NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed memories of Daytona, strategies of how to win, the NO. 3 car, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING TO DAYTONA
“It’s a really special racetrack and one we enjoy coming to. The track is a lot of fun. It’s a good town. There are a lot of great restaurants and there is a lot of history. Being around here for so long and coming here for so long you find a lot of things about it that you like and look forward to all those things when you come back every time. It’s been a bit of a challenge for us to win here in the last several years. We’ve come awfully close trying to win the 500 in the last few years. We’ve been finishing well, but haven’t really been able to figure out what I need to do to get into first place on the last lap. We’ve had no problem finding our way to the front, but not been able to overtake the leaders. So, I think we might need to try to be at a better position sooner, where we’re not having to have to do so much right at the end of the race and not have an opportunity to challenge for the win.
 
“So maybe throughout the race trying to be a little more proactive toward improving track position, being a little more aggressive just trying to improve track position might be in our best interest if we want to try to have a shot at winning. The way the 500 was going, it was a big risk to pull out and try to make a pass or try to do anything to move forward because you were out there by yourself and you basically would go to the back of the pack in just about every case. So it was difficult to find out how there was any other way to pass or move forward. And then we had that late restart where we were able to take advantage of some people.
 
“But I look forward to the race and I hope that the asphalt has aged a little bit. I know that the weather should improve the style of racing; we’ll see, where the handling is a lot more of a factor. Handling was a big factor in the Daytona 500 race and that’s important to providing a good race at this race track is when the handling on the cars is more of a challenge. We might have a good opportunity to see a real exciting race and I think when things get more exciting at the plate tracks, I’ve got a better shot at finding my way toward the front for an easier shot at it.”
 
THIS RACE USED TO BE ON JULY 4TH. DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL MEMORIES WHEN IT REALLY WAS ON THE ACTUAL HOLIDAY? SHOULD NASCAR TRY TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN?
“I don’t know about that, but it does haven’t to fall exactly on the 4th, to me. I still kind of connect it to whether it’s on the same day or not. And I think one of the memories that sticks out to me was I think it was 1995 or maybe 1994, but I was watching from the pits and Greg Sacks was three-wide down through the front straight-away in the tri-oval and was bouncing off two cars.
 
“I think one of them was a Petty car and I can’t remember who was on the outside, maybe Derrick Cope. And it’s just like a 22-car pile-up right there in front of the pits. And I’d never seen an accident, that large of an accident, that close. We were literally 30 yards away from that happening, so it was just really crazy to see that. And, I think Dad ended up winning that race. I had been here several times before in ’87; I think it was the year that Kenny Schrader flipped on the front straightaway. Dad had some kind of a tire problem or something and got a lap down, but he was still running rather well. But we were in the scoring stand down in Turn 1 where all the wives and the kids went, and we’d watch the race there. And we were leaving like 10 laps before the end because Dad’s real fast about getting out of the race track.
 
“And so Teresa had me and Kelley and we were hustling out of there to get in the car or something, and come over to the garage to be ready when Dad was, because he was obviously not in the running for the win. He was a lap down. And just as we walked out the door, I turned to watch the cars go through the corner and Dad blew a motor going into Turn 1 and hit the wall and he was just sliding across the wall. I don’t know why that memory sticks out to me. But I was trying to get Teresa’s attention to tell her that Dad was in the fence and she was like c’mon, c’mon, c’mon (laughs); I couldn’t get her attention to tell her what was going on. But I was the only one that saw it and for some reason that memory stands out to me.
 
“I never came here for the 500. I’ve talked about that 100 times in here (media center) it seems like. But I never came here for the 500 until I drove in it. But we came to the July race every year and just had a lot of fun. We’ve got pictures of us burying each other in the sand and things like that when we was little kids. I certainly enjoyed some good times here and driving as well. Obviously winning in 2001; that was an incredible experience. But, I have always enjoyed coming down here.”
 
ARE YOU A LITTLE SURPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL MATT KENSETH IS DOING THIS YEAR WITH A NEW TEAM?
“No, I’m not.  I’ve raced against him for a really long time and I’ve known Matt to be one of the most talented guys in the seat, in the car holding the wheel.  He is as good as anybody in the garage.  I don’t know that he is surprising a lot of people that have been in that garage for the last several years because I think we all kind of knew how good he was.
 
“He is in some really good equipment and he is with some really good people in Joe (Gibbs) and J.D. (Gibbs) they are going to give him an amazing opportunity.  When I heard about his deal last year I was excited for him because we have been pretty good friends for a really long time.  I knew that this was going to be a great experience. He’d had some really good experiences with Jack (Roush) and the Roush deal.  He worries a little bit too much.
 
“He was really worried about making that type of decision you know because he’s having kids and he’s just really hoping he’s making the right choice.  I just felt like this was going to be exciting and he was really going to have a lot of fun.  It looks like it’s working out.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON IS RACING FOR RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING NOW, BUT LOOKS TO BE MOVING TO SPRINT CUP NEXT YEAR.  COULD YOU JUST TALK ABOUT HIM AND HIS CAREER AND HOW HE IS PROGRESSING AS A DRIVER?
“Yeah, I think he has really surprised everybody.  He has got great speed.  He has shown he can be aggressive and he will work real hard at every position.  Just watching him run laps and watching him in races you see he is just a tough competitor and he works really hard.  I’ve known his dad for a really long time.
 
“I think it’s exciting to see Richard (Childress) have something new to kind of keep the fire going in him and keep RCR (Richard Childress Racing) excited about their future.  That rests squarely on those two kids shoulders.  They were raised really well.  They’ve got great manners and every time I’ve been around them I’ve been impressed.  Obviously, they do a lot of good things on the race track too.  I’m excited for both of them.  Austin, I think he’s ready.  I think he’s ready to go.”
 
DOES DANICA PATRICK HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE YET WITH PLATE RACING THAT YOU COULD HELP HER WIN AND EVEN MORE DOES SHE HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE THAT SHE COULD HELP YOU WIN IF YOU GET IN A SIMILAR HELP EACH OTHER SITUATION LIKE YOU HAD IN FEBRUARY?
“Yeah, I think the answer to that is yes for both.  With plate racing you just don’t know.  Mark Martin was pushing me in the Daytona race and he has as much experience as anybody and we didn’t get the job done as good a
s I think we are at it.  There are so many other variables in play that the best plans never really seem to work out.  You just sort of go by your gut in those last moments of those races.  It really comes down to anyone, her or I or anybody making the gut decision at that moment when you are faced with a choice to do one thing or another making the right one.  You don’t always do.  You don’t fall back on years of experience or race after race of doing it.  It comes down to really like dodging a bullet you move left or right and hope you make the right decision.”
 
IS SHE CAPABLE OF WINNING THIS RACE?
“Yes, of course, absolutely.  Every car in the field with the exception of a few one or two; I think every car in the field, what we saw at Talladega proved that about anybody with this style of package can get up there and make it happen.”
 
YOU TALKED EARLIER ABOUT BEING AGGRESSIVE CAN YOU JUST KIND OF CLARIFY WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT BE MORE AGGRESSIVE EARLIER IN THE RACE PUT YOURSELF IN POSITION AND ALL THINGS SEEM TO INDICATE THAT THE NO. 3 CAR WILL RETURN IN CUP NEXT YEAR.  OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE SEEN IT RUN IN OTHER SERIES.  WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO SEE IT IN CUP NEXT YEAR AT THIS TRACK?
“Being aggressive and trying to get track position or make track position happen or move forward just mentally aggressive not out there driving in the side of everybody, more so, just trying to force myself to take a few more chances.  It was hard to do in the (Daytona) 500 because everybody ran around the top and if you pulled out you went to the back.  That is what you did.  What I did see was that if there was enough room in between the guy in front of me and the next car if I could make a run and side draft and actually create even more room by side drafting and fill that gap you can leap frog one car at a time.  You keep doing that and I was able to pass a few guys doing that and you can pass maybe one car every two or three laps. You just continue to leap frog one at a time, but that one guy you aren’t successful with you go all the way to the back.  It’s a gamble, but maybe if you want to win the race, I’ve got to be further ahead than fourth on the last lap.  We had enough race car to win the (Daytona) 500 and just ran out of laps.  I need to be a little further forward to be able to have that shot.
 
“I think it will be great.  It was an iconic number for my father and it means a lot to a lot of his fans.  This sport doesn’t really retire numbers and all the numbers have history tied to them for several different reasons.  The No. 3 is no different.  I think that for Austin (Dillon) a kid like Austin in this regard any kid that wants to come up through the ranks and he drove the No. 3 in dirt racing and he drove the No. 3 in his Truck series and Nationwide series.  He has earned the right to run that number as long as he wants.  It could have been anybody, but it’s Austin.  It could have been any kid coming up through the ranks that had ran that number and that’s his number.  Maybe he’s not even an Earnhardt fan maybe that is just his number.  He wants to run it I think it’s not really fair to deny somebody that opportunity.  I’m okay with it.  I know that might not be the way a lot of people feel or some people feel, but I’m sure it’s the minority that feels that way. I think that a lot of people will be telling Austin positive things about it.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO 24 AXALTA COATING SYSTEMS CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed racing at Daytona, his bubble position for the Chase, looking ahead to other races and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT THE ADVANTAGE OF STARTING THE RACE AT CHICAGOLAND IS AND IF THERE IS AN ADVANTAGE?
“I think the only advantage is if your 1.5 mile program is really strong and if that has been a really good track for you in the past.”
 
HOW ABOUT FOR YOU?
“It’s been an okay track for us.  We actually were running really well there last year when we had the trouble that we ran into with the throttle.  But I am very encouraged by how well we ran last weekend at Kentucky, and I think our 1.5 mile program is actually pretty strong this year.  So, first we have to get in the Chase, and then we can start worrying about how good we are going to be in Chicago.”
 
WHAT KIND OF RACE ARE YOU EXPECTING HERE THIS WEEKEND?
“Well we know the temperatures here are going to be warm so certainly you are going to slip and slide around a little bit more than what we did here in February.  Other than that I think we have just gotten more laps and experience with this car in the draft between the Daytona race, Talladega race, and I feel that we have all just gotten more comfortable and are wanting to get more aggressive out there.  I am not sure to be honest with you until we get out there.”
 
YOU ARE 12TH RIGHT NOW AND SITTING ON THE BUBBLE, SO HOW MUCH DOES THE REALITY SET IN THAT YOU STILL HAVE SOME WORK TO DO?
“You know, we have just had such an inconsistent year and so many crazy things thrown at us that I am impressed that we are 12th, and I am pretty happy with that to be honest with you.  I feel like we have so much more potential that if we just live up to our potential that there is no doubt that we can get in the top-10.
 
“Every year we see where those positions eight through 14 or 15 are just crazy swapping every single weekend. So we just have to go out there and focus, do our job – do it well, and get to the tracks like New Hampshire that are coming up.  We also need to do well at some of these other tracks that are coming up, and get some great finishes and make sure that we do that.”
 
BEING IN THE POSTION YOU ARE IN, DOES IT MAKE IT TOUGH TO SET IT ON KILL AND GO FOR THOSE?
“No, I feel that is pretty much where we are and I would rather be here honestly than maybe eighth.  I feel at eighth you can be a little too conservative and trying to maintain in that top-10. For us, we are so tight among us…..ninth, and 10th, and further back – we don’t have any choice but to go out there and go hard and be aggressive.”
 
REGARDING COMING UP ON THE 20TH RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY AFTER YOU GOT THE FIRST WIN AND BEING FROM THERE
“You know, it’s hard to believe that it’s been that long and that really blows me away.  As a kid growing up, before I even moved to Indiana, Indianapolis Motor Speedway was very special to me.  I had always dreamed of racing there and to finally get that opportunity to do it there in 1994 in that first Cup race was a dream come true.  I had never even imagined winning it and now we have won three more times since then.  I love going there.  I love the fans, I love the atmosphere, I love the track, and I just love everything about it.”
 
GIVEN WHERE YOU ARE IN THE POINTS AND IF IT COMES DOWN TO THE LAST LAP, DO YOU ALMOST HAVE TO TAKE A DECENT FINISH OVER GOING FOR THE WIN?
“The first thing you have to do is to survive here.  You have to get to the final laps, which is not an easy thing to do.  We are going to look at where we qualify, we will base our strategy on that as well as how things went the last time we were here, and that is how we are going to run this race. We are just going to have to come with the best strategy that is going to get us a win and get us a good finish.  If we are in the closing laps of the race and we have a shot at winning it, then we are going to go for it.  You have to go for the win and that’s always the case.”
 
REGARDING HOW TOUGH IT WILL BE ON THE WILD CARD BUBBLE WITH FORMER CHAMPIONS ALL AROUND YOU
“That is true and somebody is going to be out, or actually more than one.  At this point, and I think this is how we race every race and every year, is that we race ourselves.  I try to focus on what our car and what our team is capable of doing, and get the most out of it.  I don’t think we have lived up to our full potential this year and have had a lot of crazy things happen.  I am hoping we can put some of that behind us and really start putting some finishes together like we have the past couple weeks.  If you do that; it takes care of the competition, points, and all those things. That is what I am focused on.”
 
HOW UNIQUE IS NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY AS COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS THAT WE HEAD TO? “New Hampshire is very flat, but has long straightaways so you carry a lot of speed into the corners.  It’s hard to maintain a lot of speed for such a long, flat corner.  I have always enjoyed New Hampshire although the flat tracks have not always been my favorite types of race tracks growing up.  It’s been one that I have enjoyed and we actually did the tire test there.  We have run well there the last couple of years, so I am certainly excited to get there and optimistic about how we can do.”
 
ARE YOU GOING TO TEST SOMEWHERE BECAUSE OF WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS?
“I am not, but my team is.  I have three tests planned over the next month or month-and-a-half, so we are going to be testing a lot this summer.”
 
ARE ANY OF THOSE NASCAR TRACKS?
“You know the way it works, it’s all NASCAR tracks and that is just the way that the testing rules are this year.  The way those rules are this year, you have to come together as an organization and decide where you are going to test.  Obviously we get invited to the Goodyear test and if we decide that is going to be beneficial then we usually go.  I think there have been some verification tests that have come up like at Atlanta. I don’t think we are going to be doing that, but we will have a Hendrick car there.  We are looking at test dates and all that right now, and I think they are all NASCAR tracks.”
 
WAS THERE A POINT IN GROWING UP AND RACING THAT YOU FIGURED OUT THAT YOU CAN DO THIS AND GO A LONG WAY?
“No.  I mean every step of the way, you find out and the question gets answered.  I wondered if I had what it took to go to the next level, but I was fortunate that when I got in the car that things went well. I was comfortable, confident, and was obviously fortunate to have good race cars.  The statistics kind of spoke for themselves every step of the way, and on to the next step until I got here.  Until I got that first win in Charlotte, I didn’t know if I had what it took to be in the Cup series.  But that day said a lot to me,  my team, and from that point on – there was no turning back.”
 
REGARDING HIS SON RACING ONE DAY
“You know he is three.  I am sure that both of my kids will get behind the wheel of a race car at some point whether it’s just for fun, a hobby, or something serious and that is up to them as far as their excitement, passion, or work ethic.  If they really want to pursue it at that level, you will know it based on them wanting to get in the car over, and over, and over again.  If that is the case, then absolutely. I have had an amazing experience in racing and why would I not want to share that with them or help my kids have that opportunity?”
 
THIS RACE USED TO BE ALWAYS RUN ON JULY 4TH; WOULD IT MA
KE SENSE TO GO BACK TO THAT?
“Was it always July 4th?”
 
FOR THE FIRST 29 YEARS IT WAS JULY 4TH AND FOR THE LAST 25 YEARS IT’S BEEN WHATEVER THE SATURDAY IS CLOSEST TO IT
“That is interesting and that is a good question.  Good observation.  I guess I didn’t know that.  I think I have raced this race on July 4th but think it was on a Saturday.  (laughs).  So to run it on the Saturday or the weekend makes sense.  But I don’t know.  I think getting into the heads of the fans and the people who would attend this race, and would watch it at home…..that is the research that NASCAR, the tracks, and the media do a much better job of than I do.  That is all that would matter to me is whether the fans would enjoy it being on July 4th.”
 
ARE MID-WEEK RACES SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE FEASIBLE IF THEY HAD IT LIKE ON A WEDNESDAY?
“I would love to see that.  I think when Monday Night Football ends, we should start Monday night racing.  But that is just me.  I have always felt like needed weekday races, but of course I came from Thursday Night Thunder, and Thursday Night Thunder was ridiculously successful back in the day.  I am not saying we need to do it every week, but if we could find the right week in the schedule and mix it up, make it special, and make it make sense for the fans at home as well as the ones that could attend then I think it would be awesome.  I think July 4th might make sense because everybody is off on that day and looking for something to do.  Of course, we are not off, but I think that is why it could work.
 
“It seems like every time I talk to NASCAR about doing a weekly race or one mid-week, they say ‘oh well if you do it on this day you won’t get as many people coming to the track, so the track suffers, and if you do it on this day then maybe the track does well but then the people at home won’t watch it because of this’, so it always seems to be some kind of obstacle.  But the fourth makes the most sense.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON NO. 48 LOWE’S DOVER WHITE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media today at Daytona International Speedway and discussed what it will take to win this weekend and become the first driver in 31 years to sweep Daytona in the same season, last weekend’s race at Kentucky and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING BACK TO DAYTONA AFTER YOUR DAYTONA 500 VICTORY IN FEBRUARY:
“Yeah, I’m excited to be back.  I have fond memories of dancing around like fools doing the Harlem Shake out on the front stretch, even watching Jayson Werth and Willie Robertson from Duck Commander wrestling outside my motorhome once everything had thinned out.  I came back and looked outside my bus and I’m like ‘that’s where those goons were wrestling.’ Can’t help but think of our good times out there on the front stretch.  So excited to be back.  Our restrictor plate program has been very strong as always.  I think that I’ve done a nice job with this rules package to race for track position, maintain track position and put ourselves in position to win.  Clearly did that with the (Daytona) 500 and then in Talladega we had an awesome weekend too and ran up front.  Starting the last lap I really felt like we had a chance to win.  Then the Front Row guys they came blowing through and won there.  I felt like we were in a very good position starting the last lap of the race.  Excited to be back and look forward to some fun Saturday night.”
 
LET’S DISCUSS THIS RESTART THING.  WHAT IS GOING ON THERE?  THERE HAVE BEEN A COUPLE OF TIMES WHERE YOU HAVE HAD ISSUES AND SEEM EXTREMELY CONFUSED WITH THE RULE.  HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT AND WHERE DO YOU STAND RIGHT NOW WITH YOUR FRUSTRATION WITH THAT?
“Yeah, there are a couple of bad restarts that have been highlighted and a focal point here of late.  There are a lot of other great restarts that have happened; a lot of other great opportunities to win races and lead laps and pull all that off.  I know the rule.  I feel like I’m maybe a little focused on the way the rule reads exactly and paying maybe too close of attention to that.  Maybe I should lighten up and loosen up on the way some restart and then certainly the way I do.  There are a lot of restarts, especially during the Kentucky race that I brought down that I feel like a good citizen, a good student in doing exactly what I’m supposed to.  There are other times when I don’t feel that exactly happens and that it’s not called on or viewed from the tower as kind of the rule reads.  At the end of the day I’m just going to lighten up on how I think about it and use that zone and that area regardless of the way the rule reads to get an advantage and worry about myself.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHANCE BOTH YOU AND DANICA (PATRICK) HAVE OF DOING AS WELL THIS WEEKEND AS YOU DID IN FEBRUARY CONSIDERING THIS IS A 400 MILE NIGHT RACE?
“Yeah, I really feel like we have a great chance to come here and win again. The rules are the same so from a car stand point our race car that we won with is out in the parking lot basically at Daytona USA.  Outside of that not a lot has changed.  I feel like the speed in our race car and what we need there from a mechanical stand point is there.  Then it is just down to racing luck and how that plays out.  Plate racing we all know the odds there.  It’s tough to get it right that is probably why that stat is in existence and someone hasn’t won the 500 and the 400 in the same year. I feel we will have a great chance to do it and I expect to run up front all night long and be a factor and hopefully have racing luck go our way.  As far as Danica (Patrick), if she did it in the spring or did it here in February she can do it again without a doubt.  I think these tracks suit her style.  She had a lot of comfort in running flat out and running side-by-side in a restrictor plate situation.  She should be very competitive.”
 
IT’S BEEN 31 YEARS SINCE ANYBODY HAS SWEPT BOTH RACES HERE AT DAYTONA.  WHY IS THAT SO DIFFICULT DO YOU FEEL?  IN GENERAL IS IT THE RANDOMNESS OF THE RACING HERE OR WHY IS IT SO HARD TO DO THAT?
“Have plates been on for 31 years too?  Is that pre-plates?”
 
YES.
“I mean with restrictor plate racing we know the packs that we run in and the wrecks that we cause, but if that number goes back prior to plates being on I don’t really know.”
 
ONLY FIVE YEARS BEFORE PLATES:
“Okay, in the past I could say in my early years racing here the 500 cool temperatures, track had a lot of grip; people are a little more relaxed for a 500 mile race and trying to get to the end.  When you came back for this event the track had so much less grip, much hotter conditions, there is just more urgency to lead and be up front that I feel there is just more energy and more opportunities to make mistakes in the July race than in the February race.  Due to track conditions and also everybody is just charged up for a night race, fourth of July and all those things.”    
 
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT RESTARTS IN GENERAL?  SINCE DOVER HAVE YOU REVIEWED TAPE AT ALL? BIG PICTURE HOW DO YOU LOOK AT IT AND HOW DO YOU INTERPRET IT?  WHAT ARE YOU DOING SO IT DOESN’T HAPPEN TO YOU AGAIN?
“Well learn from mistakes for starters and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how I interpret the rule it’s how it’s enforced.  That is the thing that I’m trying to focus on now.  It doesn’t matter how I read it, what I think.  Clearly the way I’ve felt a few things have gone are different than the way it’s enforced.  The way it’s enforced is all that matters.  That is where I’m focusing now.”
 
IS IT POSSIBLE AT A PLATE RACE TRACK TO LEARN FROM WHAT YOU HAVE DONE IN THE PAST AND PUT A MOVE IN YOUR HIP POCKET?  OR IS IT ALL JUST SO UNPREDICTABLE NONE OF THAT MATTERS?
“It is really unpredictable for sure.  The thing that makes it so tough to consistently work on time and time again is most passes if not all you don’t do on your own.  You might see the opportunity, but you need to have maybe let off the gas or drug the brake to back up to the car behind you to get the run at the right time to take advantage of that hole that opens up or what you see is going to happen.  That is tough to do.  That is the hard thing.  Then sometimes you make that move and you get out there and you look in the mirror and the cars behind you didn’t agree with the move you made and you’re a sitting duck.  You might get along side of the car you are trying to pass, but they have all stayed in the bottom lane and now you are dropping like a rock.  That is the part that makes it so tough is one week, actually one lap, during the course of the race everybody is trying to pass and do what they can.  Not every one of them work out.  You just kind of play the numbers.  You keep trying and trying and try to show… I was taught by Jeff (Gordon) show that you are going to complete the pass.  Make the pass and the effort in the right spot at the right time and people will follow.  You have to show people and build that trust and rapport that you are going to make the right move here that is not only going to work for you, but for the guys behind you.  If you get a little too narrow minded and just worried about a single car pass a lot of times that will come back to bite you.  Especially if we are chasing the yellow line around the track, usually you can defend and hang on the yellow line.  I lost a (Daytona) 500 here, I can’t remember the year, but coming down the back straightaway I thought I was in a great position.  Pulled out
going into turn three pulled out to the outside and thought everybody would follow me because it was the last lap.  It was way too early.  If I had waited until off of (turn) four I think people would have gone with me.  I just went too early.  They stayed in line and I came back by in seventh or eighth.”
 
IT’S NOT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU WOULD TRY IN AN EARLIER RACE THAT WAS JUST BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE RACE HAD GONE:
“Just the way it worked out.  You are thinking about yourself.  Well, the guy behind me is like ‘well I’m going to push you to the lead and then it’s you and I stuck in the outside lane dropping like a rock.  Why am I going to do that?’  You need to have a vision in some respects where why would somebody want to follow you, why are they going to work with you.   If you have from turn three to the finish line that is a long gap.  You need to wait until you get over here where it’s a little shorter distance.”
 
AFTER THE RACE LAST WEEK IN THE GARAGE AREA THERE WAS TALK THAT THE RESTARTS ARE STARTING TO GET IN YOUR HEAD. IS IT EASY TO NOT LET IT GET INTO YOUR HEAD AFTER THAT RULE CAME DOWN THAT SORT OF BIT YOU?  IS THAT NOT PART OF IT THAT YOU HAVE STARTED TO LET IT GET IN YOUR HEAD?
 “I’m not smart enough to let it get in my head.  So we are fine there.  There is not much between these ears (laughs).”
 
IT WASN’T ABOUT THE FACT THAT SORT OF BIT YOU BEFORE AND YOU WERE OVER THINKING IT?  WAS IT JUST THAT YOU WERE SORT OF STICKING ON THE RULE AND THIS IS THE RULE I’M GOING TO DO WHAT THE RULE SAYS?
“Yeah, very focused on the rules for sure and in the way they read, expecting things to be officiated that way. Again I’ve made so many mistakes throughout my career and these two restarts look like something, but we all make mistakes out in those race cars every single lap all the time.  Just opportunities learned really the way I’m looking at it.”
 
MATT KENSETH ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW HE’S DONE THIS YEAR AND THAT HE IS A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER SEEING AS HOW HE IS THROWN IN WITH A NEW TEAM?
“No, not at all.  Our sport is really about people and the relationships between driver and a crew chief is really the start of that whole process.  Matt (Kenseth) is awesome.  The guy does a great job driving the car, knows what he is looking for, doesn’t let things rattle him and can withstand pressure.  He can do it all.  He really does a great job.  Dave’s (Rogers) has been coming along as a crew chief, growing, learning very smart guy, very well respected guy in the garage area.  The pairing of those two I think the garage area took notice when Matt made the decision to leave and then who he was paired with I think everybody felt they are going to have their hands full over the course of the year with the No. 20 car and that has been the case for sure.”
 
AS WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE 20TH BRICKYARD 400 IN A FEW WEEKS.  YOU ARE GOING BACK AS A FOUR-TIME AND DEFENDING RACE WINNER THERE.  WHAT DOES INDIANAPOLIS STILL MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY?
“To me on a personal level I just recall sitting on the couch with my dad and my grandfather watching the Indy 500.  I can remember a variety of races and instance that took place from watching myself.  I remember my grandfather’s stories and talking about his heroes that raced on that track and his opinions of it.  I remember that childhood aspect and how cool that track was.  Truthfully through my upbringing in off road racing with Rick Mears and Robby Gordon coming from my world and going into IndyCar that is the route that I wanted to pursue and the road I wanted to go down. Clearly things took a much different turn as I got older and my professional career developed.  Now to go there and have won at that track four times it’s insane.  One of my heroes with Rick Mears in that situation it’s been a wild experience and a very rewarding experience at that race track. It’s very special to win here in Daytona, I mean it is.  It takes others on the track with the draft and how you work that and you almost want to thank other drivers and it’s often done in Victory Lane.  I wouldn’t have been able to win the race if so and so didn’t push me or help me, but at Indy it’s a different game.
 
“The track is so technical and so hard to drive.  It took me a long time to figure it out.  Once I figured out the line and how to drive it we have had great success there.  With that the challenge that goes with it there is huge reward when you are able to win.  I have been able to experience that a few times and it’s really cool.”  
 
YOU HAVE WON A LOT OF RACES, BUT RACES LIKE LAST WEEK DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU LOST THAT YOU GAVE IT AWAY? CAN YOU BE YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY INSIDE THAT CAR?
“At times I mean all drivers can be their own worst enemy.  I feel like that one in Kentucky is definitely on me.  I’m the guy behind the wheel at the controls.  We went down into turn one and I’m not exactly sure I haven’t seen the video, but we were three-wide going in the corner.  The air affected my car and I got turned around.  If I didn’t spin there I really feel like regardless of the restart not being a pretty one for whatever reason.  I still had a very good opportunity to win the race.  I feel like our car was strong enough if I came out of there in second or third I feel like I had enough laps to get up there and take the lead again.  I hate that really what went on in turn one in two and the spin.  That is really, I know a lot of people had talked about other issues, but for me the bottom line is getting turned around. If we didn’t get turned around in (turns) one and two I still think we could have won.  I’m going to make sure we can get through (turns) one and two and not spin out that is really the ultimate thing.”
 
YOU ARE A VERY LAID BACK KIND OF GUY AND VERY SELDOM GET REALLY FRUSTRATED.  HOW DO YOU KIND OF GET BEYOND THAT LAST WEEK AND WHAT DO YOU DO TO PUT THAT BEHIND YOU OR DO YOU USE THAT AS FUEL GOING FORWARD?
“No, it might seem that I’m real calm all the time, but I think all drivers leave the track frustrated with something.  A missed opportunity, car didn’t perform all weekend or car didn’t respond.  There are pit calls, there are driver mistakes, speeding penalties.  I rarely leave the track and not go home in deep thought thinking about what I could have done differently.  They sting a bit more when you lead all those laps and don’t leave with the trophy there is no doubt about it.  But I’ve been doing this long enough to know how to shrug that stuff off, focus on what is important and what I can learn from and then go to the next race.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed her success in the Daytona 500 in February, if she has a plan for the last lap of this weekend’s 400-mile race and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS COMING BACK TO DAYTONA:
“Happy 4th of July.  We had the pole here in Daytona and started the year off that way.  It would be nice to start the second half of the year off the same way.  At the end of the day it’s not the most important thing, but it sure is nice to start up front.  Obviously we don’t have our Daytona car here, but we have our back-up and that tested really well.  We nearly ran that anyway.  It should be good still.”
 
CAN YOU DO THE SAME THING HERE SATURDAY NIGHT THAT YOU DID IN THE DAYTONA 500?  HOW MUCH DOES A 500 MILE RACE IN THE WINTER TIME AND THE DAYTIME HERE TRANSLATE TO A 400 MILE RACE IN THE SUMMER TIME AT NIGHT BOTH WITH THE CAR AND THE SET-UP AND WITH YOU AND THE SKILLS YOU HAVE LEARNED AT DAYTONA SO FAR?
“To answer your first question can I do the same thing yeah I don’t get worse as the year goes on.  Especially in the early years of running in a new series, so presumably I should hopefully have better experience at doing it especially having done Talladega too.  It’s definitely possible.  The difference you know the cars are well stuck here.  I feel like it’s not going to be worlds of difference.  It’s maybe a little less single file just because we have been in the car all year and people don’t feel the need to just kind of get on with the season, get it started and start the year off well.  As opposed to maybe a little more antsy-ness, a little more comfort in the car.  You could see some more people a little bit more prepared to pass and know how to do it a little easier than at the start of the year.  It should be very similar in the end.”
 
DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE IDEA NOW HOW TO CLOSE THE DEAL AT THE END OF THE RACE? OR IS IT STILL HELTER SKELTER?
“I think it is still a little bit of helter skelter.  Right after the race I said I wish I would have had a plan, but then I got done with it and I talked to Tony (Stewart) afterwards.  He said you probably had more to lose than you had to gain by trying something at the end.  He said you could have just as well of been 20th in the end as opposed to where you did finish.  You probably had more to lose so he thought I made the right decision on what I did.  After I said good job to Jimmie (Johnson) after he won.  I had said that I wished I knew what to do better.  He said that the two times that he has won now at Daytona were the two times he didn’t have any kind of plan.  I suppose it is about being at the right place at the right time and having the right people behind you.  There is luck that plays into it that way.  Although a lot of times good drivers win, so you still need to know what to do.  Probably more than anything it just means have a little bit of experience so that you can handle whatever situation comes up best.
 
“Maybe if I would have seen that Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) was dropping back I would have just drug the brake to stay back to him.  Maybe it wouldn’t have necessarily been about trying something other than just making sure that I wasn’t going to get a run. Nobody was going to get a run on me maybe.  Just being kind of ready in the moments of what’s going on.”
 
IF THE SAME SITUATION DID PRESENT ITSELF THIS TIME DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN THE SAME MINDSET OR IS THERE A DIFFERENT MINDSET NOW THAT YOU’VE GOTTEN THAT FINISH.  COULD YOU RISK MORE TO GO FOR SOMETHING EVEN IF YOU DID DROP?
“No, I think that is a really good question.  I think that is a good point.  On these speedway races there is definitely a feeling of, I feel like over time, especially the longer you have been in them.  It’s like to go for it.  I think that you have to start to take a chance to try and put yourself in a position to win.  I don’t feel like I would want to just settle for the same thing.  Although a top-10 finish is always good to have.  I think that in the long run it will serve you better to try things.  It will show other drivers that you are willing to do it.  That when the time comes maybe next time or the time after or the time after all of a sudden then you’ve got a little bit of a better trust and following of other drivers that you want to win.  Every driver wants to follow someone who wants to go for the win.”
 
DO YOU COME IN HERE WITH ANY MOMENTUM HAVING FINISHED ON THE LEAD LAP YOUR LAST FOUR RACES? YOU GUYS TALKED ABOUT SMALL STEPS AT THE START OF THE YEAR.  IS THAT A STEP?
“Yeah, I mean it is getting better.  Do I wish it would get better faster?  For sure, I mean everybody that is not running in the top 10 every weekend wishes it would get better faster.  Its small steps and part of it is being a rookie and learning.  Part of it is just making changes and making the car better or making things better internally so that you can go faster.  Faster cars all that kind of stuff, so there is a lot more that plays into it than just getting experience.  Through getting experience on the track I’m also getting experience and understanding how a team works and giving my input on how I think it could get better.”
 
ON THE LAST LAP OF THE DAYTONA 500 YOU WERE RUNNING THIRD. WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS AT THAT POINT?
“I think it was pretty much what I was thinking at the last lap was like ‘come on, come on boys keep it flat, don’t lift, nobody lift.’  The thing that threw me off was that, and this is probably some of the inexperience’s that, I was flat out.  I was hoping they were too, but the reason that allowed me to be able to go flat out and feel like we were going faster and potentially pulling away was because Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) was dropping back.  Whenever you lose the push behind you, you need to make up for it in throttle.  I know better now.  I was thinking ‘man I feel like we are driving away from them right now.’ But that really wasn’t the case.  I was just thinking ‘let’s hold onto this’ because a top three would have been great.  It ended up being at top 10 which is till good, but I was just thinking let’s just hang onto this and let’s finish it off like this.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RESTARTS AND HOW YOU WERE WHEN YOU FRIST CAME TO CUP COMPARED TO INDY CAR AND WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED?
“As far as me and the restarts go, I feel like they are getting better and better; and a lot of it has to do with the car sometimes if it’s really tight or really loose on a restart, there is just nothing you can do about it. You’re just hanging on. So, you tend to not have as good a restart in those situations. But there are other ones where, man; I’ve passed five cars and having awesome restarts.  So I feel like I’m actually having those days now. So, that’s very important, especially this year with how important track position has been. That’s where you can make up the most amount of ground. It’s challenging to pass. It’s really tough to pass. So, that’s good.
 
“Now, the difference between IndyCar and NASCAR starts are totally different. I think it’s hard for people to understand just how quickly IndyCar’s accelerate. In NASCAR, it’s really just about Turn 1. In IndyCar it’s just about who gets flat first. That’s the whole restart. It’s who can get flat first and anticipate that. So, even jumping the start on some; there’s a lot of jumping the start that goes on in IndyCar I feel like. Where in NASCAR, there is
a penalty for it. But it’s been this way for a long time, so it’s a much more organized start and I feel like it leads to a little bit more of kind of putting yourself in the right place at the right time and understanding how each lane works and where you might need to go. Like sometimes at a track, the outside lane is really where you want to be and sometimes it’s the inside. So, hoping to get in the right line. But in IndyCar it gets a lot more spread out a lot quicker and it all happens right on the initial start when the green comes out or as I said, maybe just before.”
 
WHEN YOU WERE HERE IN FEBRUARY, THERE WAS A LOT OF TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RICKY STENHOUSE, JR.  ARE YOU HAPPY THE HOOPLA HAS DIED DOWN AND HOW DO YOU THINK IT IS GOING AS FAR AS WHETHER YOU HAVE DEFENDED HIM (TALLADEGA).
“I don’t think there have ever been any scenarios where we’ve been put in a position to defend either one of us or say anything. The only incident we had was at Charlotte during the Coke 600. Honestly, I don’t really get that many questions about him. More than anything, you are one of the first kind of questions I’ve had where somebody is asking how it’s going and how it’s been going in the media and things like that. I don’t really get asked about it a lot. For the most part, I’m the one who has stories that I say, ‘Oh, Ricky and I were talking about this,’ but, nobody really asks me specific questions about him. I guess I would say that it’s going fine and I don’t really have to answer a lot of questions about it.”
 
IS THERE ANY DISAPPOINTMENT ABOUT NOT RUNNING THE NATIONWIDE RACE THIS WEEKEND?
“Not necessarily. I will always run it if I can. But if I don’t, it’s okay too. I think that it’s about getting the right funding and getting it all together. To be honest, our focus as a team was put on running Watkins Glen, which comes after this one. So, that’s kind of where we put our efforts to get the funding to run. So, I understand that this one came second and it didn’t get done because Watkins Glen is not done. So, I’m okay.”
 
WITH YOUR NATIONWIDE SUCCESS HERE AND HOW YOU RAN IN FEBRUARY WITH WINNING THE POLE, HAVE YOU FOUND THAT YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL HUNGER TO WIN AT DAYTONA?
“I would say that it came more in Nationwide because it was the best opportunities to win.  Tony Eury Jr., just like Tony Gibson builds very good speedway cars and I felt like we had a real chance to win on the speedways. As a driver, if I’m going to pick a race to win, of course I want to win the Daytona 500. That’s a huge one. But as a driver, you want to win the challenging driver tracks. You want to win at places like Bristol or Darlington or places that are more known as driving tracks. So I wouldn’t say I’ve marked it down. No. But I haven’t marked any one of them off. So, I’ll take any one I can get.”
 
LAST WEEK JIMMIE JOHNSON SPUN OUT AND WAS REALLY TICKED OFF ON THE RADIO
“But he held on so good, didn’t he. Oh, that was really impressive.”
 
AND THAT’S WHAT I WAS GOING TO ASK ABOUT. HE CAME BACK AND STILL GOT A TOP 10. HAVE YOU EVER DRIVING TICKED OFF IN THE CAR AND DID IT HELP YOU AT ALL?
“Oddly enough, it does help you. When you’re mad, you just get extra aggressive and get on a mission. It can help. And you wonder to yourself, why can’t I just do that all the time? But every now and again, a certain emotion bubbles inside of you and it makes for a different result or different racing on some levels. And a lot of times it happens when you’re running better and you get taken out of that position. So, those are also days where you probably have better cars to do it, too. I wouldn’t say that I’m running 26th and something happens and I end up 30th and I’m like oh, my! I can’t believe it. But, on those days where you really get all that mad.
 
“But when you get knocked out of being up front, you’re probably there because you have a good car and it makes it more possible to get up there. It doesn’t, by any means, make it easy. And him (Jimmie Johnson) coming from the back of the field to 9th at the end was pretty impressive. But you do tend to find a little extra.”
 
WHEN YOU GET CRITICISM, HOW DO YOU SEPARATE THE CONSTRUCTIVE FROM THE SNIPING? DO THOSE LINES EVER BLUR? IS THERE ANY EXAMPLE OF SOMETHING THAT’S BEEN SAID EITHER ABOUT YOU OR TO YOU THAT MIGHT HAVE SOUNDED LIKE SNIPING BUT THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY TAKEN AS CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ALONG THE WAY?
“I think that if there is ever constructive criticism that comes, it tends to come on a one-on-one basis from a driver or a crew chief or something like that. But it tends to come from a driver. And they’ll talk to you one on one. It’s happened a few times; whether it be on how you handle lapped traffic or how you handle running with somebody. It just tends to be a one on one situation in a conversation. Anything beyond that it just conversation.”

Storied Venue to Host Close Championship Battle and Round Two of 2013 Fuzzy’s Triple Crown
 
LONG POND, Penn. (July 3, 2013) – As the second half of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season kicks into high gear, the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers and teams prepare for a trip to the Pocono Mountains to take on the ‘Tricky Triangle’ known as Pocono Raceway.
 
Although none of the current Chevrolet IndyCar Twin Turbo V6-powered drivers have ever competed on the 2.5-mile three-turn track, it is not the first time that Indy cars have raced at the unique facility; having competed at the storied venue from 1971 to 1989.  This year the IZOD IndyCar Series brings back the sights and sounds of Indy car racing with high stakes on the line, and a few twists thrown in for fans to enjoy.
 
Not only is there a close championship battle being waged that has Team Chevy drivers occupying the top-five positions in the order led by Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves, but once again the track will play host to one of the legs of the prestigious Triple Crown.
 
With nine races remaining in the season, Castroneves leads the standings with Andretti Autosports teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe close behind.  Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan sits in fifth position, still within striking distance of the championship lead.
 
Back in the day, the Triple Crown contests included 500-mile races at Indianapolis, Pocono and Ontario, Calif. from 1971 to 1980, and from 1981 to 1989 at Indy, Pocono and Michigan.  This season the three-race challenge returns with 1 million dollars up for grabs for the driver that can take home all  three victories at Indy, Pocono and California (Auto Club Speedway).  Chevrolet driver Kanaan is the only driver who can complete the trifecta after the popular Brazilian-born driver took his No. 11 KV Racing Technology Chevrolet to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Victory Lane in May, 2013 to claim his first Indy 500 win.
 
“Team Chevy rolls into the Pocono Mountains this weekend for the return of IndyCar racing on ‘The Tricky Triangle’,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “The learning curve will be steep, but our technical partners, teams and drivers have been doing their homework in advance to get acclimated to this unique circuit which blends very fast speedway characteristics with three unique turns that require individual technique to get through quickest.   We hope to carry the momentum of the previous weeks into Pocono Raceway and continue the quest for the championships by focusing on each race as a must win situation.  The Chevrolet IndyCar Twin Turbo V6 is ready to do battle and put our Chevy drivers in a position to win at this special venue.”
 
This week the IZOD IndyCar Series announced another competitive element to put more excitement in the mix.  Not only did the famous Indianapolis 500 start three abreast, but this weekend’s race at Pocono and the third leg of the Triple Crown at Auto Club Speedway will also start in the famed three-wide formation.
 
Before heading to their seats for all of the on-track action, fans can stop at the Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Fest area at Pocono Raceway.  In addition to registering for a free Chevy IndyCar t-shirt, posing for a photo in the display, interactive games for fans of all ages; fans can see several of the great vehicles from the Chevrolet line-up including Malibu, Impala, Sonic RS, Traverse, Camaro ZL1 Convertible, Volt, Spark and the all-new 2014 Silverado. The display will be open Saturday, July 6th: 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., and Sunday, July 7th: 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
 
In addition, fans can see live on-stage several Team Chevy IndyCar drivers including Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and E.J. Viso on Saturday at 3:00 PM followed by Tony Kanaan at 4:40 PM and on Sunday Ed Carpenter will be in the display at 9:45 AM.
 
The 160 lap/400 mile challenge is scheduled for Sunday, July 7th at the three-turn Pocono Raceway. The race will be televised live at 12:00 p.m. (ET) ABC and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, including on Sirius and XM Channels 211, www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 13 App for most smartphones and tablets.
 
 
CHEVROLET IN THE IZOD INDYCAR SERIES – FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT:
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POINTS LEADER (ONE 2013 WIN):
“I always like going to new tracks and I’m really looking forward to racing at Pocono this weekend. The track has so much history and it’s great that IndyCar is back at Pocono. We’re also back racing the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet this weekend and we learned a few things in the test at Pocono last week and we’ll get a chance to learn even more Thursday at the series open test. We need to make sure we keep the lead in the championship coming out of this weekend and we’re happy we have a guy like Rick Mears, who’s had so much success at Pocono in the past, in our corner. With the long straightaway and the unique three corners at Pocono, it’s going to be an awesome race for the fans to watch on Sunday.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, 2nd IN STANDINGS (TWO 2013 WINS):
“Racing 400 miles at Pocono will be a new challenge for every team and driver in the series, which really makes things interesting. No one really knows what to expect. We have a different tire compound and downforce package compared to what we tested last week, so I’m not quite sure what we’ll have to deal with this weekend. It’s a clean sheet of paper for everyone and I think that bodes well for the No. 1 DHL team. 

“Looking ahead we have an exciting week and a half coming up with the Pocono race, Turbo movie premier in New York (City), Toronto race week and then the ESPY awards in LA.  I want to thank all the fans, DHL, Sun Drop and Chevy for their votes and support.”

MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, 3rd IN STANDINGS:
“The last three races have been strong for the RC Cola Chevy, but we maybe gave up a couple of wins when it came down to it. Pocono is basically my home town, so it would be an awesome place to close the gap to the points lead. I think we can have the car to do it – we just need to execute.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, 4th IN STANDINGS (THREE 2013 WINS):
“Everybody is really excited to get to Pocono. First of all, there’s a lot of history there and we love going to tracks with history. Secondly, it’s a new challenge for everyone and I think every team believes that they will be the ones to get the jump on the field at a new venue. Of course, only one of us can be right! But the test went well, I think the racing is going to be just like Indy, and in case you missed it that race was nuts! We’ve had good momentum on the GoDaddy Chevy the last three weeks, obviously capped off with the Iowa win last race. The big thing for us is to keep that trend going, not only to keep us in the title fight but also to have the confidence high heading into Toronto!”
 
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY – SH RACING CHEVROLET, 5th IN STANDINGS (ONE 2013 WIN):
“Pocono will be the third of four races (Mid-Ohio fourth) I will run in the Sunoco “Turbo” car and after the success we have had in the first two with them, finishing on the podium at both Texas and Iowa, I really want to keep that momentum going at Pocono and hopefully do even better. You know, this is also the second leg of the Fuzzy’s Triple Crown and because of the Indy 500 win I am the only driver with a chance to win all three events (Fontana third).  I have never raced at Pocono Raceway, but we know we had a good car at Indy and had a good test at Pocono a few days ago.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, 10th IN STANDINGS:
“W
e had a good test with the Verizon car at Pocono last week and we look forward to getting some more time on track this week before the race on Sunday. Pocono is a pretty interesting track with the tri-oval and the unique and separate corners. You have to make some decisions on how you set up the car and how it handles through the three turns. It will be good to spend the day running the Verizon Chevrolet at the IndyCar open test on Thursday so we look at all of our options heading into race weekend. Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd this weekend because I know we’ll put on a good show over the 400 miles of racing on Sunday.”

E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET, 11th IN STANDINGS:
“Heading back to a 2.5-mile oval, it’s something that I can see is going to be good. With the pace we had during the (Indianapolis) 500 – it was awesome; going back to a long track is going to work in our favor. Two weeks ago at Iowa, practice wasn’t the best for me as we experienced some issues with the engine, but I have a lot of confidence in the Chevrolet team and that they already have my engine back up to speed. I can’t wait to have another weekend, and Pocono, I think, is going to be an amazing race.” 

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, 13th IN STANDINGS:
“A lot of NASCAR tracks don’t seem like they would make a good IndyCar track, but that’s not the case at Pocono.  I am really happy that Brandon and Nick (Igdalsky) worked out a deal with IndyCar to get us back there. I would like to see the schedule be a little more balanced, say 50-50 (ovals, road and street courses), and I think the series would like to see that too. But, it is a matter of finding more good partners like what we have found here at Pocono to put them (ovals) on the schedule. We can’t just add them if they are not going to be quality races and not promoted properly. I think you’ll see the number grow, but it’s not going to happen overnight.  Turn 1 is the really tricky part of the lap and that’s the hard corner to get right without messing up the other two. The challenge of doing something new.  Everybody came here with a set-up on the car that we thought that would work, but, with having no experience here and being how unique the track is, you are just guessing on the car. We don’t go to too many new tracks, so it’s fun trying to figure out what the car needs. Every corner offers a different challenges, especially Turn 1. It’s a beast! It’s a monster of a corner.”

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, 18th IN STANDINGS:
“I’m pretty excited to be going to Pocono. It’s a brand new track for everybody and it should be a lot of fun driving there. We tested there last week which was good. I’m sure the Chevy power is going to show really strong at this track and the team has been working really hard, so hopefully we’ll have a good result.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, 21st IN STANDINGS:
“I am really looking forward to running at Pocono this weekend. It’s a really different oval and I am up for the challenge. We have had a tough season so far, so I am looking to get back up front this week.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO.  6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, 23rd IN STANDINGS:

RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET, 28th IN STANDINGS:
“It will be a busy weekend between racing the National Guard Chevrolet at Pocono and the Level 5 car at Lime Rock. It’s great that Panther is giving me the opportunity to race at Pocono even though I won’t be here Saturday for practice and qualifying. Fortunately, I will be able to prepare the car for the race and it was a big bonus having the test day last week and then the open test on Thursday to get as much track time as possible. Last week we spent our time working on our race prep and we worked hard on trying to find something that will get us through the field during the race on Sunday. Pocono’s a big track and it’s a long 400-mile race, so we feel plenty confident even having to start in the back. I know the National Guard crew will work hard, and with all the track time we’ll have on Thursday, we can get to the front.”

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

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