Marco Andretti Wins the Pole at Milwaukee to Lead Seven Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Drivers in Top-10 Qualifying Results
 
WEST ALLIS, Wisc (June 14, 2013) – Marco Andretti won the Verizon P1 Award for Saturday’s Milwaukee IndyFest, race nine of the IZOD IndyCar season.  It is the third career pole for the third generation driver, and his second at the historic Milwaukee Mile.
 
The driver of the No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet led a group of six additional Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers to secure the top-seven fastest in the final qualifying order.  
 
James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, was second fastest of the 24 drivers making qualifying attempts for the ninth race of the IZOD IndyCar Series season. Will Power posted the third quickest time in his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
 
Posting the fourth and fifth fastest times, respectively, were Andretti Autosport Chevrolet drivers defending series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay followed by E.J. Viso.
 
“Congratulations to Marco Andretti for winning the pole in qualifying today at The Milwaukee Mile!” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “We are so proud of Team Chevy for securing the top seven positions at this storied venue in West Allis, Wisconsin.  The unique challenges of this short oval with flat corners requires a key setup and a dose of bravery from the drivers to get the most out of a lap.  We look forward to the race tomorrow and know a win powered by the Chevrolet IndyCar twin turbo V6 will have to be earned over the course of 250 grueling laps. “
 
The sixth and seventh fastest times were run by Team Chevy drivers Sebastian Saavedra and Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan.
 
The Milwaukee IndyFest  is set to start on Saturday, June 15, 2013 at 4:30 p.m. ET. Live television coverage is slated to begin at 4:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
 
Live radio coverage will be on IMS Radio Network XM 211/Sirius 211 as well as in conjunction with live timing and scoring on

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 14, 2013
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/SEALY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SECOND
VERY FAST LAP TELL US ABOUT IT:
“It was a great lap it’s amazing how close it comes down after a two mile run.  Carl (Edwards) posted a fast lap early on.  I just wanted to go after it.  We just came up a tenth shy.  The good news is we keep unloading fast.  We are right there in the mix.  All the guys back at the shop that are working on the pull down rig and all the simulation they are doing their job to the best that I have seen in this garage area.  We just have to keep it up.”
 
12 RACES TO GO IN THE REGULAR SEASON WE ARE INTO THE SUMMER STRETCH WHAT DOES THIS TEAM HAVE TO DO TO MAKE THE CHASE?
“We just have to finish races stronger.  When it gets down to the final 50 miles or the final segment of the race on the last couple of pit stops that is where we haven’t been our best so  that is where we have to get stronger.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED THIRD
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING LAP:
“We picked up a little bit from where we were in practice.  I was happy about that.  I knew Carl (Edwards) had a really good lap and we weren’t able to get there.  We still had a good lap with our Farmers Insurance Chevy.  We should end up in the top maybe three or four somewhere in there.  It’s a great spot for Sunday.  Looking forward to the race, I don’t know the track is really nice and it seems like it will move around some so it should be good.”
 
ONE LAP IS ONE THING 200 IS ANOTHER WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO WIN THIS RACE?
“Well there is a lot that goes on to win it.  We worked on some things in practice already, put about 40 minutes into kind of our race deal.  Felt pretty good with that so we have a good amount of time tomorrow to hopefully fine tune it more, but I think we are in a really good spot right now.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS/CERTAINTEED CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
WE HAVE SOME CLOUD COVER NOW DID THAT HELP THAT LAP?
“It always helps when you have a little shade for sure.  We had a really good car in practice; we just could never really get a clean lap to show it.  Just proud of my guys.  We have had a rough couple of weeks.  Trying to get things turned around here in a good qualifying will go a long ways.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 33 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SEVENTH
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP?
“It was pretty exciting.  I felt like there was a little bit more out there, but I drove it and it got a little tight on me.  I had to check up off of (turn) two, but really proud of that lap.  The American Ethanol Chevy is fast so just now focused on race trim from here on out.  We got a solid lap in.  I think that will hold up possibly for a top-10 we were about ninth in practice.  So it should be right in there.  Man, I’m excited; I’m shaking that was a fast lap.  We will go on and keep working on it for tomorrow.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 10TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“I’m happy with where the Target Chevy qualified for the race on Sunday. We had a pretty early draw but the weather stayed the same so no one really had an advantage as qualifying continued. The car was loose when I was getting up to speed and I was a little nervous going into turn one but it ended up being a good lap and a top-10 starting position for us.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD “MAN OF STEEL” CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
YOU DON’T SEEM SO HAPPY WITH YOUR LAP WHY?
“I just I thought it was slow.  Everybody has been picking up.  We didn’t pick up, got on the splitter real bad down in (turns) one and two and just couldn’t get in the gas.  It shoved up out of the groove.  I don’t know that it ran that great in (turns) three and four either, but that really costs us a lot of time down in (turns) one and two.  We had a real good car in practice, felt real competitive and felt like we could put up a good enough lap for a top-10.  That is probably going to end up right around 19th or so we will see.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 14, 2013

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his thoughts about MIS, the high speeds, his season, and more. Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING TO MICHIGAN AND HOW PRACTICE HAS GONE FOR YOU
“I’ve always loved this race track. I was anxious to get here and see how the pavement has changed since last year. I’m anxious to see how this car dives on this track for the first time being here (with the new Chevy SS). I can’t say that I was overly disappointed with anything today. I feel like the car drove pretty good, but we are just lacking some speed. We want to make a couple of race runs. We basically got one race run in and I didn’t think it was too bad, just a little bit on the tight side. And then we switched over to qualifying trim. The last run, we had an issue where it just got too tight and got up the race track, so I aborted the lap. We didn’t put up the lap time that I think we are capable of doing. We’re going to have our work cut out for us going out first, but I think we’re a lot better than what we showed. But it’s fast and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
 
YOU ARE RUNNING OVER 200 MPH HERE. IS IT A COMFORTABLE 200 MPH?
“Yeah, I think you have to ask Kasey Kahne. He went over 200 mph. I didn’t go over 200 mph, not on the average lap. There is some edginess on sticker tires, so the first couple of laps on cold sticker tires, I can’t say it’s the most comfortable. But I feel like it’s better than the last time we were here. When we were here the last time, it was very edgy for the first couple of laps. I feel like everything was pretty comfortable out there. You don’t go that fast at a track like this without the car sticking pretty well. So, I think that what’s going to be interesting to see is how does it change when the track sits and we go to qualifying. What I saw a lot of in practice today was people scuffing tires and making fast runs on tires that had a little bit of heat and temperature in them, so when those tires are ice cold and everything else is cold and you out to try to make that fast of a lap, it seems like that’s when we start feeling the edginess of the grip level. But the car, I thought, stuck really good. So, from everything I felt in practice, it was pretty comfortable.”
 
IN THE AFTERMATH OF JASON LEFFLER, YOU GREW UP ON A LOT OF SHORT TRACKS AND RACED ON THOSE. HAVE YOU SEEN IMPROVEMENTS ON THOSE TRACKS LIKE WE’VE SEEN ON THE NASCAR TRACK, SAFETY-WISE?
“The problem is that those cars have such different uniqueness when it comes to crashes and how to handle those kinds of impacts. They just can’t contain their heads, and I don’t know and I haven’t seen all the results where that really caused Jason’s death. Obviously we know it was a tremendous crash and you could see it in the aftermath of the car. I heard about him having a Hans-type of device on there, which I was happy to hear. But even a couple of weeks ago I saw a highlight of the Chili Bowl where there was a car that broke an axel and flipped outside of the track and I just remember thinking to myself how violent the head movement was in that car when it was going through those flips. To me, they’ve done a great job. They’ve done a lot.
 
“But it’s just so hard to contain when a car is flipping and moving different directions like that. Our cars, we’re usually more predictable as to what impacts are going to happen. I’m not saying you can predict them all, but you don’t have cars flying through the air and flipping and doing some of the different movements that those cars go through. It just seems to me like it is more difficult to prevent some of the angles and impacts that those drivers go through in those cars.”
 
AT WHAT AGE DO YOU START REALIZING THAT THOSE TUMBLES COULD HAVE AN ADVERSE AFFECT?
“Well, we’re race car drivers. If we thought that way, then we wouldn’t be race car drivers. I’m sure at certain stages of your life you might start thinking that way, but when you’re young, you just want to get the opportunity to get in the next race car. And if you’re good, you’re going to push the limits in everything you get into and you’re going to hit the wall and you’re going to get back out there moments later or the next day and go just as fast or faster. That’s what it takes. It’s a dangerous sport and so are a lot of other sports. And you have to try to do all you can to make sure that the equipment you’re in is as safe as possible. The number one thing is making sure things don’t fail. That’s the number one thing. The number two thing is making sure that everything around you is as safe as it can possibly be.”
 
JASON LEFFLER HAD TWO SHOTS AT RACING NASCAR CUP AND IT DIDN’T WORK OUT EITHER TIME. HOW DOES A RACER JUST DECIDE TO STOP RACING? WHEN YOU’RE DONE WITH CUP, WILL YOU JUST NOT RACE AGAIN AND NOT FEEL THAT DRIVE AGAIN?
“I kind of look at everything as risk versus reward. What’s the risk level and what’s the reward of being out there on a full-time basis? Are you competitive enough to compete at that level? If you are, then you have sponsors and the car owner puts you in and then that’s what you’re going to do. If you get to that point where you’re either not as competitive or things didn’t work out the way that you wanted, you start thinking about your career decisions.
 
“Again, it’s risk versus reward. If you can step down a couple tiers and get a good ride and go out there and be competitive and enjoy what you are doing and go out there and at least have a shot at winning races, then you adjust. You adjust your lifestyle. I think that if you decide to step away from the sport; if a professional baseball player or a football player thought he could step away from the sport but come in and play a game or two and still be competitive, and they let them do that, I think he’d do it. I think it’s the fact that nobody really allows that to happen.
 
“But in our sport, they do. I think Mark Martin is a perfect example of, here’s a guy that still has tremendous talent and can bring a lot to a team and help them maybe get to that next level or find something in their car that they need, or just bring a team together like he did for the No. 5 car.
 
“That car and that team needed some things to get their team to that next level. And they wanted to make sure that the driver wasn’t a question mark. They put Mark Martin in there and look what happened. The team stepped up. I think if you’ve had a good enough career and you’ve fulfilled all your dreams, then I think you can find that day when you just step away from it altogether. I like to never say never, so I think that guys would like to step away and not necessarily say, ‘I’m never going to drive another race car ever again’, because what is there was something on their bucket list that they wanted to do? Would it be the Baja 500 or the Baja 1000 or driving a Rally Car or, I don’t know; or riding a motorcycle? I don’t know. If you feel like you can do it, it’s your prerogative to go out there and do that.
 
“I think that the way I would be approaching it is when that day comes for me, I would be closing off full-time running for the championship. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ll never go back out there and run at Martinsville. I know that there would probably be some that I wouldn’t do (laughs). But like Sonoma, I think. I think there would be some where I’d feel like hey, I can still be competitive at this track regardless of what the rules and the cars are and what’s happening within the sport, and do out there and still be competitive even though I’m not racing week-in and week-out.”
 
DO YOU THINK DALE EARNHARDT JR. AND HIS TEAM IS IN THAT WINDOW WHERE HE NEEDS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF RUNNING FOR A CHAMPION
SHIP, OR THERE MIGHT NOT BE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY?
“Well, gosh. I don’t know how you can say when a team is necessarily in that window of opportunity and how long that’s going to last. You can’t predict that. I wouldn’t have predicted Tony Stewart was going to win at Dover, and they did. And they ran good at Pocono and he was running good today before he had the issue (hitting the wall during practice and going to back-up car) and will probably still run good this week.
 
“So, I think there are certain teams that are capable of getting behind or being off and climbing their way back up. I think there are certain teams that are just right on the brink of making things really, really good. I thought Junior had a very impressive run last week. He was very competitive and it was great timing for them because this is a track that I know he likes and does well at; he did well last year. So, if this is a window of opportunity for him, it’s opening.”
 
YOU’VE HAD SEVEN RACES WHERE YOU’VE FINISHED OUTSIDE THE TOP 10, INCLUDING POCONO. YOU CURRENTLY SIT 11TH IN THE POINT STANDINGS. HOW DO YOU BREAK INTO THE TOP 10 MORE OFTEN? DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR CHANCES THIS WEEKEND AT MIS?
“Well, we didn’t have a great day, today. So, I’m optimistic, but it’s hard to be optimistic. We’ve got to qualify better, and today it’s going to be tough to qualify where I feel like we need to, to be competitive on the race track. I think our cars are competitive. Our team is competitive. But track position is going to be very important. I feel very fortunate to be 11th in points, to be honest with you, with all the DNF’s that we’ve had. And I feel like we’ve had some good runs and we’ve had some lackluster runs that were non-impressive. I’m still sitting here pretty shocked that we’re 11th. I think we have so much more potential than what we’ve shown. We’ve got to step it up. We know that. But I also know we’re very capable of that. I feel like we are on the brink of an opportunity to get ourselves more Top 5’s and Top 10’s and getting ourselves solidly in the Top 10. I’m just thankful for that opportunity to be as close as we are right now.”
 
IN OTHER SPORTS WHEN A PLAYER RETIRES, THEY’LL COACH. WHY DON’T WE SEE DRIVERS RETIRE AND BECOME CREW CHIEFS?
“That’s funny (laughs). Let’s see. Where do I begin? One is race car drivers don’t work hard enough to be crew chiefs (laughs). We don’t get up early enough to be crew chiefs. I definitely think there are some drivers out there that could be crew chiefs. I do. I wouldn’t say it’s any of the top drivers though (laughs). I think that there are certain students of the game when you look at other sports. Most coaches were players. I think it’s kind of opposite in our sport. The best the best crew chiefs were drivers and I think they understand the car and what’s going on out there. And then they understand the engineering. I think that would be my biggest thing. If you’re an engineer and you have an engineering background or a very good understanding of engineering, then you could be a crew chief.
 
“But there are very few drivers that I know that have that kind of understanding that it takes to sit in a room with other engineers and aero guys and all these computers that are giving you a lot of information. There are very few drivers that I know at the highest level that could pull that off. I think the hardest job there is in this sport is being a crew chief. They have a tremendous amount of pressure on them. Their hours are ungodly. These guys never stop. They rarely sleep. They work themselves to the bone; the good ones certainly do, and they have such a great understanding and appreciation of everything that goes into these cars that I don’t think most people can truly appreciate. Not to mention dealing with all the different personalities and have to travel all the time. That’s a tough job. I’d like to see that happen.
 
“But, not for me.  No, no, I won’t be doing that.”
 
HOW WILL THE NEW GEN-6 CARS ALTER WHAT WE ARE USED TO SEEING ON THE ROAD COURSES?
“To me, double-file restarts are what made the road courses so intense and exciting. We tested a road course the other day and I didn’t think there was a significant change. It felt good. It stuck good. The lap times were good. So, I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of big changes there. We should still see a pretty wild and intense and crazy race on those road courses.”
 
DESCRIBE MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY IN ONE WORD.  COMPARE THAT TO DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA
“Well, first of all, you know I can’t do one-word answers (laughter). That just does not exist. In my vocabulary, every word goes with another word. Usually it’s a sentence or a paragraph. But I could just say ‘fast’ because it is very fast. As far as the race, it’s a totally different type of feeling in comfort level than you have at Daytona. At Daytona, that is a track that we are capable of running 230 mph on. If you took the restrictor plates off of us, who knows how fast we would go; but just saying, in throwing a number out there. And at Daytona, we’re going close to 200 mph. So we’re under what the track is capable of. Here, we’re pushing the limits of what the track is capable of. So 185 mph would probably be pretty comfortable. But at 200 mph, you’re there on the edge. And the cars around you change things dramatically.
 
“What I’m anxious to see this weekend, one of the things I love about this track so much, is how the groove is. You have a bottom, a middle and a top. And it will get there eventually. But because it’s new and the tire is pretty hard and the cars have a lot of downforce, we’re pretty much finding about a one-and-a-half or two-lane groove at the time, right now, until we get in the race. That definitely means that the car up front is going to be a lot more comfortable than the car behind. Until that widens out; that’s why I’m focusing on qualifying and thinking about how good I want to qualify because that I know, no matter what, that if it’s tenth or farther back, there’s no way the car is going to drive the way that I want it to drive. It’s going to be a little uncomfortable at those speeds. But it also give me motivation to try to get up front.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 14, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and discussed the loss of Jason Leffler, racing at MIS and other topics. Full Transcript:
 
DID YOU KNOW JASON LEFFLER AT ALL?  
“Yeah, I did know Jason.  I didn’t know Jason really well, but I definitely knew him on a ‘hello, how are you doing’ basis for sure. He was a really nice guy and saw him a lot in the Nationwide garage.  Obviously it was really, I’ve been saying it for the last couple of days, it’s just really shocking stuff.  It’s a lot of reality when someone that you know passes away racing cars.  Really sad for obviously his son and his family.  He will be missed that is for sure.”
 
HAPPY TO BE HERE?
“I don’t know.  I think that each weekend has been different.  Sometimes they go better than I expect and sometimes worse.  I feel like in the last few weeks we have been a little bit better on speed and we just haven’t had results to show for it.  I’m not really sure where we are at right now.  I feel like we spent most of the practice session before qualifying here is try to get the splitter off the ground.  Unfortunately we didn’t make a lot of handling changes.  Hopefully we can get it to a good place for qualifying.  Traffic is going to play a big role I’m sure here as it has at every other track we have gone to the faster the more difficult traffic is in these cars.”
 
IN LIGHT OF JASON’S DEATH DO YOU THINK MORE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS NEED TO BE MADE AT SOME OF THESE TRACKS?
“I have never raced on dirt.  I have never raced midgets or sprint cars or anything like that.  I can’t speak for what they do on the safety side of things.  I know from my experience in all the divisions I have ever been in is that safety is really important and there is always work being done to make things safer.  It is a reality check when something bad happens.  At the end of the day too we all know as drivers and competitors in the sport that it is dangerous and that we are driving as fast as we can for a living.  Unfortunately it is a dangerous sport.”
 
HOW HAS THIS TRACK CHANGED SINCE LAST YEAR?  A LOT OF PEOPLE TALK ABOUT HOW IT HAS LIGHTENED UP IN COLOR WHAT DOES THAT TRANSLATE TO?
“Usually it lightens up in color and it loses some grip.  I think that they were talking about that last weekend for Pocono and for sure when we got there for the test the week before Tony (Stewart) and Ryan (Newman) were surprised how much lighter it was.  I don’t know if maybe in these colder areas that we are going they get snow and get much colder weather if they are aging quicker.  I would imagine that is probably the case.  Little bit less grip and we will be relying I’m sure on the Nationwide cars to rubber in a wider lane.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR STRENGTH ON THIS TRACK?  WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE OF DRIVING ON THIS TRACK?
“I think it’s a momentum track and I feel like I come from a background of carrying a lot of momentum and using a lot of throttle.  Being smooth and hopefully that is something that can help me here.  At the end of the day it has to handle well.  It has to feel good.  It has to be a fast car.  Here at this Cup level it’s very competitive and being a little off is being a lot off.  I think that my strength is carrying momentum is something I’m used to doing.”
 
YOU ARE FOUR TIMES THE OTHER CELEBRITIES WHEN IT COMES TO SOCIAL MEDIA GETTING YOUR SPONSORSHIP OUT.  TALK ABOUT THAT:
“It’s a little surprising, but at the end of the day I have always tried to be very authentic with my answers whether I’m standing here or what I talk about on social media, which for me is just Twitter.  I have been very adamant to make it my own and do it myself.  Also, at the same time my sponsor Tissot was the one who said that they would help sponsor my Twitter page and launch it.  I was kind of one of the first ones that was getting the sponsors involved from a social media aspect on Twitter at least to my knowledge then.  But, I’m doing it myself so I think that is all I can say about doing a good job for my sponsors is that I make sure that they know that I have to make it my own.
 
I SAW YOU WERE HANGING OUT IN YOUR PAJAMAS ALL DAY THE OTHER DAY ON TWITTER:
“I was, I made it until about 6:30 that night.  It’s that kind of stuff that I do it myself and I let my sponsors know that is a platform that I have to be able to do it on my own. We can’t make it where people don’t want to follow me because it’s all advertisement.  I talk about what I’m doing and if I’m at a GoDaddy photo shoot then I will talk about it and take a picture.  That is how I do social media.  It’s a big honor I guess to have my social media because I mean sponsors these days it’s crazy how important social media is for them and how it’s a huge selling point it’s what the kids are doing these days.”
 
LAST YEAR AT ROAD AMERICA YOU RAN PRETTY WELL ON THE ROAD COURSE.  HEADED TO SONOMA HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO WELL?
“Every step up you take it another level of difficult and by all means in the Cup series there are a lot of good road course drivers.  It’s going to be challenging.  I don’t think it’s going to be one of those things where I’m going to go qualify in the first two rows and lead the race the whole time or at least I shouldn’t expect to be able to just do that right away.  It’s still took a little bit for Tony Eury, Jr. and I to get a set-up that worked for me good on the road courses.  My first trip to Montreal was very different than my second trip.  It’s going to take a little bit of time, but it is a little bit of a comfort zone for me.  I feel like I know what I’m doing and I feel comfortable.  I talked to Ricky (Stenhouse, Jr.) about that and he was talking about how he just doesn’t feel like very unfamiliar out there and like he’s not sure where he is supposed to be at and what he is supposed to do.  That is someone who has done pretty well at them.  Stock car drivers just don’t get a lot of time on road courses and I’ve spent my whole career for the most part doing it.  It’s nice to go to a place where I feel comfortable I suppose.”        

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 14, 2013
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and discussed his relationship with Jason Leffler, the safety at local short track facilities and much more.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JASON LEFFLER:
“Yeah, I have known Jason for a long time obviously.  We grew up racing together and followed the same paths racing-wise.  So I mean he was a friend, he was a roommate, he was a teammate and I got to be around him a lot.  He loved nothing more than being behind the wheel of a race car. I was just shocked to hear what had happened and obviously it’s just a reminder of how dangerous our sport is, but we have had a lot of safety innovations over the last 15 years since I have been in Cup.  It’s just proof that we will never get to the stage where everybody is immune to getting hurt in a race car.  That is just the scenario that we are in and there isn’t anybody that gets behind the wheel that doesn’t understand that going into it, and Jason was that way as well.  He just loved doing what he was doing and it was just a rough week there and obviously Charlie is the one that we are all thinking about the most right now.  His girlfriend Juliana, it’s hard for both of those two and Amy and their family and just thinking about all those guys this weekend.”
 
HOW WAS PRACTICE OUT THERE FOR YOU?
“I think as the session went on, the track got more grip in it.  It was pretty slippery to begin with and you could tell it started getting some rubber in the track and it seemed here watching the times that I obviously had a problem and got loose, caught it, and just ran out of race track trying to get around the corner.  I got to watch the lap times a lot and it seemed the longer the session went, the better the track got.”
 
YOU AND JASON WERE CLOSE, WHAT STANDS OUT MOST ABOUT HIM?
“We got to hang out a lot away from the race track as well as at the track.  When he moved from California to Indiana to start racing USAC fulltime, he moved in with me and lived with us for a little under a year and I got to see a lot of things and he was just a lot of fun.  He was a racer and didn’t care what he raced, where he raced, when he raced, it was all he wanted to do was to drive a race car.  It was fun to have a roommate like that who had the same passion and desire that I had.”
 
YOU GUYS AS A TEAM HAVE REALLY BOUNCED BACK HERE THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS.  HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN MAKING THE CHASE?
“I feel like our whole organization is getting it going and I have been really encouraged the last couple weeks and if you take our last three weeks, we have made big gains.  Until I had the problem today we were third on the sheet at the time I crashed the car.  So I feel encouraged that we are gaining ground on it and starting to get back to form a little bit.  Regarding this weekend, I was real anxious to get on track to see where we were.  The last couple weeks we had the advantage of using two tests to get ready for Pocono and Dover so we didn’t do that for here so I wanted to see how we came out of the box here and I was pretty encouraged by what I have seen during the day there.   I feel like we are gaining on it and I don’t know if we are where we to be yet, but I feel like we have definitely made big gains in the last month so I am encouraged by that.”
 
YOU RACE IN ALL FORMS OF RACING, HOW CAREFUL ARE YOU?
“I am as careful as I am when I get in a car on a city street.  There will be more people that die in car crashes today than die in race cars today.  It’s just part of it and I am one of those that believe when it’s your time, it’s your time.  I don’t know the details of what happened up there but from what I have been told by people is that something broke on the race car.  Whether that is what happened or not, I do not know. The cars I drive, I know the equipment.  The sprint car that I drive is one of my own cars, and its prepared by our own guys.  We have a full containment seat and we do everything we can do with the race car to make it as safe as possible. Just like we would with any other race car we drive.  So it wasn’t the fact that it was a sprint car it was the fact that it was an accident and something went wrong and we lost Jason (Leffler) because of it.”
 
IF YOU COULD USE A SINGLE WORD TO DESCRIBE A LAP AROUND MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY AND THEN ALSO COMPARE WHAT MICHIGAN IS LIKE IN RELATION TO OTHER TRACKS THAT COULD BE AS FAST AS THIS TRACK?
“It’s fast. It’s a two mile track that’s been freshly re-paved so it’s got a lot of grip and you carry a lot of corner speed. And when you carry corner speed, you make straightaway speed. It’s no different than anywhere else. Anytime they repave a race track it’s fast right off the bat. Now that I’ve seen from last year to the spring the color of the track has changed quite a bit. Normally in the fall the grip starts going away. It didn’t seem to be quite as line sensitive as it was last year which means it’s starting to age a little bit. It’s just a matter of getting some rubber on the track it seemed like today. As far as what other race tracks can be like, everyone is different there’s no two tracks the same. They’ve all got their quirks and characteristics about them that that make them unique.”
 
DO YOU HAVE TO DO ANY CONVINCING OF YOUR SPONSORS TO ALLOW YOU TO DO AS MUCH RACING AS YOU DO?
“No.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT MAYBE IMPROVEMENTS THAT YOU HAVE SEEN IN SHORT-TRACK RACING AS FAR AS THE TRACKS THEMSELVES OVER THE LAST FIVE OR 10 YEARS?
“Most of them have safety teams at each facility. I know that’s something in the promoter’s workshop down in Florida in the spring when all the promoter’s get together and track owners and operators get together that’s a high. That’s probably the one thing I’ve seen the most of is having adequate safety teams there and making sure they can respond to the problem pretty quick.”
 
THERE HAS KIND OF BEEN TWO OPINIONS ON SHORT-TRACKS THAT I’VE HEARD THIS MORNING.  DAVE BLANEY SAID HE WOULD RACE AT ANY SHORT-TRACK FOR THE MOST PART THE STANDARDS ARE PRETTY GOOD.  BRAD KESELOWSKI HAD ANOTHER OPINION HE SAID THAT THE STANDARDS NEEDED IMPROVING THAT THEY WERE DISMAL.  YOU ARE A TRACK OWNER WHAT IS YOUR TAKE? ARE THERE ANY PLACES YOU WOULDN’T GO TO RACE?
“I think things are the best they’ve ever been at this point. There’s facilities that need some work and there’s facilities that put a lot of effort into it. It’s like getting on a city street today.  Can it be safer? Sure. Do we have to go two lanes into oncoming traffic? No we don’t have to do that. There’s always things you can do better.  Am I scared to go to any race track or feel concerned of not feeling safe at a race track? No. I think for the majority just about everywhere you go does a pretty good job and do the best they can under the circumstances they have to work with. The safety standards weren’t what caused the problem. I’d be grateful if you guys would understand that what happened this week wasn’t because somebody didn’t’ do something right with the race track. It was an accident. Just like if you go out and there’s a car crash. It’s an accident. Short track promoters are doing everything they can do to operate and just stay afloat and to keep having tracks for drivers that are upcoming that want to be NASCAR drivers just to have the ability to go to and race and learn so they can come up to this level. It’s hard enough for these promoters and track owners to do what they’re doing so please try to cut them a little slack this week. Nobody
as a track owner wants to go through what happened this week but it’s not due to a lack of effort on their part to try to make their facilities as safe as possible under the conditions they have.”
 
YOU’VE DONE SOME IMPROVEMENTS AT ELDORA FOR THE TRUCK RACE, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT THOSE IMPROVEMENTS WERE AND WHAT THE THOUGHT PROCESS WAS WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA RECOMMENDING YOU DIDN’T NEED SAFER BARRIERS THERE?
“They did recommend that we not use them. They did make recommendations and we made the changes accordingly. The way we looked at it was a huge honor to have the opportunity to have that group come to our race track and help us make improvements. It’s something that I’m sure if every short track across the country could have that opportunity it would make things better.  That’s why I say, given the circumstances I think tracks do a really good job with what they have. But we did. We made every change that they recommended. We made those adjustments. A lot of it was with inside walls and the angles of the openings. Those were addressed right away. Roger Slack can give you the full run down of everything that was recommended and what we did to address it.”
 
IS THERE SOMETHING THAT’S MORE COMPELLING ABOUT RACING THE SPRINT CARS THAT KEEPS DRAWING YOU BACK IN?  
“It’s just something different. I get to race with the best stock car drivers in the world every weekend here for three days a week. In the evenings I get to go do something that’s the polar opposite end of the spectrum and it’s a challenge because it’s the opposite end of the spectrum for us. They’re 910 horse power cars that weigh 1400 pounds. It’s probably the best power to weight ratio other than a motorcycle. You put a 25 square foot surface area wing on top of it and you get to run around race tracks really fast. It’s hard to explain without getting in it. I didn’t even understand it until I got in one the first time of what it’s really like. They’re a lot of fun. Just like there’s great race teams in NASCAR, there’s great sprint car teams and late model and modified teams all across the country and getting to go to different places and run with different groups and different drivers is something that’s fun. When you want to race that’s just what you want to do and that’ just a type of car that I’ve been very interested in.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 14, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD “MAN OF STEEL” CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) and discussed last year’s victory at MIS, his memories of Jason Leffler and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT LAST YEAR’S WIN AND THIS PAINT SCHEME THAT YOU HAVE THIS WEEKEND:
“We are excited about the car. The car looks great.  It’s not difficult to come up with a cool paint scheme when you are working with Superman and like we did last year with Batman and all that.  It’s pretty simple to come up with something really cool and fun.  Definitely makes that kind of a job easier.  I think the car does look good. Hopefully it’s as fast as it looks good.  That is going to be more important to be able to repeat and get the win this weekend.  We feel pretty good coming in to this race.  We had a great run last week that sort of hopefully got us back in the right direction.  We talked about it last week after the race, but we kind of had some misses here lately and not many hits.  As far as showing up to the race track and being competitive and getting the job done putting together a full weekend.  We haven’t been able to do that.  We started the season off so promising the best that I had ever started a season.  It just seemed like things were going so perfectly and it’s the way it is in this sport.  You will think you have everything going in the right direction and then odds and fate and everything else get in the way.
 
“We feel like we are coming through a stretch of races and race tracks if you take out Sonoma that we should run pretty well at and have a lot of confidence at.  Not that we won’t go to Sonoma and hope to run well, we will, but the track record speaks for itself there.  We did test at Kershaw (Carolina Motorsports Park) to try to get ourselves a good chance of getting maybe hopefully my career-best finish at that place.  We will try to do that.  We are just hoping for another good weekend.  We would love to get a win.  If we can get a good run and put two in a row together and give us more momentum, give us more confidence.  This is a great race track.  Enjoy coming here, always enjoyed racing on this track and just looking forward to getting out there and getting some practice.”
 
RICK HENDRICK SAID YOU AND STEVE AND YOUR TEAM WERE PERFORMING BETTER COMING INTO THIS RACE THAN YOU WERE ONE YEAR AGO WHEN YOU ENDED UP WINNING.  DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT ASSESSMENT?
“Well, it’s probably easier to see the truth from his position on the other side of the fence so to speak.  It’s more difficult to see growth and improvement within the team when you are part of the team.  It’s kind of like when you are a kid and you are getting taller.  You are 10, 11, 12 years old and you are wanting to be six foot three (inches) one day you can’t tell you are getting taller unless you are marking the door jam.  Otherwise you wouldn’t notice any change of height.  That is kind of what it feels like when you are part of the team.  You don’t really notice when things get a little bit better or things get a little bit worse.  Really what you end up doing is you are never really satisfied just like that kid, you are never really satisfied with where you are at.  You are always wanting to be better.  I feel like we are as good.  I think we started the year off doing so good and having so many good runs back to back there.  I felt like, yeah, we were starting the season better, we are a better team and we are able to do a better job than we were last year.  But then we came back to reality and had some rough weeks.  You kind of revert back to trying to scramble and feeling like you need to get better and feeling like you need to work harder.  Hopefully that stuff is going to start to pay off.  We are working hard.  We ran good this past weekend and I feel like we will be competitive this weekend. That doesn’t answer the questions we have at places like Charlotte, Dover that we have to go back to.  We still have to work hard and figure out what we have to do to get back to those places and be faster.  The answers aren’t here at Michigan. They weren’t at Pocono the tracks are all too different.  We still got some holes to fill so to speak.”
 
WHY HAVEN’T YOU WON AND HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT?
“Well, we have come close.  We almost won Charlotte last year when we ran out of gas coming off the corner.  I don’t know if we could have won Daytona this year to beat Jimmie (Johnson) if we had a few more laps.  It’s been good to be close.  That is the difference I think between where we are and where I want to be.  We want to win more races.  We want to win numerous races and multiple races in a season.  We want that to be the status quo.  We want that to be the norm. We want that to be what is expected.  When we first started working together we were trying to figure out how to get a 15th-place combination into the top-10 and we were happy when we did.  Now when we run in the top-10 it’s just another weekend and what do we have to do to win.  That is how we feel.  I think that the perception from you guys is similar to how we feel.  We are like a lot of teams trying to find that extra step.  It’s difficult to win in this sport.  It’s really competitive.  It’s not much more for us to be able to get to that level to be able to win more than just that off chance such has been the case last year.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN A WINDOW NOW OF YOUR CAREER WHERE THIS IS WHERE IT HAS TO HAPPEN NOW AS OPPOSED TO TWO OR THREE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD THAT YOU HAVE TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN RIGHT NOW?
“No, I don’t really feel that urgency. I feel pretty young still. I feel like I’m in good shape.  I feel young in my mind.  I feel like I have good energy.  I’m not burning out.  I think that the passion and the commitment probably goes before the physical end of it goes in this particular sport.  I feel like I’m in the best opportunity of my career.  There is a ‘seize the moment’ kind of feeling because I’m in such good equipment around such good people.  I don’t feel like there is a clock in the background ticking away that is annoying me or anything like that.”
 
YOU RECENTLY SAID THAT YOU HAD CHANGED A LITTLE BIT IN THAT YOU DIDN’T HANG OUT WITH DRIVERS AWAY FROM THE TRACK.  HAVE YOU CHANGED IN ANY OTHER WAY IN YOUR RACING WITH STEVE (LETARTE, CREW CHIEF) AND IF YOU COULD EXPLAIN THAT?
“Well, I don’t think it’s by choice I think it’s just the nature of the sport and our age and what was fun five, 10 years ago and what is fun now. I think people go in different directions.  People come and go. I learned a really hard lesson back when I race late models and I first got paired up with Gary Hargett to run late models.  That was the first guy I was introduced to that was really going to be a guy that I worked with and a guy that would mentor me.  He became a really close friend.  I was only about 20 years old he was about 55 years old, but he was like a father in a sense.  Just really big time mentor and I just listened to him followed him everywhere he went.  We raced together for several years down at Myrtle Beach and stuff.  Then there came the day when I had to make a change not from him, but I had to make a change where the car was.  We were keeping it down at his place and I wanted to bring it up…Dad offered me the place to put it where his deer head shop was.  I thought ‘man for me to be a better race car driver I need to
be working on my car everyday’, instead of driving down there to Union, South Carolina once a week. I knew I had to do that and Gary wouldn’t come up there to work he wasn’t going to drive an hour to work.  I had to make the decision to help myself and then he and I weren’t going to work together anymore.  That was a really tough choice.
 
“I learned then that people are going to come and go things are going to change in your life.  Things don’t last forever.  I’ve got some great friendships, made some great friendships in this sport.  I still consider a lot of those people friends, but the days of being able to take a weekend off before Daytona and go down and hang out with an Elliott Sadler or Jamie (McMurray) or (Martin) Truex those days are gone.  We had a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed some good times with all these guys that I race with, but you get older and your priorities change a little bit.”
 
YOU SEE THE NO. 48 TEAM FROM THE INSIDE WE SEE THEM FROM THE OUTSIDE. IS THERE A SENSE THAT THE FANS AND THE MEDIA DON’T APPRECIATE WHAT WE ARE SEEING FROM THOSE GUYS OR MAYBE EVEN WHAT THEY ARE DOING THIS YEAR THAT WE WON’T APPRECIATE IT UNTIL IT’S OVER WITH?
“I think that there are those that appreciate it.  I certainly appreciate it.  I think just to sit and think about winning five championships in a row is, even though someone has done it, it’s unbelievable.  Even though it’s been done and there is someone in that garage right now that has done it, it’s hard to believe that it happened.  I don’t see it ever happening again.  You think about all the great accomplishments in the sport.  If you were fortunate enough to remember where you were when they happened and think about how different it is from that moment when you were there and witnessing that happen to 10 years down the road when you recall it as a memory.  There is a bit of a difference there.  There is probably more appreciation for how challenging and difficult of achievement it was.  I certainly think that everybody appreciates it.  I think we are still pretty much in shock that it’s accomplished, that it happened.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF JASON LEFFLER AS A PERSON AND AS A RACER AND WHAT WILL YOU REMEMBER ABOUT HIM?
“I will remember the pass he made to win at ORP (O’Reilly Raceway Park) when he basically just sold the farm down in (turns) one and two to make that pass.  It was a really aggressive move, but that was a hungry driver.  It’s the perfect definition of how hungry he was and most all drivers have that somewhere inside them.  It was just a really interesting moment.  I wasn’t very close with him.  Didn’t have a friendship I would say, but that was an impressive moment.  When I think about him that is one of the memories that I appreciate the most; I think it said everything about him as a driver.  He liked to race. You always heard about the guy running here and running there.  He had up’s and down’s in the top tier series as far as the Truck Series and the Nationwide Series, but he didn’t seem to let that deter him from doing what he liked to do.  If he could be racing somewhere he was there racing.”
 
CAN YOU NAME ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE WHAT A LAP IS LIKE HERE AND THEN A DEFINITION FOR THE 200 LAPS?
“It’s just a simple race track that has not got a lot of challenges.  It’s very easily laid out and understandable for a driver.  It really comes down to just getting your car to work.  There are no bumps or no bad transitions, there is nothing really that you are out there fighting or worried about or dreading.  It’s just a simple race track and very wide, there is a lot of room that invites hard racing, passing.  It’s a place that I enjoy.  A lap here especially in qualifying driver’s aren’t supposed to be terrified, but terrifying is a word that comes kind of close to what qualifying is like here especially with this new surface and this tire. Last year it was a guessing game as far as whether that thing was going to stick in the corner or not.  The guys that did run well, as far as I remember (Greg) Biffle got the pole last year.  He was quite shaken by the process of running that lap.  It was an impressive lap. The racing is different.  It’s amazing how much the racing itself when you are in the race it slows down everything sort of slows down and the laps aren’t a challenge anymore just trying to run on the edge of the grip.  You are just trying to find some clean air, trying to find a little speed through the center, do whatever it is that needs to help you get to that next car in front of you.  It’s quite different than the way qualifying is being as treacherous as qualifying is.”  

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
MILWAUKEE INDYFEST
MILWAUKEE MILE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 14, 2013
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PPG AUTOMOTIVE REFINISH TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at the Milwaukee Mile and discussed racing on Milwaukee Mile, winning at Texas, the championship battle and other subjects.  Full transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT RACING HERE IN MILWAUKEE THIS WEEKEND: “This place here, for me, I got my first pole position ever, but it did not give me a win yet. So, it will be very good, and very fast. Hopefully it will be this weekend that we can get the number one spot. We are going to continue doing what we do, because certainly we know that what we are doing we are right. It is just circumstances out of our control that happens. Hopefully this year it will be a different way.
 
“We have the new colors, as you can see, we have PPG, who have had a partnership with Team Penske for a long time. It is great to have new colors on the car, and I am excited to represent them. Hopefully we will be putting them on the podium as well.”
 
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WE YOU FOUND OUT THE CAR HAD FAILED INSPECTION (FOLLOWING THE TEXAS RACE)? “I was very shocked because the team did an absolutely amazing job. For me, I will not allow this scenario to out-shine what we did because even that made my car go actually slower. For us, a simple mistake, does not (inaudible) what we did. For us it’s great to have the win; to have this momentum and put all these things behind, because we know unfortunately was a little mistake which I sometimes apply, which I’ve been talking about, the schedule has been very busy for everybody. Maybe details like that happens, not because….just because people are so tired from turning cars from street course, to road course. Anyway, for me, I was very shocked.”
 
THE TEAM STATEMENT SAID THEY RAN TESTS ON THE CAR TO MAKE SURE IT DIDN’T CREATE A PERFORMANCE (INAUDIBLE).  IS THAT WHY THEY DID IT WAS BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO KNOW? “Correct. I believe just to show that Team Penske didn’t have…when people start making noice…did not have any intention to do what happened. It was just a simple mistake. And with that mistake, they spent the money to put the car in the wind tunnel to prove that it didn’t go to improve the performance. One pound of drag, believe it or not, it cost a lot, especially at Texas Speedway. I’m glad that the setup was so good that even that didn’t let our car go in a bad way.”
 
IF YOU ARE SECOND, AND YOU ARE TOLD THE WINNER’S CAR IS ACTUALLY AT A DISADVANTAGE – HOW DO YOU RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION? “It would be shocking as well because it would be unexpected. We had a winning car, I don’t think we had the fastest car to be honest. I think we had a consistent car. While people were doing 215s (mph), we were doing 214s (mph). And when people were doing 205 (mph), we were doing 207 (mph). We kept a little more consistent. And it would have been a disappointment. Mistakes happen, and we shouldn’t judge that because of a simple mistake.”
 
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE TEXAS RACE? “I think there was two things here. I think there was a lot of passing. Unfortunately editing on the race probably did not catch that. I watched the race afterwards, and there was a lot of passing, and some of there is that it probably didn’t get picked up. With that, it is very difficult. You have to drive the car. It wasn’t the typical race that we try and avoid, which is flat out. I feel that the cars that had a better setup went better. That cars that was thinking about the speed did not go so good. In my view, it was very difficult because you have to think a lot, you have to plan a lot in passing something. And, trying something that you normally don’t do; different lanes; running high; running low. I thought as a driver it was a big challenge. For me, that is why what we did – winning the race – it’s a big reward because my experience I think it paid off in that race. I wish we have something like. Sometimes if people didn’t see a lot of passing, it wasn’t because of that. It was because, unfortunately, producers miss a lot of action in the back pack.”
 
DID YOU THINK THE FIRESTONE TIRES DID WHAT THEY WERE DESIGNED TO DO (AT TEXAS)? “Firestone is always trying to make a better tire; trying to make a safe tire first of all, and a good performance. The combination with the low downforce and the tires, to be honest, it was actually in a good way. Last year the rears (tires) were going off pretty bad, and that was becoming very tough. We didn’t have a crash actually in the last race at Texas. We had a spin, but I don’t think it was a crash. So that shows that at least what Firestone designed the tires to do, it was the fronts coming off a little bit. So which warned the driver that you have to change your style to drive, or you have to change your setup, or something like that. I have to say Firestone did a great job.”
 
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO MILWAUKEE? “It is interesting this place because you carry a lot of downforce. Inside the car, it looks like you are going over 200 miles an hour, but we’re not. Actually we are going about 180 to 190. It shows you have to drive the car here as well. Plus, because we don’t have banking, you know your car change quite a lot. When the tires start going away after about 20-25 laps, you still have 30 more to go, and it is still very tough because of the turbulence here. Because of the lines people are running are the same as yours. It’s like a road course in ovals, and that is why it is so much fun. The secret? I won’t tell you because then it won’t be secret anymore.”
 
HOW IS IT TO HAVE DIFFERENT STRATEGISTS AT CERTAIN RACES? “Roger (Penske) is just incredible. He does give you a lot of information, which is good. Which I have to say helped me a lot in the last race. Right now we should be win and win (with Roger) because in St. Pete unfortunately I made a mistake. So we finished second in St. Pete and finished first last race. Hopefully we keep the conditions. But, it is not about the strategy. It helps a lot, but it is about team combination. I feel Roger, his experience, you can’t buy that. Sometimes he forgets about the computers. I think what he does…because so many times he been through those circumstances he remembers that kind of thing. His database is pretty good for unique circumstances. That’s why it is important to have him as well.
John (Erickson) is (inaudible) actually…it is a great group of guys that brings everybody together. We have a good group this year and hopefully we keep going that way.”
 
IS TOO MUCH MADE OF THE FACT THAT YOUR WIN AT TEXAS IS THE FIRST FOR EITHER A PENSKE OR GANASSI TEAM THIS SEASON? (SMILES) “You guys in the press obviously want to sell news and this is a way to sell news…Penske didn’t win. But, you have got to say we’ve been competitive. I made a mistake in the first race of the season. It’s circumstances. All the teams are improving. You have to say it is not about Team Penske or Team Ganassi; other teams step up their game. The rules not allow you to change much, so basically there is only so much you can do. A big credit for the small teams. It shows that the series is very, very competitive. It gives an opportunity for a guy – rookie – to win races. That is why our series is one of the best.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 14, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his early success this year, making the Chase, his friendship with Jason Leffler and more. Full Transcript:
 
ARE YOU READY TO CHECK-OFF MICHIGAN ON YOU WIN LIST?
“I’ve been ready for a long time. We’ve been so close here. But, when it happens, it will make it all that sweeter for us. The exciting thing is we’ve been plenty fast here over the years. But getting to the final lap and seeing that checkered flag has been a little more difficult than I could imagine.”
 
THE WAY YOU’RE RUNNING THIS YEAR, CAN YOU COMPARE THAT TO THE FEELING YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD OVER THE FIVE-YEAR STRETCH OF CHAMPIONSHIPS? ARE THERE PARALLELS? ARE THERE SIMILAR THINGS YOU ARE FEELING IN TERMS OF HOW GOOD YOU ARE RIGHT NOW?
“There are points in time. But it’s still so early to think ‘championship’. And I know it might sound crazy, but I still just thinking ‘Chase’. A lot can go wrong. You can hit a streak of bad races. I feel like our wins right now will lock us in there; but my mind is still on running well now and getting ready for the Chase, honestly.
 
“And in the Chase, there definitely is a feeling that takes place. You have to have speed. You have to have Lady Luck shine on you at times. You’ve got to make things happen. You’ve got to overcome adversity. But right now, things are pretty calm for us and we’re off to a great start and that pressure isn’t there. And that pressure is so intense in the Chase and that’s really where those feelings come into play. It will be here before long and I’m going to enjoy these last few months.”
 
WHAT’S THE LUXURY OF BEING PRETTY-MUCH LOCKED-INTO THE CHASE WITH 11 OR 12 RACES TO GO?
“Just that. The luxury of being locked-in and feeling like three wins will guarantee us a spot in the Chase. At the same time, the big points lead we have can also come back to be a problem. I don’t think it will take place for our team and we’ll focus very hard on not being complacent, but getting off to a quick start is wonderful and great, but you want to peak come September. And I don’t feel like we’re peaking too early. Some may want to say we are and some may want to hope we are, but time will tell and we’ll keep working hard to make sure that we don’t and head into Richmond and the Chase with as much momentum as possible.”
 
DID YOU THINK IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO HAVE SUCH A BIG POINTS LEAD AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON?
“I really didn’t. And I look at Charlotte and Dover as misses to even have 20 or 30 more points. I really am shocked that we are so far out ahead of everybody. And I know that the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) has had some bad luck and a couple of other guys have, too. But we’ve had a little bad luck as well. So, I just wish we were in the Chase. I just wish this was the end of the Chase right now (laughs) and we had this big points lead. But, we’ll have to wait until a little later in the year to get started on that.”
 
ON THE DEATH OF JASON LEFFLER:
“Oh, that was some tragic news. I lost a friend and our sport lost somebody that really was involved and loved this sport and made it his life. And we’re all going to miss him terribly. I certainly think of his family. I think of his little boy, Charlie. It’s just a sad, sad time. I remember meeting Jason in the early nineties; maybe 1992 or 1993. I was at an off-road race in Parker, Arizona and PJ Jones, Paige Jones, and Jason Leffler were all returning from a Sprint Car race to Parker, Arizona to watch the desert race and had a summer home there. And I met Jason then and formed a friendship with him that I’ve had for a lot of years. So, it’s sad, sad news to say the least.”
 
WHEN YOU WIN A POLE OR ARE FASTEST IN PRACTICE ON A FRIDAY, DO YOU THINK IT SENDS A MESSAGE TO OTHER TEAMS, OR IT’S DEMORALIZING FOR OTHER TEAMS, BECAUSE THEY KNOW ON FRIDAY THAT YOU GUYS ARE FAST?
“Yeah, I think our Friday speed shows what we’ll have for the weekend maybe more than other cars. So there’s that chance; but at least from my standpoint, every time just before it (the track goes hot), it’s a new opportunity for somebody to be better. And I don’t rule others out based on Friday, knowing that we have two practices on Saturday. Even then, if someone’s close on Saturday in second practice, they can dial themselves in for Sunday. I’m not sure what others think of us, but I really don’t want to count anyone out.”
 
THERE WERE A COUPLE OF ARTICLES EARLIER THIS YEAR COMPARING YOU TO THE CELTICS OR THE YANKEES OR THE CANADIANS IN THEIR HEYDAY. WHAT DO COMPARISONS LIKE THAT MEAN TO YOU?
“I’m very thankful to be recognized like other dominant sports figures and teams. To be honest, that’s what we’re all here to do. I’m just very happy that my hard work and my team’s hard work is all grouped together and we’ve been able to experience that. Not everyone gets to experience it and I’m enjoying it and working hard to maintain it.”
 
ON BRAD KESELOWSKI’S COMMENTS TO THE MEDIA REGARDING RECRUITING MOVES BY HENDRICK AND GIBBS. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH ANY GUYS THAT YOU HIRED FROM PENSKE OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS?
“He raised up a valid point as far as the Roush aspect of sharing information there. That’s something I hadn’t thought of amongst the Ford umbrella. We are friendly with Childress but it’s not like we open up our database and show them all that we have. So, I get that and understand that, for sure. From a crew member standpoint, we do have a mechanic that came over from Roush last year. The real speed in any race car is within the engineers and the crew chiefs. So, I don’t find a lot of merit in that. I think we picked a guy up from Dodge who is on our engineering staff, but he wasn’t all that close within the race team. I’m not saying that he (Keselowski) doesn’t have a point, but I’m not sure that we benefitted greatly from those situations. I think the real truth in what he’s saying is relative to the Penske-Roush relationship. I fully understand that. I’m sure both sides are protecting something. We’re all racing each other for Chase slots and championships and race wins. So, I get that.”
 
IS THAT JUST A PART OF NASCAR WHERE TEAMS WANT TO HIRE THE BEST EMPLOYEES AND OUTBID EACH OTHER?
“Well, the best employees are under long-term contracts. So, I can’t go get the best Penske guys or Roush guys. They can’t come get the best pit crew guys. That’s just the way it goes. But in every off-season, there’s a lot of people changing guys going to different race shops.  Maybe within their own shops they can’t go up the ladder so they have to go elsewhere to go up the ladder.  I think of Chad (Knaus, crew chief), Chad started at Hendrick.  Went to a few other teams and ended up at DEI (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) then came back.  That is pretty common amongst guys really trying to cut their teeth in the sport.”
 
BEYOND YOURSELF AND CHAD (KNAUS, CREW CHIEF) DO YOU ALREADY HAVE A CONTRACTS WITH YOUR GUYS LIKE RON MALEC (CAR CHIEF)?
“Oh yeah, it’s common in the industry.  Everybody contracts their important people and locks them down as far as they possibly can.”
 
ON GOING TO SONOMA NEXT WEEK
“I’m excited to get out there. It’s a beautiful time of year to be there. I’ve understood the track and have had some good runs there over the past few years and I look forward to going back out and hopefully getting another road course win.”

In His Own Words: Jan Magnussen
Danish star talks ahead of his 10th Le Mans with Corvette Racing
 
LE MANS, France (June 14, 2013) – The 90th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hours is quickly approaching with practice and qualifying starting Wednesday. Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen shares his thoughts on his 10th start for the team ahead of the prestigious June 22-23 event.
 
Question: The last time you and Antonio (Garcia) raced, the No. 3 Compuware Corvette ran a perfect race to win at Laguna Seca in the ALMS. Can that carry over to Le Mans?
Jan Magnussen: The most important part of winning at Laguna Seca for us was to make it clear what we needed to do to win. Last year we were so close in the ALMS to winning races with five second-place finishes, and little things got in the way and messed it up completely. What the Laguna win showed is that when we work together and execute perfectly, we can win races. It also was a mental thing for the crew to show that we can do it, especially right before Le Mans. There is a lot of self-confidence on our crew and belief that we can do it. You need to be fast at Le Mans but also perfect. Hopefully we can learn from Laguna. If we aren’t the fastest car on track, we will need to stick to our plan and try to be faultless, which is really, really hard over 24 hours – not to mention four.”
 
Q: Corvette Racing poses a formidable two-car lineup. Is that a huge advantage at Le Mans?
JM: We measure ourselves against the (No. 74) car. They are strong competitors for everyone. Our advantage is that we work together with them, and the two cars work off each other to get faster as a team. At Le Mans that’s much more important – both cars need to be quick. It’s definitely much more of a team effort than in the ALMS. We do push each other a lot. We have to be perfect, just like they do.”
 
Q: Can you take us back to the 2004 race at Le Mans – your first win with Corvette Racing?
JM: At midnight we were leading by a couple minutes when I got taken out by one of the Audis at the Ford Chicane. I limped back to the pits, and the car was heavily damaged. The guys fixed it but we went six laps down. For the next eight hours, we were fighting back and gaining a little on the leaders but six laps was too much. Then with three or four hours left, the leading Prodrive car came in with huge problems and lost the same amount of time in the pits we did. I was getting back in the car at this time, and we came out of the pits together but we were 20 minutes ahead. So the race was back on in a big, big way. It was such a fantastic feeling getting the last briefing by Gary Pratt. Everyone was screaming on the radio when we pulled back out saying, ‘We gotta go! We gotta go!’ Then getting the win was perfect.
 
Q: The contingent of Danish fans at Le Mans is one of the largest at the race each year. How fun is that to see?
JM: To be at Le Mans as a Danish driver is one of the most fantastic things that a Dane can experience. You have to understand that there are more Danish fans at Le Mans than at the biggest Danish race. We don’t have very big race tracks in Denmark. There are years where we have had upwards of 40,000 Danish people at Le Mans. It’s quite a drive! They go there, make a vacation and party out of it. There is no doubt their favorites are on track. You really feel that every place you go.”
 
Q: You are quite fond of Le Mans today, but that wasn’t always the case was it?
JM: “My first Le Mans I have to say was a horrible experience. Our car (a Panoz prototype in 1999) was unreliable. We weren’t that fast. It was the first real long-distance race I had completed in. I have to say after 10 hours, it did not make sense to me. I wondered why we were here. But then I got the chance to drive the car across the line at the end of the race and see all the mechanics and the happiness there. For most people, it is more than a race where you go to win; for most you go there to finish the race and it’s a huge accomplishment to be there at the end of 24 hours. That experience driving the car across the line gave me real respect for Le Mans, and that is when I understood what it was about.”
 

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW:  
 
THE MODERATOR:  Ryan, we thank you for joining us today and we wish you the best of luck at Michigan.
 
Welcome to today’s NASCAR conference.  We are joined by Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet for Stewart‑Haas Racing. Newman has two wins at Michigan International Speedway, and has two Top‑5 and seven Top‑10 finishes so far in 2013.
 
Ryan, you have two wins at Michigan and three of the last four races you finished inside the Top‑10.  You’re coming off a race where you matched your best finish of 2013 which was a fifth place at Pocono.
 
How are you going to capitalize on the momentum heading into this weekend as we get closer to the Chase?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  Well, I’m not 100 percent sure, but I know it’s important that we do.  We have ‑‑ aside from Dover, we have had some good runs in the last four races.  And you know, carrying some of that momentum, as well as obviously Tony had a good weekend in Dover, but just keeping the ball rolling.
 
I think that there’s some things that we learned at our Pocono test that we can absolutely carry over from the Pocono race into Indianapolis going back to Pocono, and as well, I think at places like Michigan that are smooth and have similar asphalt and are really fast, as well.
 
So hopefully the things that we’ve learned will help carry us for the most part through some of those things.  It’s all about having a fast race car, especially when you go into a big weekend like we have with the Quicken Loan’s 400 being the sponsor of the race, as well as my race car.
 
So pressure from the outside, but from my side, just doing my job and staying focused and hitting my marks.
Q.  With Father’s Day coming up, can you tell me what your dad has meant to you at the race track and away from the race track?
RYAN NEWMAN:  We don’t have that much time, but it’s special.  Whether it’s Father’s Day or not, it’s special to have that relationship with my dad, and at the same time, to have that relationship with my daughters, and I guess maybe be able to share it to them a little bit more especially on Father’s Day.
 
I think the most memorable, and I think there’s two memorable Father’s Days, in my mind, with respect to my father, and that was the midget race I won in Salem, Indiana, and the Cup race I won Father’s Day weekend in Michigan.  I told him, I said, you know, before I got in the race car, I said: This is the only thing I’m going to try to get you is this victory and there’s no guarantee to and, but know that I’m trying and that’s enough for my dad, because he’s a racer.
 
To have a person who is not just my father, but my friend and somebody who has taught me a large percentage of everything that I’ve known, and at the same time, given me the attitude and the personality that I have, that, whether you like it or not, it’s who I am, and we all go on.
 
So I look forward to Father’s Day weekend now for two reasons, because I still try to win each and every race for my dad, especially Father’s Day weekend, but obviously for my two girls, as well.
Q.  Curious how you think the new car will perform on a road course like Sonoma.
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think it’s safe to say it’s going to be faster.  I don’t know that that means we are going to have more passing or less passing or what the exact situation is going to be.  But faster usually leads to more braking, and more braking usually leads to more heat, and I think it’s definitely going to be a situation where you want to have track position no different than it ever has been at Sonoma.
 
We had a one‑day test, us and Danica actually went to VIR to basically knock the rust off the drivers, try a couple things for the crew chiefs and get the cars ready to make sure everything was good.
 
I feel like on our side, we’ll be competitive and we’ll see what happens.  But the Gen‑6 car has proven to be a faster race car, pretty much every racetrack we’ve been.  Sometimes the weather conditions are not conducive for it, but we are breaking a lot of track records this year.
Q.  What do you think, it’s the 25th anniversary of road course racing and Cup racing at Sonoma; what are your earliest memories of the race in Sonoma each year, watching it on TV, or what are some of your earliest memories of the place?
RYAN NEWMAN:  I guess as an avid NASCAR fan watching something that’s so totally different from a racing standpoint than the ovals.
 
I think it’s just, you know, when you’re a fan looking at it, it’s different than being a race car driver looking at it because a driver, he just drives a race car but I fan, you see the oval side of it and then you go to the road courses and you see ‑‑ like it’s a totally different kind of ‑‑ what are these cars doing, these are for road race cars, not NASCAR stock cars.  It’s just a different perspective of when I was younger than what I have now, is what I’m trying to say.
Q.  Is there a potential of a lot more drivers winning this race these days than there was maybe ten, 15 years ago?
RYAN NEWMAN:  Maybe ten, 15 years ago, yes.  Ten years ago, I think you had a few good drivers, meaning one hand, and then a couple road course ringers that came in and now I think you’ve got, maybe, ten or 15 drivers that are capable of winning.  But I think that goes without saying in all the other racing, as well, not just road courses.
Q.  You mentioned Danica earlier.  What have you seen from her as far as her progression?
RYAN NEWMAN:  As you say, progression or aggression?
Q.  Progression.
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think she’s got great feedback.  I think she understands a little bit more each and every race, each and every opportunity she has to feel the race cars and give the feedback and build that library of feels to be able to relate to how she needs to say it to her crew chief.
 
But I know in our debrief, the one thing that when we talked about this past weekend, is that she just has not really had good track position. Whether it’s a less‑than‑average qualifying run or being stuck in the points, having to start in the back with rain, she’s just ‑‑ she’s kind of fighting a battle of track position right now.  I think if she could get up front and feel her race car in cleaner air, it would make a world of difference to her confidence right now.
Q.  You talked about pressure on the outside with Quicken Loans being the title sponsor of the race, curious if you feel this race is any more important for you in terms of trying to keep them as a sponsor of yours and the future, no matter where you end up racing?
RYAN NEWMAN:  Every race is important with respect to that.  For me, I look at it from this perspective:  If I go out there and do my job as a driver, then I’m protecting my relationship with my sponsor and with my team and everybody else, and the second part of that is, you would think that it would be self‑centered but it’s really not.  If you take care of the one, it takes care of everything else.
 
There’s no pressure from the outside, I think people view it as pressure, but from my perspective it’s an opportunity to do something even greater, to win your own race as a title sponsor and a car sponsor.  I’ve had the opportunity to do it before and haven’t, so I look forward to another opportunity.
Q.  Does it matter, I assume that there’s going to be several executives from Quicken Loans at that race.  Does it matter to perform well at a race that they are physically at, rather than watching maybe on television?
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think it makes a difference to them personally.  You know, results