND FIGURE OUT AND SET EXPECTATIONS HAVE YOU HAD TO GO ABOUT IT DIFFERENTLY IN NASCAR THAN YOU HAD TO IN OPEN WHEEL?
“Yes, probably to start with there are so many more cars that if I finished top 20 that meant that I was just in the field in IndyCar.  I mean as far as overall results are significantly different for goals.  Probably more so because you get this feeling like you are established and you know what you are doing on some level.  You should jump in and be able to do okay, but in IndyCar I really had no idea at all.  So, I feel like I have had to establish goals far more in NASCAR than in IndyCar.  Just as far as just having goals.  That is all.  I think in an IndyCar it felt like if you have a good day overall it’s a good day.  If you have a bad day you are in the back and you are 20th.  If you have a good day you are top five.  It’s much more straight-forward where in NASCAR there are so many cars and the competition level is so high.  There is so much money being spent on so many different things in NASCAR and so it just feels like you chip away a little more at it than in IndyCar.”    
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE
JULY 27, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and discussed his success at Indy, what it would mean to win this weekend and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HAD SOME TIME ON THE TRACK YESTERDAY WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND?
“Yesterday was… actually I really like the schedule the fact that we were able to get out on the track yesterday and learn a little bit and then have the evening to think about it and apply some changes to the car.  At the end of practice yesterday we got it in the ball park for sure.  I would like to be a little bit better, but today’s practice is going to be an important one.  I hope the clouds move out and the sun comes out and we get the conditions as close to what we will see for race day here pretty soon because we have such an early practice session this morning.  Things are going well.  We would like to be a little better, but we are definitely in the ball park.”
 
DESCRIBE TO US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU TO WIN HERE AND WHAT IT WOULD MEAN TO GET A HISTORIC FIFTH:
“Fifth would be incredible.  I can’t believe I have four of them right now.  This track for one took me awhile to sort out.  I was able to get a feel for things and start setting the car up for the proper line and driver inputs around here.  Then things just started clicking for us and to do anything Jeff Gordon has done is huge.  The guy is massive in our sport and had done so much.  Truthfully somebody I looked up to as a young kid racing and still do today.  He started off as a hero of mine and turned into a friend and a teammate.  It’s been an amazing ride all along, but to tie what Jeff has done here at the speedway is just absolutely amazing.  Also, to add Rick Mears to that as well, grew up in southern California, Rick Mears and the whole Mears gang grew up in Bakersfield.  Watching Rick’s career and knowing that he came from my background inspired me to actually pursue IndyCar racing when I was younger.  My opportunities led me to NASCAR and things turned out as they have.  Long story short to do anything that either of those two has done is pretty awesome.”
 
GUYS WERE SAYING LAST YEAR THAT YOU WEREN’T IN YOUR OWN ZIP CODE YOU WERE IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY.  HOW MUCH OF THAT KIND OF EFFORT DO YOU THINK CAN CARRY OVER TO THIS YEAR EVEN THOUGH WE ARE DEALING WITH A NEW CAR?
“Things are just so much different the tools we have to work with on the car that we had last year we don’t have this year.  We are working in different areas and honestly NASCAR has taken away so much that it’s really small adjustments that we are working on to make a difference with the car and you start stacking those small adjustments to find a tenth or a tenth and a half.  Where last year we got onto the skew thing and really were able to make it work here.  They’ve eliminated so many areas to work in now that it’s hard to find a chunk of speed.  When you have a few tenths on the field you know it’s not going to last long because the garage is smart they are paying attention.  Things just don’t last as long as they used to right now because there are so few areas to work in.”
 
THIS SEEMS LIKE A RACE TRACK WHERE IT IS REALLY DIFFICULT TO SORT OF CHASE THE CAR.  IF YOU ARE NOT GOOD KIND OF OFF THE TRUCK AND YOU ARE NOT GOOD EARLY IN THE WEEKEND IT BECOMES A STRUGGLE.  WHY IS IT THAT WAY HERE?
“We get five sets of tires to work with to start the weekend and literally every lap you make it just tears the tire down more and more.  If you come off the truck, like yesterday we had two sets of tires, we came off the truck we weren’t totally satisfied.  Went to work on the car and we wanted to use one more set of tires and then leave three sets for today.  We get to a point where you are adjusting the car on pretty old tires.  As you wear the tires they develop a trend and it’s hard to adjust through that at times.  We put our second set on and try to rebaseline with 10 minutes of practice left, but it was good especially having the night to think about things.  We get one shot this morning to really work on what we thought through last night.  Long story short it’s just a long race track, a lot of tire wear, beats up the tire, builds kind of a tight or loose condition into the tires.  It’s hard to work around.  When you have limited tires and laps and you don’t know the line you want to run and you don’t know the track it just makes it that much tougher for a rookie or for someone that is still trying to sort out the race track.  That is truthfully why it took me so long.  Even with testing up here.  Unless you go sticker, sticker, sticker, sticker, every time you are on track it’s hard to know what adjustments worked and really to sort out your driver line.”
 
HOW DIFFERENT IS THE GEN-6 CAR HERE?
“It is different for sure.  We are still trying to get the exact feel that I’m looking for.  Again, last year we had so many tools to work with to help the car perform like we wanted to that we just don’t have that luxury this year.  I don’t know what the speeds are, but I feel like we are a little bit slower than what I anticipated from a driver’s effort stand point.  I don’t know what it says on the stop watch, but I thought we would be a little bit more on kill on a lap like we see on the mile and a half’s.  We are not the fastest car yet, so we will work to get there.”
 
YOU GUYS HAVE THE PARTITIONS KIND OF BETWEEN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE CAR.  THEY ARE NOT THAT MUCH TALLER THAN A PIT BOX THAT MOST TEAMS HAVE.  IT WAS KIND OF STARTLING TO KIND OF SEE THEM.  IS IT JUST A WAY TO GIVE KOBALT SOME MORE AD OR IS THERE ACTUALLY SOME SORT OF PURPOSE FOR THEM?
“Well NASCAR has given us an advantage to hide our stuff so that we can work in private and not let anybody see what is going on, but they won’t allow any other team to do it. It’s just for the No. 48 (laughter). No, honestly you might have noticed it over the last few years we have wanted to kind of spruce up that area and knowing that all the F1 stalls are the exact same and the way F1 does such a beautiful job of building out like a garage area, Chad (Knaus, crew chief) was just inspired to do that a year or two ago.  Lowe’s and KOBALT provided all the stuff that they have in store that we can put right in our pit box.  Chad even went through all the steps to get it approved with NASCAR coming to the track and all that kind of stuff.  It’s really just to show off the great things that are sold in store.”
 
YOU MENTIONED THE REAR-END SKEW THING HERE.  HOW FAR AHEAD OF THIS RACE LAST YEAR DID YOU GUYS KNOW YOU WERE COMING WITH SOMETHING THAT MIGHT SORT OF SET THE TONE FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?  DID YOU KNOW IT WAS GOING TO MAYBE HAVE THE AFFECT LIKE IT DID?
“Yeah you definitely need to bring your best stuff here and we are getting into the final few races before the Chase and you don’t want to start the Chase with unknowns.  For us Indy has been a good time to debut things.  Last year we felt like the skew in our hearts would be the direction to go.  We saw that before when it was allowed through some other means in the back of the car.  We developed that system to make it work under the current rules or the rules we had last year.  We struggled with it at some tracks, but we came here and scienced it out just right and the track is very forgiving for how that system worked.  You don’t have a lot of bumps or the big transitions in the corner and off.  From the first lap on the track I
mean it was like ‘whoa this is going to be good’.  So from there we were able to continue to work with it and make it better.  Also, this garage area is awfully smart and within weeks everybody else was working on a package very similar.  It didn’t last long for sure.”
 
YOU GO TO A LOT OF TRACKS WHERE PEOPLE EXPECT YOU TO WIN. THIS IS ONE OF THEM.  WHAT IS IT LIKE TO COME HERE ESPECIALLY FOR A BIG RACE LIKE THIS WITH ALL THE EXPECTATION SAYING BASICALLY IT IS JIMMIE JOHNSON’S RACE TO WIN?
“In my heart I feel like I need to come here and win.  Its pressure I put on myself.  I don’t know the outside pressure I haven’t paid too much attention to it.  With how we have been performing and the history we have had here over the last few years I feel like we definitely have a shot and we should put that pressure on ourselves as a team and I should put that on myself as a driver that I need to come here and win the race and hopefully can.  It’s an honor to have other teams and the media paying attention to what we are doing and say that we are the team to beat.  We put more pressure on ourselves than what is surrounding or outside stuff is.  With all that being said yesterday I didn’t think we had a winning car.  We got close at the end.  Today’s practice is really important and we need to get on top of things to try to get to Victory Lane.”
 
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR SCHEDULE SO FOR THIS MORNING (AT 8:00 A.M.); HAVE YOU CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN OR RUN A MARATHON?
“I got up at 5:30 a.m. and it was raining. I was supposed to run ten and I said, okay, that’s good. Thanks, rain; I went back to bed (laughs). It’s wet out there and I’m like yeah, I don’t want it that bad today. Once I’m up, I’m up. But the rain was like well, I’ll sit around and have some coffee and chill out.
 
JEFF GORDON IS LISTED AS YOUR CAR OWNER. WHAT IS THE DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIP THERE? DOES HE HAVE ANY REAL INPUT ON YOUR TEAM AS CAR OWNER?
“As car owner, yeah. He definitely does. He sits in meetings with Rick (Hendrick) that I don’t attend, on the direction of where Hendrick Motorsports is going and what each team is doing and budgets and sponsorship things; just stuff I’m not a part of because I’m just a driver. But Jeff made it known to me early on that I’m his teammate. It’s not an owner/driver situation. The first couple of months of being employed I would joke around with him and call him ‘boss’ and he’d quickly correct me and say, ‘No, no, we’re teammates, man. Don’t call me ‘boss’. That’s Rick.’ So, Rick and Jeff have a great relationship and Jeff has always had a very smart and keen business sense. And he knows everything that goes on at HMS. So, he’s kind of a hybrid. He won’t let me approach him as a boss, but he definitely knows the inner workings of Hendrick Motorsports.”
 
INAUDIBLE:
“Oh, it is. I’ve have to say probably every victory we’ve had, he’s been there; including the first, when we had one heck of a celebration (laughs).”
 
WHEN YOU WIN HERE, WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL OR UNIQUE? IS THERE SOMETHING YOU REALLY SAVOR WHEN YOU WIN AT INDIANAPOLIS?
“It’s a major for us. So it has that feel to it. And then for each driver, every driver respects this facility and respects what this victory does and can do and will do, and what it’s done for so many drivers. It doesn’t matter if it’s F1 or IndyCar. So we’re all very aware of that. And that rings a little different for Tony (Stewart) and a little different for Jeff (Gordon). You look at Dale Jarrett and just being a stock car guy when he won here and how special it was to him; even though he didn’t aspire to being an IndyCar driver, it still meant the world to him. It’s meant the world to me. I wanted to be an IndyCar driver growing up. My focus changed in my mid-teens and stock cars was the thing for me.
 
“One last aspect to add is at Daytona, you win the race basically on the decisions you make and the decisions others make around you to have the draft work in your favor. Here, it is solely the driver and team’s effort that gets it done. So, from winning both, there is a different feeling. You win a plate race, although skill and talent and all that from team and driver are very important and help win the race, it’s not all of it. So, it’s almost like a feeling in Vegas when you hit blackjack or something and you had four or five cards to get there. It took some skill and it took some luck, but you got it. Here, you know that you’ve earned it. It’s such a tough track to drive and compete on that there is a little different feeling. It’s hard to say which is more important. They are both huge races. In NASCAR’s history, it’s all about the Daytona 500, but winning here sits really deep in a driver.”
 
GOING BACK TO WHAT YOU WERE SAYING EARLIER ABOUT HOW NASCAR HAS TAKEN SO MUCH AWAY AND YOU DON’T HAVE AS MANY TOOLS. CAN YOU BE MORE SPECIFIC? IS IT REAR-END STUFF, SUSPENSION STUFF? WHAT COULD YOU DO LAST YEAR THAT YOU CAN’T DO THIS YEAR THAT PEOPLE WOULD UNDERSTAND?
“Yeah, the rear suspension is a big one. We were able to use a rear sway bar in a couple of different manners. One, to create the skew in the car. Or two, if you didn’t want the skew because the skew was nice to have in certain areas of the corner, especially center-off, but on corner entry it wasn’t real fun to drive. You’d let off the gas and the way things would move, it gives you a really loose sensation. So if you didn’t like that sensation, you’d go to a standard combination with your sway bar and just have it work through the center of the corner and off. We also were able to use bushings in the trunk arms that would allow, we’d mainly use the left side to move forward and aft and you could use that as a tuning tool to help the car in various parts of the corner. Because we were using all of those things to help twist the back end, NASCAR has taken all that away. And within that, there’s at least three, if not four or five, once you pile-up some other small things that you can do, that we’re not allowed to use anymore. And they were all very helpful tools at different stages. The thing is, we figured out how to pile them all up and create a ton of skew and then NASCAR said we’re taking it all away from you guys.”
 
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU WERE DOING 20 YEARS AGO WHEN WE FIRST RACED HERE? ON A BIG TRACK LIKE THIS, HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR TIRE-WEAR TO IMPACT THE SET-UP ON YOUR CAR?
“Twenty years ago, I remember seeing some clips and reading about the guys being on track here; Earnhardt being the first one out if my memory serves me right. And then the race, I remember Jeff (Gordon) winning. But it’s pretty spotty. Twenty years ago, the coverage of our sport was so different in Southern California that I’d usually catch it mid-week or late in the week. It was just on the late side all the time. But, I remember being excited for the test session and the coverage that came with it and knowing that Jeff won.
 
“In qualifying, your balance will change in the one lap you make, or one and a half laps you make. And you need a much different driving race car in Turn 1 so that when you get back to Turn 4, you can put the lap together. You might remember seeing, and you’ll probably see it today, you’ll see someone with a great (Turns) 1 and 2 and then get to (Turn) 3 and lose a little; and get to (Turn) 4 and lose a little just because the balance is changing. I watched the IndyCar qualifying and those guys have a lot of stuff that they can adjust in the car. And it’s pretty noticeable each lap they make; they have to make a significant adjustment. We don’t have those tools. But for one lap, you’ve got to compromise Turn 1 to have a good Turn 4 to put up a (good) lap.”
 

Stevenson Motorsports Wins GT North American Endurance Championship with Runner-Up Finish in Brickyard Grand Prix; Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty Grab Podium Spot in DP to Keep Chevrolet in Engine Manufacturers’ Points Lead
 
INDIANAPOLIS (July 26, 2013) – With a hard-fought second place finish in today’s Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R drivers Robin Liddell and John Edwards secured the 2013 North American Endurance Championship in the Rolex Sports Car Series Grand Touring (GT) class.
 
With wins or podium finishes in five of the last six GRAND-AM Rolex races, the team sits second in both GT team and driver standings after eight of the 12 races completed on the 2013 schedule.
 
Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty brought the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) to the checkered flag in third position. It is the fourth podium finish for the pair, and moved the team to third in the Rolex DP team standings, and Gurney and Fogarty to second in the driver standings.
 
“Chevrolet got two hard fought podium finishes today with the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R finishing second to claim the GT North American Endurance Championship,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. “The team has had a strong season with wins or podium finishes in five of the last six races. The third place finish for the No. 99 GAINSCO Corvette DP helped continue Chevrolet’s lead in the DP Manufacturers’ championship standings.  Now we head to Road America as the championship battle continues.”
 
After starting on the pole, the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP driven by Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli was credited with leading a total of 34 of the 107 laps in the three-hour race. On-track contact resulted in an off-track excursion for Angelelli while leading that ultimately lead to the 15th in-class finishing position.  The team dropped from leading the points to fourth in the standings with four races remaining.

In the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge the No. 01 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R, piloted by Lawson Aschenbach in the first stint, moved his way through the field from the 12th starting position to reach as high as second on the leaderboard.  Midway through the 2.5-hour contest Eric Curran took over driving duties and fought handling issues to the completion of the race and was scored seventh at the finish. The No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R driven by Matt Bell and Jon Edwards experienced a tire failure late in the event relegating the duo to a 20th place in class finish.  
 
Next on the schedule for both the Rolex Series and the Continental Tire Challenge will be the VisitFlorida.com Sports Car 250 and the Road America 200 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI on August 8-10, 2013.
 
POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES:
JOHN EDWARDS, NO. 57 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GT.R – FINISHED SECOND
ON WINNING THE NORTH AMERICAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP: “To be honest we did incorrect math during the race so I was told we lost it (North American Endurance Championship) to AIM, but I guess found out when we hit pit lane that we won.  I got out of the car and still wasn’t even sure.  Pretty excited about it because we really didn’t have a good Daytona, but then we won Watkins Glen and led at the three hour mark and then we finished second here.  We obviously did what we had to do after a poor finish at Daytona.  Really excited for the team and especially for John (Stevenson) he will get an extra $50,000 for a bonus. It helps alleviate the gearbox cost from yesterday.”
 
ON HIS RACE: “Well it was a bit tough we lost a lot of time in practice so we didn’t have very much time to set the car up and we did the best we could.  It was fairly good on new tires in qualifying, but as the tires went off the car got a little sloppy and it was a little tough to drive.  I was pretty happy that the race went green towards the end because I think if we had been in a mix of Porsches and had to be running off line then we might have lost some spots.  I was happy for it to run green at the end and came away with the North American Endurance Championship so it’s a good day.”  
 
ROBIN LIDDELL, NO. 57 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GT.R – FINISHED SECOND
ON HIS RACE: “Quite happy with second place really, I mean we had a pretty poor start to the weekend.  We lost most of the practice session on Thursday.  The whole first session we lost due to a gear box problem.  So, to recover from that, I only had six laps in the car before qualifying.  Qualified second and finished second, we are actually pretty happy with that.  We are very happy to win the North American Endurance three race deal.  We are still focused on the longer game and the championship, but that is a nice bonus.  Of any of those cars to finish ahead of us it wasn’t too bad with the No. 61 ahead.  The guys did a great job in the pits.  We jumped ahead of the Porches taking tires at that last stop is what hurt us to the No. 61 car, they didn’t take tires and they basically gained 10 seconds on us and that is where they finished so.  Whether with hindsight we should have done that different who knows, but I don’t think we really had a car that was quick enough to win today.”
 
JON FOGARTY, NO. 99 GAINSCO/BOB STALLINGS RACING CORVETTE DP – FINISHED THIRD
ON HIS RACE: “We felt like we didn’t have the most competitive car today, but we ran a really smart race. Not a mark on the car and just kept our nose clean and kept our heads down.  Smart strategy by the No. 99 team and put the Chevrolet up on the podium, which we are happy about.  We will hopefully do a little better in the next one and move forward in the championship.”
 
ALEX GURNEY, NO. 99 GAINSCO/BOB STALLINGS RACING CORVETTE DP – FINISHED THIRD
ON HIS RACE:  “We went a little bit off sequence from the other guys so at the end I was really struggling with tires, but I think we ran a strong race.  We had good strategy and I think third was about as good as we were going to get today.  The BMW’s are very strong so we will see what we can do at Elkhart.”

Jordan Taylor Puts No. 10 Corvette Daytona Prototype on the Pole for Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Boris Said Grabs Number One Qualifying Spot in Grand Touring
 
INDIANAPOLIS (July 25, 2013) – Jordan Taylor put the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype on the pole for Friday’s three-hour Brickyard Grand Prix for the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is the third consecutive number one starting position for Taylor, and his eighth career pole in Rolex competition.
 
In the Grand Touring Class, Boris Said and Robin Liddell made it an all-Chevrolet front row with Said taking the pole position in the No. 31 Marsh Racing GT Corvette. Liddell is the co-driver of the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R.
 
“It was a successful day for our Chevrolet teams in qualifying for both DP and GT,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager for GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. “Jordan Taylor winning his third consecutive pole in the No. 10 Corvette Daytona Prototype is a great achievement.  With Boris Said and Robin Liddell making it an all-Chevrolet front row for GT, the Chevrolet teams are well positioned for a strong race.  I think we are in for an exciting, fast race tomorrow, with battles throughout the field.”
 
Team Chevy drivers captured three of the top-five starting positions with Christian Fittapaldi, No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP will start fourth and Stephane Sarrazin qualified the No. 3 8Star Motorsports Corvette DP in the fifth starting position.
 
Matt Bell, No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R, was the fastest for Team Chevy in the Grand Sport class of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
The 2 hour, 30 minute Brickyard Sports Car Challenge is scheduled to take the green flag at 2:00 p.m. ET on Friday, July 26 followed by the start of the Brickyard Grand Prix at 5:30 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage is available from MRN Radio on GRAND-AM.com live timing and scoring.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 10 VELOCITY WORLDWIDE CHEVROLET CORVETTE DP – POLE SITTER
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN:
“It was obviously good.  We didn’t start off that strong I don’t think, kind of trying different things.  The Indy track there is a very long front straight obviously and then a very technical section so you can either go high downforce or low downforce and we tried a few things in practice to figure out what we wanted. I think a lot of guys were trying different things.  I think we were not even in the top 10 in a couple sessions.  We were, I think, a little worried, probably looked pretty bad, but we knew once we got in qualifying mode we would have a good car and obviously we did.  Happy to be on the pole.”
 
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN THE POLE AT INDIANAPOLIS?
“It’s not an Indy 500 pole, but it’s definitely cool obviously Indianapolis when you think of motorsports in any form you think of Indy and Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans, all these big names.  Taking a pole in the overall class in GRAND-AM is awesome.  I had pole at Detroit which is pretty cool on a street course and now Indy.  I qualified second at Daytona twice so I think I need to nail that one down next.”
 
BORIS SAID, NO. 31 WHELEN MARSH RACING CORVETTE – GRAND TOURING (GT) – POLE SITTER
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN:
“Indy is a special place.  I have raced all over the world and there is only a handful of tracks that, I came back here in 2006 and made the Brickyard 400.  When you sit on the front straightaway when the cars are gridded up or you are looking at the crowd, you are thinking of the history here, it’s just kind of a magical place.  It’s one of those few tracks that just makes the hair on your arms stand up straight when you start looking at all this and the history.  So, for the GRAND-AM, I will speak for all of these road racer that get to come here and run on these hollowed grounds it’s a special day.  Really just adds a cherry on top of the sundae to be able to get the pole in our Whelen Corvette.  We were fast when we unloaded and hopefully we will be fast in the race.”
 
YOU WILL BE MOVING UP TO THE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE (DP) RANKS NEXT YEAR, BUT THE TEAM OBVIOUSLY STILL PUTTING A LOT OF EMPHASIS ON THE GT PROGRAM:
“Yeah, we are not even really thinking about the DP car yet.  We are just trying to win races for the whole Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Whelen engineering.  Once they roll that DP car out whenever later in the year we will worry about that car.  Right now we just want to try to get this Corvette in the Winner’s Circle.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE
JULY 26, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and discussed returning to the track, growing up as a racer in the Indianapolis area and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR ANNUAL BOWLING TOURNAMENT:
“Very successful event, I know we raised over $300,000 Riley Hospital for Children here locally is one of the top children’s hospitals in the country. We are proud to have partnered with them many years ago and have been funding a research lab there for the last couple of years.  We are really proud.  I mean I think back over the 12 years we have been doing this bowling tournament and it’s hard to believe that you can turn an event into what this has turned into.  We had a lot of fun and raised a lot of money and awareness.  It was fantastic.”
 
YOU HAVE WON HERE FOUR TIMES; TALK ABOUT HOW YOU THINK THIS NEW GEN-6 CAR WILL DO HERE AT INDY:
“We had the opportunity to tire test here with Goodyear and get a chance to feel what this car is like.  It feels good.  It’s obviously going to be really fast.  I thought we had a good test.  We certainly gathered some good information and data to come back with.  We are back with the same tire we have had the last couple of years.  This surface is tough.  It’s abrasive and it’s really hard to find any different tire than what we’ve had here for our cars so durability is the key and most important thing. We certainly have that. I’m excited what we learned since that tire test. The last couple of years have been good for us here and we’ve been in contention to win races. I’m always excited to get to Indianapolis and certainly this weekend our team is ready to step it up to get us another win here. We understand how important the next seven races are for us to get ourselves into the Chase.”
 
IN TERMS OF PRESTIGE, WHERE DOES INDIANAPOLIS RANK FOR YOU AND THE GENERAL DRIVING GROUP?
“You have the Daytona 500 and then the Brickyard 400, in my opinion. Some people may rank it different than that, but that’s how I look at it. There was a time – maybe back in 1994 – where I would have ranked this No. 1. Looking at the history of our sport, the prestige and all the ingredients that go into making the most prestigious race, you have to rank Daytona first. But for someone who always dreamed about coming to Indianapolis as a kid and raced all around here, this one ranks very, very high. It’s definitely one of the biggest. I think it’s the history of the race track, everyone wants to win here and it’s about the trophy – who has won here, how hard it is to win here and the history of the track and race itself. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since we won here in 1994. That certainly says a lot about how fast things can go by. To me, that inaugural race really set the precedent for how impressive this facility is and how prestigious the race was the first year and always will be.”
 
GIVEN THE POINTS POSITION YOU’RE IN, HOW HARD IS IT TO DIAL BACK WHEN YOU HAVE TO BE THINKING FOR POINTS INSTEAD OF GOING FOR A RACE WIN?
“That’s the beauty of where I’m at in points. I don’t have to dial back anything. We are in full-on aggressive mode. Do we have to win? No. But do we have to put seven really good races together? Yes. In order to put good races together, I’m talking top-fives. You look at the guys we’re racing against and they can easily do that. We have to push and not pull back. I don’t know of a time where I went into a race – maybe I go back to the 1997 championship – where we were really the whole time thinking about points. Every time I’ve thought about points, it’s cost us more positions than we’ve gained. We go out there and race as hard as we can to put the best plan together, best race car together. I try to drive every restart and lap that I would if I were trying to win the race. That’s what we’re doing to do this weekend and that’s what we’re going to do every weekend.”
 
YOU SPOKE TO THE HISTORY OF THIS PLACE. THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF GREAT NAMES TO WIN HERE BUT NO ONE HAS WON FIVE TIMES ON FOUR WHEELS. WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO BE THE FIRST TO WIN FIVE TIMES AT INDIANAPOLIS?
“I’ll always be one of those purists that looks at the Indianapolis 500 differently than any other race that happens here. When we’re talking about the Brickyard 400 going on for 100 years, then I’ll stack up four-time winners against four-time Indy 500 winners. It doesn’t make it any easier. It’s a very challenging race track. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I’m blown away that we have four. When you look at the list of names who have multiple wins here, it’s impressive. I’d like to separate myself and be a five-time winner in our series. But I’ll never compare that to my biggest heroes – Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and those guys. I guess my experience of coming here as a kid and seeing the Indy 500. It’s a different race and should always be held to a different standard as any other race – not just NASCAR but Moto GP, Formula One or anything else.”
 
WHERE WOULD YOU RANK THIS RACE BETWEEN THE DAYTONA 500, COCA-COLA 600 AND BRICKYARD 500?
“If you grew up with NASCAR, then the 600 or Southern 500 might have a little more prestige. But if you grew up watching IndyCar racing like I did and racing sprint cars and midgets, the Brickyard 400 leapfrogs those.”
 
SHOULD THE RACE BE MOVED TO THE START OF THE CHASE TO ADD SOME MORE PIZZAZZ?
“Let’s throw Eldora in there while we’re at it. Should have a road course in the Chase? The Brickyard? Should Bristol be in the Chase? There are so many tracks that deserve to be in it. I’ll say what I’ve always said. I think at the beginning of the year there should be a lottery or some type of event that picks the 10 races that are in the chase. Maybe there are some that are always part of it. Maybe it always ends in Homestead. I don’t know. But I’d like to see it change all the time so we don’t have the same 10 in every single year.”
 
THIS RACE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A TALE OF THE ENTIRE SEASON AND A MICROCOSM OF YOUR CAREER, AS WELL. FOR THE FIRST DECADE, THIS WAS YOUR RACE. NOW IT’S BECOME JIMMIE JOHNSON’S RACE. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU NOW TO BEAT JIMMY AT WHAT HAS BECOME HIS OWN GAME HERE?
“This is a tough race track. It’s also a track where everyone brings out their best whether it be pit crew, driver, race car or whole combination. They bring their best because this is such a prestigious race. That’s why I think you see champions or championship contenders compete so well at this race and win this race. Those are the teams that are able to step up when it matters most and not only win this race but go on to be a champion. And who has done that better in the last 10 years than the 48 team? They will be very tough this weekend. This race means a lot to them like it does to so many others. They certainly are in championship form and I’d have to put them at the top of the list of teams to beat. For the rest of us, we’re going to put all that aside and run our race to see if we can finish ahead of the 48. If you can do that, you’re probably going to win this race and be proud of that accomplishment. I hope there were teams that felt that way when we were winning here. But I think they might be taking it to another level.”
 
YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR THE INDY 500. IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WOULD NEVER GET A CHANCE TO RUN HERE, BUT WHAT WERE YOUR FEELINGS WHEN THE TIRE TESTS WERE GOING ON, THE FIRST RACE AND NOW LOOKING BACK?
“So many great memories of all that… a little bit of history, if I can. When you’re racing locally nearby here, it doesn’t matter your name or what kind of car you drive. Your goal
is to race here in May. Everybody that I raced with every weekend would talk about, ‘Oh, I have a chance at a ride with this team or that team.’ Whatever it was, it was always the buzz. Your goal that weekend was to win enough races to get the opportunity to go race in the Indianapolis 500. And what was pretty eye-opening was that none of those guys were very successful here. When I started pursuing that a little more and having some success, I realized very early and quickly that the chances of me doing it were very slim and getting a top ride was very slim. So it was pretty easy for me to look at other places and go down south after some people encouraged me to do it. Immediately I started getting opportunities – good opportunities – and that’s what changed it all for me. I did sort of move away from those dreams and thoughts in the late 80s and early 90s because of how that all went down.
 
“When I saw there were going to test here, I was excited because it was cool but I was disappointed because I wasn’t there. It looked like so much fun that day, the way they were swapping positions. It was an exhibition but looked like a fun exhibition that I wanted to be a part of. I was thrilled to be a part of it in 1994 when it actually happened. It was a dream come true to win that race.”
 
DO YOU FEEL THIS TRACK NEEDS LIGHTS? WOULD YOU LIKE TO RACE HERE UNDER LIGHTS?
“It doesn’t need lights. I think it would be awesome to race here at night. But this goes back again to the history of the Indy 500 and the racing here. Yes, there is tradition with the Brickyard 400 but it’s not the tradition the Indy 500. I would never want to see the Indy 500 run under the lights. But the Brickyard 400 breaks traditions. It always has – by being the first stock car race to happen here. Someone could tell me more about the history of the track but I always heard that was the only other race to happen here. I think they had a bicycle race here one time. So why not change it up? Why not have the race have some different scenarios in the days that it’s run? Let’s have a night race. I think that would be awesome.”
 
HOW DO YOU THINK A RACE WOULD DO FROM A FAN’S STANDPOINT?
“Saturday night would be key. From what I’ve seen from other night races we go to, fans seem to enjoy it. Sunday races can get a little tricky with travel and all those things. It seems like when it’s a Saturday night, it’s an exciting thing for fans and competitors. I’ve not seen a night race not be a win-win for everyone.”
 
INAUDIBLE:
“Just naïve, inexperienced and probably not understanding and appreciating the full scope of what’s going on – which can be a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes you only get that over time, and then over time you may overthink it. The thing I’m most proud of today is having those experiences of winning – especially races like this – with my family. We went to Victory Lane at Homestead last year and it was one of my favorite victories that I’ve ever had. Yeah, it was cool to win at Homestead but the feeling of having them there as they get older is greater. I didn’t have that when I was younger. I just didn’t think about it… just went in to it and did what I was supposed to do and moved on from it very quickly. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I do today. Today I savor the moment, I appreciate it more than I ever have and soak it up to make it last as long as I possibly can. To share it with them is the ultimate.”
 
WOULD YOU REALLY LIKE TO SEE A CUP RACE AT ELDORA?
“I would love to see a Cup race at Eldora.  Yes, I think that would be awesome.  You know what I would love to see a Cup race at Eldora.  I don’t know you know you don’t know until you get out there and try.  Those guys look like they were having a lot of fun.  I think I would rather have Kyle Larson drive my car because I thought he was awesome.  He was unbelievable.  I love Eldora, love the dirt and I enjoyed racing the dirt late model there.  I would love to see what a Cup car could do.  I think Tony (Stewart) did a great job preparing.  At first I was a little disappointed the track was so hard and slick, but then when you see the race you understand that it actually makes for a much better race and that it’s necessary.  I think they had windshields in to so that might have been a little tricky with mud.  I thought it was way cool.  Everywhere I’ve gone this week I’ve had people that are huge NASCAR fans and people that aren’t big NASCAR fans at all that watched it and they were blown away they did not expect it to go the way that it did.  I thought why not have more races on a dirt track.  I don’t think you will ever see a Cup race there at least not while I’m driving, but I would certainly vote for it.  I think it would be very cool to do.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE
JULY 26, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sponsorship, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT TRAVELING TO NEW YORK CITY YESTERDAY AND COMING HERE TO THE BRICKYARD:
“Yeah, this place does have a lot of history.  It is a fun race track to drive on just because of the history and everything that has happened here and all the races that you’ve watched growing up.  We did go to New York yesterday for NASCAR did a little bit of media and that was pretty fun.  It’s always interesting going up there.  We had a weekend off and just ready to get back to work.  Everybody is recharged, I think Steve (Letarte, crew chief) went over to Europe with the family and had a good time.  Now we are back and ready to get back to work and focused on what we love to do.  We’ve got a practice coming up here in a few minutes and hopefully the car has got some pretty good speed in it.  Hopefully, everything works out.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT’S LIKE TO RACE HERE AND WHAT IT WAS LIKE THE FIRST TIME YOU CAME TO THIS RACE TRACK?
“The first time I came here I ran an IROC (International Race of Champions) and just got destroyed by everybody out there.  It was just such a different track and really big place.  The shape of the track is unique compared to anything else we race on.  It’s a real technical track and if you are just looking at the race track you would assume that all the corners look relatively similar.  The car must go through each corner pretty much the same and what you might be fighting in one corner you would probably assume you would fight in all of them.  But to be honest all the corners are really different and as odd as it is they are extremely different from each other.  Turn one is really tight and feels and appears as indication to how the car drives that it’s a much tighter and shorter radius corner and each corner after that appears to be less so.  With turn four being the larger corner without a better way to describe it, when you look at them they all look the same.  The car certainly doesn’t drive the same through them characteristically year after year.  It’s a technical track that makes it a technical track the fact that the car drives differently in each corner and you have to start adjusting on the car and trying to improve on something at one end of the track and not ruin something at the other end of the track and make problems for yourself at the other end.  That makes it a bit of a challenge, a good challenge, trying to get a car that goes fast and a car that doesn’t have trouble at one end of the track and make things difficult.”
 
IN TERMS OF PRESTIGE AND COVETED TROPHIES WHERE DOES THIS PLACE RANK?
“It’s in the top-five or three.  I would never place anything above the Daytona 500.  Being that is our biggest event, our marquee event.  It’s second or third.  I don’t know that you can place importance on races specifically so much so that you can put them in order.  I think that it’s an important race, anybody who wins here gets to put their name along a list of names of legends and not only in the stock car racing realm, but also in open wheel and all kinds of other different series.  It’s a pretty big deal and there is a good amount of envy to the guys that have won this race before, more so than I feel at other race tracks that I haven’t won at.  I would say it’s a pretty important race, it ranks right up there.”
 
FANS AND PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY SEEM VERY CONCERNED THAT YOU HAVEN’T ANNOUNCED ANY SORT OF SPONSORSHIP FOR THE RACES THAT ARE STILL OPEN.  ARE YOU CONCERNED AT ALL?  ALSO, IN THAT VEIN GREAT CLIPS ANNOUNCED THAT THEY ARE DOING 10 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACES WITH KASEY KAHNE.  DOES THAT IMPACT JR MOTORSPORTS AND HOW MANY RACES THEY WILL DO WITH YOU?
“Yeah, I think that we have had a lot of good conversations with a few potential partners about what we can do in 2014 and beyond.  Anybody who has got any sense about how the corporate world works knows that it’s too late into the season, too late in the year to expect to put together a package for the rest of the season that is going to turn into a multi-year deal.  It’s just all the dollars and cents are accounted for at this point in the year.  That doesn’t mean we can’t put some things together and do some creative stuff with some people and some partners that we already have or whatever.  I don’t think it should be a cause for concern.  We are in really good shape regardless with our partner National Guard and the races that Diet Mountain Dew has on the schedule.  We are in pretty good shape there.  It is important to try to fill out what we have this season and we will.  I don’t have any doubt at all that we will get that done.  I think we almost have to look forward beyond that to try to find out who is going to be the partner that we can put a long term deal together that matches up with what we want to do in the future.
 
“As far as JR Motorsports and Great Clips, the Great Clips people have been really, really good. It’s been a great relationship and its real new relationship with JR Motorsports. We hope to be able to continue that relationship. I think it’s awesome that they are getting more involved in Kasey’s (Kahne) program on the Cup side and that’s got to be exciting for them. I’m happy about that for Great Clips. I don’t know that it affects our program.
 
“We have a lot of good things at JR Motorsports, as well, that are in the works that aren’t ready to come out of the oven just yet. But we have some potential to have some really interesting things announced down the road with that. Due to how well we’ve run this year and how we’ve been able to turn that program around, we definitely caught the eyes of a few sponsors and potential partners. So, we’re looking a lot better on that front, too. I think everything is going to be fine. I don’t believe anybody needs to be too concerned at this point. When we can start announcing some things, we’ll definitely do that.”
 
DID YOU SEE ANY OF THE ELDORA COVERAGE? WOULD YOU EVER THINK ABOUT RACING THERE IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES AT SOME POINT ON DIRT?
“Well, it looked like that was a lot of fun. I had it recorded on my TV and it recorded an hour and a half of it, so I didn’t get to see the last segment. It was some kind of communication error. But, that was disappointing to say the last because I had pretty much cut off all contact with anyone who might ruin the outcome for me.”
 
YOU DON’T THINK IT WAS USER ERROR, DO YOU?
“No, of course not (laughter). I really thought that was extraordinary for the race track, the series, the sport; what a risky and gutsy call to go do that. I thought it was just extraordinary that NASCAR was willing to make the leap and then Tony (Stewart) was there at the right place and the right time with a perfect race track and an historic place to run it. It’s awesome that it all came together so well; and I thought the race was fun to watch. I really enjoyed what I saw. I think it would be fun to go run there if they ever did exhibition or something. I don’t know about a full-on event. But, yeah, maybe we’ll end up doing that one day.  What I saw was entertaining and exciting and something that was something that I hope I see more of, just from a viewer’s standpoint.”
 
YOUR DAD WAS ONE OF THE FEW GUYS WHO WERE INVITED HERE TO DO A TIRE TEST. DID YOU EVER HAVE ANY CONVERSATI
ONS WITH HIM ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE THAT FIRST TIME ON INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?
“Yeah I remember I never really had any direct conversations with him, but I remember how excited he was and everybody else was about that specific tire test. And I remember the mental and literal race to be the first guy on the race track once they got here. My dad and Rusty (Wallace) sort of were elbow-to-elbow trying to be the first guy to be on the track. For my father, for some reason, that was historic in its own right.
 
“I remember as young as I was, thinking about how big a deal it was for the sport that we were going to have a race here. I guess the first thing that raced through my mind was what would the racing be like? What kind of race would we see? What kind of style of racing would we see when the cars went around such a big track with no banking and all the corners being 90 degrees, what would the cars do and how would the drivers be able to compete with each other? But it turned out to be quite a thrill and a lot of fun to watch the first race. But it was just really overwhelming because it was just a kid, so wasn’t an expert on the thing. But I felt like the door was always closed to stock cars racing here. I felt like that was just one thing that would never happen; that IndyCars and Open Wheel would be too protective or that the history and tradition of this place would never be broke. But it was awesome that we got the opportunity to come here.”
 
GIVEN THE TRADITIONAL WINNERS AT THIS PLACE, DO YOU THINK EVERYBODY IS GOING TO BE CHASING JIMMIE JOHNSON?
“I think he will be fast, as usual. I’ll be surprised if they’re not one of the more competitive teams. It always seems like there’s somebody else that ends up running well. Greg Biffle runs well here. You’ve got to expect Kyle (Busch) to be competitive. Kasey (Kahne) will probably be quick. The usual players, but definitely we’ll be watching Jimmie and what they’re doing technically with their car and trying to keep that information understood and see what all our teammates are doing, really; to try to help ourselves be as competitive as we can this weekend.”
 
AS A NATIONWIDE SERIES TEAM OWNER, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE CARS GOING TO ELDORA?
“I think it would be fun. I think it would be good for them and for the series as well. The Trucks are such a neat choice because of the side force that they create with the way the bodies are on the Trucks. I’m not sure how the Nationwide cars or even the Cup cars would run there. But I think it would be fun for the series to have a couple of dirt races, to be honest. Eldora is the perfect place to have this all tested out and obviously it seems to be really awesome for the fans and something they really enjoyed, so I expect that it’s something we could see more of. We’ll just have to see what NASCAR wants to do.”
 

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF FOR JIMMIE JOHNSON AND THE NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
 
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW: 
 
 
THE MODERATOR:  Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference.  We are joined by Chad Knaus, crew chief of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  With four Brickyard Yard 400 wins, Knaus is the winningest the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, site of Sunday’s Crown Royal Presents The Curtiss Shaver 400 At The Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com.
 
Sunday’s race marks the 20th premiere series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Chad, of the four victories at the Brickyard, does one of them stand out more than the others?
 
CHAD KNAUS:  Oh, boy.  I think quite honestly, all of those victories were so special.  I think last year’s was a lot of fun, from the standpoint of really having a super‑dominant race car, so that was definitely one that stood out.
 
I think one that was always kind of fun and different was probably not the one that the sport is most likely the happiest about, is when we did have the tire issues up there and we were running out of tires and we were throwing a lot of cautions and we were actually able to maintain and win that race. That was a lot of fun.  I think that was our second one.  They are all just so special.  It’s such an amazing racetrack, so much history.
Q.  Jimmie mentioned that you two clicked right from the very beginning when you were drinking beer and tossing horseshoes.  After all these years and all these wins, can you describe what you two have to communicate, what you must communicate, and what you don’t have to communicate at all?
CHAD KNAUS:  Well, it’s like any other relationship.  It grows and there’s an ebb and flow of good times and bad.  Jimmie and I have been very fortunate over the years to have gotten a good appreciation and mutual respect for one another.
 
We expanded on that relationship again this weekend, so we’ve had a few of those opportunities where we’ve been able to have a few beers and play some reindeer games.
 
Now we are to the point where I can understand where it is and how off we are with the race car based on his body language and what he says and his feedback.  And he can definitely see with my feedback and my body language and the tone of my voice, he knows what’s happening from my perspective and that’s always good.  One, you can kind of be short and concise and everybody understands where you’re at; and two, if there’s something going on that you don’t feel like talking about, the other person may have a way to play out of the funk if that’s something like that.  If a lot of different levels, it’s pretty good for us.
Q.  Being surrounded by success, what advice would you give any young person about being successful in life, in anything in life?
CHAD KNAUS:  Wow.  You know, just don’t settle.  It’s kind of funny; I always am in just a semi‑state of a little bit of fear.  I’m not going to lie.  I don’t want ‑‑ I fear the fact that one day, we’ll never win a race again.  I fear the fact that one day I won’t work with Jimmie again.  I fear the fact that one day, I won’t have this amazing facility at Hendrick Motorsports to work in.  And I try to work as hard as I can every single day to go out there and win races, because I know at some point in time, it’s going to go away.  And you just can’t take anything for granted.
Q.  A couple of questions.  One, I wanted to know if you allowed yourself to have a little downtime this off‑week and what you did; and the second one is, also something you kind of spoke to and this is kind of living with a teeny bit of fear all the time.  You guys have such a comfortable lead.  You won the Daytona 500 and you have won all these races and you’re going to a mace you’ve won four times and you dominated last year.  How are you keeping everyone’s feet on the ground, because I’m sure that you are, and that’s not such a bad possible to have, I would guess.
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, definitely took some time off.  Was able to go hang out with Jimmie and Chanie and Genevieve and some of our other close family friends and just relaxed and enjoyed some sunshine and a little bit of beach time.  So that was a lot of fun; a lot of great stories, memories, that we’ll be referring back to quite a while from that respect.
 
As far as keeping our feet on the ground, it’s really rather simple with the group of guys that we’ve got.  We all know that in seven weeks, this is all going away:  This point lead, the momentum, the victories, all that is going to mean nothing as soon as we get to Chicagoland Raceway, and when we get there, we have to be on top of ours.
 
So to motivate these guys right now isn’t really ‑‑ the issue is making them realize that in seven weeks, they have to take their games to the next level and that’s really hard to do.  Because if you sit back now and think that you can coast until Chicago, you’re sadly mistaken, because most important thing to do going into Chicago is to make sure you have momentum on your side, and that’s what our focus is.
Q.  Can you remember feel like this at this point of the season still, feeling like things are really clicking as they have been?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, we’ve had seasons that are very similar to this.  But I’ll be quite honest with you, I don’t feel our team is at ten‑tenths yet.  We have got a long ways to go.   Dave Ellins (ph) and Peter Michel and Mike Ellershaw and the guys that do a lot of the car stuff, the engineering aspect of what it is we do, we are still in the infancy of our relationship.  There’s a lot for us to improve upon and we are trying to get better weekly.
 
I think we are getting better but we have a long ways to go before we are where I was with Greg last year and Cody.  So Ron Malec, he’s got a couple of new guys on his team that maintain the race car, and they are not operating 100 percent yet.  We have had some small mistakes and we’ve had some small mistakes and we’ve had some small problems, one of which as recently as New Hampshire.  We have got to get better there.
 
So we have got, over the course of the next seven weeks, for us to be operating where I feel like we need to be operating, we have a long road to hoe.
Q.  Speaking of fear, we have seen some engine failure issues this year, Toyota of course has had some, I think Dale blew an engine at Michigan, etc.  Just curious, is that something that enters or weighs on crew chiefs and drivers at all, or is that something that you have to put out of your mind, because really, in this day and age, is still somewhat rare.
CHAD KNAUS:  I think that they are not ‑‑ there’s not as many now as what there once were, because we know how to control our destiny just a little bit better.  A lot of the engine cycles that we’ve got at some of these tracks with a lot of RPM, a lot of on‑throttle time, especially with the GEN‑6 car and with the increased downforce and the lighter weight, the car goes through the corner faster, so there’s less off‑throttle times to let the engine recover.
 
We know or have ways that we can make the engines live a little bit longer.  In years past, you just push, push, push, push, and ever what happened, happened.  We are a little more cognizant of what’s going on now.  Are we concerned about engine problems?  Absolutely.  Just like Indianapolis, where it’s one of the longest straightaways we’ve got; so you are always on top of that.
 
But where it really starts to come into
play is on tracks where you just don’t have a lot of off‑throttle time.  Kentucky for instance; Michigan; Chicago is probably going to be another track where that’s similar; Kansas, once again.  Those tracks are always a little testing and Texas is coming up; I believe the Texas race is still 500 miles, and that’s a long race.
Q.  And of course, whenever an engine blows, there’s always ‑‑ I’m wondering if there’s the idea that ‑‑ also an example of where the teams are pushing an engine as far as possible in terms of performance and it just happens that the reliability happens to go.  Isn’t it fair to say that you really push the engines to the limit?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, man.  We have got standard push rod V8s that are turning almost 10,000 RPM for a full race.  You’re pushing it to its outer limits.  In all reality, these engines with the restrictions that we have on how we go forward, they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing.  I think it’s phenomenal.
 
I think Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports have got a great engine package and the other manufacturers are working just as hard as what we are, but man, when you start making upwards of 840 horsepower, with just the throttle body V8 engine, that’s pretty impressive.
 
So, yeah, we are definitely on the outer limits of what these things be should be able to do, but I think that’s part of the draw and I think that’s very important.  It wasn’t so long ago that if you had 30 cars finishing a Cup race, that was a big deal.  It’s like, man, everybody made it, nobody had anything break, nobody had anything fall apart.
 
When these manufacturers and teams get so good, you have very few mechanical issues and you have very few engine issues.  When you used to race 600 miles, it wasn’t about just who was going to be racing at 600 miles.  It was like, who could make it 600 miles.  So it’s pretty amazing what we do.
Q.  You mentioned just a few minutes ago the importance of momentum.  But really, why does it matter?  The car doesn’t know what happened the week before, and I would argue that if it worked for you, it wouldn’t matter if you won or not the last week, you would be pushing hard either way, or I would probably have an internal drive that would be similar to yours.  So why does momentum matter?
CHAD KNAUS:  And that’s a great question.  I said that time and time again; that momentum doesn’t really affect how the 48 works.  But it damn sure doesn’t hurt, right.
 
So there’s a level of confidence that everybody needs to be able to work within, and when we go to a racetrack and we make great calls on pit road, we make the right calls with the chassis and we go out there and we have a successful race finishing in the Top‑10, Top‑8, Top‑5, and Jimmie has done a good job and he has made good moves and he has made solid decisions and the pit crew has done solid pit stops.
 
It just gives you a level of comfort to be able to go out there and attack.  A lot of the decisions that we make, we want to say that we are so educated and we are so prepared; a lot what have we do is just off the hip.
 
When you have to make decisions like that, when you feel like you’ve done a good job over a period of time and you’re comfortable making those decisions, if you got burned on pit road a lot, say you’re taking two tires and everybody else took four; you stayed out, everybody stayed in; you pitted, everybody else stayed out.  You go through three or four weeks of that, when it’s time to make that decision, you’ve got all those scenarios passing through your head.  You have this menu of options that are just flittering through and you’re thinking, which one do I need to do or I could burn here. Having good, solid races is really, really important.
Q.  As you talk about that, obviously going back to New Hampshire, I guess the way the weekend starts, you’re fast and you have qualifying issues, somebody could say maybe that disrupts momentum.  How does that affect things and then coming back and getting the finish that you did, how do you live like you guys responded to that and what do you want from that in terms of the momentum and how it shifted so much just even in the one weekend.
CHAD KNAUS:  It’s a damn roller coaster.  It was great.  Look, I hated what happened, happened, but it happened, right.  Saturday night I went to bed perfectly comfortable.  I was excited to see what we were going to be capable of doing Sunday.
 
And I think the way that our team performed on Sunday was fantastic.  We went out there, we had a bad pit box obviously, we were trapped in between the 16 and 17; so every time we were leaving our pit box, we had the 16 around us and we always got choked up by that ‑‑ by no fault of anybody’s; it’s just the tightness of the road.
 
So we never really gained spots and showed what our pit crew was capable of doing.  Our car was solid but we had to do some unique strategy to make sure we were able to stay up there and Jimmie did a fantastic job all day long.  I think that was as big as a momentum builder for us as winning Daytona was because we were able to overcome so many things.  There were so many teams out there that started up front that we finished ahead, and that was nice.
 
I think if we could have started up front in New Hampshire where we had qualified, we would have potentially have run in the top two, three, all day long.
Q.  I know you’ve talked about how Jimmie is able to let things not bother him, but I’m curious, could you have gone on vacation with him ‑‑ inaudible ‑‑ if Jeff Gordon had some points?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, that’s funny, the first thing my buddy said when I walked up to him on the beach this weekend, ‘I wonder if Dave Rogers is on vacation.’  I almost turned around immediately and went back to Charlotte.
You have to ‑‑ you have to be able to eject a little bit.  I have a really good friend of mine that said, if you don’t reward your successes, you’ll never want to be successful, and Jimmie has helped teach me that over the years.
 
And again, I only took ‑‑ look, I took three days off, so it wasn’t like I completely ejected, you know.  But I took three days off.  I was able to relax, have a good time, hang out with one of my best friends and many of my other best friends and just chill.  It was really good and I probably would have done it either way.
Q.  You’ve talked about the engines and you’ve talked about the difference in the new cars.  How in the heck do you keep up with all this modern technology?  Do you lay awake at night saying, boy, how am I going to solve this problem?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, it’s tough.  Especially for me.  I’m not as educated as some of these new crew chiefs are.  These guys are so smart that are coming into our industry.  It’s a challenge for me to stay abreast as to what’s going on, just because things are changing so quickly.  I didn’t go to college; I still can’t type.  I one‑finger peck.  It’s tough to keep up with what’s going on and you have to; you have to want to do it.
 
I love my job.  I’ve never once not wanted to get up and go to work.  Now, I’ve sometimes not wanted to get up because I was tired, but I’ve always wanted to go to work and I’m very, very fortunate for that.
 

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF FOR JIMMIE JOHNSON AND THE NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
 
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW: 
 
 
THE MODERATOR:  Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference.  We are joined by Chad Knaus, crew chief of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  With four Brickyard Yard 400 wins, Knaus is the winningest the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, site of Sunday’s Crown Royal Presents The Curtiss Shaver 400 At The Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com.
 
Sunday’s race marks the 20th premiere series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Chad, of the four victories at the Brickyard, does one of them stand out more than the others?
 
CHAD KNAUS:  Oh, boy.  I think quite honestly, all of those victories were so special.  I think last year’s was a lot of fun, from the standpoint of really having a super‑dominant race car, so that was definitely one that stood out.
 
I think one that was always kind of fun and different was probably not the one that the sport is most likely the happiest about, is when we did have the tire issues up there and we were running out of tires and we were throwing a lot of cautions and we were actually able to maintain and win that race. That was a lot of fun.  I think that was our second one.  They are all just so special.  It’s such an amazing racetrack, so much history.
Q.  Jimmie mentioned that you two clicked right from the very beginning when you were drinking beer and tossing horseshoes.  After all these years and all these wins, can you describe what you two have to communicate, what you must communicate, and what you don’t have to communicate at all?
CHAD KNAUS:  Well, it’s like any other relationship.  It grows and there’s an ebb and flow of good times and bad.  Jimmie and I have been very fortunate over the years to have gotten a good appreciation and mutual respect for one another.
 
We expanded on that relationship again this weekend, so we’ve had a few of those opportunities where we’ve been able to have a few beers and play some reindeer games.
 
Now we are to the point where I can understand where it is and how off we are with the race car based on his body language and what he says and his feedback.  And he can definitely see with my feedback and my body language and the tone of my voice, he knows what’s happening from my perspective and that’s always good.  One, you can kind of be short and concise and everybody understands where you’re at; and two, if there’s something going on that you don’t feel like talking about, the other person may have a way to play out of the funk if that’s something like that.  If a lot of different levels, it’s pretty good for us.
Q.  Being surrounded by success, what advice would you give any young person about being successful in life, in anything in life?
CHAD KNAUS:  Wow.  You know, just don’t settle.  It’s kind of funny; I always am in just a semi‑state of a little bit of fear.  I’m not going to lie.  I don’t want ‑‑ I fear the fact that one day, we’ll never win a race again.  I fear the fact that one day I won’t work with Jimmie again.  I fear the fact that one day, I won’t have this amazing facility at Hendrick Motorsports to work in.  And I try to work as hard as I can every single day to go out there and win races, because I know at some point in time, it’s going to go away.  And you just can’t take anything for granted.
Q.  A couple of questions.  One, I wanted to know if you allowed yourself to have a little downtime this off‑week and what you did; and the second one is, also something you kind of spoke to and this is kind of living with a teeny bit of fear all the time.  You guys have such a comfortable lead.  You won the Daytona 500 and you have won all these races and you’re going to a mace you’ve won four times and you dominated last year.  How are you keeping everyone’s feet on the ground, because I’m sure that you are, and that’s not such a bad possible to have, I would guess.
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, definitely took some time off.  Was able to go hang out with Jimmie and Chanie and Genevieve and some of our other close family friends and just relaxed and enjoyed some sunshine and a little bit of beach time.  So that was a lot of fun; a lot of great stories, memories, that we’ll be referring back to quite a while from that respect.
 
As far as keeping our feet on the ground, it’s really rather simple with the group of guys that we’ve got.  We all know that in seven weeks, this is all going away:  This point lead, the momentum, the victories, all that is going to mean nothing as soon as we get to Chicagoland Raceway, and when we get there, we have to be on top of ours.
 
So to motivate these guys right now isn’t really ‑‑ the issue is making them realize that in seven weeks, they have to take their games to the next level and that’s really hard to do.  Because if you sit back now and think that you can coast until Chicago, you’re sadly mistaken, because most important thing to do going into Chicago is to make sure you have momentum on your side, and that’s what our focus is.
Q.  Can you remember feel like this at this point of the season still, feeling like things are really clicking as they have been?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, we’ve had seasons that are very similar to this.  But I’ll be quite honest with you, I don’t feel our team is at ten‑tenths yet.  We have got a long ways to go.   Dave Ellins (ph) and Peter Michel and Mike Ellershaw and the guys that do a lot of the car stuff, the engineering aspect of what it is we do, we are still in the infancy of our relationship.  There’s a lot for us to improve upon and we are trying to get better weekly.
 
I think we are getting better but we have a long ways to go before we are where I was with Greg last year and Cody.  So Ron Malec, he’s got a couple of new guys on his team that maintain the race car, and they are not operating 100 percent yet.  We have had some small mistakes and we’ve had some small mistakes and we’ve had some small problems, one of which as recently as New Hampshire.  We have got to get better there.
 
So we have got, over the course of the next seven weeks, for us to be operating where I feel like we need to be operating, we have a long road to hoe.
Q.  Speaking of fear, we have seen some engine failure issues this year, Toyota of course has had some, I think Dale blew an engine at Michigan, etc.  Just curious, is that something that enters or weighs on crew chiefs and drivers at all, or is that something that you have to put out of your mind, because really, in this day and age, is still somewhat rare.
CHAD KNAUS:  I think that they are not ‑‑ there’s not as many now as what there once were, because we know how to control our destiny just a little bit better.  A lot of the engine cycles that we’ve got at some of these tracks with a lot of RPM, a lot of on‑throttle time, especially with the GEN‑6 car and with the increased downforce and the lighter weight, the car goes through the corner faster, so there’s less off‑throttle times to let the engine recover.
 
We know or have ways that we can make the engines live a little bit longer.  In years past, you just push, push, push, push, and ever what happened, happened.  We are a little more cognizant of what’s going on now.  Are we concerned about engine problems?  Absolutely.  Just like Indianapolis, where it’s one of the longest straightaways we’ve got; so you are always on top of that.
 
But where it really starts to come into
play is on tracks where you just don’t have a lot of off‑throttle time.  Kentucky for instance; Michigan; Chicago is probably going to be another track where that’s similar; Kansas, once again.  Those tracks are always a little testing and Texas is coming up; I believe the Texas race is still 500 miles, and that’s a long race.
Q.  And of course, whenever an engine blows, there’s always ‑‑ I’m wondering if there’s the idea that ‑‑ also an example of where the teams are pushing an engine as far as possible in terms of performance and it just happens that the reliability happens to go.  Isn’t it fair to say that you really push the engines to the limit?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, man.  We have got standard push rod V8s that are turning almost 10,000 RPM for a full race.  You’re pushing it to its outer limits.  In all reality, these engines with the restrictions that we have on how we go forward, they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing.  I think it’s phenomenal.
 
I think Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports have got a great engine package and the other manufacturers are working just as hard as what we are, but man, when you start making upwards of 840 horsepower, with just the throttle body V8 engine, that’s pretty impressive.
 
So, yeah, we are definitely on the outer limits of what these things be should be able to do, but I think that’s part of the draw and I think that’s very important.  It wasn’t so long ago that if you had 30 cars finishing a Cup race, that was a big deal.  It’s like, man, everybody made it, nobody had anything break, nobody had anything fall apart.
 
When these manufacturers and teams get so good, you have very few mechanical issues and you have very few engine issues.  When you used to race 600 miles, it wasn’t about just who was going to be racing at 600 miles.  It was like, who could make it 600 miles.  So it’s pretty amazing what we do.
Q.  You mentioned just a few minutes ago the importance of momentum.  But really, why does it matter?  The car doesn’t know what happened the week before, and I would argue that if it worked for you, it wouldn’t matter if you won or not the last week, you would be pushing hard either way, or I would probably have an internal drive that would be similar to yours.  So why does momentum matter?
CHAD KNAUS:  And that’s a great question.  I said that time and time again; that momentum doesn’t really affect how the 48 works.  But it damn sure doesn’t hurt, right.
 
So there’s a level of confidence that everybody needs to be able to work within, and when we go to a racetrack and we make great calls on pit road, we make the right calls with the chassis and we go out there and we have a successful race finishing in the Top‑10, Top‑8, Top‑5, and Jimmie has done a good job and he has made good moves and he has made solid decisions and the pit crew has done solid pit stops.
 
It just gives you a level of comfort to be able to go out there and attack.  A lot of the decisions that we make, we want to say that we are so educated and we are so prepared; a lot what have we do is just off the hip.
 
When you have to make decisions like that, when you feel like you’ve done a good job over a period of time and you’re comfortable making those decisions, if you got burned on pit road a lot, say you’re taking two tires and everybody else took four; you stayed out, everybody stayed in; you pitted, everybody else stayed out.  You go through three or four weeks of that, when it’s time to make that decision, you’ve got all those scenarios passing through your head.  You have this menu of options that are just flittering through and you’re thinking, which one do I need to do or I could burn here. Having good, solid races is really, really important.
Q.  As you talk about that, obviously going back to New Hampshire, I guess the way the weekend starts, you’re fast and you have qualifying issues, somebody could say maybe that disrupts momentum.  How does that affect things and then coming back and getting the finish that you did, how do you live like you guys responded to that and what do you want from that in terms of the momentum and how it shifted so much just even in the one weekend.
CHAD KNAUS:  It’s a damn roller coaster.  It was great.  Look, I hated what happened, happened, but it happened, right.  Saturday night I went to bed perfectly comfortable.  I was excited to see what we were going to be capable of doing Sunday.
 
And I think the way that our team performed on Sunday was fantastic.  We went out there, we had a bad pit box obviously, we were trapped in between the 16 and 17; so every time we were leaving our pit box, we had the 16 around us and we always got choked up by that ‑‑ by no fault of anybody’s; it’s just the tightness of the road.
 
So we never really gained spots and showed what our pit crew was capable of doing.  Our car was solid but we had to do some unique strategy to make sure we were able to stay up there and Jimmie did a fantastic job all day long.  I think that was as big as a momentum builder for us as winning Daytona was because we were able to overcome so many things.  There were so many teams out there that started up front that we finished ahead, and that was nice.
 
I think if we could have started up front in New Hampshire where we had qualified, we would have potentially have run in the top two, three, all day long.
Q.  I know you’ve talked about how Jimmie is able to let things not bother him, but I’m curious, could you have gone on vacation with him ‑‑ inaudible ‑‑ if Jeff Gordon had some points?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, that’s funny, the first thing my buddy said when I walked up to him on the beach this weekend, ‘I wonder if Dave Rogers is on vacation.’  I almost turned around immediately and went back to Charlotte.
You have to ‑‑ you have to be able to eject a little bit.  I have a really good friend of mine that said, if you don’t reward your successes, you’ll never want to be successful, and Jimmie has helped teach me that over the years.
 
And again, I only took ‑‑ look, I took three days off, so it wasn’t like I completely ejected, you know.  But I took three days off.  I was able to relax, have a good time, hang out with one of my best friends and many of my other best friends and just chill.  It was really good and I probably would have done it either way.
Q.  You’ve talked about the engines and you’ve talked about the difference in the new cars.  How in the heck do you keep up with all this modern technology?  Do you lay awake at night saying, boy, how am I going to solve this problem?
CHAD KNAUS:  Yeah, it’s tough.  Especially for me.  I’m not as educated as some of these new crew chiefs are.  These guys are so smart that are coming into our industry.  It’s a challenge for me to stay abreast as to what’s going on, just because things are changing so quickly.  I didn’t go to college; I still can’t type.  I one‑finger peck.  It’s tough to keep up with what’s going on and you have to; you have to want to do it.
 
I love my job.  I’ve never once not wanted to get up and go to work.  Now, I’ve sometimes not wanted to get up because I was tired, but I’ve always wanted to go to work and I’m very, very fortunate for that.
 

RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER OF RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW: 
THE MODERATOR:  Good morning.  Welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference.  We are joined by Richard Childress, owner of Richard Childress Racing, and a three‑time Brickyard 400 winning owner.  Childress is the only owner to win three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with three different drivers, which include Dale Earnhardt in 1995, Kevin Harvick in 2003, and Paul Menard in 2011.
 
On Sunday, July 28th, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will celebrate a special milestone with the 20th running of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Brickyard 400.
 
Richard, obviously Indianapolis means so much to you as an owner.  Talk a little bit about those three wins and the memories you have from them.
 
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  You know, when you said 20 years, it kind of reminds me of that old song Bob Seger sings, 20 Years Ago, Where Does It Go?  It doesn’t seem 20 years ago when Dale Earnhardt pulled up there to run our first test.  I guess that was a year or so before we went up there and raced, just to see how the Cup cars would do.
 
To be able to see that car go around the racetrack in such a historical place as Indy with all the history there, to have Dale go around there, it was pretty amazing.  That was one of the first memories I have of being at Indy, other than going up there and jumping the fence one time, John Cooper let me go.
 
I think the win with Dale that day, I remember just like it was yesterday.  We were getting ready to leave and to go to Ruth’s Chris to have dinner because we thought the race was going to be rained out.  But the skies opened up.  We beat Rusty out of the pits.  I don’t remember if we took two, why we done it, but we beat Rusty out of the pits on final pit stop.  Track position was everything.  Dale held him off for the last 20 or so laps.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Before we get to the media questions, obviously Sunday’s race may add a little bit of personal interest to you with your grandson Austin running his first Brickyard 400.  Any thoughts on his debut this weekend?
 
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  It’s going to be really special to see him in a Cup car up there.  Both of the grandsons ran the inaugural Nationwide race there.
 
But seeing him in a Cup car, we have special things going on that weekend, we have a lot going on with some sponsors and some folks there. I’m really, really proud to be there with him and to be able to watch him run that race.
 
We’re going to have an announcement coming soon on the sponsorship and it’s going to be a really special weekend.
 
Then coming back in 2003, we won with Kevin Harvick up there.  That was a special win, as well, because we did start from the pole that day. We’ve been right there to win other Brickyards, but unfortunately we didn’t pull them off.
 
One that ranks really high, maybe above the other two, was when Paul Menard won in 2011.  What made that so special was knowing that Paul’s family was there.  Knowing what John Menard had put into that, I think he had entered like 30 some car over 20 years at Indy, in the Indy 500.  To be part of watching his son win that race was such a special day.
 
Riding around the track, that’s the neatest part of Indy, is getting to ride around the track, seeing all the fans hollering.  That’s really a cool thing right there.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll go ahead with questions for Richard Childress.
Q.  Richard, you talked about Dale’s win up there.  Is there anything specific that you remember about the first race itself?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  The first race Jeff Gordon won, I think, if my memory serves me right.  It was just the amount of people that were in the grandstands, the enthusiasm, walking out on pit road, thinking about all the history of the people that had walked out there on the starting grid before the race and stand out there, you take pictures and see everything.
 
Dale set on the pole for one of those races, and Rick Mast sat on the pole, I don’t think that was the first one.  But that first race, just the crowd was what kind of blew me away.
 
I don’t even remember now where we did end up finishing in that race, but I knew we ran good.
Q.  It was a big deal at that time for that.  Is it still a marquee event to teams, owners and sponsors today?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Yes, it is.  If you want to win a race, you want to win the Daytona 500, you want to win the Coke 600, and Indy, the Brickyard 400.  Those are the three, in my opinion, of the biggest crowns you can win.
Q.  Richard, you’ve been a driver.  Talk about the difficulties that this track presents in terms of just producing good side‑by‑side racing.  It’s so fast on the straightaways, so tight in the corners.  It has been a challenge to put on good shows, though they’ve been memorable.
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Yes, it is.  It’s the same even prior to this new IndyCar.  I think the new IndyCar works well with the draft.  Hopefully our new Gen‑6 will do the same thing.  You’ll be able to draft a little better with it.
 
I think it’s such an aero‑dependent racetrack that you can be 3/10ths faster than another car, and can’t be able to do it.  With our new Gen‑6 car, I’m hoping we can do a lot more drafting with it.
Q.  Can you speak to the decline in the crowds.  I know that isn’t your area of concern or expertise, but it has been a glaring thing we’ve seen.
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  I know the crowds are down at football games, basketball games.  A lot of other sports, they’re seeing some of the same things we’re going through.  I think the economy has a lot to do with it, some to do with it.
 
I think you can see so much at home on your TV.  A lot of people are throwing big parties.  You have so much more access today than you had in the ’90s. You can pull it up on the Internet.  There’s so many other ways to watch racing and be involved and not be there.
 
I think some of that, with just the technology today that’s out there, I think a lot of that’s part of the decline in several sports, not only NASCAR.
Q.  I wanted to make sure I heard you right. Did you say you were going to announce sponsorship for Austin next year this weekend at the Brickyard?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  No, no.  He’s got a new sponsor that he’s going to be carrying on the car that is really a neat sponsor.  I don’t think it’s been announced yet.  I don’t even know when they’re going to announce it.  But it will be the sponsor that’s at Indy, really a cool one.
Q.  As far as his schedule for the rest of this year, are you adding any more Cup races for him?  What are you doing to get him ready?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  I think we’re running him at Atlanta and we’re running him at Texas, two more races that we’re going to race him on.  This week he’s running Eldora.  He’s running another dirt track race somewhere.  He’s getting a full schedule of racing.  He loves racing.  So he’s going to be running the dirt tracks between now and then.  Then the Nationwide and the Cup.
Q.  Richard, recently we’ve seen a couple drivers break long winless streaks with Truex and Vickers.  Menard hasn’t won since he won the Brickyard.  Burton has a long streak of his own.  Can you talk about the difficulty of trying to keep everyone motivated going forward when you have these long winless droughts?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Yeah, it is a challenge.  You never give up.  You never give up.  Every time you pull in that racetrack, you feel th
at Paul or Jeff, we feel we’ve got what it takes to win.
 
There’s a lot can go on in our sport.  Jimmie Johnson’s had such an amazing career with his wins.  We’ve been challenging for the championship three or four times.  It’s been a long time since we won a championship, but we have been challenging for the championship.
 
I think Paul this year, he was in a position to win a couple races so far.  Jeff ran his best race last week at New Hampshire.  Hopefully things are starting to click with him and Luke.  He’s had some really good runs.  We’re going to try to get him in the Chase.
Q.  Can you talk a little bit about why you think Chevrolet has been so successful at the Brickyard over the last 19 seasons.
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  I guess they have won a lot of races.  I don’t know how many of those they’ve won.  But I think the caliber of the teams, the effort that every team puts in to go win at Indy, because we know it’s a big deal for Chevrolet to go up there and win.  I think it’s just that extra motivation for all of us.
 
The other guys have it, too.  But I think we know how important that win is for Chevy.
Q.  I want to ask you about that inaugural Brickyard race.  I know the story about when you went testing, how Dale wanted to lead that first lap of testing, Rusty beat him to the line.  Inaugural race Dale starts second to Rick on the pole.  How much was Earnhardt trying to lead that first lap at Indy?  He bounced off the wall on turn four.  How much does that matter, trying to lead that first lap of competition in the inaugural Brickyard 400?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  That was his goal.  He had his head set he was going to lead that first lap.  I couldn’t remember that race, I thought it was the earlier one when I was speaking about it.  They ran that thing side‑by‑side.  He come off of turn four on the outside and brushed the wall.  We had to work on the car.  Now I do remember it was the inaugural.

His whole goal from the time we set on the outside pole was that he was going to lead that race.  I think if he would have set on the pole, we would have led the race.  But we didn’t.
 
I remember now it did hurt us some in the field that day.  We had a very fast racecar prior to that in practice.
Q.  Was it surprising Rick Mast was able to hold on and lead that lap with how determined Dale was that day?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  For sure.  I think him and Rick kept going back and forth gouging each other on who was going to lead that first lap.  I think Rick was about as determined as Dale was that he was going to lead that first lap.
Q.  At New Hampshire when we talked to you about the lineup and sponsorship, you said definitely Menard and Burton, question mark, possibly a fourth driver.  A couple weeks down the road, after the Budweiser announcement, do you have an idea when you would like to nail things down and have an announcement ready for 2014 on the driver and sponsorship lineup?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  That’s a good question.  Right now we’re finalizing some final things.  We have sponsorship on a third and we actually have some sponsorship on a fourth.  But having it all finalized and put together, it could be a couple of months down the road before we have everything ready to do some announcing on any of that.
Q.  What you said earlier about how Paul Menard’s victory ranks high, maybe above the other two.  I know the Dale Earnhardt win was a big deal for you.  Was it the fact also that it was Paul Menard’s first victory in Cup; did that make it more of a momentous win for you?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Yeah.  Not taking anything away from Dale or Kevin’s first win there, but that one was so special I think because of being able to win a race with Paul, being able to win at Indy where that whole family had put so much into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
John Menard played a huge role for many years.  To be able to win that race with him, have his whole family there that day, it was almost like a storybook ending to a great venture in Indy for John Menard.
Q.  Richard, I once asked Mario Andretti about racing go‑karts, if he could see something in kids that would make them potentially be a great racecar driver. He said, Not all kids are created equal.  Here you have two grandsons coming up, working their way up the line.  Did you see that early in them?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  I think the biggest thing I’ve seen in them was how competitive they were.  It didn’t matter if it was fishing or hunting, whatever we did together as a family, they were always competitive.  Playing ball, anything they did, they were so competitive.  They have a drive to win.
 
But what makes me as proud of Austin and Ty both is they’re good young men. They understand the value of this sport.  They understand how important the fans are.  They understand how important the whole sponsorship is, how important NASCAR is.
 
They’ve seen all different types of drivers come through the sport.  The respect that they have for the sport and for what it has created for them and our family, they have a great appreciation for it.
 
Both of them are talented young men, and I hope they go far in the sport.
Q.  I was wondering how it feels on being the only car owner to win at this racetrack with three separate drivers.
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  I didn’t realize that until today.  It’s really a neat deal.  Hopefully we can add the fourth driver to that list this weekend.  Not taking anything away from Kevin or Paul, but it would be neat to go win it with either one of the four.
 
But, yeah, that’s pretty neat.  I didn’t even realize that until I was told that earlier today.
Q.  How does it feel to say good‑bye to long‑time driver Kevin Harvick at the end of the season?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  It’s going to be one of them deals.  Kevin, we did a lot together over the years.  It was a business decision on his behalf to want to move on.  Hopefully we’ll all look back at the career we had together and say it was all a lot of great times.  We had some tough times, but we also have had some great times. Hopefully that’s the way life carries on.
Q.  Do you believe that RCR can compete for a championship?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  We have for quite a few years.  I don’t see why it would stop now.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Richard, thank you for joining us today.  We wish RCR the best of luck this weekend at Eldora and Indy.
           
RICHARD CHILDRESS:  It’s going to be an exciting time at Eldora, I can assure you.  And Indy, it’s going to be a fun weekend up there.  I always look forward to going to Indy, having dinner at a couple favorite restaurants.  It will be fun.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll definitely see you there. Thank you to the media for joining us, as well.