NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES
MARCH 10, 2013
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
TALK ABOUT THE BATTLE AT THE END OF THE RACE WITH MATT KENSETH: 
“I had an unbelievable Farmers Insurance Chevrolet.  Throughout the whole race the pit stops were great.  We just came out sixth there which I think Matt (Kenseth) would have beat us out anyways because he didn’t take tires.  Tough to say if we would have gotten by him, but I think just two cycles on left sides I wasn’t quite as good.  I couldn’t turn down the track quite as well as I could the runs before.  It just got greasy out there and that was it.  He beat us, but I had a great day.  I drove so hard every single lap today and I think that is just the new Gen-6 car and the Chevy SS.  It was a lot of fun.  I love it.  I had the car to beat today, we lost, but it was still a great run for all of our guys.” 


 
YOU LED THE MOST LAPS IT JUST SEEMED LIKE YOU WERE DOMINATING THE RACE, BUT AT THE END IT JUST DIDN’T SEEM LIKE YOU COULD CATCH MATT (KENSETH, RACE WINNER) WHAT WERE YOU FEELING?
“I caught him, I just couldn’t pass him.  We definitely had the best car today our Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. Everybody did a perfect job, when I got to him at the end my tires got a little greasy.  I think it was two runs on left-side tires made it a little more difficult to pass that final run there.  Prior to that I could pull down and pass anyone on the track, including Matt (Kenseth) who was out there.  Just that last run just wasn’t quite as good on two runs on left sides.  We still had a great day.  My engine ran unbelievable, the car was perfect and the guys did an awesome job.  We just didn’t get the win.”
 
HOW GOOD DID IT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT THREE OF THE FOUR HENDRICK CARS WERE IN THE TOP-FIVE, TOP-10 ALL DAY?
“Well I could see them all day.  I battled with Jimmie (Johnson) at one point.  He was quick during the middle part of the race.  Our testing went really well over the off-season with the Gen-6 car and I really felt confident coming into a 1.5-mile track that we would have a great shot and we did.  Our cars were quick all day.” 
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY ORANGE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SEVENTH


TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY NOT TOO BAD: 
“We ran a little bit better than where we finished, but just needed a little track position at the end.  Couldn’t really get going, just didn’t, I don’t know, the car was pretty good, not exceptional, but we got a pretty good little start to the season.  We are working on it trying to improve and we are running up front.  So, real happy with that, real happy with our performance.”
 
HOW SLICK WAS IT OUT THERE TODAY?
“I loved it.  It was so much fun.  We were moving all over the race track.  Just aside from the bumps, I’m not a big fan of all them bumps down in turn one.  The surface and race ability here is just what all tracks ought to strive for.  There are a few just like it on the circuit like Atlanta, but all the tracks ought to shoot for something like this.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS –FINISHED 6th:
“It was a strong performance for the Kobalt Tools Chevrolet. I wish we could have been in Victory Lane with our sponsor as the race sponsor.”
 
ON BATTLING WITH TEAMMATE KASEY KAHNE
“We were racing really hard. It’s fun to race that fast. We were flying (laughs). But at the end, I just wish we had a little bit more to go up there and race with those guys.  But it was a solid performance, all in all.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/SERTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 20TH
“We just never got up to speed,” said Busch. “The car was loose then it was snug and no matter what adjustments were made we never could find the right balance for this track. We needed one more caution at the end to get back on the lead lap, which would have given us a good opportunity to pick up additional positions. It wasn’t our day.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – SIDELINED WITH ENGINE PROBLEMS ON LAP 235
“I missed a shift. And I missed a shift because of the restart. But that’s my responsibility; not those guys in front of me. It was a disappointing day for the Quicken Loans Chevrolet team. It’s entirely on me. But yeah, the restart, if I wanted to point fingers it was the restart. But it was still my fault.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 RHEEM CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED NINTH
ON HIS RACE:
“The Rheem guys battled hard today, and we were able to pick up our first top-10 finish of the season. Our car was fast, but we had a few issues with the handling during the race. The No. 29 team kept at it all day making changes that allowed us to leave here (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) with a good finish.”
 
Team Chevy Drivers Take Five of the Top-Ten Spots at Las Vegas
Kasey Kahne Dominates Much of the Kobalt Tools 400 to Finish Second
 
LAS VEGAS – (March 10, 2013) – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, led 114 of the 267 laps that made up the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway today, but was not able to make it back to the point after restarting seventh on the final restart.   Kahne came home second and posted his fifth top-ten finish in ten races at Las Vegas.   It was his first top-ten finish of 2013 and he moved from 31st to 14th in the overall point standings.
 
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS, had another solid performance as he came home sixth after running in the top-five for most of the day and leading 66 laps.   Johnson has finished first, second and sixth to start the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and leads the point standings after three events so far this year.
 
Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, finished seventh in today’s event and sits third in the overall point standings.
 
Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet SS, started eighth and finished ninth while his Richard Childress Racing teammate Paul Menard scored his first top-ten finish of 2013 in the Menards/Schrock Chevrolet SS.   
 
Finishing just outside the Top 10 were Tony Stewart, No. 14 MOBIL 1 Racing/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS in 11th and Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet SS was 13th.
 
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was the race winner, Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished third, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fourth, and Carl Edwards (Ford) was fifth, to round out the top five.
 
The series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next week for the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 17th.  
 
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND:
 
KERRY THARP:  Joining us now also is our race runner‑up, and that’s Kasey Kahne.  He drove the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.  Kasey, you certainly had a car that looked like could win the race, led a lot of laps, passed people, you were fast.  Just talk about how things went out there today for you, and I know you’re trying to track down that 20 there the last few laps.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, started of the race pretty good, was a little bit too loose, and Kenny Francis and Keith (Rodden, engineer) , they made great calls to tighten the car up and get it driving perfect, and from there on it was about making the right pit calls and the pit stops were good.  I just had an awesome car.  It felt about perfect, I think, throughout three quarters of that race.
 
There at the end we had two cycles on left sides, and I just got kind of ‑‑ M
att did everything right.  That’s when I caught him, I was like, man, this is not the guy you want to have to race with 10 to go because he’s going to do everything right.  You’re going to have to figure out how to squeeze by him.  And you know he had a fast car, too, so it was difficult.  He did a perfect job and we came back second.  But still a good run.  I think we were seventh maybe after that one restart and fought back to second, so we had a great car, did everything right.  We just didn’t quite get there.
 
Q.  I don’t know if you saw Kyle take a line under the white line.  Did you ever consider making that move to try to overtake Matt?

KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I saw that, the problem was Matt was doing that.  That’s what he was doing.  So I could follow him and kind of stay in his draft a little bit and stick with him about the same amount, and when I didn’t do that, he would pull away.  So it was definitely faster down there if you got a good run off turn four to do that down the front straightaway.  So yeah, he did that so I would have had to go through the grass, and I didn’t want to do that.
 
Q.  Kasey, Matt didn’t take any tires in the last pit stop, and he actually told his team with about 10 laps to go that he thought he’d blown the race.  Did you think at some point you were going to overtake him because of that?

KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I really thought I was, but I just felt like I could have got there, you know, the way the car handled throughout the race and how I could turn down in the center of the corner and carry a ton of speed doing it.  I felt really confident, that when I got to him I’d be able to do that again like I had raced with Kyle (Busch) and Jimmie (Johnson) earlier in the race.  And when I got to Matt I couldn’t do it, so I was trying to brake in and mess with anything that I could, lift early, lift late, try it all, and just couldn’t find a way past him.
 
So he just did a really good job of keeping his momentum up, keeping his speed.  He was cutting across me off the corner.  We were kind of tight, loose and he just put up a great battle and pulled it off on told tires, did a good job.
 

Q.   Kasey, there was a lot of criticism coming into this week about the new car, seemed like they were pretty racy out there, a lot of guys moving up through the field.  Could I get your impressions on the new car?

KASEY KAHNE:  My car drove good.  I felt like I could pass, I could race underneath the car, do things that maybe I wouldn’t have been able to do in the past.  First time on a mile and a half with this new Gen‑6 car, and I would say to have the same tires ‑‑ this is the same tire, also, which we didn’t have last week, which was a big part of the Phoenix deal.
 
I think the car itself today was ‑‑ I had a lot of fun driving it, and I thought it was a heck of a race.  I got to race through cars, traffic and battle for the lead four, five, six times.  I felt really confident with our Chevy SS.
 
Q.  We had the restrictor plate at Daytona, we had the kind of unconventional layout at Phoenix.  Some races just look visibly fast watching it. Today looked like a bunch of guys that had kind of been cut loose.  Did it feel like that out there today because it just looked fast?

KASEY KAHNE:  I wasn’t surprised by the pace because of the practice speeds, and the pace that we could run there for 10 or 15 laps, depending on how long we stayed out in practice.  Today with it being hotter and a little bit slicker, like Brad said, I thought it was a lot of fun.  I mean, you could get a little bit loose and not have to like call it quits and get on the brakes and onto the gas and all that, you could just kind of drive through it and ease back on the throttle.  It was exciting.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed driving the car today and thought the pace was up.  I’ve never had great cars here, I’ve had some pretty good ones, but today I’ve never driven that hard for 267 laps before, either.

Q.  Kasey, oddly on the final laps you and Kenseth are chasing each other and you’ve got a deal with the lap traffic in front of you.  Who’s got the spotter communication?  Are you listening to it in the car and urging them?  What’s going on with both parties in terms of the communication on that stretch run?

KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I mean, for myself I’m just kind of paying attention to what’s Matt’s doing and what I need to do and where I need to place my car in order to try to get a run on him and at least get beside him and see what can happen from there.  As far as the spotters, Matt’s spotter is probably trying to talk to a few of the guys that we were lapping saying, hey, give us some space, whatever.  I was hoping maybe they’d run Matt’s line and he’d have to go to the bottom and I thought maybe I could get a run that way.  I think we eased through six or seven lap cars there and most of them went to the bottom and you could pass them fairly easy.  It wasn’t too bad.  It didn’t slow Matt up at all, which I was hoping someone at some point would slow him up a touch, but it never happened.
 
 Q.  How important are the restarts at this point because the last two restarts looked very, very hairy, and to hear everybody say that they want to be in clean air, obviously there’s an advantage up there.  Can we expect some of the best action now to be coming out of the restarts?

KASEY KAHNE:  I felt like the ‑‑ I thought restarts last year meant a lot, and if you didn’t get a good restart you’d lose those spots and it would take 40 laps before you could get back by that guy.  I thought similar today everybody was trying to push a little bit, slow up, get a bump on the straightaway.  Matt about crashed doing that, he spun his tires or tried to wait for Carl a little bit.  But he had him completely sideways and in front of us.  I think it’s big, to try to get through (turns) one and two as quick as you can and get position on another car is key.  If you can do that and get one or two spots, you’re making it a lot easier on yourself for the next 40, 50 laps of that race run.
 
Q.  We’ve had three very different tracks so far.  Next week we go to another one, Bristol.  Have you guys had much practice on the half-mile and do you have a feel for how this car is going to race on a short track?

KASEY KAHNE:  I haven’t.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 8, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY ORANGE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and discussed racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, consistency in finishes and other topics. Full transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT THE PAINT SCHEME ON YOUR RACE CAR THIS WEEKEND AND HOW THE TEST WENT YESTERDAY AND YOU’RE OUTLOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND AT LAS VEGAS:
“The day went pretty good. We had pretty good speed right off the trailer and just worked with a lot of things. Everybody had a lot of time yesterday to really kind of get up to speed. By the end of the day, everybody was running about the same times. We had more than enough practice really this weekend so I’m not too worried about what we didn’t get to do today because yesterday was way more than we needed to be honest. Feeling good, just hope we get a little time just to make sure everything is working right and get a couple laps Saturday just to make sure everything is cool and we’ll be ready to go.”
 
CAN YOU CARRY OVER YOUR GOOD RUN FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS RACE WITH THE NEW CAR?
“The car is really the same chassis, it’s still got the splitter. It’s just a little different, the body is different and the spoiler’s different, the aero is way different. It didn’t make a lot of rule changes to the back of the car, the way we were using the rear-end housing and stuff. We were ready to race in two hours of yesterday. Everybody knows what they’re doing and the cars aren’t really a mystery so just getting out on the track and making sure it don’t hit the ground and get the balance where you want and you’re ready to go.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN GAMBLE FOR THE WIN NOW THAT YOU ARE CONSISTENTLY IN THE TOP-10?
“I don’t know what we could have done to really gamble to win any differently. I mean it’s not like there is some window of opportunity in every race where everybody could just take a wild gamble. We’re running as hard as we can run every lap and that’s all you can do.”
 
WILL YOU CURTAIL YOUR COMMENTS AFTER DENNY HAMLIN’S FINE OR WILL YOU JUST BE YOURSELF?
“I think we were told a couple years ago to just sort of watch all the negative comments and tones when we were — I think after Talladega was a good example several years ago, but I don’t recall which year it was. I thought it was clear to all of us to be careful how we said what was on our mind. I don’t think they mind you coming up in the hauler and talking about what you think about the racing and how you think things could improve or what might improve things. I think that they’re open to listening to that kind of stuff. We always want to get better and always want to strive to be better as a sport. I think we’re going in a good direction, I like the new car. Obviously, I’ve had a couple good runs with it so I’m excited about what we have going on and things are only going to get better from here as we learn more and more about tires and the tire is changing quite a bit with the way they’re trying to make tires and trying to go green on the tires and stuff like that. That’s really going to change the way the cars react. Everybody has to understand that the tire has a lot to do with how these cars drive. That’s what connects them to the race track. I think Goodyear is doing a good job trying to improve things there and we’re learning a ton so it involves more than just the vehicle itself. It’s all kinds of things and NASCAR is doing a lot of good things. There’s a lot of good ideas moving around, a lot of good conversations happening that I’m happy to hear and happy to see going on that I think we’re going in a good direction.”
 
WILL THINGS DEVELOP WEEK TO WEEK WITH THE NEW CAR THAT WILL MAKE THE RACING DIFFERENT?:  “The track and the surface of the track has a lot to do with it, the particular tire and the compound of the tire, the side wall, the softness of the compound. All those things really play a big role. Look at the variety of race tracks we have on the circuit, every one of them is completely different. We joke about how the mile-and-a-halves are all the same and all that stuff, but every one of them is different in their own way. You’re not going to go to every race track and see the exact same race. The surfaces are different, the tires are different and the way you set the cars up and the setups that you run in the cars are different. The geometry that you might run in one place versus another is different. Everything about the whole race weekend and the process is different so you’re going to see a different race everywhere you go. I think as we learn more and more about these cars and what makes them work and drive better, things can only get better as far as the product we put out there every week. It’s a new car, there’s a lot of things to learn and that’s what everybody in the garage is trying to do is trying to get an advantage on the rest of competitors out there. We had a good opportunity yesterday with 12 hours of practice. I was kind of glad to see it rain today because I practiced enough, I was ready to race.”
 
HOW TELLING WILL THIS RACE BE TO HOW YOU WILL BE ON INTERMEDIATE TRACKS THIS YEAR?:  “It can. This place has got a lot of bumps going into turn one. They are something else, I’m impressed each time I come here how much rougher it is. That really challenges you to set the car up to be able to get through them bumps and you might run a little different style shock package to do that where at Michigan or Charlotte or somewhere that doesn’t have bumps like, you don’t have to run that style of package so the setups are getting further apart I guess as far as most mile-and-a-halves and we run at Vegas. It does set the tone. Confidence is everything and when you go to Vegas and you run well, you expect to go to the next mile-and-a-half at Texas or wherever it may be and run well.”
 
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY?:  “At Fontana? I like the way the track has gotten really wide and you can run at the bottom or you can run at the top or the middle. I just love tracks like that. They put on really good races and there’s opportunities to pass when you run a guy down, you can change the line you’re running and get some clean air on your car and you feel confident that if you do the right thing and drive the car well that you can make a pass. I love that about that race track. The surface has got a good age on it and we even run on the apron some down there in turn three and four, which  is a lot of fun when you can get your car to do that. It’s a wide track, I think the racing there is a lot of fun for a driver.”
 
DO YOU THINK MEETINGS BETWEEN THE MAJOR DRIVERS IN THE SPORT STILL TAKE PLACE LIKE THEY DID YEARS AGO?:  “Who’s to say those meetings don’t happen today? I think they do and I think that those meetings are very productive and it’s a great way to get a lot of good ideas moving across the table and I think that a lot of the innovation that you’ve seen in the sport in the last probably five or six years have come from those discussions. There’s a lot of good dialogue and I think those style of meetings are still prevalent.”
 
HAVE YOU INSPIRED OTHER PEOPLE WITH YOUR CLEANSE DIET?:  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t recommend what I did to anybody. I really did it on a dare plus I was alright that if I lost 10 pounds then that was going to be a bonus. A buddy of mine just dared me to do it. He told me about it and I was a little jealous so I went for it, but it only lasted 15 days. It was no problem.”
 
ARE YOU BACK TO EATING CHEESEBURGERS?:  “No. I like a good steak, but I haven’t ate a cheeseburger in I can’t remember how long. Once I got about 34 or 35 I kind of had to start watching the cheeseburgers and chicken wings and the pizzas be
cause I swear I would probably eat two or three pizzas a week around that time. Those were the good days.”
 
WAS THERE A SPECIFIC REASON YOU ARE RUNNING THE NATIONWIDE RACE THIS WEEKEND OTHER THAN SPONSOR WANTING YOU TO RUN?:  “It had probably a lot to do with the financial side of it, but I was looking forward to doing a little more racing. I do enjoy racing at the plate tracks, but I think to truly benefit me in any way on Sunday, I think it would be better to run at one or two more mile-and-a-halves. I’m excited to have the opportunity to run this weekend to hopefully learn a little bit about maybe the tire or something or how the track changed or what condition the track is in as far as Sunday goes. Even though we didn’t run very well last week, I think Jimmie (Johnson) and Chad (Knaus) feel like they learned a lot about the tire and the track and just a little about the strategy stuff because the tire wasn’t wearing out that much. Taking two tires and alternating left to right, things like that really started to show themselves Saturday so they learned quite a bit. We want to definitely use that race on Saturday to help us if we can in any way and I haven’t been in the Nationwide car so I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of speed we’ve got.  Hopefully we’ll get out there for a couple hours.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 8, 2013
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 RACING/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) and discussed winning at LVMS last season, competing at the Bullring and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT WINNING HERE LAST YEAR; THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A RACE TRACK THAT YOU HAVE LOOKED FORWARD TO COMING TO:
“I think everybody does.  It’s probably one of the most fun places you can go to all year and have so many things to do.  We are all getting a chance to do that a little earlier today because of Mother Nature.  I think we are all excited about being here. Excited about coming back after a year that we won and a year before where we were a dominate car and ended up second.  This place has been pretty good to us.”
 
HOW LONG IS IT GOING TO BE REALISTICALLY TO GET THE CAR DEVELOPED TO THE POTENTIAL WHERE THE RACING IS AS GOOD AS EVERYBODY HOPES IT IS GOING TO BE?
“I said it last week and I said it the week before.  The one thing you guys have got to understand when we all built these new cars not one of them came with an instruction manual.  That is the easiest way to describe it.  You literally have to figure it out as you go.  It’s impossible to give you an answer, an accurate answer.  It is literally a work in progress. I thought last week for a new car I thought last week was a really good debut for it.  I personally think it’s off to a great start and it’s got a lot of potential.  We had good racing, we had a good finish and everybody is going to keep learning.  Everybody has their piece of the equation that they will figure out.  You have to start somewhere and for it to debut the way that it has I think has been a very positive start.”
 
IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE DRIVERS WHO HAS CHASE HOPES AND YOU ARE 30TH OR LOWER IN POINTS RIGHT NOW WHEN DO YOU START TO GET A LITTLE CONCERNED?
“I honestly don’t know.  It’s so early right now; there are so many things that can happen that I think it’s way too early to be thinking about that.  I think if you are a team that is worrying about it right now you were probably worried about just making it in to begin with.  I think the teams that have confidence that they are going to be in or should be in the Chase probably aren’t that concerned about it at this point.”
 
WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE AND WHAT WAS THE IMPORTANCE OF WHEN YOU USED TO RUN USAC OUT AT THE BULLRING HERE? WHAT DID THAT MEAN TO YOUR CAREER?  YOU RAN THE (WORLD OF) OUTLAW RACES THE PAST COUPLE OF NIGHTS WHAT KIND OF FUN DO YOU GET OUT OF THAT?
“I don’t have a wife and kids to go home to so I get to go race without getting yelled at.  I have only ran the Bullring actually one weekend out there.  It was a doubleheader with the midgets and sprint cars.  We got lucky enough to win both races that night.  We’ve got a pretty good memory of that place.  It was fun.  It’s a fun track.  This facility has got four or five…actually flying in they’ve got an awesome go kart track.  This facility has got so much acreage in it and the ability to do so many things.  To have a drag strip, a dirt track, a great 1.5-mile oval, the go kart track, an off-road track, the Bullring, they’ve got a road course out there.  This place has it all.  That is something that is pretty cool. There were four or five different divisions that ran the last two nights before we even ran anything over here.  To see how many different types of cars they can accommodate here is a pretty neat deal.”
 
HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TIRES LAST WEEK ON THE CARS OF RYAN NEWMAN AND DANICA PATRICK? AND IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN?
“They lost air (laughter). Why they lost air, I have no idea. It’s a work in progress and I’m sure that the crew chiefs and the engineers are working hard this week to figure it out all out. It’s kind of hard sometimes when it happens because with the wreck that happens after that can sometimes take away the evidence of what actually caused it. But I think the second one on Ryan’s car was definitely heat-related for sure because it had knocked the cooling ducts out. So, we’re speculating that it’s heat-related.
 
YOU ALSO WON AT FONTANA. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RETURNING TO THAT TRACK IN THE NEW CAR?
“Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s on the schedule (laughter). I don’t know that there is any big super-thing about it. We’re all going back everywhere this year with a new car. We’re going with a new car. So it’s kind of like starting from scratch. It’s nice knowing that we had a good run there last year and we have a pretty good feel for the track and where we think we need to be on it.”
 
YOU SAID AT THE START OF THE YEAR YOUR GOAL WAS TO RUN 100 RACES THIS YEAR. HOW MANY OUTSIDE OF NASCAR HAVE YOU RUN? HOW HAVE YOU DONE SO FAR?
“We’ve run six outside of NASCAR so far. I think our highest finish was third at Ocala. I think our worst finish was actually over here two nights ago when we finished 22nd.  We’re definitely going to hit 100 this year. We’re actually going to be at between 65 and 70 Sprint Car races right now with the schedule the way it is. That’s not counting three rainouts that we already had. So we have a pretty ambitious schedule this year and it will put us almost at 110 races total for the year if we get to run them all.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 8, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and discussed testing at Las Vegas, the handling of the new cars and other topics. Full transcript:
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN YESTERDAY THAT NOW THE RAIN IS GOING TO UNDO?
“Not sure the rain will undo a ton. I’m glad we got on track yesterday. That was a good move by NASCAR to give us some extra time on top of the fact that if we did have rain or some issues, we would all have on track activity. I feel good. We worked on race trim and qualifying trim so I don’t know if they would, but if they say, ‘Hey, you guys got your practice yesterday and we’re going to put qualifying into effect this afternoon and that’s all we get,’ then I feel like we have our bases covered. Our car was fast. It took us a few runs to sort out things down in one and two over the bumps, but once we got that under control then we had a lot of speed in our Chevy.”
 
WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE FINE TO DENNY HAMLIN AND DOES THAT CHANGE HOW YOU APPROACH ANYTHING GOING FORWARD?
“I think we’re all watching and learning as things unfold and we do know that NASCAR is sensitive to some things and that line is becoming more defined right now as to where that is and what type of criticism is allowed and what is not.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR PROFESSIONALISM WILL HELP YOU TO ADAPT TO ANY CHANGES OR ANY MOVEMENT THAT NASCAR MAKES IN THIS AREA?
“I think we’re all learning and we’ve all been encouraged to have an opinion and speak our minds about each other as drivers and on certain topics. The old phrase ‘actions detrimental to stock car racing,’ that’s something that I am going to try to keep top of mind and as my opinions come about if it’s something that’s going to hurt our sport and I think about it and it enters my mind then I probably need to keep my mouth shut and head over to the truck and talk it out in there rather than through microphones.”
 
HOW MUCH WILL THE NEW CAR IMPACT A SHORT TRACK RACE LIKE BRISTOL COMPARED TO A TRACK LIKE LAS VEGAS?
“I think short track racing is going to be short track racing. The bumpers aren’t as square so the bump-and-run can be far more effective. It was really tough to get somebody out of the way with the COT or Gen-5 car so we might see a little difference there. I think the crash damage is going to be different. There is some glass on the nose of these cars that we can fold up pretty easily and we might have to cut noses off the cars even from not being part of a crash, but just the stack up on the restart might cave in noses. We might have some modified looking vehicles out there running around. There will be a learning process. I don’t think the aero balance and implications there will come through, but we’ll be talking a lot more about less weight, the type of camber we’re allowed to run this year and things like that.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT WAS YOUR FIRST ROAD COURSE WIN AT SONOMA?
“It was huge to get that first win out there. I hope to get another. I’ve been competitive since that day and that’s something I’m very proud of. That track is tough for me to get a hold of and especially with the big Cup car. I just melt the tires of the car and could be fast for a few laps and that was the end of me. Thankful I got my win and I hope to get back to victory lane again out there. It’s such a cool race track.”
 
IS STARTING THE SEASON WITH A FIRST AND SECOND PLACE FINISH COMPETITIVE OR DOMINANT?
“One, one would be dominant, one-two is competitive. We’re around the front throughout the Phoenix race, but didn’t have a chance to lead and take control so I would even put that more in a competitive mindset, but we’re still learning. Daytona is its own animal. Phoenix was a very good sign that we have speed in our cars and I think by the time we get to California Speedway we’ll have a much better idea of which organizations and which makes have the speed.”
 
HOW MUCH OF WHAT YOU LEARNED YESTERDAY TRANSFERS TO THIS WEEKEND AND HOW MUCH TRANSFERS TO THE FUTURE RACES?
“A lot, we’re learning a ton. Phoenix, things changed quite a bit and I can use Kasey Kahne and myself as an example, they’re thought and setup was very, very fast there last year. They came back this year and had to work pretty hard to get it. We showed up at Phoenix and was fast right off the truck. Coming here, running a very similar package to what we thought worked here last time, it didn’t exactly work. The front end didn’t ride like it should and we had to go to work and get the front end to stay down on the car and not bounce up and down so bad through the bumps. Some of that is probably due to the fact that the splitter is a much more solid structure now where before you had some give in the front end of the car and stuff would move. NASCAR added a bunch of bars up there to stiffen that and splitter contact has a big impact on how the race car drives now and we were feeling that yesterday.”
 
HOW MUCH DO THINGS CHANGE TO IMPACT THE HANDLING OF A CAR COMPARED TO YOUR TEAM’S SIMULATION PROGRAMS?
“The structure of the nose is one and the other part is the data that we have for race tracks to run in our sim (simulation) program and all the machines we have at home, it’s so old. That’s the biggest reason every team is excited for testing this year so that we can go out and get some current data files. As tracks evolve every winter and every summer, we haven’t had a chance to pull data here in a long, long time so we’re just working on old data and a lot has changed out there.”
 
DO YOU THINK THE LIGHTER CAR WILL MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE AT BRISTOL?
“I think the mechanical aspects will help the cars at Bristol. The last time there we were very curious about the grinding and what would happen and what wouldn’t. The track just changed in some ways and we will just go back and get in a rhythm and see what happens. For the longest time we were not competitive at that track and now we’re in the mix and I’m really happy about that.”
 
WILL YOU LEARN  A LOT SUNDAY ABOUT HOW THE CARS RACE WITH EACH OTHER?
“Yeah, we’re still learning a lot, even by ourselves in trying to understand the race tracks and how the car wants to be setup. Then at these higher speeds, downforce-wise, this will be our first exposure to it. I tried to get around some cars yesterday, things seem stable at least catching one car, but when you get all 43 in a big pack and the air is really swirling around then the cars drive a lot different. There will be a lot of learning going on come Sunday.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 8, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed his thoughts on racing this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his thoughts on Denny Hamlin’s fine and other topics.  FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
WHAT COMES TO YOUR MIND FIRST WHEN YOU COME OUT TO LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?
“I think of a fast high banked 1.5-mile race track with some real challenges.  That is what competitors love. They love a good challenge.  The competition brings that in itself and that seems to always come out here.  There are some pretty significant bumps going into turn one at this track.  You are always battling with getting the grip, getting the balance, but also trying to figure out how to get over these bumps.  That was what we struggled with the most yesterday during testing.  We anticipated that coming in.  It was evident yesterday and so it’s something that we definitely worked on overnight to try to improve for today.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SPEAKING UP?  YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY IN THE RIGHT WAY.  IT’S KIND OF A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD FOR DRIVERS.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“My first initial thoughts are that I think we brought more light to the situation by the fine.  I question that, but at the same time we are all in this together to grow this sport.  You learn from your failures as well as the things that you did well.  I think that when I look back on… I guess we are calling it Gen-5, when did Gen-5 come?  Somebody is going to have to explain to me Gen-5 exactly because I don’t remember one through four.  Anyway, I think that we all learn through that experience that while that car didn’t drive great, it didn’t look great, but it actually didn’t race bad.  Yet, we were very critical of that car.  Now we have a car that looks great, drives good, and we have done two races.  I think it is a little early to be really gauging where we are at from how it races. I think that we have to understand that we all play a role in growing this sport. When we say and do things that negatively could affect the sport, while sometimes it doesn’t need to be said because other people are paying attention to what is happening and making their own opinions you don’t need to say that.  I think that it was obviously pretty evident to me that NASCAR decided that was taking it too far.”
 
FROM WHAT YOU KNOW OF DENNY (HAMLIN) ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT HE IS CHOOSING TO STAND HIS GROUND AT ALL?  WHAT DO YOU THINK HIS CHANCES OF SUCCESS ARE GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH NASCAR?
“We are in (Las) Vegas so we can try to count the odds of when the apology is going to be coming and when the ‘we are all in this together to grow this sport’ tweet is going to be coming.  You guess is as good as mine.  Listen, I think it’s been an interesting story for somebody to challenge that authority.  That is fine, but at the end of the day I know whose sand box I’m playing in.  I like the sandbox.  I like to play in it and I want to have the best opportunity to have the most fun in that sandbox.  Sometimes while you don’t always like it you have to bite your tongue and just go out there and race.  I have been there before where I have wanted to challenge that and say those things.  If he chooses to do that, that is his prerogative.  I think in his mind he is just being honest with himself and didn’t see anything wrong with it.  Again, look bigger picture.  That is the way I look at it.  There are times when I feel like ‘hey, this is my place to speak my mind and say what is there.’ But, as Claire (B. Lang) said sometimes I just choose to do it a little bit less harsh.”
 
WHEN YOU DO CHOOSE TO SPEAK YOUR MIND DO YOU THINK YOU WILL THINK ABOUT THE WAY THAT YOU ARE GOING TO SPEAK YOUR MIND, THE COMMENTS THAT YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE BASED ON THIS MOST RECENT PENALTY AND THE WAY THAT (DENNY) HAMLIN APPROACHED IT?
“No, I’m going to go about it the same way that I always do.  I feel like I try to think before I say anything.  I try to think if this is going to be something that is going to negatively affect the sport, negatively affect my sponsors or myself, my team and is it worth it.  I try to do that when I am doing interviews and when I’m talking about things that are going on.  It’s hard to kind of do that in the heat of the moment over the radio during a race, but when I get  out of the car I’m usually pretty good at being able to do that and think about that.  I won’t be doing anything any different than I ever have before.”
 
HOW DO DRIVERS PREPARE DIFFERENTLY IF YOU HAVE CURVED PIT ROADS VERSUS STRAIGHT ONES?
“The thought process is usually more as you talk to your crew chief depending on where you qualifying there are certain… I think of Richmond as one that has a pretty good curve to it.  Like Phoenix last week down in (turns) one and two you make those decisions based on where you qualify and where you would like to pit and the advantages and disadvantages of those types of pit roads.  The curves are usually less of a concern as the grip level of a pit road or an opening on pit road.  Usually, you are trying to qualify better to get either that number one stall so you just have to roll across the line to beat other cars out under caution. Or you are looking for an opening to where it is just clean in, clean out.  This particular pit road has the concrete pads that we see a lot.  But, they are all different textures in how they finish them.  This one is extremely slick.  So you have to be very careful coming in.  You don’t get much grip leaving as well, so you spin the tires a lot so you are trying to minimize that.  You really can over shoot this pit road, the pit boxes very easily.  Now, the transition from the track onto pit road is extremely I don’t know extreme I guess is the only way I can say the transition is a significant one.  You have to definitely manage that risk versus reward entering the pit road as well.”
 
IS THAT WHY A LOT OF THE PIT CREW GUYS PUT DOWN COCA-COLA FOR GRIP?
“Pepsi in my pit box, but yes.  We do whatever NASCAR will allow us to do.  Because of the, like I mentioned, the slippery… that stuff really doesn’t help me until I lay rubber down on it and slide the tires across it.  Then when that rubber gets laid into that syrup or whatever it is that they are putting on there.  Then it gives me more grip, but for them it is instantly more grip.  It’s more for them.  You don’t want those guys slipping and sliding around, especially the ones carrying tires and the jack.  Then there are some safety issues as well, but most of the time we do it for speed.”
 
AS A GUY WHO SPENT ALL OF LAST SEASON BATTLING BACK FROM A POOR START.  WHAT DOES THAT TAKE OUT OF A TEAM?  DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS WERE SPENT BY THE TIME YOU FINISHED THAT CLIMB AND GOT INTO THE CHASE?
“We were, it can either tear you completely a part or make you stronger.  I think in our case it made us stronger.  I think that is just a sign of how strong knit of a team that we are, how we communicate because we were challenged every weekend with good race cars and bad results.  We just kept fighting through it.  In this sport, in this day and age, it’s so competitive, so far back that it is hard to find your way out of that type of a hole if you get into one early in the season.  You’ve got to perform extremely well, really go on a streak in order to get out of it.  I think it is the best thing that happened to us even though I don’t like the way we ended up the sea
son.  I think that coming into this season and the way we ended the final race of last year going through all those tougher times certainly made my communication and relationship with Alan Gustafson (crew chief) and our engineers much stronger.  Even just yesterday we struggled.  We weren’t very good during the test.  Yet, at the end of the day we weren’t pointing fingers at one another, we were just working to get through it and to make sure that today we made improvements or at least by Sunday.”
 
IS THERE TOO MUCH TRANSPARENCY IN THE SPORT TODAY?
“I think that is some of NASCAR’s response to this is that they like to be given the opportunity to discuss it and work on it more privately.  I have mentioned this many times in here the schedule, the competitiveness, now all these debriefs that we do with our teams and how we don’t practice after the Nationwide race like we used to.  We find ourselves doing more for sponsors as well.  There is just not that opportunity that there used to be to see three, four, five, six guys up in the NASCAR hauler discussing the sport and discussing the rules and discussing the racing.  Whether or not that… and I’ve always told NASCAR, that wasn’t because we thought we were actually being heard or we actually thought we were making a difference it was just we felt like we were getting it off our chests and that they might be listening.  I think that we lose some of that now.  I’m a big fan or true drivers meetings. I’m not talking about on Sunday morning.  I’m talking about get the group of drivers together with NASCAR and just have some open discussions about what is happening.  We got to a test to develop this car and we are working on developing the car and what is happening with the car.  We are not really openly discussing things as much as I think we would all like to.  You go down certain paths based on what you see on the track and a little bit of conversation.  I think that sometimes it would be good to get back to some of that and see a little bit more of that.  It’s going to have to be scheduled.  It’s not something that is just going to happen the way it used to happen.
 
“To elaborate on that, I know for me when I came in Ray Evernham would say ‘I just saw Dale (Earnhardt) Sr.  going to the NASCAR hauler you better go over there and see what is going on.’ It was one of those things where you knew that Dale had their ear.  If you weren’t up there giving your side of it there could be a result that came out of it that might affect you.  Half of the reason I was even up there was just to see what was going on to make sure I could get my 10 cents.  There were usually others that followed as well because everybody kind of saw when Dale moved in there.”
 
GOING BACK TO YOUR INITIAL COMMENT ABOUT DENNY HAMLIN’S SITUATION HERE THIS WEEKEND. THE GENERAL CONSENSUS ABOUT THE GEN-6 CAR WITH THE TEAMS AND THE FANS HAS BEEN VERY POSITIVE TO START THE YEAR.  DO YOU THINK THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN HANDLED INTERNALLY SO AS NOT TO SPOTLIGHT ANY DISAGREEMENT WITH THE CAR?
“I’m not saying how it should have been handled.  I’m just saying that I didn’t even know about his comments until yesterday.  I don’t know how much it was written about, maybe it was just because I was completely out of touch.  I was out in the sand dunes Monday and Tuesday just having a blast.  I didn’t know any media that was going on.  Maybe it’s just me, but certainly this thing has blown up after yesterday and has drawn a lot more attention to it than I think had there not been a fine.  I don’t know if that really justified a fine in my opinion. I don’t think it was right the things that Denny (Hamlin) said and how he went about it. It probably needed to be handled in some way.  I just feel like I wouldn’t be getting asked these questions had they went and just talked to him about it.”
 

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and discussed racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, last week’s race at Phoenix International Raceway and other topics. Full transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING TO LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY AND YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE WEEKEND:
“This is a fun track. I feel like it is definitely the kind of track where I feel the most comfortable at. High bank; high grip. Fourth in the Nationwide car a couple of years ago was fun, and I feel like every time I’ve been here, we run pretty decent. It was nice to have a test day yesterday in the Cup car, just to get up to speed there; also for me to work on some qualifying the last half of the day. I’m not sure any of that is going to happen today (referencing the rain currently falling at the track). But, it was good for us to have some extra running, and get to grips a little bit more with this new Gen 6 Chevy and see what it needs to handle well.”
 
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO SEE THE LITTLE KIDS WHO WANT TO GET AUTOGRAPHS, HUGS OR SMILES?
“It is very cool. Nothing can brighten up your day like seeing a three year-old who knows your names and wants to meet you, or be too shy to meet you. That is also equally adorable. That is sometimes amazing. I don’t know how they know my name, or how they know what is going on. Sometimes the parents don’t know. Kids are just very impressionable. The fact that they have a good impression of me, and like me is really neat. I also love hearing stories about coming out to the track because now everyone has someone to cheer for. The wife comes; or the daughter comes; or the son; or whatever the reason may be to get a whole family out to the track, it is nice that they do. It is nice that they can do that together as a family, and kind of create that tradition, or that culture within to all come out. Very cool. I always try to make time for them. If I don’t have time for anything else, I try to sign autographs for little kids, or just say hi to them. It makes me feel good. I feel like it makes me feel better than it makes them probably.”
 
ARE YOU WORRIED OR NERVOUS AT ALL ABOUT QUALIFYING WITH 44 CARS ENTERED HERE? “I’m pretty sure we’re in because we bought points right?”
 
YOU ARE IN BECAUSE AFTER TOP-36 FROM LAST YEAR, IT GOES TO THIS YEAR’S POINTS, AND THAT’S HOW YOU GET IN:
“I don’t know how in the hell it works. I am so confused. I don’t know about you guys. I’m sure this is not the best talking point for anybody who is trying to inform me, or who has. But look, you have to go like hell and you just have to qualify as well as you can.  That’s all you can do.  Of course I don’t want to have to worry about that so I’m not going to.  We’re just going to plan on being better than that.  The reason for doing qualifying for the last half of yesterday was to not only try to do a good job for here, but everywhere else we go because there’s a certain sort of offset that the car needs going from race to qualifying runs.  I really hope that we don’t ever feel like we need to worry about that and weekends like last weekend in Phoenix we were definitely not good, but we feel like we will quickly get to grips with what we need to do.  Tony Gibson is talented, the team is talented and has good equipment so that is really not a concern moving forward and that we are really only going to get better at that and I’m only going to get more comfortable.  If it rains I feel like I’m still in the race, but I start in the back or something like that.  Again, another situation and either way it’s part of the learning process.”
 
WOULD TRACK POSITION CONCERN YOU IF YOU HAD TO START IN THE BACK?
“It’s always important. Everybody is so good in Cup that it takes a lot to pass cars. You kind of settle into a pace and you kind of lose momentum at times and it’s just challenging. Our equipment stays so consistent out there and that’s what makes it difficult. You just have to get creative sometimes with your pit stops. I know pit stops played a big role last weekend. Whether it’s strategy or not, but I mean I feel like if you have a good car you will be able to pass and that makes restarts even more important too.”
 
HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER YOUR WRECK LAST WEEK?
“I feel like I have a concussion from last night. I got hit by a rock at the dirt track and I took it to the ground. I feel like this is really sore. It hit me straight in the head.  Good thing I had a hat on or I’m feeling like there would have been blood. The safety crew does a great job. The cars are safer than they’ve ever been and the tracks are. I said after last weekend that I’m glad that I didn’t race in the era of the lack of SAFER barriers out there because I don’t know what it’s like without them. I know that the hits feel hard and my neck was sore after last weekend for sure, which it never has been before after a wreck. Either my training program is off or it was just that big of a hit or maybe the fact that it was both sides. That’s something that you as a driver make those decisions and the safety crew helps you make them.”
 
DID YOU HAVE TO GO GET A SCAN AFTER THE INCIDENT?
“No, I was able to say my name and where I was born.  They take your blood pressure, they do like vitals and they ask how you’re feeling and I really felt fine. It’s understandable that my neck would be sore. The medical staff always does a checkup the next day, they either call or send you a text to ask how you’re doing. They’re thorough, but it’s based on your information too. If I was to say, ‘I don’t feel so great or I’m feeling sick or I don’t think I can remember anything.’  It’s up to you to be honest about it and it’s your decision. You can say, ‘I’m fine,’ and go along with your day. If you’re not, it’s your risk. They can’t read your mind, they can’t tell if you’re not well if you don’t tell them. Other than my neck being sore, which I told them, I felt fine. I said I had a headache on Sunday night and on Monday my neck was sore. They said it sounded like it could have been worse so we’re glad you’re okay. That’s what my situation was last week. As far as the source of it being the beads melting, not really sure if it was a melting. Goodyear came to the hauler yesterday and chatted with Greg Zipadelli in the hauler with me and Tony Gibson, they basically are looking at how they can fix the problem and there were obviously seven situations where they were exactly the same problem. I think they’re looking at things moving forward and they try to make the tire better coming back around this time at Phoenix with a softer tire. Obviously that didn’t work. I hope we have a different tire and I told them I would do the testing for you. Maybe that’s what we’ll do moving forward, but I know they are evaluating their options because they feel bad about the situation.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE STYLE OF RACING AT BRISTOL?
“I’ve liked Bristol since the first time. For me, I respond to the banking which translates to grip and it’s definitely there. We were having a decent run in the Cup car, we were lead lap and top-20 after 440 laps and unfortunately were taken out, but I think that all those events lead us to more potential the next time around with a better baseline setup. I feel like for us and for me, my strong suit is the race or at least at this point. We just need to work on qualifying and get a decent qualifying spot so we can work from there. I feel like it’s not very common to drop back for me so if we can just start further up then we can continue to make progress and be smart and take care of our equipment. Whether you pass people at the beginning or pass them on the run, they are both passes. I look forward to going back there, I like the banked tracks. It was fun.”
 
WOULD YOU BET ON YOURSELF THIS WEEKEND?
“
Yeah, I would bet on myself. I was running up there last year when I had less of an idea what was going on and didn’t have a full time effort, it was only a partial schedule obviously. I would, but I think that even the best of us can have bad weekends and that they happen. Whether it’s from bad luck or whether it’s just from missing it, it can happen.  I think we’ll be better than that and I would think that the test day would help that just to get us up to speed better and make us feel more comfortable and have a better baseline setup for the race.”

 
Team Chevy Captures Two of the Top-Five Finishes at Phoenix
Jimmie Johnson Follows Daytona 500 Win with Runner Up Spot in Subway Fresh Fit 500
 
AVONDALE, Ariz. (March 3, 2013) – Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, remained hot today as he vied for a second consecutive win in Round 2 of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season at Phoenix International Raceway.   With the finish, Johnson extended his series lead to eight points ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, who finished fifth.
 
Johnson’s hard-fought battle came up slightly short when the race was settled by a green/white/checkered finish. Although he couldn’t make the pass for the win, Johnson was able to hold off a challenge by Denny Hamlin (Toyota) who finished third.
 
Earnhardt led the 316-lap race for 47 circuits, but rallied late to score his second straight top-five finish. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, started sixth and finished eighth in a solid run after being involved in an early crash in the season-opener last week at Daytona.  After two events, Stewart sits 23rd in the point standings.  
 
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Pepsi MAX Chevrolet SS was ninth, and Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cheerios Chevrolet SS was 10th, giving Team Chevy five of the top 10 in the final order.
 
Three other Chevrolet drivers finished just outside the top-10.  AJ Allmendinger, No. 51 Guy Roofing Chevrolet SS was 11th, Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS was 12th, and Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS was 13th.
 
Carl Edwards (Ford) was the race winner and Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished fourth, to round out the top five.
 
The series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next week for the Kobalt Tools 400 on Sunday, March 10th.  
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND:
 
KRISTI KING: We welcome our second‑place finisher Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet.  Jimmie is currently our points leader by eight points over Dale Jr.  Talk about your run out there today and those last few laps specifically.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, definitely a good performance.  First pit stop we went with four and nobody else did, and we lost a lot of track position and realized then that the game here, it was going to be a little bit different than what we had expected.  That was our last four‑tire stop that we made.  That was really key to keep track position.
            I think we made the car better as the day went on and I know we made it a lot better from yesterday’s practice to today.  We are still learning this Gen‑6 car and made some good improvements to it.  At the end it got a little crazy, especially that last lap.  Denny got a huge run, cut the corner down there and cleared us both, but I felt like I still had a chance if I just hung on, on the outside around turns 3 and 4 and I was able to do that and just kind of beat him back to the finish.
 
            Q.  Did you expect the Fords to gang up on you there at the end?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I didn’t even notice the make situation at all, no.  I felt like Carl didn’t follow the restart protocol and was slower than the pace car on his last two restarts, and it gives the leader a huge advantage when that happens.  You’re supposed to wait until you get between the two lines and take off and this was all going on before it.  Outside of that, yeah, that was the only issue that I saw.
 
            Q.  How close were you on fuel at the end, and for the last part of that green‑flag run before the caution, were you and Carl ‑‑ it looked like you were running all out but I couldn’t tell.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I started at the beginning, Carl got a comfortable lead and I knew how hard it was to pass the leaders so I went into fuel‑save mode then and felt like I did a good job early.  I’m not sure the 99 did because I’m not sure they were concerned, at least what was being relayed on the radio to me.  So I’d say just inside 40 to go, I started trying again and brought the pace up and using more fuel and that kind of stuff, and I got within three car lengths but that’s as close as I could really get to him.
 
            Q.  Were you kind of shocked to see Denny suddenly start to appear there beside you or were you keeping up with what he was trying to do dropping low?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  My spotter was all over it.  I didn’t expect Denny to get up in front of us like he did.  I thought we were going to enter three wide, and I was going to be in the worst spot.  The clean line turns away from me, so I was looking out my window, and I could see a lot of the 11.  I thought, well, I’m not sure really what’s going to happen here, sure not going to let off, and the 2, gave him some room, and we all rolled in there without wrecking.  When I first heard that we were three wide I was pretty concerned that I wasn’t going to have a clean lane to race in.
 
            Q.  (Inaudible).
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, we’ll take it one week at a time.  That’s a cool stat and I want to keep it alive, keep it going.
 
            Q.  Yesterday in Nationwide qualifying I heard Brad Keselowski say on the radio that he would like to beat you to everything including the race to the bathroom, and seeing how you guys raced out there today in the closing laps, coming off of the championship battle last year, do you think that this is going to be an ongoing rivalry between you and Brad for the 2013 season?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Without a doubt, and it’s not just Brad-related.  I’m sure Brad has a few others on his radar, and whoever is ahead of him on the track or in the points.  But I’m well aware that with the success that I’ve had over the last eight or 10 years that there’s a lot of bull’s eyes on me.  I’m kind of afraid to sleep at night sometimes.  I know those guys are all gunning for me, and that’s a huge honor, it really is, to have the garage and then the reigning champion thinking that way about me.
 
            Q.  It looked really hard to pass the leader out there today.  Is that more a factor of this track still being relatively new pavement or is there still some kinks to work out on the new car or a little of both?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It didn’t seem a lot different than other races here to me since the reconfiguration.  I don’t think the Gen‑6 car has anything to do with it at this point.  I think next week in Vegas we have a track that has multiple lanes and we’ll see some great side‑by‑side racing.  The garage area and the teams and owners and the competition side of NASCAR have worked so hard to make these cars equal and we keep changing and jumping through hoops, new chassis, new bodies, new this, new that.  The cars are equal and when they’re equal you’re
going to have a situation like this.  What we need now is the racetracks to consider the asphalt they’re putting down and even reconfigure the lanes so that we have somewhere to race.
 
            Q.  The final restart, it looked like you had a little bit of problem on the final restart.  Did you, or did it just seem to appear that way?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, you’re supposed to maintain the speed of the pace car, so I maintained the speed of the pace car and the 99 is dropping back.  At some point you can’t see the guy to know when he’s going to accelerate, and that’s the goal of the leader.  If he can get you looking and get out of your sight and punch it, you never have a chance to recover and that is why the rule states that you’re supposed to maintain pace car speed.
            You have the double red and the single red to work whatever you want to inside of there and to go when you want to still give the advantage to the leader of the race.  So this was all happening before that, and that’s why I mentioned he didn’t follow the protocol.
 
            Q.  This kind of relates to one of the other questions, but in general, what did you think of the Gen‑6 car racing today, and do you have any ideas of how it could be improved?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I think we have a great product.  It’s going to continue to get better.  One of the things that we’ve all recognized over the years is the faster we go the narrower track gets the harder it is to pass.  Speeds will be up, especially when we get to the mile‑and‑a‑half’s, so with all that being said, I think we need to leave the cars alone for a good 10, 20 years.  Let the teams be.  Right here on this blacktop there’s a lot of work that can be done to help create better racing and keep the fans in the grandstands.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 3, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
ON HIS DAY:
“Racing-wise, it was tough to pass all day long. Track position, and strategy on pit road really seemed to be the big deal. We went four early, and it cost us a lot of track position. We never made that mistake the rest of the day, and stayed up front. Very exciting finish there. To come across the line like that with Denny (Hamlin) was exciting. I didn’t think Carl (Edwards) followed restart protocol and slowed us down before we took off. But, outside of that, it was pretty much a perfect day. Very good start to the season. Leading the points. Up here running well on downforce tracks and superspeedway tracks.  Life is good.”
 
YOU WERE FIRST AT DAYTONA, AND SECOND AT THE RACE TODAY AT PHOENIX.  TALK ABOUT THAT FINISH
“Oh, I’m just very proud of this whole Hendrick team and everybody on this Lowe’s car and Chad Knaus (crew chief) and his leadership. It was a tough year for everybody in our shop during the off-season. Everybody worked hard to get us ready. And to open like this with great qualifying efforts, great speed in the race car, and great pit stops. Across the board, I’m very proud of this Lowe’s team.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FIFTH
ON HIS DAY:
“Well, I hate to be frustrated at Phoenix, but I think we are.  We had a real good car. We feel like we could have finished better than fifth, maybe won the race. Just didn’t get the breaks on pit road. We kind of got boxed in, and picked on beating the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) off pit road. I think we could have beat him off pit road, but somebody was pulling in their stall in front of us, and just had to lift and give the spot to the No. 99. That was the race in my opinion, and we almost had it won right there. Real good race car. Tough in traffic; tough to get to people. But, we made our car good enough to actually make some passes and gain on some guys.”
 
ON THE RACE
“Well, I think we used strategy to get up front, on pit road, to get ourselves track position. We had a pretty good car. On that pit stop the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) got the lead. I was on the inside of him on pit road and I think I could have beat him off, but the No. 13 was trying to get in his stall and I had to lift for that. And I knew right then that was my opportunity to win the race was right there. It’s difficult to pass with the big spoiler. But our car was good enough to actually run up on some guys and make some passes. I want to thank (crew chief) Steve (Letarte). He made a lot of good changes and did some good stops on pit road. I’ve got to thank National Guard and Diet Mountain Dew and all our partners. But we haven’t been good here. So that was a good run for us. I was a little disappointed because I think we could have won. And you hate to give away them points. And I’d love to get to Victory Lane. This is a good sign for us though that we’ve improved this much at Phoenix. Hopefully it’s a sign for the rest of the season and that we’re going to be all right.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED EIGHTH
ON HIS DAY:
“I think it was just a matter of where you cycled on the pit stops as far as when everybody figured out you had to take two tires than four.  It was just a matter of figuring out where in the cycle you were and whether you could get back the track position.  When we got up to the top three or four there we had good speed, but when you got hemmed up in the back there it was hard to make that ground.”
 
TRACK POSITION WAS EVERYTHING TODAY?
“Unfortunately, it was.  You could still pass.  It was harder to pass the further back you were.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO THOSE RIGHT FRONT TIRES ON DANICA (PATRICK) AND RYAN’S (NEWMAN) CARS?
“I don’t know yet.  I honestly don’t know what happened.  I saw Ryan’s the first time I think.  I knew it was a tire, but I didn’t know what happened the second time. I will find out when I get a chance to talk with those guys.”
 
THOUGHTS ON THE NEW GEN-6 CAR ON A MILE TRACK UNDER RACE CONDITIONS?
“It will change, but I think for the first race it is pretty sporty so far I think.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED NINTH
TALK ABOUT THE RACE TODAY:
“It was a solid top-10.  We had a better car than that.  We just made some choices that lost us track position.  Sometimes the cautions fall your way and sometimes they don’t.  Today most of them didn’t, but we had a couple there at the end that did.  That got us a little bit of that track position back.  We were able to come home ninth, so all-in-all that was pretty solid.”
 
HOW WAS THE NEW CAR ON THIS TRACK?
“It drove good.  It was definitely challenging this is probably not the best track to judge by.  This track is tough, flat and doesn’t lend itself to the best racing that we have on the series.  Yet, I thought on the long run when the tires gave up a little bit you could start searching around, making some moves.  Track position was key.  We knew that coming in.”
 
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CHEERIOS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Over the last 60 or so laps we consistently had the fastest car in the field. It was great to top it off with a top-10 finish. Especially after all the adversity the team faced early in the day when Luke (Lambert, crew chief) flew home to be with his wife who is pregnant. Ernie (Cope) stepped in and made great calls all day. I appreciate the entire Cheerios team pullin
g together and working hard. It paid off in the end with a solid finish and we hope to build on that momentum next weekend.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ON-TRACK ACCIDENT ON LAP 184
 
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“Obviously I blew a right front. No real warning. I wasn’t that tight either; I was sliding a little bit. I felt like most of the day I was chasing the rear. It was a little unexpected. I took a hard hit to the right, and then on the left. I’m fine. The cars and the tracks are so safe. As a driver that’s a nice feeling. It doesn’t change the fact that we aren’t going to get any points really coming out of today, and it would have been nice. I was just saying that there isn’t enough garage space for all of the cars, so unfortunately we’re parked in the dirt this weekend. It would have been nice to get these points here, and then…especially off of our eighth last weekend (in the Daytona 500), and then have a decent run in (Las) Vegas. Then when they re-establish the pits and the garage area, we would have been in better shape. But, these points in the beginning of the year are so important. We were making progress, but unfortunately, our day ended early.”
 
THAT WAS A REALLY HARD HIT.  WAS THAT THE HARDEST YOU’VE EVER HIT?
“Oh, probably Daytona was a little bit bigger. And it was on the right and the left. So whenever those right-fronts go, they always hit hard because you don’t broadside. You kind of hit more straight on. But I took a hard hit on both side, but I’m fine. NASCAR is doing a good job with safety, but yeah, no real good warning. The car wasn’t all that tight and I was mostly chasing the rear. And there was no vibration that told me in the lap before that told me it was going to happen. So, for me, it just sucks to lose the points. Everybody works hard and after last weekend we really just wanted to get to these three races and get some solid points so that when they re-establish the garage area we could; we worked in the dirt this weekend (laughed), so I really wanted my guys to get in the garage area. So, we’ll just have to come at ‘em at Vegas. I really, really like Vegas so it should suit me well. But yeah, we were having a steady day. Not great, but we were making progress.”

Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney Win the Inaugural GRAND-AM Race at Circuit of The Americas
Three Corvette Daytona Prototypes Take the Checkered Flag in the Top-Five
 
AUSTIN, Tex. (March 2, 2013) – The No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing  “Red Dragon” Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) with pole winner Jon Fogarty behind the wheel, led the field to the green flag of the inaugural GRAND-AM of The Americas. And, 2.75 hours later, Alex Gurney finished the race by leading the Rolex Sports Car Series (Rolex) field to the checkered flag at the Circuit of The Americas.
 
“That was a hard battle, but a lot of fun,” said Gurney from Victory Lane. “Always great racing with those guys up front. Look at this, we have all the GAINSCO guys here. It’s our home race. We won it! We all dug deep – we wanted this one really bad. Just so stoked we pulled it off.”
 
“Alex did a really good job, man,” said Fogarty. “It was a nail-biter, and he held on and fought, and that is what it takes to win these races. It is great to do it in front of the GAINSCO crowd.”
 
Today’s victory on the home track for both the team (headquartered in Lewisville, Texas), and their sponsor GAINSCO, is the 16th time the driver combo of Fogarty and Gurney have won in Rolex competition.
 
“Congratulations to Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney as well as team owner Bob Stallings on a hard-fought victory today,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, GRAND-AM Road Racing. “The last few laps were very tense, but Alex did exactly what he had to do to hold off the competition for the win. Winning here at Circuit of The Americas is very special for the Texas-based team and their sponsor, and going to Victory Lane at the inaugural event at any venue is always memorable.

“Having a Corvette DP take the checkered flag is very rewarding for everyone involved in Chevrolet’s effort in GRAND-AM Road Racing.  This success is the result of the teamwork & dedication by our technical partners, race teams and drivers.”
 
The two-time Daytona Prototype champions led one time for eight laps around the 3.4-mile, 20-turn road course on the way to victory lane.
 
“Alex did a heck of a job,” said Stallings. “He didn’t quite have the car that second-place car had, but he ran a heck of a race. He was great – awesome. The last lap especially was very nerve-wracking, but Alex did a great job. He gave that car everything it could do.”
 
Today’s win moved both the team and drivers to second in the standings with two of 12 races on the 2013 schedule in the record books.
 
Giving Team Chevy three of the top-five finishers in today’s race were: No. 3 8 Star Motorsports Corvette DP (drivers Enzo Potolicchio and Stephane Sarrazin) – 4th, and No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP (drivers Brian Frisselle and Christian Fittipaldi) – 5th.
 
Other Corvette DP finishers were:  No. 10 Velocity World Wide/Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP – 10th; No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Corvette DP – 11th and No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP -14th in-class.
 
In Rolex Grand Touring (GT), it was a tough day for both the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette GT.R No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R. Each suffered issues throughout the race that relegated them to the 13th and 15th in-class finishing positions respectively.
 
In the GRAND-AM of the Americas – Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R piloted by Matt Bell and John Edwards brought home a 10th place finish in round two of the 2013 season.  The No. 00 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R finished 15th on the lead lap, and team car, the No. 01 was scored 24th in-class after being sidelined with a mechanical issue.
 
Next on the Chevrolet GRAND-AM Road Racing schedule for both Rolex and CTSCC will be April 3-6, 2013 at Barber Motorsports Park just outside Birmingham, Alabama.
 

KAHNE GRABS OUTSIDE FRONT ROW FOR TEAM CHEVY
AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
SIX CHEVROLET SS RACE CARS WILL START IN THE TOP 10
 
AVONDALE, Ariz. – (March 1, 2013) – Kasey Kahne led the way for Team Chevy in qualifying by piloting his No. 5 Quaker State Chevrolet SS to a second-place effort for Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR), Round 2 of 36 on the 2013 tour.  Kahne missed collecting the pole by four hundredths of a second.  This will be the highest Kahne has ever started at the 1.0-mile track. 
 
Following Kahne in the line-up, six Chevy SS drivers will start the 312-mile race in the top 10:  Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and two-time Daytona 500 winner, Jimmie Johnson, will start third in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS.  Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, behind the wheel of the No. 24 Pepxi MAX Chevrolet SS, will start fifth. They are followed by Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Racing Chevrolet SS in sixth and Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS in seventh.  Ryan Newman in the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS rounds out the top-10 for the Bowtie brigade with a tenth place starting slot.
 
Other Chevrolets in Sunday’s 43-car line-up include: Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/Serta Chevrolet SS who qualified 16th; Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS will start 19th, Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cheerios Chevy SS qualified 20th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS qualified 21st.
 
Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevy SS qualified 25th, but will go to a back-up car following contact with the outside retaining wall during his qualifying run.  Dave Blaney, No. 7 Sany Chevrolet SS will start 26th; JJ Yeley, No. 36 Accell Construction Chevrolet SS qualified 27th; Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevy SS will start 29th, and Danica Patrick earned a 40th place starting position in her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS.
 
Mark Martin (Toyota) won the pole position and Kyle Busch (Toyota) qualified fourth to round out the top five starting spots.
 
Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 takes the green flag on Sunday, March 3rd at 1:00 p.m. MST (3:00 p.m. EST) and will be aired live on FOX.
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 QUAKER STATE CHEVROLET SS – Qualified SECOND:
 
GREAT LAP OUT THERE. TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR LAP AND BEING HERE AT PHOENIX
“It was a really good lap. In practice we fought loose-in a little bit in both corners, so that was our main goal for qualifying was to work on that. We got it a lot better for when we went out. I thought it was a really good lap. The sun was still out across a lot of (Turns) 1 and 2 and all of the rest of the track. So, it was good. The team has done a nice job. Preparation has been there. We’ve run pretty good with Quaker State on the car in the past, so hopefully this will be a good start for us. It’s definitely going to be a good start, and a great start to our weekend.
 
DO YOU LOOK AT MARK MARTIN (POLE WINNER) AT AGE 54 AND SHAKE YOUR HEAD? IT SEEMS KIND OF CRAZY THAT HE’S ABLE TO KEEP DOING IT
“It is. But I think we all know going into it that he can. I watch everybody qualify when he goes out, he’s probably the guy more than anyone else that’s probably going to beat me. It’s just the way it is with Mark right now. Last year it was the same way. I think he has a really good connection with the situation he’s in and they’re fast when it comes to qualifying every week.”
 
CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR EARLY IMPRESSION ON THE NEW TIRE? DO YOU LIKE IT?
“Well, I definitely feel the difference. The only spot that I really felt is from the time that you turn off the wall until you get to the white line, or get to your lowest point in the corners, through that load area. I felt that tire a lot. It moves more, to me. And I’ve been trying to figure out which tire. Left front, right front; which one it is that I’m kind of feeling the most there. But left-sides or right-sides. But there is definitely a difference and a feeling that I haven’t had in the past. We also have so many differences with the car this year compared to what we were last year when we were here in November. So, there are some variables. But I think the tire is a big part of that and something that I feel. Hopefully tomorrow we learn more about it when the car is in practice. And the Sunday for sure, it will be interesting how it races. I look forward to Sunday’s race. I want it to be from the bottom to three-quarters up the track, and can pass and all that. Hopefully the tire allows us to do that.”
 
WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED YOUR CAREER IN PHOENIX, IT SEEMS LIKE THIS IS ONE OF THE TRACKS YOU STRUGGLED AT.  AND NOW, THREE OF THE LAST FOUR RACES HAVE BEEN TOP TENS. WHAT HAS CHANGED FOR YOU?
“This was always a tough track. And when I was racing open-wheel cars, I loved it. It was like my favorite track. And then I came here in a stock car, and it was one of my most difficult tracks to figure out. We got it a little bit better, right before they repaved it; and then since they repaved it and changed the banking a little bit and the way the track races, I’ve been way better here and felt really good every time I come. So I personally like the new track way more than I like the old track, which I think is different than someone else who was in here (Media Center) earlier. That’s my opinion on it. This track is perfect.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED THIRD:
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I’m just really pleased. We’ve been working in the right areas. Granted there is still a race to run here, but what we saw today, we know that our downforce stuff is close. That’s good, and that’s all we can really ask for. So, Daytona-plate racing-a different animal as we all know. But here, we had a very good showing from the first lap on-track, qualified well. I’m running the Nationwide race to try to get some more reps around here to sort this place out. I think the combination between the new car, and the new tire is playing into the No. 48’s hands a little bit. We seem to be closer than we were here last time. I will certainly have fun in the No. 5 (Nationwide) car tomorrow, but the big focus has been trying to get right in the Cup car, so when we come back in the fall, we can race here like we need to.”
 
WHAT IS IT ABOUT MARK MARTIN THAT HE KEEPS PEELING OFF POLES?
“He’s not afraid to stand on the gas for starters. I just deeply admire him, and his passion for the sport. He’s tried to walk away a few times, and I think we had a farewell tour for him one year, and he couldn’t do it. He came back. He just loves driving for his team. Loves driving his car, and is an inspiration to any team he works for. He walks into a room and everybody has been having a bad day, and Mark will bring the spirit up. Then also get in the car and tell you how to make it faster. I really enjoyed my time working with him, and I know he is a big asset to MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). Today he showed it once again.”
 
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE ISSUE WAS WITH THE LASER PLATFORM IN TECH?
“I don’t. But, I noticed that we were one of quite a few over there dealing with it. It is really different now, because the machine runs its course. I got there so late, I don’t know what happened. Everybody stands around waiting, and the lasers are doing what they do, and you get a pass or go. Evidently we got a couple of no’s to start, then it was right. I think it was something in the back of the car from what the guys were saying.”
 
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE TARGETING THIS TRACK SPECIFICALLY WITH THE NNS CAR. IS THAT ACCURATE OR IS THAT MAKING TOO MUCH OF IT?
“No, that is absolutely it for sure. The tracks in the Chase we’re very strong at. We feel like with the testing policy that is in place now, we can prepare for some of the other tracks that are within the Chase if we want. We have that fl
exibility. But what we couldn’t do is test here. All four teams have to go, and then the tire has to have raced at that track before, before you can go. We couldn’t come before. Then our teammates didn’t think this track was all that important to test at, so my only way to get more experience, and to try to get a better handle on this track is to run the NNS car. That’s really the bottom line. I’m still trying to learn the two cars, and figure out what can carry over from one to the other, because they are pretty different. I’m not sure I will figure it all out this weekend, but my first time on the track in the Cup car, I knew we were better off than we’ve been here in a long time. It should be a good week for us.”
 
THIS CAR HAS BEEN REALLY FAST EVERYWHERE YOU’VE BEEN WITH IT. A LOT OF EXPECTATIONS THIS YEAR ABOUT QUALIFYING RECORDS, ETC. WHY DO YOU THINK THERE WAS NOT A RECORD HERE TODAY?
“Did we go faster than the pole last time? The fall pole? I don’t know. I expected it to fall. Maybe when the track was brand-new, was when that record stood, and I had a good comeback for you on that front. I don’t know to be honest. One small thing, the speeds aren’t as high here as you see at like Las Vegas coming up, so the effects on the downforce aren’t as impactful. We’re still going pretty quick here. So I’m trying to get off on a limb to try and help you out with your story here. There could be a little something with that.”
 
HOW DID YOU KEEP CALM WAITING FOR THE LENGTHY TECH TIME BEFORE QUALIFYING?
“Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have been in that position before. I knew just to stay calm. You’ve got that long push down pit road, so I can get all of my gear on. I also knew, I asked how many cars before we were on the clock, so I had two to three cars, and six to eight minutes, plus the five minute clock. So, being in that position in the past, helped me ask the right questions. Manage it in my mind, and just get in and take my time. We do have some new guys on the car, and Ron (Malec, car chief) was communicating these things as well to guys as we were pushing down, because they were kind of panicked, so Ron stepped in and said ‘Hey guys, we’re not even on the clock yet. Just slow down and get it right.”