NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PARTY IN THE POCONOS 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 7, 2013
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed last week’s restart at Dover, racing this weekend at Pocono, how close he is to an oval victory and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR APPROACH HEADING INTO POCONO:
“As you said Pocono has always been a pretty decent track for us. I think the shifting helps.  When they repaved the track it seemed to help.  Last year we were on pole here the first time they repaved it.  To be honest with you we didn’t have really good cars. We did a really good job we timed it where it used to be the fastest car used to go out last in qualifying, it wasn’t a draw.  We knew we wanted to try to go out really early so we didn’t post a good lap on purpose.  It worked well.  Having good results here is important.  With the speed of the car this year I’m excited to be here and run here.  We seem to be good everywhere we go.  It seems the smoother the track is the better we run.  It should be fun.”
 
YOU AND JAMIE (MCMURRAY) HAVE BEEN SAYING YOU HAVE BEEN FEELING CHANGE COMING WITH YOUR TEAM AND GETTING BETTER.  WHEN DID YOU START TO NOTICE IT?  BEFORE IT STARTED TO SHOW UP IN THE STATS? OR CAN YOU PINPOINT A TIME WHEN IT STARTED TO FEEL LIKE ‘YEAH WE ARE GETTING THERE’?
“We had a lot of speed since we unloaded with this car.  Since we started working the new car the car had a lot of speed.  It seemed we could qualify really well, but we couldn’t race that well.  Jamie (McMurray) was the other way around.  Jamie couldn’t qualify and could race really well.  We paid a lot of attention to what he was doing.  To be honest with you we just made a lot of mistakes as a team.  We had a lot of failures and loose wheels.  Bristol we had a car easily for a top-five and we had a fuel pump problem.  California was a good track for us and the selector of the gear box came off handle and everything.  We had to change the whole gear box during the race.  We had two to three loose wheels under green, a flat tire in Martinsville.  It’s kind of crazy. We had 100 percent more speed than last year and we were finishing in the same places last year when we had no problems that it was kind of weird.  I think when we got to Richmond, around there, Danica (Patrick) was ahead of us in points.  We were 30-something in points.
 
“It was like ‘man we just have to stop making mistakes.’  We really talked to the guys and talked to everybody and said we just have to execute.  Each person has got to do its own little thing.  If we do, do we have the fastest car there yet?  No, we don’t.  Are we close? Yeah.  We are going the right direction we still need a little bit of work, but we have cars if we do everything right and we have a decent car we have top-10 even top-five cars.  We went into Richmond with that mentality.  We nearly won there.  We went to Darlington we ran well there.  In Charlotte we crashed and the guys were all disappointed.  I said ‘hey we wrecked because the No. 48 spun and we got wreck with the No. 48 and the No. 20, running there with them.’  When was the last time we were running with them?  Think about it.  A year and a half since we were running good.  From everything that has happened it has been positive.  Last week was positive.  We had a really good car same thing again.  We were really good we were just missing a little bit of speed.  I think we just have to keep our heads down and keep doing our work and we will be fine.”
 
YOU MAY HAVE HEARD WHAT JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SAID…
“No I didn’t.”
 
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN THAT YOU CLEARLY AND DELIBERATELY DID NOT RESTART YOU STOPPED FORCING HIM TO RESTART AHEAD OF YOU TO GET TO THE LINE.  THEN HE CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN HE TRIED TO GIVE THE POSITION BACK AND YOU WOULDN’T TAKE THE POSITION BACK.  WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ON THAT:
“If I did that why only Jimmie passed me in his lane? I mean you think about it.  Let’s say I had a bad start and he beat me by a bumper or half a car length NASCAR wouldn’t have said anything.  But it was Jimmie – the field so I’m okay with it.  He didn’t if you pay attention we were coming to the cones he didn’t even want to lineup next to me.  He was actually dropping back.  He wanted to time it.  He just mistimed it.  It’s all good.  It’s racing.”
 
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SAID HE IS GOING TO GO TALK TO NASCAR BECAUSE HE WOULD LIKE IT TO BE CRYSTAL CLEAR HE IS NOT CLEAR ON THE RULE AND HE THINKS THAT YOU FOUND A LOOP HOLE IN THE RULE:
“Did I?”
 
ASKING YOU:
“Wow, I’m that good (laughs).  Man that is a compliment.  The loop hole is that you have to start between the cones and the leader has got to… I think the start says you have to restart between the two cones that I did.  And you are not supposed to beat the leader to the line.  What is so hard about that?  You know what I mean?  I read a quote about him this week.  I was at my house and I read a quote.  He (Jimmie Johnson) said ‘if he wouldn’t have done that the No. 42 would have beat him.’ I’m like well I’m the leader not you.  I was thinking I know you dominated the race, but we came to a pit stop and we did a better job than you guys.  And as we did a better job than you guys we are the leader not you.  Crazy enough if he would have backed off let me go he would have probably passed me again.  It would have been all good.  He wanted to time it really well where he didn’t have to deal with me through turns one and two, but he mistimed it.  That is it, no drama.”
 
HOW GOOD ARE YOU ON RESTARTS?
“I know I do a really good job on restarts.  It’s not so much about how you get off the line but how you go through the first corner.  I mean there is no science.  There are two cones and as the leader you decide between the two cones when to go.  It’s up to everybody else to follow the leader’s space.  I think that is the rule.  Put it this way if I would have restarted and Jimmie (Johnson) passed me and four cars followed Jimmie I think NASCAR would have said the No. 42 had a bad start.  But how is it that only Jimmie went away?  I don’t know.  He is probably that good.”
 
CAN WE LOOK AT LAST WEEK AS SORT OF A QUANTUM LEAP FOR YOU IN YOUR SEARCH FOR AN OVAL WIN?
“I mean we were close in ’09 and ’10, but I think to be honest with you… I told the guys look to be able to win is not only having one chance at like what happened in Richmond.  Everything came right and at the last minute a caution came out and we didn’t win.  You’ve got to be able to give yourself a few chances.  You’ve got to run in the top-five, you’ve got to run in the top-10 and if you can do that the wins will come.  There is going to be a week when you did the right call and everything is going to lineup right and you are going to win the race.  There are weeks where you are going to make mistakes, but the only way to win is to be there and give yourself plenty of chances.  We are doing that and I think I’m aggressive enough as a driver where if I have opportunity I’m going to take it.  It was kind of weird last week when that last run we were really tight and Tony (Stewart) was coming on the bottom really fast.  I said the only thing I can do is make sure I don’t miss the bottom so he can put the nose in.  Like I can do a small diamond and I’ve got to make sure I come off the corner.  He rolled the top and when he got th
ere I was wide open.  If I would have kept it wide open we would have wiped each other out.  There was no point.  I’m pretty certain as well as when to give up.  Where we are in points, yes, we need the wins, but we need the points too.  I wouldn’t gain anything by wrecking with three to go and finish 30th.  We have got to be smart about that.”
 
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) IS NOT MAD AT YOU HE KIND OF ADMIRES THAT YOU FOUND A WAY TO BEAT HIM:
“He should tell me what I did because.. I haven’t figured it out myself (laughs).”
 
THERE ARE THOSE THAT SAY YOU ARE RUNNING BETTER NOW RECENTLY BECAUSE SOMEBODY HAS TOLD YOU ‘YOU NEED TO PICK IT UP’ WHETHER IT’S YOUR SPONSOR, YOUR OWNER OR WHATEVER.  ARE YOU DRIVING FOR YOUR CAREER NOW OR HAVE YOU JUST GOT BETTER STUFF?
“I always drive for my career.  We just have better stuff.  So, I’ve got a question. So last year we had Jamie (McMurray) and myself let’s say we have a deal for this year, that was not the case, but let’s say that and we were running both of us 20th’s every week. This year we all decided ‘you know what I’m tired of running 20th.  Let’s run top-10 this year.  Just for the sake of it.  You can’t do that.  The hard thing with this sport is you want to say why you are not running good.  You can say it’s the crew chief, it’s the car, it’s this and it gets to a point that they are going to point the finger at the driver.  That is the reality.  It’s always been that way.  I drive as hard as I can and I just really focus on doing my job.  Am I running 25th or fifth?  I’m driving the wheels out of the car.”
 
YOU’VE BEEN REAL CLOSE TWICE THIS YEAR DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU STILL NEED AN OVAL WIN TO VALIDATE THE NASCAR EXPERIENCE?  DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT WIN IS COMING THIS YEAR?
“I hope they come. I think once we break that we are going to get quite a few wins.  I still feel the car needs to be a little bit quicker.  We can put ourselves in positions to win, but I think our cars need just a tick more speed.  I think we gained about 80 percent of what we needed from last year to this year, but I think that last 20 percent is going to be a little bit harder.”
 
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WITH TONY STEWART ALL OVER YOUR BACK BUMPER WHAT THAT FELT LIKE:
“Well they said okay I looked in the mirror and saw it was the No. 14 and I thought ‘I’ve been quicker than him all day’. Then I looked in the mirror again and he was half way there in two laps.  I’m like ‘hoo I’m in trouble.’ I’m driving as hard as I can.  The problem with this car is driving it harder or going in deeper you actually are just going to slow down.  You’ve got to drive it to where the car will give you.  Maybe a little more you try a little more especially because you are only running 20 laps.  You try to kill the tires and you will do everything you can, but it gets to the point that is all you’ve got.  That is all we had.  I respect Tony (Stewart) a lot and we always run really clean with each other.  He had the better car.  If you look at it the No. 24 was coming.  Put it this way, if the No. 14 wasn’t coming the No. 24 was coming anyway.  It was one of those deals that once he got outside of me I knew I had nothing.  Going into turn three the only think I could do is drive it in hard enough where I can spin underneath him.  That would have been pretty stupid.”
 
HOW MUCH DO YOU READ ARTICLES THROUGHOUT THE WEEK?
“I don’t.  I saw it on Twitter somebody put on Twitter that Jimmie (Johnson) said this about the start because he is all mad.  I just clicked on the link.  My family is in Columbia this week so I’m by myself at home.”
 
WITH EVERYONE SAYING YOU NEED THE OVAL WIN ARE NOT READING WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING?
“The only thing I do is when I’m going to the airport I look where we are in points where we improved or if we have a bad day where we dropped and what is going on.  On Monday’s I do a call in, because I live in Miami, when I’m not in Charlotte I will do a call in to the team meeting.  We discuss what happened in the race through the weekend, what I felt was right, what I felt was wrong and where we need to improve and that’s it.  I will talk to ‘Shine’ (crew chief, Chris Heroy) a couple of times during the week to see what we are doing for the next weekend and that’s it.”
 
HOW MUCH ARE YOU INFLUENCED PERSONALLY FROM A CONFIDENCE STAND POINT BY RESULTS?
“I will tell you the only time I’ve been really excited this year like a good result, you are going to laugh, it was in the Duels when we finished third in the Duels (in Daytona).  I was like ‘yes we finished a restrictor plate race finally’.  (laughs) This year Daytona it’s kind of weird you look at racing we went to Daytona and I said ‘okay we are going to run up front.’  We are going to try to run up front all day and stay there.  The No. 1 car says I’m just going to ride in the back.  We both, he was running 42nd I  think and I was running sixth.  We both got involved in the same wreck.  It’s like what do you do? We went to Talladega we had a really good car in Talladega and we had an electrical problem.  Rain came and we couldn’t even restart the car.  I lost three laps in the pits trying to get the thing restarted.  It got to a point that we just couldn’t get a break with anything.  Now we are good.  We are doing what we need to be doing.  Something that I think we are doing good whether we have a good practice, bad practice or whatever we do we just keep our head down.  We know what works.  I think we are complimenting each other with the team really well with engineers.  I think my relationship with ‘Shine’ and the two engineers is really good right now.  They know what I want out of the car and I know how to get it across what I need.  I think that makes a big difference.”
 
IF YOU GET TO THE FINAL RESTART SUNDAY JIMMIE (JOHNSON) IS FIRST, YOU ARE SECOND WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN?
“I’m going to beat him by 10 car lengths (laughter).  You guys are wrong… thank you.”   

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
FIRESTONE 550
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 7, 2013
 
MICHAEL ANDRETTI, OWNER OF ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT, MARCO ANDRETTI, DRIVER OF NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET AND MARIO ANDRETTI met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway.  Full transcript:
 
WILL POWER SAID AMERICAN’S SHOULD GET BEHIND THEIR AMERICAN DRIVERS IN THE SERIES.  THEY ARE REALLY STARTING TO EMERGE.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

MARCO ANDRETTI: “Yeah, I agree.  I think it can’t be a bad thing for us to be at least competing for the top right now.  Obviously there is a lot of unfinished business for me.  I want to start stringing some wins together to hopefully generate even more interest. It’s been a decent start to the season, but we’ve got to keep going.  I don’t see a negative anywhere.”
 
WHAT DID YOU SEE IN RYAN HUNTER-REAY WHEN THE TEAM BROUGHT HIM INTO YOUR ORGANIZATION?  CAN YOU EXPRESS THE GRATIFICATION YOU FELT WHEN HE WON A TITLE LAST YEAR AFTER YOU BROUGHT HIM IN SORT OF OUT OF THE COLD?

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: “Yeah, what we saw in Ryan (Hunter-Reay) was a versatile driver, a guy that was competitive in all different types of race tracks.  That is very important for this series to have a guy that can do that because that is the only way you are going to win the championship because it is so competitive out there.  Ryan has done exactly what we had hoped when he joined the team.  As for the championship last year it was just such a great feeling to get Ryan up there and get the championship in the way that we did.  It was just amazing.  It was also great for our team because we were going through some hard times a year before that.  To turn it around was awesome.  Ryan was a big part of that.  It was a huge year last year.”
 
YOU LOOK AT YOU AND HELIO (CASTRONEVES) ARE BOTH TIED FOR THE POINTS LEAD BUT NEITHER ONE OF YOU HAVE A WIN. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE CONSISTENCY THAT YOU GUYS ARE HAVING BUT ALSO THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE SERIES RIGHT NOW?
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “Consistency is what I’ve worked on in the off season I just want to be consistently better.  I think we have been knocking on the door and like hanging and lingering around the top six, a couple of podiums.  I’m pleased with the start of the season, but I’m not exactly where I want to be yet.  We need to keep working.  I think I’m a lot closer at where I was weak last year, so that is helping, but like I said not where I want to be right now.  If we come out of here with a win then we could start some big momentum that will be the goal.”
 
ARE WE GOING TO SEE CAROLS (MUNOZ) AGAIN THIS YEAR?  WHERE DOES INDYCAR GO FROM HERE?  WE ARE SEEING SOLID FIELDS; WE ARE SEEING GOOD DRIVERS, COMPETITION, WHERE DO THEY GO FROM HERE?
 
MICHAEL ANDRETTI: “As for Carlos (Munoz) we are working on it.  We don’t have anything yet.  There is a possibility maybe to do one or two more races near the end of the year with him.  We would love to be able to do it.  As you see we think he’s a great talent.  He also has to focus on his Indy Lights championship too that we are going to try to win with him.
 
“Where is IndyCar going?  I mean product wise it’s the best racing product in the world.  It just really is.  Race in and race out it’s just an amazing show.  I think the whole thing is we need to get it out there more.  We have got to figure out ways to get our TV ratings up and things like that.  The basics are there we just now get it out there.”
 
WHEN YOU WERE HERE DOING A PROMOTION BEFORE THE INDY 500 YOU TALKED ABOUT HAVING A DRIVING COACH AND THAT BEING SOMETHING THAT YOU THOUGHT WOULD HELP YOU MATURE AS A DRIVER.  HOW DID THAT HELP YOU OR DID IT HELP YOU AT INDIANAPOLIS?  MICHAEL AND MARIO AS GRANDFATHER AND FATHER WHAT MATURE LEVEL HAVE YOU SEEN MARCO AS HE HAS RISEN IN THE RANKS OF INDYCAR DRIVING?  HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THAT CHANGE IN HIM?
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “I’m not sure how it helped me at Indianapolis.  I was just really working on my weak points which at the time were the street circuits. But having said that I think a big word that wasn’t part of my vocabulary was finesse back the last few years of my career.  I think that was costing me.  I think that could have helped me at Indy just be a little more patient.  Having looked back at it now I would have probably went for the most laps led, but we were just kind of watching fuel and being more patient than I probably would have been in the past at Indy.  That is probably the only difference.”
 
MARIO ANDRETTI: “As for Marco obviously at this point has enough experience to really be able to assess what is going on and he just said it.  He realizes what he has to work on primarily the problem with some of these young lads is that because of the way the rules are today they don’t get enough seat time really to do a lot of testing like we used to where you get a chance to really try a lot of things.  Right now you come into a race weekend and you’ve got to be either right on or you’re not.  So it takes a little bit longer, but I think as you said you can see obviously that I think he has buckled down and I think focused a little more on somewhat he really needs to work on.  Again, now of course by having the responsibility to be up there in the points… what they gone six races or so in the series a long way to go for sure, but at least right now he has something to protect and go for.  He has got the team behind him and he has the experience now I think to carry it.  But, it’s all about like I said experience, maybe we are late bloomers I don’t know.  Again, I think he is at a point that he can definitely carry the team to a championship.  I’m positive of that.”

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
FIRESTONE 550
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 7, 2013
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AAA INSURANCE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway, and discussed racing at Texas, the championship battle and other topics. Full transcript:
 
WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND?:  “Certainly now we have new colors again on the car with the AAA machine and colors are going to be on the No. 3 for Penske.  We feel great coming from two big races in Detroit where a lot of things happened and coming back to this place tied for the points and that is always very good.  Last year we felt like we had a good car as well.  It was difficult circumstances and we were able to finish in the top-five.  We feel that with a good strategy and good teamwork we can continue to be where we are.”
 
WHAT DOES BEING TIED FOR THE POINTS LEAD SAY ABOUT YOUR CONSISTENCY?:  “Consistency seems to be paying off right now at this point.  You want to win a race.  We’ve seen this in the past, it’s 50 points to win races and today the separation from first to 10th is about 50 points or close.  It’s always good to come out with a win, but at the end of the day everybody is thinking the same way and you just have to be a little more heads up on that.  Last year we had a very consistent season, we won two races and had the opportunity to win more, but my teammate will end up winning more races and he didn’t take the championship by circumstances, but certainly we know that it is extremely important to win races.  We going like with this attitude, we are going in the mode attack and get to the front and if it’s mean to be will be.  We cannot be desperate.  If this is showing how, we have so many different drivers that win a race this year and new drivers winning races for the first time.  It shows that the series is very competitive.  When you have that kind of thing, some races you have the guys with just the desire to win races and stuff like that and sometimes experience paid off and my mind right now is championship and I want to win as bad as anybody probably and I will do everything I can even if I don’t have to win a race, but if we can win this championship without a win, which is unlikely, but I will be very happy.”
 
WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER CROSSING OVER TO NASCAR?:  “Good question.  If there is an opportunity, yes I would like to try the car first.  I remember talking to Rick Mears a long time ago and asked about different series and he said you should try before you just make a decision.  The closest that I got was in the IROC and I loved it.  It was actually a lot of fun and very difficult, but a lot of fun.  If the opportunity presents itself then certainly would love to try, but right now I only have one thing on my mind and that is trying to win as much races as possible here and hopefully bring this championship to Roger (Penske, team owner).  Dancing I think I am putting a little time off.  I did my time in terms of 2007 and then went back last year, it was great and it was kind of different things with my life.  Have my little girl and my life this time was great because I wanted to see how fun it is to dance, but I still am a big fan of the show and still keep in touch with a lot of people, especially back stage.  I love it.”
 
ON THE BLOCKING RULE:  “The blocking rule, everybody has a different opinion on it.  Right now we understand that if you move when the guy moves, obviously this is the situation where you are trying to pass, it’s tough because sometimes I see my colleague waiting until the last minute to do a movement and they judge myself when I do a move before they do.  It’s two different ways, but I guess Beaux Barfield is trying everything he can to make the races go in a nice way so people can be excited about racing.  We just trying to sometimes it’s just too many opinions trying to get in the room and one time we are going to say one thing and the next day we’re going to say another thing because we’re drivers, we always change our opinions.  But I do understand what it is.  You have to leave a car length in these tight lanes and that’s so far what’s being determined.  So far that is my understanding.  There is anything else then I don’t know anything about it.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SEASON MARCO ANDRETTI IS HAVING AND CAN HE BE A STAR IN THIS SERIES?:  “Marco (Andretti), he started very young and he’s still a very young driver, but I believe that with the experience that he can accumulate over the years finally he is paying off.  He is being very aggressive, but conservative at the same time.  Probably that’s why he’s sharing the top spot in the championship with me because it looks like he understand that even if you sometimes don’t have a car to win, it’s good to be patient.  He certainly is a talent, you can’t deny that.  The whole family, it’s difficult for the guy to do something else besides racing.  I believe all the teammates that he had in the past, he has been able to learn from it and it’s paid off.  Good for him.  I think finally he’s understanding the chemistry here and right now he is doing very well.”
 
COULD YOU WIN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP WITHOUT WINNING A RACE?:  “Yeah, that’s not our goal, but the goal is the win the championship.  If it takes more second places than first to win the championship, then sign me in and I’m ready to do that.  A win certainly is a great feeling, a championship I don’t know yet and I would love to have that feeling at the end of the season.”
 
HOW DO THE DOUBLEHEADER RACES IMPACT YOUR PERFORMANCE AND ENDURANCE?:  “The doubleheader was something that IndyCar needed to try and I like it when they try because we are able to know what is good and what is bad.  There was a lot of positive in having the doubleheader in my opinion.  I believe the timing probably was a little bit tough not only on the driver, but I think most on the team perspective because we just came from Brazil, Indianapolis and Indianapolis have to convert the cars to less than a week to convert the car for the street course.  After the first race, they stay until 11 o’clock fixing the cars or make sure the car is ready to race the next day.  If you put it combined, all this month it was very tough.  But I think financial for the teams, it’s a positive way and for promoters it’s very positive as well.  You have to pick and choose.  It’s pick the battles I guess and my opinion, our performance was average.  We were able to finish in the top-10 in both, which is actually very good especially being involved in the second race in the big accident that I still can’t believe we were able to finish the race after we were hit from the back, from the side and hit the wall.  My opinion, it’s always good to try, but I do have other opinions that I feel could improve and people could take more importance to the doubleheader.  When you talk about it, it’s two races that are very special not only for championship-wise because it’s double points, but also for the fans because you are able to go check out twice the race.  Right now the series has a great product.  All the competitiveness that we have, the chemistry that we have, it’s been just absolutely amazing.  We just need to now organize a little bit in that area.  I like the fact that we try and I’m looking forward to the other two doubleheaders.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT AMERICAN DRIVERS INFLUENCE ON INDYCAR?:  “Right now the current champion is an American and I feel that for us being foreign and racing here so many years in America, it’s great because giving a different view from the fans.  Havin
g even the IndyCar Series, it’s an international series.  We race not only here, but in Brazil, Canada, I know you sometimes don’t consider Canada too far, but still.  It’s great.  It’s just like it used to be in the past.  We have to have this type of variety of drivers, variety of countries and it’s great and our sport is doing very well.  Carry on from last year to this year.  I feel when drivers or future drivers see American drivers doing well, they want to do the same thing.  You’re going to see that more often and hopefully that’s what’s going to happen in the future.  Right now I think of the whole financial scenario, not only in our series, but in every series.  It’s going through a process.  I don’t think it’s just reorganizing things.  I see the bright future and really looking forward to continue growing and see a lot of good things to happen for the series.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ON THE TRACK SURFACE IN TEXAS?:  “We are very different from NASCAR obviously, they are so heavy and even the aerodynamic for them is very important.  For us, we’re so more light and we do have more downforce.  What we try to do is take away that much downforce so we don’t have a pack race.  We try to stay away, we know what happens when you race too close to each other.  Even the cars right now, they are safer than what they used to be.  It’s tough, but that’s what distinguishes when a team has a better setup or a driver is a little better then they just go flat out for 200 laps.  The fans has a little bit more of a view.  Maybe they want to see that kind of competitiveness, but even when we have the slippery side of it, you’re still going to see two or three cars be very close and that’s where it’s going to be fun.  For me, that’s the type we should keep looking.  I know the asphalt is important, but the tracks are working hard with the drivers and teams so we can have first a safe tire and second an exciting race in a safe way so we can adjust in the pits and stuff like that and make fun for the fans as well.”
 
HAVE YOU HAD TO MAKE ANY PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENTS HAVING THREE RACES IN A WEEK BASICALLY?:  “Coming from Brazil and going to Indy, normally it was our last physical in terms of shoulders, neck and things like that.  You still lose a lot of liquid.  You have to hydrate a lot.  When you are going to street course that is becoming very tough.  That is what happened, we went straight from Indianapolis to Detroit and having a doubleheader, we didn’t have time to prepare ourselves because you spend 15 days in Indianapolis and you focus on everything on the race car, the different muscle that you use and stuff like that plus the PR that you have when you go to places.  Basically, you put a stop for a month in your normal training and go straight to a track that is very challenging like Detroit, very bumpy, which is normal street course and things like that.  It was very hard, very, very tough and I think anxiety played a little bit more part of it because people went a little bit easy on the first day, but the second day they put their knife in their teeth and everybody decided to go crazy, but that’s part of it.  That is one suggestion that I would like to have.  With the Indy 500, you spend so many days there and have one weekend off so that everybody charge their battery and come back with the doubleheader that could be a good opportunity or better way.”
 
ON WEATHER IMPACTING THE RACE TRACK:  “The weather was very sensitive to our cars.  When it’s a little cooler, you have more downforce and more power.  At the same time, you have a little more drag, which means people behind you catch you faster.  Being a night race, it changed.  We start in daylight and as you transition to night, the car does change.  For us, it’s typical because it is more like mental strain, but over the weekend you still lose about four or five pounds of water.  It’s a great diet way if you want to try it.  Certainly, it’s still fatigue at the end of the race.  You still have the ringing because it’s such a high rpm and stuff like that.  It doesn’t bother us, in a few days you will go onto the next and be ready to go again.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PARTY IN THE POCONOS 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 7, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA COATING SYSTEMS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway, and discussed racing at Pocono, the Wild Card potential and other topics. Full transcript:
 
WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH TO THIS WEEKEND AT POCONO?
“I’ve always loved this race track and continue to love it.  It’s a very challenging race track obviously with the three unique corners and with this new car there are certainly a few unknowns.  Anxious to get out there on the track to see what the pace is going to be and what the characteristics with the car, track and all those things are going to be so we can start tuning on it for the race.  Doesn’t look like we’re going to be tuning on it for qualifying and certainly this has been a great track for us over the years and continues to be even in recent years.  We look at our last couple seasons and the tracks where we’ve gone and actually have run really well and haven’t gotten the wins versus some that we’ve run really well and we have gotten the wins and I think Pocono is just one of those tracks where maybe when we’ve had some misfortune and things not go our way, this has been one where things have gone our way.  Hopefully, that continues.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW SAFETY FEATURES AT POCONO?
“I think a repave always gives opportunities for tracks to evaluate their surface, their pit road safety features and all those types of things.  I’m only going off of memory of the last time that I was here.  I’d have to kind of do another sort of walk around or laps to evaluate where everything is, but I know that when I left here the last time I didn’t hit anything and that was a good thing.  I don’t remember anybody that did that had issues.  I know that every track, their intentions are to make the best experience for the drivers, competitors, the fans and the safest environment and Pocono certainly has stepped that up in a big way over recent years.  Even though we maybe still complain or point out certain issues at different tracks, we always know that their intentions are certainly the right thing and Pocono I think for a few years there were a little bit behind and now I feel like they are one of the leading ones because of the repave it gave them that opportunity.”
 
TALK ABOUT WANTING TO GET THE WIN AT POCONO:
“We go into every race trying to win.  We’re further up in points at this point this year than we were last year and I don’t feel like we’ve had a terrific season.  We’ve certainly had our challenges so it’s sort of refreshing to come to a place that we know we can win at and there’s a lot of different ways to win at this track.  Sometimes the fastest car doesn’t always win so you have to play the pit strategy right, fuel mileage, try to tune the car to the conditions the best you can and hopefully you come out of here on top.  We’ve seen that a lot at this track over the years.  You never give up and anything is possible.  We saw that with Joey (Logano) here, we’ve seen it with many different drivers.  Sometimes the fastest car does win and that’s our goal going in is to try to create that and we look forward to those challenges and coming out of here, even though we’ve been struggling along the way so have some of the other guys that we’ve been battling with in points so we kind of keep flip-flopping going back and forth, back and forth and find ourselves in 11th after a good, strong finish at Dover and we want to get some momentum and consistency going.”
 
IS YOUR WHOLE FAMILY WITH YOU THIS WEEKEND?
“My wife is going to be here, but the kids are not going to be with us on Sunday.  They’ll be happy that we win either way, but we certainly love having them for victories and they’ll be at a lot of races this year and hopefully we can get some wins.  Listen, right now we just want to get a win.  That’s the most important thing, but I love having them with me.  To me, this race and Homestead, especially Homestead just because this one we kind of lucked into it with the rain where Homestead we went out and really had to battle and work for it.  Plus, because of the rain here we were sort of in a make shift victory lane and everybody was soaking wet where at Homestead we were able to relax and enjoy that moment with the kids there and it was awesome.”
 
WILL YOU BE RACING THROUGH 2016 WITH THE SPONSOR EXTENSION?
“Can you pencil any driver in for every weekend for every year?  I feel like the same things apply, nothing has changed for me.  We’re still competitive and still being challenged and have goals and my back is hanging in there.  We’ve got sponsorship, which is a positive thing for our team and the sport.  We’re very excited about Axalta.  This has been a real tricky type of year for them and transition for them internally as well as for us as a team because we’ve known the name of the company, we’ve maybe seen some of the logos, but they are a worldwide company and we have to be patient with all that.  Because of the transition and the sale of how DuPont went about it, this was a season that was sort of guaranteed.  The next seasons ahead were not guaranteed and so it’s pretty exciting to know that they have that interest and have been working with Hendrick to sign an extension.  I want to race for a long time, but I can’t say how long that is going to be at this time.”
 
DOES IT EVER HELP FOR AN OWNER TO GIVE A DRIVER AN ULTIMATUM IF THEY HAVE STALLED OUT OR ARE THEY GIVING ALL THEY’VE GOT ALREADY?
“Other than the sponsorship side of that, drivers usually know before the owners know of where they stand with the team and what kind of pressure is on them to perform.  Sometimes the owner is ahead of the game when they are negotiating and talking to a sponsor and the sponsor is saying, ‘What are the driver options out there?’  That owner might not necessarily be passing that along to their current driver.  I think we’re all under enough pressure and are driven by the competition to go out there and perform in such a way that we don’t need any outside encouragement or pressure from sponsors or team owners and so I’ve never been in that position, I’ve always been fortunate being in the position where the sponsors and team owner are always asking me, ‘What can we do to help?  How are things?  Where are the strengths and weaknesses within the team and what do you need so we can go out there and step up our performance?’  That’s always been the case whether we were winning or whether we weren’t winning.  I know that’s a tough position to be in as a driver because I can imagine and put myself in that position and I’ve been in that position prior to the Cup Series.  I’ve talked about this before, getting fired was one of the best things that ever happened to me because it kind of laid my career path, but it was a hard thing to go through to know that somebody didn’t want me behind the wheel of the car because I wasn’t getting the job done.  They were right, I was tearing up a lot of stuff and things weren’t going very well.  Sometimes it’s just not meant to be and sometimes it’s just the combination.  I was driving the No. 23 S McBride in the All-Star Series, sprint cars and all dirt sprint car stuff, but it was my first big opportunity to drive for a fully-funded real operation in sprint cars and it didn’t go very well.  I got fired and then it went really well right after that for some reason.”
 
DO YOU LOOK AT GOOD TRACKS FOR GUYS AROUND YOU IN THE POINTS?
“I would say I spend a little bit of time looking through the field and evaluating how we’re running, what our potential is, mainly has been th
e case for me most of the time is I put a lot more focus on what we’re doing and what we’re capable of doing than I do the rest of the competition.  You have to evaluate what other guys are doing and how well they’re running and what kind of strength they have.  I think Martin Truex Jr. certainly comes to mind like last week at Dover, we know that he runs well there.  Their team is a strong team and they’ve had some good runs this year.  You’re looking at how high, if we perform better than we have been and get some consistency, how high up in the points can we get and who are we capable of maybe outrunning on a regular basis as well as who is behind us and has potential to run us down.  I would say much more of our focus is doing our job and I think if we do it to what we are capable of doing it doesn’t really matter what the other guys are doing as far we making the Chase.  When you talk about winning the championship it gets a little bit different.”
 
IS DENNY HAMLIN SOMEONE YOU LOOK AT AS A WILD CARD CONTENDER AND DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS BESIDE YOURSELF OF WHO COULD BE WILD CARD CONTENDERS?
“First with Denny (Hamlin), you can’t count them out.  Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing) is running so good right now, he’s been running good and they can strike and win at any time.  Pocono comes to mind as a very strong track for him and I think it’s going to take a combination of wins and consistency for him just to get inside the top-20.  If he gets inside the top-20 then chances are he’s probably going to be a wild card.  Because I think to get in the top-20, he’s going to have to win.  Then you take Tony (Stewart) and the thing to me that is so encouraging about Tony is they have not had a very good year, they haven’t run very well and then they go and win at Dover.  From our standpoint and trying to relate, we’ve not had the best of years up to this point, but I think we’re just as capable as they are of winning races.  That’s why you never give up, you never stop working and this is a sport that anything can happen at any time and so I think that run and that finish that Tony had is very encouraging for us.  And a great motivator.  We’ve had top-threes two out of the last three races and that’s also encouraging to us as well.  I’m feeling pretty good about things right now.  As up and down as it’s been for us, the fact that we’re even 11th in points, I think that tells me not only can we make it in the top-10, but I think we have the ability to be in a wild card and get some wins in there.”
 
HOW DID YOU VIEW THE FINAL RESTART AT DOVER?
“From inside the car I couldn’t tell.  I just knew that we started to take off and then all of the sudden we were stacking up and now looking back on the video, that was the 15 (Clint Bowyer) started to go with Jimmie (Johnson) and then I think he checked up and then that stacked us up pretty bad.  From inside the car I was just trying to figure out how not to wreck by the time we got to turn one.  If I look at the video, it was a combination.  I think Jimmie was really right there on that edge of anticipation in getting all that he could on that restart and I think Juan (Pablo Montoya) did a great job, I’ve been watching NBA Finals lately and watching the flop and that was as good of a flop as it gets.  The leader has to me that ability and that position to do that.  It’s his job to lead you to the green, to get the best start that he can and if he feels like somebody else is going to try to take advantage of that situation or get a little bit of a run on him, he can play that card, but it’s also at the discretion of NASCAR making a judgment call.  I think if the 15 car kept going and passed the 42, I don’t think they would have called Jimmie.  I think they would have thought something happened to the 42, but because the 15 checked up to not pass the 42, it just made Jimmie’s lead look so absurd.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT ARE RIVALRIES WEEK TO WEEK?
“I think it’s fantastic right because to me, we can have the best races that there are out there and without some kind of drama or other storyline that doesn’t seem like the sport gets the attention that I think it deserves.  Unless we’re four-wide at the finish line, I don’t think that it’s enough.  I think our racing has been great this year.  We’ve got the new car and when I say racing, it’s not always the battle of the cars going back and forth, it’s pit strategy, it’s guys taking risks on no tires and four tires and fuel and side-by-side racing and finding different grooves.  Guys that can come from the back to the front and I think we’ve kind of seen a mixture of all of those things.  Again, I think that in order in this day and age with social media, with all the different type of entertainment that’s out there it needs the full gamut of entertainment, which to me is rivalries and sparks flying and things outside the norm of sports.  I think rivalries are great because that creates that spark and gets people’s emotions going and shows the rawness and intensity of what really goes on.  Sometimes we hold that back because there are risks involved with that whether it be a penalty, whether it be being judged or things that can happen and to me, it’s refreshing, exciting to see.  I don’t like being a part of it, but I prefer to be watching it and being on the outside, but it’s highly entertaining and it certainly creates a lot of buzz.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PARTY IN THE POCONOS 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 7, 2013
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed last week’s restart at Dover, racing this weekend at Pocono, how close he is to an oval victory and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR APPROACH HEADING INTO POCONO:
“As you said Pocono has always been a pretty decent track for us. I think the shifting helps.  When they repaved the track it seemed to help.  Last year we were on pole here the first time they repaved it.  To be honest with you we didn’t have really good cars. We did a really good job we timed it where it used to be the fastest car used to go out last in qualifying, it wasn’t a draw.  We knew we wanted to try to go out really early so we didn’t post a good lap on purpose.  It worked well.  Having good results here is important.  With the speed of the car this year I’m excited to be here and run here.  We seem to be good everywhere we go.  It seems the smoother the track is the better we run.  It should be fun.”
 
YOU AND JAMIE (MCMURRAY) HAVE BEEN SAYING YOU HAVE BEEN FEELING CHANGE COMING WITH YOUR TEAM AND GETTING BETTER.  WHEN DID YOU START TO NOTICE IT?  BEFORE IT STARTED TO SHOW UP IN THE STATS? OR CAN YOU PINPOINT A TIME WHEN IT STARTED TO FEEL LIKE ‘YEAH WE ARE GETTING THERE’?
“We had a lot of speed since we unloaded with this car.  Since we started working the new car the car had a lot of speed.  It seemed we could qualify really well, but we couldn’t race that well.  Jamie (McMurray) was the other way around.  Jamie couldn’t qualify and could race really well.  We paid a lot of attention to what he was doing.  To be honest with you we just made a lot of mistakes as a team.  We had a lot of failures and loose wheels.  Bristol we had a car easily for a top-five and we had a fuel pump problem.  California was a good track for us and the selector of the gear box came off handle and everything.  We had to change the whole gear box during the race.  We had two to three loose wheels under green, a flat tire in Martinsville.  It’s kind of crazy. We had 100 percent more speed than last year and we were finishing in the same places last year when we had no problems that it was kind of weird.  I think when we got to Richmond, around there, Danica (Patrick) was ahead of us in points.  We were 30-something in points.
 
“It was like ‘man we just have to stop making mistakes.’  We really talked to the guys and talked to everybody and said we just have to execute.  Each person has got to do its own little thing.  If we do, do we have the fastest car there yet?  No, we don’t.  Are we close? Yeah.  We are going the right direction we still need a little bit of work, but we have cars if we do everything right and we have a decent car we have top-10 even top-five cars.  We went into Richmond with that mentality.  We nearly won there.  We went to Darlington we ran well there.  In Charlotte we crashed and the guys were all disappointed.  I said ‘hey we wrecked because the No. 48 spun and we got wreck with the No. 48 and the No. 20, running there with them.’  When was the last time we were running with them?  Think about it.  A year and a half since we were running good.  From everything that has happened it has been positive.  Last week was positive.  We had a really good car same thing again.  We were really good we were just missing a little bit of speed.  I think we just have to keep our heads down and keep doing our work and we will be fine.”
 
YOU MAY HAVE HEARD WHAT JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SAID…
“No I didn’t.”
 
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN THAT YOU CLEARLY AND DELIBERATELY DID NOT RESTART YOU STOPPED FORCING HIM TO RESTART AHEAD OF YOU TO GET TO THE LINE.  THEN HE CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN HE TRIED TO GIVE THE POSITION BACK AND YOU WOULDN’T TAKE THE POSITION BACK.  WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ON THAT:
“If I did that why only Jimmie passed me in his lane? I mean you think about it.  Let’s say I had a bad start and he beat me by a bumper or half a car length NASCAR wouldn’t have said anything.  But it was Jimmie – the field so I’m okay with it.  He didn’t if you pay attention we were coming to the cones he didn’t even want to lineup next to me.  He was actually dropping back.  He wanted to time it.  He just mistimed it.  It’s all good.  It’s racing.”
 
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SAID HE IS GOING TO GO TALK TO NASCAR BECAUSE HE WOULD LIKE IT TO BE CRYSTAL CLEAR HE IS NOT CLEAR ON THE RULE AND HE THINKS THAT YOU FOUND A LOOP HOLE IN THE RULE:
“Did I?”
 
ASKING YOU:
“Wow, I’m that good (laughs).  Man that is a compliment.  The loop hole is that you have to start between the cones and the leader has got to… I think the start says you have to restart between the two cones that I did.  And you are not supposed to beat the leader to the line.  What is so hard about that?  You know what I mean?  I read a quote about him this week.  I was at my house and I read a quote.  He (Jimmie Johnson) said ‘if he wouldn’t have done that the No. 42 would have beat him.’ I’m like well I’m the leader not you.  I was thinking I know you dominated the race, but we came to a pit stop and we did a better job than you guys.  And as we did a better job than you guys we are the leader not you.  Crazy enough if he would have backed off let me go he would have probably passed me again.  It would have been all good.  He wanted to time it really well where he didn’t have to deal with me through turns one and two, but he mistimed it.  That is it, no drama.”
 
HOW GOOD ARE YOU ON RESTARTS?
“I know I do a really good job on restarts.  It’s not so much about how you get off the line but how you go through the first corner.  I mean there is no science.  There are two cones and as the leader you decide between the two cones when to go.  It’s up to everybody else to follow the leader’s space.  I think that is the rule.  Put it this way if I would have restarted and Jimmie (Johnson) passed me and four cars followed Jimmie I think NASCAR would have said the No. 42 had a bad start.  But how is it that only Jimmie went away?  I don’t know.  He is probably that good.”
 
CAN WE LOOK AT LAST WEEK AS SORT OF A QUANTUM LEAP FOR YOU IN YOUR SEARCH FOR AN OVAL WIN?
“I mean we were close in ’09 and ’10, but I think to be honest with you… I told the guys look to be able to win is not only having one chance at like what happened in Richmond.  Everything came right and at the last minute a caution came out and we didn’t win.  You’ve got to be able to give yourself a few chances.  You’ve got to run in the top-five, you’ve got to run in the top-10 and if you can do that the wins will come.  There is going to be a week when you did the right call and everything is going to lineup right and you are going to win the race.  There are weeks where you are going to make mistakes, but the only way to win is to be there and give yourself plenty of chances.  We are doing that and I think I’m aggressive enough as a driver where if I have opportunity I’m going to take it.  It was kind of weird last week when that last run we were really tight and Tony (Stewart) was coming on the bottom really fast.  I said the only thing I can do is make sure I don’t miss the bottom so he can put the nose in.  Like I can do a small diamond and I’ve got to make sure I come off the corner.  He rolled the top and when he got th
ere I was wide open.  If I would have kept it wide open we would have wiped each other out.  There was no point.  I’m pretty certain as well as when to give up.  Where we are in points, yes, we need the wins, but we need the points too.  I wouldn’t gain anything by wrecking with three to go and finish 30th.  We have got to be smart about that.”
 
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) IS NOT MAD AT YOU HE KIND OF ADMIRES THAT YOU FOUND A WAY TO BEAT HIM:
“He should tell me what I did because.. I haven’t figured it out myself (laughs).”
 
THERE ARE THOSE THAT SAY YOU ARE RUNNING BETTER NOW RECENTLY BECAUSE SOMEBODY HAS TOLD YOU ‘YOU NEED TO PICK IT UP’ WHETHER IT’S YOUR SPONSOR, YOUR OWNER OR WHATEVER.  ARE YOU DRIVING FOR YOUR CAREER NOW OR HAVE YOU JUST GOT BETTER STUFF?
“I always drive for my career.  We just have better stuff.  So, I’ve got a question. So last year we had Jamie (McMurray) and myself let’s say we have a deal for this year, that was not the case, but let’s say that and we were running both of us 20th’s every week. This year we all decided ‘you know what I’m tired of running 20th.  Let’s run top-10 this year.  Just for the sake of it.  You can’t do that.  The hard thing with this sport is you want to say why you are not running good.  You can say it’s the crew chief, it’s the car, it’s this and it gets to a point that they are going to point the finger at the driver.  That is the reality.  It’s always been that way.  I drive as hard as I can and I just really focus on doing my job.  Am I running 25th or fifth?  I’m driving the wheels out of the car.”
 
YOU’VE BEEN REAL CLOSE TWICE THIS YEAR DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU STILL NEED AN OVAL WIN TO VALIDATE THE NASCAR EXPERIENCE?  DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT WIN IS COMING THIS YEAR?
“I hope they come. I think once we break that we are going to get quite a few wins.  I still feel the car needs to be a little bit quicker.  We can put ourselves in positions to win, but I think our cars need just a tick more speed.  I think we gained about 80 percent of what we needed from last year to this year, but I think that last 20 percent is going to be a little bit harder.”
 
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WITH TONY STEWART ALL OVER YOUR BACK BUMPER WHAT THAT FELT LIKE:
“Well they said okay I looked in the mirror and saw it was the No. 14 and I thought ‘I’ve been quicker than him all day’. Then I looked in the mirror again and he was half way there in two laps.  I’m like ‘hoo I’m in trouble.’ I’m driving as hard as I can.  The problem with this car is driving it harder or going in deeper you actually are just going to slow down.  You’ve got to drive it to where the car will give you.  Maybe a little more you try a little more especially because you are only running 20 laps.  You try to kill the tires and you will do everything you can, but it gets to the point that is all you’ve got.  That is all we had.  I respect Tony (Stewart) a lot and we always run really clean with each other.  He had the better car.  If you look at it the No. 24 was coming.  Put it this way, if the No. 14 wasn’t coming the No. 24 was coming anyway.  It was one of those deals that once he got outside of me I knew I had nothing.  Going into turn three the only think I could do is drive it in hard enough where I can spin underneath him.  That would have been pretty stupid.”
 
HOW MUCH DO YOU READ ARTICLES THROUGHOUT THE WEEK?
“I don’t.  I saw it on Twitter somebody put on Twitter that Jimmie (Johnson) said this about the start because he is all mad.  I just clicked on the link.  My family is in Columbia this week so I’m by myself at home.”
 
WITH EVERYONE SAYING YOU NEED THE OVAL WIN ARE NOT READING WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING?
“The only thing I do is when I’m going to the airport I look where we are in points where we improved or if we have a bad day where we dropped and what is going on.  On Monday’s I do a call in, because I live in Miami, when I’m not in Charlotte I will do a call in to the team meeting.  We discuss what happened in the race through the weekend, what I felt was right, what I felt was wrong and where we need to improve and that’s it.  I will talk to ‘Shine’ (crew chief, Chris Heroy) a couple of times during the week to see what we are doing for the next weekend and that’s it.”
 
HOW MUCH ARE YOU INFLUENCED PERSONALLY FROM A CONFIDENCE STAND POINT BY RESULTS?
“I will tell you the only time I’ve been really excited this year like a good result, you are going to laugh, it was in the Duels when we finished third in the Duels (in Daytona).  I was like ‘yes we finished a restrictor plate race finally’.  (laughs) This year Daytona it’s kind of weird you look at racing we went to Daytona and I said ‘okay we are going to run up front.’  We are going to try to run up front all day and stay there.  The No. 1 car says I’m just going to ride in the back.  We both, he was running 42nd I  think and I was running sixth.  We both got involved in the same wreck.  It’s like what do you do? We went to Talladega we had a really good car in Talladega and we had an electrical problem.  Rain came and we couldn’t even restart the car.  I lost three laps in the pits trying to get the thing restarted.  It got to a point that we just couldn’t get a break with anything.  Now we are good.  We are doing what we need to be doing.  Something that I think we are doing good whether we have a good practice, bad practice or whatever we do we just keep our head down.  We know what works.  I think we are complimenting each other with the team really well with engineers.  I think my relationship with ‘Shine’ and the two engineers is really good right now.  They know what I want out of the car and I know how to get it across what I need.  I think that makes a big difference.”
 
IF YOU GET TO THE FINAL RESTART SUNDAY JIMMIE (JOHNSON) IS FIRST, YOU ARE SECOND WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN?
“I’m going to beat him by 10 car lengths (laughter).  You guys are wrong… thank you.”   

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PARTY IN THE POCONOS 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 7, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway, and discussed the restart at Dover and other topics. Full transcript:
 
WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND?
“I think the way we ran here last year especially with the repave, our cars had a lot of speed in them.  I’m excited to come back and see what we have. We’re setting up in the summer stretch right now and I think that this weekend will kind of play into what we have at the Brickyard 400 here before long.  All in all, I’m excited to be here.  I think our car has been fast, I think we’ve been good on pit road and I enjoy the summer months.  That is right around the corner and looking forward to hot, slick race tracks.  Although, it’s not hot and slick right now, we need boats, but at some point we’ll get there.”
 
DID YOU TALK TO NASCAR ABOUT THE RESTART AT DOVER AND WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON IT NOW?
“I did a little bit after the race and then sat and digested things this week and I’m going to go and speak to them now that we have a lot of time this morning since it’s raining and just walk through it some more.  It’s an interesting thing that took place in my opinion.  I feel that in NASCAR and auto racing there are very few moments where maybe a penalty could be drawn or a foul could be drawn like we would see in the NBA Finals or something right now there is flopping that goes on.  I really believe that in the restart zone to the start-finish line that Juan (Pablo Montoya) just didn’t go and in my opinion, I think he played it right.  I think he was smart in letting me get out ahead of him and let them make the call on me to keep me from having the lead and winning the race.  It’s interesting, I really don’t have anything against Juan for doing it, as racers we need to work any and every angle we can to win a race.  That’s what we do, we race.  I put a little more weight into officiating in exactly how the rule reads and the way the rule is intended to be enforced.  I think we can look at enforcing it differently.  I think everybody looking at it afterwards can see that Juan just didn’t go.  What happens then when you get out of that restart zone?  What happens from there to the start-finish line?  I think with the data we have and the technology we have today, we have the tools to maybe make a better decision and make a better decision at that point in time.  It’s difficult after the race, people look at stuff and that didn’t work out.  The race had been taken away from us, the championship bonus points are gone and it’s very difficult at that point to do the right thing, but in today’s world of technology, I hope that we can figure out one, exactly how does that rule read.  I kind of get it, but from the restart zone to the start-finish line, if I guy breaks or has trouble NASCAR has the ability to make the call and say that they had trouble and it’s fine to go.  Someone flops, what then?  You think about the restart zone at Indy, you have a couple hundred yards from the end of that zone to the start-finish line and if I’m the leader and on the outside, I could let five or six cars go by and then get to the start-finish line and trap them all down and put them in position to be penalized.  Essentially, Juan found a loophole.  He found a loophole in the officiating and worked it to his advantage so sure I’m mad I didn’t win the race, and I’m not mad at him, but I think we need to look at how we officiate and how we can regulate that and keep that from happening.  Dover, it’s a very short distance from the zone to the start-finish line.  At other tracks, it’s a huge distance.  Here, it’s pretty big.  I would have to imagine it’s a couple hundred yards as well.  You could pin four or five people into that position if they take the bait, which I took the bait clearly.”
 
NASCAR SAID IT WAS A ‘NO BRAINER,’ BUT NOT FOR YOU?
“Not for me, not for the 15 (Clint Bowyer), not for the 99 (Carl Edwards), not for the 18 (Kyle Busch), I mean all these guys have talked to me and I just saw Clint and he was like, ‘Dude, I was on the brakes, like I stomped on the brakes to stop because I knew you were in trouble.’  I said I knew I was too, I was just hoping that they would see the rest of you check up.  It is what it is, I can’t change it and can’t do anything about it, but moving forward I think we can prevent that situation from happening again.”
 
WOULD YOU BE IN FAVOR OF GETTING RID OF THE RESTART ZONE?
“In the end, it depends on what NASCAR wants to have happen there.  The way I have understood the rule is they want all the lanes to come up to speed together and if possible be side-by-side going into turn one.  That’s been the goal and the way I’ve interpreted things myself.  If they want to let the leader have an advantage then I’m fine with whatever, I just need to better understand the rule.  I’ve played into trying to do the right thing and trying to maintain pace car speed when the pace car pulls off.  Obviously, some guys really choke up the field at that point, which the way they say the rule works you’re not supposed to do that, but as you get somebody backing up or getting out of the line beside the leader then the leader has the advantage and could take advantage of that.  I’m cool with whatever it is, I just want it to be crystal clear what we can and cannot do and I guess I find myself trying to do the right thing more often and I feel like at Phoenix this year I got taken advantage of on that last restart and then clearly what happened at Dover.  Whatever it is, I’m fine and if we want the leader to have full advantage then take limitations away and let’s really give them the opportunity to take that restart and if not, then let’s enforce it properly the other way.”
 
IS TONY STEWART RELEVANT AGAIN?
“With the Chase, anything is possible.  That’s the beauty of the changes NASCAR made a few years ago in the Chase and I know the 14 (Tony Stewart) hasn’t been off to the start that they wanted to have, but if you make the Chase you have a chance to win the championship and I’ve never counted that 14 team out.  Happy that he’s back, mad and all.”
 
IF THERE ARE NO CHANGES TO THE RULE, WOULD YOU BE MORE LIKELY TO TRY WHAT JUAN PABLO MONTOYA DID IN THE SAME SITUATION?
“For sure.  It’s something that I’ve thought about in the past, but I’ve always been concerned that if I didn’t beat, I feel like my best chance is to beat the car next to be the second place car, whether he is inside or out, to beat him to turn one to have clean air and not give someone the ability to side draft me.  I guess I didn’t think it through far enough and if somebody would take the bait as I did.  The reason it was easier for me to take the bait was lining up on the inside, unless you’re door-to-door, when you get door-to-door and wheel-to-wheel, you lose site of the leader and it’s very difficult to stay with him at that point.  Being on the outside gives the leader that opportunity to put the second place guy in a blind spot.  It worked perfectly.  It really was well executed and taken care of, but in the end what it clear to me is regardless of the reason and if you cause a pile up and if it takes a lap, I tried the entire front stretch to give it back and I’m half throttle past the start-finish line trying to give it back, but he didn’t take it.  What is crystal clear to me is you just stand on the brakes and stop and give it back at all costs otherwise, even if I fell to fifth, it would have been a heck of a lot better than 17th.
 
WOULD IT HA
VE BEEN AN OPTION FOR NASCAR TO THROW A CAUTION AND LINE THE FIELD BACK UP?
“First thought, no, it probably wouldn’t be something to do, but our crowd and the way people try to work things, we could have five or six of those yellows.  That’s just a whole other can of worms to open up.  I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that, but I would imagine we would create maybe a bigger mess doing that.  I think with the technology we have today, we could make maybe not an instant call, but within a lap or so could have good evidence to help make a better decision.”
 
WOULD BREAKING AND NOT KEEPING REASONABLE SPEED PUT IT BACK IN NASCAR’S HANDS AGAIN TO MAKE THE CALL?
“The leader is supposed to maintain pace car speed once the pace car pulls off into the zone and then go when he wants.  That’s been in question.  Guys take a different pace from when the pace car pulls off into the zone and it hasn’t been really enforced.  I guess there’s more leeway there than there the way it’s been called so far.  The way the calls have gone rather than beating the leader to the start-finish line.  At the end of the day, the way the calls go dictate how we respond.  We just play those odds.”
 
IS POCONO A TRACK WHERE YOU CAN WIN AGAIN OR IS IT JUST ABOUT THE POINTS?
“Points really are everything.  Our first goal is to make the Chase and then championship points or bonus points going into the Chase from a race-winner are top of mind as well.  It’s both.  I feel like last year we had really the dominant car, especially in the fall race and had a soft tire going into turn one and had a big mess on the last restart.  The track has been good to us.  I think we’ve had far more speed than our results show and it’s such a weird race from a pit strategy call that memory is telling me that we’ve been burned a few times on having a great car and guys took some chances with strategy that ended up ahead of us.  At the end of the day, I think we’ll be a factor to win the race.”
 
WHY ARE YOU HAPPY WITH CHEVROLET AS YOUR MANUFACTURER?
“We all face our challenges.  I think the Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars have had some great speed, probably the fastest cars on all types of tracks.  The reliability has been a little bit of an issue.  I feel like we’ve had a lot of speed and maybe lacked a little to some of the Gibbs cars on the mile-and-a-half tracks, but we’ve had the reliability so there is always a challenge that a team is faced with and the manufacturer.  We’re all developing a new product this year and I’ve been with Chevy my whole life and I know how hard they work to get stuff right and very proud of their work again and my cars have been great.  We always want to be faster, but we’ve got a few months before we really need to count on that peak speed.”
 
DO YOU THINK THE RESTART FOR YOU WAS A MISTAKE?
“After the start-finish line, yes.  After the start-finish line looking back I should have been like the 15 (Clint Bowyer) and been all over the brake pedal.  You can see in the video that he is all over the brakes trying not to beat the 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) to the finish line.  I think the way I understand it is you have the front stretch to kind of give it back and once I was in turn one, he pulled in behind me and I knew my bed was made.  I was hoping that they were going to say he had an issue and notice that he wasn’t up to speed the whole front straightaway and the call would come my way and it didn’t.  My mistake was expecting the call to come my way and I can’t count on that.  Especially come Chase time if I lose a shot at winning a race and I end up fifth, that’s a heck of a lot better than finishing 17th from hoping the call would go my way.”
 
 
 
 
 
 

Target Le Mans: Corvette Racing Ready for Test Day
First steps toward eighth victory in world’s greatest endurance race
 
LE MANS, France (June 6, 2013) – With seven class victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours since 2001, Corvette Racing is an established force at the world’s greatest endurance race. The drive for an eighth championship begins this weekend with the two Compuware Corvette C6.Rs taking part in the annual Test Day at the 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe on Sunday (June 9).
 
The eight-hour session is as critical as ever for the No. 73 and No. 74 entries. This serves as the first chance to verify settings and engineering the team established since the 2012 race.
 
“As is our standard practice, the objective will be to achieve the absolute best track setup for all conditions and not necessarily set the fastest lap time,” said Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing Program Manager. “We have learned throughout our time at Le Mans that having a car in which all the drivers are comfortable is far more meaningful than sitting on the pole. Simply put, getting everything right is required for success at Le Mans.”
 
The test also is key to getting Corvette Racing’s two endurance drivers – Jordan Taylor and Richard Westbrook – reacquainted with their teammates and cars. Neither Taylor nor Westbrook have driven the Corvette since the Sebring 12 Hours in March to open the American Le Mans Series.
 
“Normally, it only takes a few laps to readjust,” said Westbrook, who will drive the No. 74 Corvette with Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner. “But Le Mans is Le Mans, and it’s a very different track than anything else in the world. Things do take longer there. But I’m not too worried. The last two years I missed the test and it wasn’t too much of a problem. So this year being able to do it is a bonus. More track time is better.”
 
While Westbrook will contest Le Mans for the fourth time – third with Corvette – the 23-year-old Taylor made his debut in 2012. The magic of Le Mans wasn’t new; he spent his formative years watching his father, Wayne Taylor, compete at the 24 Hours. As was the case a year ago, Taylor teams with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia who have seven class wins at Le Mans to their credit.
 
“It will be nice having seat time in a car that you don’t drive that often,” Taylor said. “Taking a couple months off is difficult, but that’s the benefit of the test day. Getting more laps at Le Mans is always a good thing, as is learning from my teammates who all have massive amounts of experience.
 
“I knew (Le Mans) so well last year having watched the race my whole life that when I got on the track I already knew where I was,” Taylor added. “It was a matter of braking points and how much speed you could carry. The track itself is fun for a driver but for an engineer it’s a little tougher because you have high-speed corners where you need downforce but long straights where you want to take it (the downforce) off. There is definitely an engineering compromise but the Corvette guys do a really job with that and always give us a good car.”
 
A great car and great strategy netted Corvette Racing a class Victory Lane at Sebring. The Gavin/Milner/Westbrook trio drove from two laps down due to an electrical problem and gave the team a huge endurance boost.
 
“Sebring was a monkey off our backs,” Westbrook said. “Even though we won the ALMS championship last year, in endurance races we had a bad record. The last two years I’ve been in the No. 74 car, we were leading by more than a lap and failed to finish. So I personally really needed Sebring and I know the crew wanted to prove they could do it not just in a two-hour race but also in a 12-hour race. It’s a massive confidence builder going into Le Mans.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FEDEX 400 BENEFITING AUTISM SPEAKS
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 2, 2013
 
TONY STEWART TAKES WIN AT DOVER AND CLAIMS FIRST WIN OF 2013 SEASON
Team Chevy is 1-2-3 for Second Consecutive Week
 
DOVER, DEL. (June 2, 2013) – Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart claimed his first victory of the 2013 season at the ‘Monster Mile’ in the FedEx 400 in his No. 14 Code 3 Associates Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS. The win marked his third at Dover International Speedway and snapped a 30-race winless streak.
 
“It’s been such a tough year,” said Stewart, whose last win was at Daytona in July 2012. “Everybody has dug deep to help us get back to where we are today. Hopefully we will start building that momentum back up now.”
 
With three laps remaining in the 400-lap race, Stewart passed Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet SS, and pulled away to the checkered.  Montoya, who led the field during 19 circuits, posted a strong second-place finish. “Tony was way quicker. I don’t understand where he came from,” said Montoya. “He wasn’t that good all day, and he was good when it mattered.”
 
Jeff Gordon was third in his No. 24 AARP Credit Cards from Chase Chevy SS, giving Chevrolet the top three finishing positions for the second week in a row.
 
Seven-time Dover winner and five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, was clearly the class of the field in his No. 48 Lowe’s/Monsters University Chevrolet SS, and led the 400-mile event for 143 laps. But with 20 laps to go, jumped a restart ahead of then leader, Montoya, and was ruled by NASCAR to serve a pass-through penalty.  Johnson finished a disappointing 17th in the order, but still maintains as the series point leader.
 
Last week’s race winner,  Kevin Harvick, posted a solid eighth-place finish in his No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., was 10th in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, putting five Team Chevy drivers in the Top 10.
 
Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fourth and Brad Keselowski (Ford) was fifth to round out the top five in the finishing order.
 
Next stop on the 38-race circuit will be Round 14 at Pocono Raceway Sunday, June 9th.
 
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
STEVE ADDINGTON, NO. 14 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – WINNING CREW CHIEF
GREG ZIPADELLI, STEWART-HAAS RACING COMPETITION DIRECTOR
 
THE MODERATOR:  Steve, talk a little about that race out there, it was a pretty exciting day for you guys.
 
STEVE ADDINGTON:  Yeah, I felt like we just needed track position and I felt like our lap times were pretty good all day long.  When you start that far back, it’s so tough.  And then you’ve got guys like Kyle and them running unbelievable laps at the beginning, and get a lap down and get the lucky dog and got to work on our car a little bit.
 
Finally, just, you know, understood what he was saying was happening with the car, so we made the right adjustments and everybody on the race team did a good job.  Got a great group of guys.  They work really hard.  So it we were all leaning on each other and talking about it, and everybody just worked together, all 400 laps and that’s what it took to win the thing.
 
THE MODERATOR:  I know you’ve been waiting on this thing for a long time and certainly a wonderful moment for you to share as a team.  Just talk about what this win means to you.
 
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Yeah, for everybody at Stewart‑Haas, thank you for your efforts, your attitudes.  Everybody has had an amazing amount of drive, attitude the last couple months when everybody has been beating us up and where we are at and what’s going on.
 
So you know, we came up here and tested.  Guys did a good job of spending two days getting some laps in.  The 39 car unloaded and they were good and they were fast, qualified well.
 
14 was off and they rebounded from it.  To me that’s what counts; everybody was in for all 400 laps.  They called a really good race.  They put themselves in position.
 
At these races today, track position is so important, but you have to have your car close enough for a driver to step up and take the challenge and you know, we were able to do that as a group today, and proud of everybody back home and the guys here that have put their effort in.
Q.  How hard has the first part of the season been, and what does this do for you going the rest of the way?
STEVE ADDINGTON:  Well, the first part, everybody sees that.  We’ve struggled.  We struggled as a group.  It’s not just like one car has been up contending for wins.  It’s been all three that have struggled.  We sat down and hats off to Zippy for putting everybody together to make sure that we are getting better each week and looking at the right areas.
 
It’s really big.  It’s not a fix‑all for what we’ve got going on.  I think that it’s a step in the right direction.  It was a car that was competitive.  Once we got it up front but it’s not a fix of where we know ‑‑ you know, we’ve going to go through this every weekend.
 
We’ve got to keep our heads down and keep digging, and I think that everybody at Stewart‑Haas Racing understands that; that they work their guts out, Bob.  It’s not from a lack of effort. You guys don’t see that.  You guys can’t be there at the shop to understand that everybody’s working hard in pulling this together and I think that when you’re down, it tells a lot about a group of guys to pull together and try to get out of that slump and I thinkthat it’s headed in the right direction.
 
I think that we made gains at Charlotte.  We got to test Pocono, and so we are excited about that.  But we also came here with those things and we were off a bit; even though we had tested there, we went in a different direction, but it was just a couple of things that we were off on and we went back to it and it worked for us today.
Q.  You said last week that the Chase was kind of the furthest thing from anybody’s mind because you just needed to focus on getting things turned around first.  Now Tony is in the No. 1 wild card spot and looks now to be in pretty decent position.  Is it okay to start thinking in those terms and try to take this and use that, or are you still not back far enough yet where you still feel like you have more work to do?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Oh, we have got more work to do, don’t let this kid anybody.  But as a group, we are building momentum at the right time of the year, and we did win a race.  I guess we moved up a bunch of points; that’s positive.  So we are going to take the positives, we are going to Pocono and try to build on it just like we did at Charlotte.
 
That’s all we can do is build on it and continue to improve.  When we win a bunch of these things in a row, it means that we don’t have to work on it anymore.  But you’re right; we did make gains.  We did talk last week, and like I told you, some things take time, and you know, these guys did a really good job this weekend of getting off, executing, getting their selves back on and making the right calls at the right time and putting themselves in position to win.
 
And that’s what it’s about in this sport.  You have to have a car good enough to put yourself in position, and then you have to be able to execute that.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Tony, it’s very good to see you here in the media center.  Talk a little bit about is that win out there today and how you’re feeling right now.
 
TONY STEWART:  God, as much as I hate to say it, it’s good to be back in the media center.
Ju
st this was ‑‑ I don’t know what Zip and Steve have mentioned before we got here, but this is a weekend that to me helps define what our program is about and what our organization’s about.
 
To go from where we were on Friday to having a bad day to yesterday gaining on it but not having speed and then today, continuing to make changes and start with the car that we had, makes me proud of the two guys that are sitting beside me.
 
I wasn’t the result of what happened today as much as the reason that we are all three sitting here is because of the two guys beside me.  You know, yesterday when we finished happy hour, I’ll be 100 percent perfectly honest, and I might get backhanded by both of them sitting here, but I was preparing for a very long day today.  I wasn’t prepared to be sitting here.  I knew that they stayed late and were working, but I honestly didn’t think we could get there from where we ended up happy hour yesterday.
 
But I’m proud to be sitting here saying that I was very wrong and happy that I was wrong.  So this is ‑‑ these are the days that ‑‑ you know, this means more to me going from where we were Friday to where we are today than having a weekend where we show up and we are quickest in practice, sit on the pole and everything goes right all weekend.  It’s much harder to do it the way that we just had to do it over the last 48 hours.
 
So that’s what makes me really proud of these two guise and what they have done, because this was no lay‑up.  This was not a little bit of tweak here, a little bit of tweak there.  This was going and really sitting down and saying, okay, we may have to abort everything that we are doing to try to come up with a new package.
 
To have that ability and the confidence for these guys to do what they did overnight, I mean, that speaks volumes to me as an owner and a driver both to know that we have guys that have the confidence to do this.
 
And we have got a great ‑‑ the thing is, it shouldn’t be just the three of us here.  There should be about 200 people sitting behind us here that are all responsible for this right now, and another group of guys that sit at a shop about ten miles away that have been a big part of that at Hendrick Motorsports.
 
But our guys have never given up.  There’s been a lot of dejected guys all year, and disappointed guys all year, but that’s why we want them working at Stewart‑Haas Racing, too, because the way we have been running, we want them to be disappointed and dejected, but nobody is walking around with their heads down.  They are all trying to find a solution and that’s what makes days like today so special is when you have guys that just do not quit and they refuse to give up.
 
All day, I kept listening to Steve on the radio and knew that our lap times were good.  We just never really got the track position to do anything.  I was just happy ‑‑ I was going to be happy if we got in the Top‑10 to be honest, and we got up to eighth there.
 
And then Steve had the ‑‑ I’ll be honest, Steve had the balls to make a call that gave us the opportunity to run for the win.  That’s confidence and that’s something that you can’t teach. It’s just something you have to have, and Steve has it.  You know, I was behind him 100 percent on it and I thought it was a good call, and that gave us the opportunity to do what we did.  So without that call, we are not sitting here.
Q.  Typically when a team is struggling, we always ask them what’s wrong, and the response is, if we knew what was wrong, we would fix it.
TONY STEWART:  You got that $hit straight.  (Laughter).
Q.  You obviously can look at your results after a race, and you know where your team is deficient.  Has there been any one area, or has there been just a general, we are not good enough in several areas.
TONY STEWART:  You’ve got to guide that question to this man next to me.
 
I mean, I’ll be honest.  I’m not the smartest guy in the world.  You guys have known that over the last 15 years.  I’ve proven that time and time again.  I’m just smart enough to know to hire good people.
 
I honestly don’t know.  And the hard thing in this business and especially when you’re struggling, it’s hard ‑‑ the further off‑base you are, the harder it is to sit there and pinpoint a problem.  It can be numerous problems, and it can be one problem.  But the hard part is when you’re far enough off base, it’s hard to break it down and diagnose those problems.
 
It literally is a process, at least in my opinion, my view, it’s a process of elimination.  You eliminate a variable at a time until you finally narrow it down to a group of possibilities of what the problem is, and that’s something that this group has done and been doing and we are still in the process of doing.
 
But you know, you can have that mind‑set of that’s what has to happen but you have to have people that have the mind‑set to also execute that, and that’s what we’ve got.  We’ve got people that are very dedicated to making sure that no matter how bad it gets that they keep their heads focused in the same direction.
 
What Zippy has done in the last month, especially, is being able to get these guys to rally around each other.  You know, we are all looking for a direction of what it’s going to take to get this thing fully back on track consistently.
 
But the hard thing is, when you have got ‑‑ the more people you’ve got involved, the more teams you’ve got involved, the easier it is to have one going in one direction, one going in the other direction, and the third going in the total opposite direction of those two.
 
It takes somebody like Zippy to try to get these guys to at least put their minds together.  And it’s okay to be working different directions, but to have all three teams understand why we are going the directions we are going to try to figure it out.  That’s something we have really been focusing on in the last month.
 
I think last week was a step in the right direction, and a bigger step than I possibly could have imagined.  This week is a step in the right direction.  Matt and Ryan had an awesome day on Friday, qualified well and that gives us hope.  Today gives us hope.
 
So you know, this is not an organization that’s turned around in two weeks.  We still have a lot of work to do to get it turned around.  But the last two weeks, we’ve made progress, and last week was a big step to ‑‑ and this week is another step.  It gives Ryan and Danica and I confidence as a driver.  It gives the three crew chiefs confidence that we are making progress and we are making forward progress at this point.
 
I think as an organization, we have a lot to be proud of right now.
Q.  I understand what you’re saying about kind of just taking incremental steps and making progress, but, with the wild card system, in some ways your season has completely turned around now because now you’re right in the Chase as it was today, halfway there.  So how much of that Chase focus will play into things now, because obviously you want to keep building in the right direction, but then you have this other goal now which is a very realistic goal.  Where does the wild card factor into things?
TONY STEWART:  Very valid question.  I’ll be honest.  I mean, I’ve done this enough and been in the Chase enough that being in the Chase is not a novelty for me.  I don’t care about being in the Chase unless I have an opportunity to win the championship.
To me, it’s bigger ‑‑ it’s a bigger deal to me to get our program turned around to where if we have the opportunity to get in the Chase that we have ‑‑ our goal is not just to make the Chase.  Our goal is to be championship contenders.

 
So I would rather miss the Chase and the effort to be in the process of building our program to where we have an opportunity to not just be in the Chase, but have an opportunity to win the Chase.  Just making the Chase, that’s not good enough.  That will not change our focus.  It won’t change our direction with one win today.  It’s like we talk about in our meetings.
 
We have to get up ‑‑ everybody has to get on board the ship and one guy has to steer the ship and we all have to go that direction.  This will not change the direction of where we’re aiming the ship right now.  We want to get three cars competitive and get three cars running well again.
 
So we realize that this could put the 14 team in contention and make the Chase.  That’s not good enough.  I want to get this whole program turned around to where all three drivers have a feeling and an opportunity to go to the racetrack every week and feeling like they have an opportunity to go out and have a good result at the end of the day.
Q.  That was kind of what my question was –
TONY STEWART:  Oh, we can move on then.
Q.  No, I have another one.
TONY STEWART: (Laughing).
Q.  Okay.  Don’t throw me off.
TONY STEWART:  Too late.
 Q.  A lot of people have spoken about your statistics and the slower start this year.  I’m just curious for you, how deep have you had to dig and how much of a cheerleader have you had to be and how important is it for you to get this win and to be able to show the team and be able to go into the shop and be able to say, you know, we are moving on, we are progressing?
TONY STEWART:  It’s been a lot harder than you think.  I mean, the thing about being in the role we are in as an owner and driver is when you have a good day like today, I’m ecstatic about our win, but at the same time, I go back to the bus and I’m like, okay, what happened with Ryan’s day; what happened in Danica’s day.
 
So when everything goes good, you still average out with what all three teams do.  And when it goes bad, you feel that assumption of responsibility for what all three teams have had.
 
So as much as this is a great win and a great victory for us, and great momentum builder for our organization, I will go back and instead of just focusing on the fact that we won, it’s going to be, what happened in Ryan’s day, what happened in Danica’s day.
 
And it does make you have to ‑‑ you have to play cheerleader.  I like looking at cheerleaders; I think they are hot. I’m not much of one, but that’s my role.  I can’t sit there and go down on a shop floor and tell these guys what to do to make changes to the car to make it better.
My job is as a car owner to go down there and keep the morale of the guys good.  I would say Zippy has done a much better job of that than I’ve had.  I’ve struggled with it.  It’s been very hard, when you’ve had the start to the season we’ve had, you start questioning, you start doubting, you start looking for answers that you don’t have the knowledge to diagnose.  That makes you feel very helpless at times.  And having a good support system has probably been the biggest thing.
 
I think as much as I’ve got to be a cheerleader for everybody else, the guys on the shop floor, the guys that don’t even come to the track at the shop; they have been the cheerleaders to keep us motivated and pumped up.  It’s a group.  It’s a group effort; it’s not just one person leading the charge. Everybody’s rallied around each other and kept their mind‑sets positive.
 
Zippy and Steve and Borland and Tony Gibson and Ryan and Danica going down and seeing the guys, that’s what keeps everything motivated. We all have the role of keeping each other energized and pumped up, but the guys that don’t even get a shot to come to the racetrack on the weekends have done as much of that as anybody.  So.
 
I think it’s truly been a team and an organization that has rallied around each other, and they just ‑‑ there’s 200‑plus people that just refuse to quit.  They just won’t stop.  There’s nobody that says what we got’s good enough and what we’re doing is good enough.
 
Everybody is frustrated and everybody’s agitated.  But it’s for good reasons.  They are not just happy just having a job and collecting a paycheck.  They want the same thing we want and that’s to be sitting here in the media center at the end of the day talking to you guys about what are we doing to make it better.
Q.  Juan made it clear that he knew that you had him.  He knew his tires were going.  He could see that your momentum was going to get him. When you made the move to the outside, was it that obvious to you, too, that the race had changed?
TONY STEWART:  Not necessarily.  You know, because even when you get somebody like Juan that’s in that situation where his tires might be gone, you’ve got a world champion that is behind the wheel, and that’s ‑‑ you know, we have talked about this Gen‑6 car and how hard it is to make a difference.  You still take guys like Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon and guys like Juan Montoya, they take cars that have worn out tires and still figure out how to get that extra little bit they need out of it.
 
You know, we got running the same line Juan was and that was letting the car kind of go up in the middle of the racetrack a little bit.  And I started moving around and moved down, all the way to the bottom, through the center of the corner, and picked up speed, and he is very keen on paying attention.  He didn’t get where he is by not paying attention to situations like that, and he saw that right away after two corners and moved and adjusted his line and picked up speed, as well.
 
It literally was a mind‑set of trying to figure out on a lap whether it was worth risking losing second and finishing third to Jeff if I moved around to try to find a spot to win the race, and to me, that was worth the risk.
 
So you know, that’s what NASCAR wants in this series.  That’s the scenario we chose.  I wasn’t going to ‑‑ it was worth the risk of either winning the race or falling back to third because we picked the wrong line but tried.
The last thing Steve said after when we got ready to go to green, he said, “Use it up.”  Which I’m sitting there as a car owner going:  I’ve got to pay for this.  You can use it up all you want, but I’ve got to pay for this at the end of the day. (Laughter).  But I knew what he meant.
 
It’s fun.  Juan very easily could have made it very difficult and very complicated to race him.  And I’ve always liked Juan.  I’ve always respected Juan.  And I think he’s come a long way in this series about the mind‑set of this, but it’s fun.
 
There’s a list that we have of people that when you sit there and you look at those people, there’s people that you enjoy racing and that you hope you have that battle with and that you know they will treat you with respect and they know that you will pay the favor back and treat them with respect when it comes to racing for a win.  And, you know, to have Jeff and Juan in that scenario, that’s two guys that are on that list of guys that I respect and would want to be in that scenario with.
Q.  Obviously during the last few months, there were lots of rumors about your team and possible ‑‑
TONY STEWART:  You guys started all that crap.
 Q.  Well, no, we get asked about it by people in the garage, I mean, other competitors ‑‑
TONY STEWART:  I don’t know who you guys are talking to in the garage area.  You guys need to just come talk to us, because we never discussed any of this crap that’s been going around here.  It’s been a huge distraction for our organization.
 Q.  My
question is:  Does this win help calm anybody in your group who thought that there might be changes, and is it any validation of what you believe Steve can do?
TONY STEWART:  It doesn’t calm me down because it ticks me off that I’ve got to sit here and go through this crap because of you guys.
 
I mean, if you’re going to put something in there that there’s going to ‑‑ possibility of somebody moving around, you might want to talk to the guys that write the checks, the guys that work there, and find out the facts before you guys go throwing darts on the dartboard.
 
I’ll be honest, it pissed me off because it was a big distraction to my team, my organization.  It kept us from doing our job, because people are hearing humors and reading what you guys write, and was totally inaccurate and unprofessional in my opinion.
 
If you’re going to write that, you’d better have some facts behind it, because there wasn’t anybody in our camp that said anything.  So if you heard it from somebody else, that’s not good enough. If that’s your sources, you’d better ‑‑ you’d better do a better job, because it was a big distraction.
 
And when I finally got wind of it was three weeks after it first came out, and I was ticked.  I don’t need that crap.  I’ve got enough stuff to worry about, keeping three cars competitive and trying to get them in that state and having to deal with a bunch of bull crap that’s inaccurate and speculation; to me at this level is unacceptable.
Our organization doesn’t need.  It didn’t deserve it.  They worked hard enough.  And to have to sit there and have people question what’s going on and us have to take that much extra time to try to defuse what you guys planted, was a bunch of crap.  And, don’t do it.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Any additional questions?
 
TONY STEWART:  It was going really good until I got to that, and I was willing to look through it today to be honest, but you brought it up Bob (ph) which you’re the guy I expect to bring it up.
Q.  I’ll ask you ‑‑ before you get upset ‑‑
TONY STEWART:  I’ll try to cheer up for you.
Q.  Today was probably the closest he’s ever been to winning for the first time on an oval.  Wondering if you felt any sympathy for him, it’s been getting close but nothing.
TONY STEWART:  Absolutely.  Both of us are hungry for a win.  You know, and the thing is, Juan, I spoke to him earlier in the week, and we are parked right next to each other no most home lot.  For someone like him, he’s an Indy 500 champion; he’s a world champion.  There’s no doubt he knows how to drive.  There’s no doubt he knows how to win races.
 
At this level, it truly is about the people that you’re with.  It’s like he mentioned the other day, he went through the lowest of low times last year with Ganassi and those guys have made huge, huge steps in their program this year.
 
Now they are reaping the rewards of it, both him and Jamie.  It’s good to see, because Juan is a championship‑caliber driver.  Where he was running in the field last year is not indicative of his skill and talent as a driver, and it was good to see him in a position to win the race.
 
You know, like I said, he could have made it a lot worse on us and he ran with respect.  When you’re hungry for a win, it’s easy to say, hey, I did what I had to do.  He ran us with the utmost of respect, and I think he deserves a lot of credit and recognition for that.
 Q.  I wanted to ask about the final restart, you had a front row seat with Juan and Jimmie.  Jimmie after the race said Juan led them up very slow and at least one other driver also said the restart was very slow.  Wanted to see from your vantage point if you thought it was a normal restart, and was there anything weird there that threw you off, and were you surprised that Jimmie ended up with a penalty off that?
TONY STEWART:  Juan was leading the race; correct?  So he’s in charge of the restart pace.
 
You know, guys can talk about what the pace is.  The zone that we have to restart in is not very conducive to being leader‑friendly.  Most of the time, the guy that’s second has a huge advantage, and most of the time will lay back and roll the start and play to his advantage.
 
I feel bad for Jimmie, because Jimmie ran good all day.  He didn’t deserve to be in a situation at the end, but at the same time, he knows what the rules are, and he knows that the leader has to cross the start/finish line first.  He knows that.  It’s not to me to say whether it’s right or wrong.
You guys saw the scenario the same as we did, but everybody knows the rules.  We know what the procedure is.  And Juan is smart enough to not let the second place guy take advantage of the restart, and that’s what he did.
 
I feel bad for Jimmie because I don’t think that’s what he deserved.  You know, you work hard all day to put yourself in a position to try to win the race at the end.  You don’t want it coming down to  …
 
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 ENERGIZER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND 
 
THE MODERATOR:  Talk about that race out there today.
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:   I thought it was pretty good to be honest with you.  Our car was okay.  We came here, did a test before the race and it was a lot cooler and so when we unloaded we had to do quite a bit of work on the car.  We struggled with loose all day and the longer we run, the worse it got.
 
I don’t know; it was a bit of a hit and miss.  One of the runs on the green, we decided to ‑‑ we made a couple of big changes on the car, and the car just took off, came to life, and it came to life at the right time.  It’s a shame, you know, there at the end, it was way too loose and I just couldn’t hold Tony off.
 Q.  Can you talk about the last restart?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Jimmie was laying off about just nearly a car length from me, and I knew he was trying to jump the start.  And I backed off a little bit for us to line up, and he didn’t want to do it. …when we got to the line, I think he wanted to time it and he timed it too well, and he just ‑‑ you know, he wanted to get the jump on me and he just jump it too much.  I would have tried to have done the same.  It’s one of those deals that when you time it too good, it actually hurts you.
 Q.  Can you talk about the overall finish?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  We got two top fives in about a month, near misses, wins and I think they are coming.  I’ve said this before:  You have got to start running in Top‑5s, Top‑10s to be able to get wins, to give yourself a shot.
 
Today we gave ourselves a good chance.  Just the car was a little bit too much of a handful there at the end.  We tried and I think it was too hot on the tires the run before, and our left tires were completely gone I think.  Taking two really hurt us, but we had to for the track position.  It’s one of those deals.
 Q.  Can you talk about how your relationship has evolved with (ph) over the last year and a half?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Yeah, when we started, it was hard because he had a certain mentality the way the car had to be set up and I was like, you don’t get it, if you set it up like that and I can’t drive it, it doesn’t matter how good of a base set up it is.  You’ve got to give me something that I can drive and be comfortable and hustle the car.
 
It took a little bit of time, but now I think we are clicking really well and you know, we have been getting good results every week that it’s awesome.
Q.  You were testing here a couple of weeks ago and you were not very happy with the car ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Still wasn’t today.< br>Q.  But where did it click for you guys to be able to run Top‑5, Top‑10 today?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  The problem is us being pissed off with a car when we are not happy, it’s about a 15th place care.  When it was our best, we couldn’t run 20.  It’s all relative.  We unloaded really well and we did everything right.  You know, we had good strategy, good calls, made the car better and we were patient.
 
But you know, right there at the end, I was out of tires, and even, you know, I thought Jeff had me there at the end.
Q.  Just wanted to follow up, can you speak about the laps, fighting with Kurt, he seemed to be a little annoyed?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  It’s weird, I got to his bumper ‑‑ I don’t think I touched him, got him loose got into turn three, and he gave me a tap and I’m like, I don’t think I hit you ‑‑ I didn’t think I had.  But it’s okay.  It’s racing hard.
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AARP CREDIT CARDS FROM CHASE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
 
THE MODERATOR:  Jeff, great race out there today, talk a little about your run.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, it was a fantastic finish for us.  We battled hard all day long, hovering 13th, 14th, I think we got to maybe 10th at one time.
 
But I mean, it’s frustrating, you know, when you think you have a better car than that, but you’re trying to make adjustments on the pit stops and play the right tire strategy but you’re just not making any ground and you know, we just got fortunate there where we only had a few laps on the tires and we decided to stay out.
 
Right away on the restart, I knew that clean air was making a huge difference and we were able to stay up there and we went third, fourth, whatever it was, for that entire run, and you know, we knew we needed the caution to come out.  You hate to see it happen the way that it did but it certainly paid off for us to be able to come in and get four tires and have a good restart there to get third.
Q.  Overall do you think this is a turning point to get the season started?
JEFF GORDON:  It’s certainly a great feeling.  We have been running good.  We just, you know, have had some things happen to us, kind of like last year, some self‑inflicted and some things out of our hands.  We have just got to fight.  We fought hard today, very hard, and this is a tough place. It’s hot, slick.  It was not an easy race and this team just never gave up.  That’s what got us in the Chase last year and that’s what is going to get us in there this year.
 
It’s so hard.  Every time that we have a finish like we had at Darlington or a finish like we had today, or like Charlotte, it’s never over until it’s over.  We just never seem to get into a rhythm of momentum.
 
All I can tell you is our pit crew has definitely improved.  We made a little change there and it’s paying off for us.  Our cars have improved, so that always makes life a little easier, and now I just have to make sure I don’t make any mistakes.  I think Alan would probably second that; we
 
Today was a great race for us, just because we were sitting there 12th, 13th, 14th, and we stay out and all of a sudden, here we are third.  So that’s a great lesson for us to learn when we go to other tracks, as well.
             FastScripts by ASAP Sports

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FEDEX 400 BENEFITING AUTISM SPEAKS
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 2, 2013
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
IT’S DOVER YOU ARE IN VICTORY LANE CONGRATULATIONS:
“If somebody would have told me it was going to be that way yesterday I would have told them they were crazy.  This thing was not a car that could win the race.  Just great pit strategy at the end.  We had a car that was solid we just never got track position to get in clean air.  It felt a lot better up front.  Steve Addington (crew chief) made a great call there that last caution and gave us the opportunity to race for it up there.  It didn’t seem like the guys that took four tires had a huge advantage taking off there.  Just really proud of everybody on this Code 3 Associates Chevy.  Code 3 had done such an awesome job of getting everybody in Oklahoma back on their feet.  They have saved over 150 animals and helped reunite 40 pets with their owners.  Pretty cool what they do right now.  I couldn’t think of a better week to celebrate what Code 3 Associates does and their hard work.  Between them and Chevy and Bass Pro Shops, Mobil 1 all the Hendrick engine and chassis department everybody has been helpful.  Especially on the Hendrick side nobody knows how much they have tried to help out.  It’s greatly appreciated, but our guys at our shop have been digging.  None of these guys get down.  We have been down but they haven’t gotten down.  That is what carries you to days like today at the end of the day.”
 
TELL US ABOUT THE BATTLE WITH JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:
“When we noticed we were catching him we kind of got going on the bottom there and realizing we were making up even more time when we could stay right on the bottom.  He was smart he was watching and he picked up on that and moved down.  I couldn’t really make any ground there any more so I had to try something.  Jeff (Gordon) was coming behind us there.  I was willing to risk running third to battle for the win instead.  If it didn’t work out and I dropped back a spot it was worth it.  It’s fun.  It’s fun when you can battle guys like Juan Montoya and Jeff Gordon like that.  That is two pretty cool names to be racing for the win with.”
 
WHAT DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS DO FOR A TEAM THAT IS TRYING TO GET THEIR FOOTING BACK UNDER THEM NOW?
“It’s definitely momentum.  We got two weeks of momentum under our belt now at two totally different race tracks.  That is big.  Momentum is huge in this sport.  We still got a lot of work to do.  We won’t sit… I guarantee you none of these guys behind you will tell you we are exactly where we want to be right now.  It’s a good reward for how hard they have been working to get that first win of the year.  Now it’s trying to be more consistent and stay in the top-10 more and make our program better.  It’s proof that no matter how bad it’s been this year none of these guys have quit and given up.  Just really proud of the effort this weekend; I think we probably made more gains from Friday to right now than any team in the garage did.  I’m really proud of that fact.”
 
YOU TOLD YOUR GUYS NOT TO GIVE UP. WE WILL FIGURE THIS THING OUT. WITH THE CHALLENGES THIS YEAR, DOES IT MAKE THIS WIN EVEN MORE MEMORABLE FOR YOU AND THIS ENTIRE ORGANIZATION?
“Oh gosh, yes. It’s been such a tough year. And we had, not new partners to us at Stewart-Haas Racing, but new partners on the No. 14 car with Code 3 Associates this week. And with all the tragedies in Oklahoma, to be able to showcase a great partner like that that’s done so much to help so many people. It’s them and Mobil 1 and Bass Pro Shops, Rush Truck Centers, Coca-Cola, and Sprint, and most of all; it’s all of our fans out there. We’ve let them down for a long time. Hopefully today we’ll be starting on building that momentum back up now.”
 
YOU HAVEN’T WON HERE AT DOVER SINCE YOU SWEPT BOTH RACES IN 2000:
“Yeah, it’s been a while. Honestly, we tested here, which I thought would be an advantage coming here. And yesterday we took two steps backwards it seemed like, and yesterday it didn’t seem like we were much better. But I’m so proud of all of our guys and our engineers. They worked hard late into the night last night and never gave up. They kept working today. Addington’s pit strategy gave us the opportunity there at the end. It’s pretty cool. Not many times you get to outrace Juan Montoya. He figured out where I had been gaining ground and he made the adjustment and got going there and so we had to move around again, so found a little something on the top there. Everybody at Chevrolet has been helping us doing everything they can to help out and most of all, Rick Hendrick and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and the engine department and the chassis department and Doug Duchardt. Just everybody has dug deep to help us to get back to where we are today.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 ENERGIZER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
DESCRIBE THE CLOSING LAPS WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE?
“Our car was just a handful at the end.  We had a really quick car all day.  This Energizer Chevy everybody did a really good job.  I was just too loose.  I didn’t have enough drive off the corner.  I was too loose in.  It was hard I was trying to do the best I could.  The more you try and you stop using the tires the worse it is.  Then if you back off them it’s as bad.  It’s one of those deals where we were just not quick enough.”
 
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE RACE?
“It changed a ton.  We kept tightening the car up and it kept getting looser.  We kept making it tighter and tighter.  We really did two tires on mistake there.  He (Chris Heroy, crew chief) said two and then I guess when I was coming down I was on the radio and he said four, never heard him and left at two.  It actually worked out pretty well.”
 
A GREAT BATTLE! TELL US ABOUT THE END WITH TONY STEWART:
“He was way quicker. I don’t understand where he came from. He wasn’t that good all day, and he was good when it mattered. Our car, on that last run, it was a little tight the first few laps. I thought we were going to be good and then we started losing the rear really quick and never had any speed. It seems like you normally have like 10 or 15 laps where you can really mash the gas. I think our left tires were way too old. But everybody on the Energizer car this weekend did a really good job. I think that win is coming. It’s just good to be running this good every week.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AARP CREDIT CARDS FROM CHASE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“I thought we had a really good race car.  We just never could get the track position.  We kept adjusting on it.  We weren’t going anywhere.  We were making changes to the car, some were helping, some weren’t, but we still weren’t really making any ground.  We got fortunate we kind of stayed out under one green flag run; had pretty fresh tires then we were able to stay out on that one.  Great call, great pit stops, really proud to have Chase credit cards services, AARP reward card on this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet.  It was a fun day there at the end.  We were struggling and fighting hard all day, but came out with a good finish.”
 
WERE YOU WONDERING IF THE CAUTION GODS WOULD SMILE ON YOU AT THE END?
“Yeah, we needed some things to go our way and that’s something that’s been hit or miss for us this year. Finally things went our way. We made a call to stay out, which obviously paid off and gave us some good track position. Our car drove pretty good up front there. And
then we needed a caution. You hate to see what happened to Denny (Hamlin), I think it was Denny, happen, but it certainly paid off for us. So, then we had a car there with four tires that really took off. They pumped the air pressure up on them and it took off. I was able to get by Kyle (Busch), but it started getting pretty loose on me as I caught those other two and all I could do was watch at that point. So, we almost got Montoya on the last lap, but it almost cost us another position too, so it was a great top-three. Don’t forget to get your AARP Rewards Card from Chase. It was pretty cool having a unique paint scheme this week with a local company here from Wilmington that supports such a great cause with Drive to End Hunger.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS- FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS RUN:
“Our Jimmy John’s Chevy was good one run, really loose one run and really tight the next run.  At the end we were just loose and tight.  Then the run before on two tires really loose.  We hung in there and got a solid top-10.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON HIS RUN:
“Yeah, it was real hot, but we knew that going into the race.  We made our car better.  I felt like we had a real strong car the last half of the race.  We just couldn’t get track position, couldn’t pass.  We were faster than the guys in front of us at the end, but just couldn’t pass.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/MONSTERS UNIVERSITY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH
BACK HERE IN THE GARAGE WITH A DISAPPOINTED JIMMIE JOHNSON. DID YOU THINK YOU JUMPED THE RESTART?
“No, I was half-throttle for the whole front-stretch. And at some point, I gotta go. And in this situation, NASCAR has the judgment to decide if you jumped it or not. But I’m like, he’s (Juan Pablo Montoya) is not even going. So I’m not sure if his car broke or if off power or spun the tires. I don’t know. So I’m running half-throttle down the frontstretch waiting for him and he never comes. So at that point, we got back going. Chad (Knaus, crew chief) even told me on the radio that something that had happened and that I should just take off and not worry about it. And then we were called on it. So, a bummer way to lose a race. We certainly had the winning car. Would have loved to have this Monsters University Chevrolet in Victory Lane today, but we’ll have to come back and do it in the fall.”
 
EXPLAIN TO US WHAT YOU SAW THERE:
“Well unfortunately it’s in the towers hands at that point.  The tower can choose to decide if it was a legal start or not.  I didn’t know if he (Juan Pablo Montoya) broke or what…. I just don’t know.  I’m running half throttle down the front stretch waiting for him and he doesn’t come.  My vision is so limited inside the car.  I’m really a sitting duck.  They decided to call me on it.  I totally disagree with the call, but it is what it is and come back and try to win in the fall.”
 
DID YOU TRY TO GIVE JUAN PABLO MONTOYA THE SPOT BACK AT SOME POINT RIGHT AFTER THAT?
“I ran half throttle for the first half a lap waiting for him. Then at some point you have to go and you have to race.  That is when I got back in the gas and took off.  Went so long and I tried to give it back and I was hopeful they would look at the telemetry and see.  They have all that ability.  I was hopeful they would see I was trying to give them the spot back.  Again, I didn’t know if he broke, I didn’t know if he had contact, spun the tires and hit the outside wall.  I have no clue.  At some point I had to go and unfortunately they called me on it.”
 
ARE YOU SURPRISED THEY MADE THE CALL?
“I am.  Whatever happened he just did not go.  For me to run half throttle for half a lap and not get caught, I tried to give it back and he just wasn’t coming.  At a certain point I didn’t know if he was even still on the road or under power or whatever it was.  Wish they would have seen it a little differently.”
 
WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY? WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU JUST DIDN’T GO?
“I would have been passed by at least the No. 42 if not two or three others.  Once you get up to speed and the pack gets rolling it’s real hard to give it back and have it be fair for everybody.  Again, the issue that he had was so big.  I didn’t know if he lost power or what.  Eventually, I just had to get going and was called on it.”
 
WHAT DO THE OFFICIALS NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THIS SITUATION IN CASE IT HAPPENS AGAIN?
“I would just be wasting air talking about it.  There is always a judgment call in pro sports it doesn’t matter what the sport is.  Our sport doesn’t have many opportunities for that, but today we did and the call didn’t go my way.”
 
WAS IT MORE DISHEARTENING BECAUSE OF THE WAY YOU CAME BACK UP THROUGH THE FIELD?
“Yeah, you never want to lose especially when you have a chance to win. We could have made history today so that stings a little bit more.”
 
WHAT DO YOU DO THINK IF YOU ARE IN THE SAME SPOT AGAIN?
“Just go talk to them and try to find out what… help me better understand what I could have done is really how I’m going to enter that conversation.”
 
YOU WENT A LAP DOWN EARLY AND WERE ABLE TO TURN THINGS AROUND:
“I was really puzzled what was going on with the car.  Must have been that set of tires because after that the car came to life and was great.  We were really bad at the start of the race.”
 
WAS CARL (EDWARDS) RELATING BECAUSE HE CAME OVER AND TALKED TO YOU.  WAS HE RELATING WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM LAST YEAR?
“He didn’t say anything he just couldn’t believe I got called on it because the No. 42 took off so slow.  He said he felt for me.”