NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 23, 2013
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed the final practice session, how important getting a good start to the season is and other topics.  FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
IS THIS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE SEEN BULLSEYE THE DOG BEFORE?
“No, the dog we had him…I’ve seen him a couple of times.  I think the last time I saw it was at Target 50th anniversary last year they had the dog there.  It’s amazing.  It’s pretty cool.  With the race suit on, I hadn’t seen it with the race suit on that is pretty cool.”
 
THE RACING SUIT IS AWESOME.
“I think so.  It’s called Bullseye.  It’s a great thing the Target dog.  It’s a cool dog and obedient as hell. (Laughs) not like me.”
 
IS HE A GOOD LUCK CHARM?
“I hope so.  Dario (Franchetti) took him last year to the (Indy) 500 and won.  So, it’s here and I think it would be cool.”
 
SO NO PRESSURE ON THE DOG THEN RIGHT?
“No, or me (laughs).  No, I think it’s pretty cool for everybody on the Target team this is awesome.  We worked really hard this year.  Last year was a tough year for us. We worked really hard and to start this year the way we have been running so far it’s pretty encouraging.”
 
PRACTICE WENT WELL WERE YOU PLEASED WITH EVERYTHING?
“Yeah, we finished third in our Duel and we practiced sixth today.  Yesterday we didn’t do any practice.  Our car seems pretty good.  It’s stable; it does everything that I want the car to do.  You still have to run 500 miles, be there at the end to have a shot at it.”
 
WHAT DID YOU WORK ON IN FINAL PRACTICE?
“A little bit of everything.  We felt we were too tight in the Duels.  I think most of the people were shocked how tight they were.  So we worked on it and we freed it up a little bit and it seemed to work a little better so it’s pretty good.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR THE RACE?  
“We got a good starting spot.  We are starting seventh and I think that is a great thing.  It’s always a big question mark as to what do you do.  You still have to run 200 laps. You still have to be there at the end.  The first 150 doesn’t really matter.”
 
A LOT OF DRIVERS ARE TALKING ABOUT PATIENCE.  THAT DOESN’T SEEM TO GO HAND IN HAND DRIVERS AND PATIENCE:
“You do have to be very patient here.  We haven’t had the 43 cars on the track together yet. I think it might be a little bit different.  If you really think about it you look at the Duels were 20 cars each.  With 20 something cars each you don’t have enough cars to have two proper lanes. I think the race might be a little bit different because if you look at every other race the bottom works.  In our races the top works.  We will see.”
 
SOME DRIVERS HAVE SAID THEY ARE HAPPY THAT ALL THE ATTENTION HAS BEEN ON DANICA (PATRICK) THIS WEEKEND AND IT HAS KIND OF GIVEN THEM A CHANCE TO BE UNDER THE RADAR.  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT?
“I think it was cool for Danica and the sport to have her on pole.  Its attention that is great for everybody, all of us.  But when the green flag drops it’s the same feel for everybody.  Whoever can do the best job over the weekend and on that day is going to take the trophy home.”
 
YOU HAD GREAT LUCK HERE WITH THE ROLEX 24 HOUR WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE TO BE IN VICTORY LANE ON SUNDAY?
“This year has been really good for me.  I have no complaints.  The Rolex win, I finished third in the Duels, we finished 10th in the Unlimited.  Things are going our way.  After last year I will take any bit of luck.  I’m excited.”
 
IS THERE A LOT OF PRESSURE TO GET THE YEAR OFF ON A GOOD START?
“We work as hard as we can.  That is all I can do.  I drive the car as fast as I can every time I’m in it.  I try to drive the wheels out of it every time.  That is all you can do.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 23, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed not participating in the final practice session, working with rookies at Daytona and other topics.  FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR FINAL PRACTICE TODAY?
“We don’t have any plans to go out today.  We feel like this entire week we have been able to learn everything we need to get prepared for the race tomorrow.  We feel like yesterday was just getting the feel for our race engine.  We did a little bit of drafting with some teammates and Stewart-Hass and just fine tuning.  We’ve got a great race car.  We are excited.  We’ve got a great opportunity here.”
 
YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH SOME CHANGES WITH CARS OVER THE YEARS.  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PROCESS OF LEARNING ABOUT THE NEW CAR?
“It’s been awhile since we have gone through a change like this.  It is an adjustment.  So much work goes on back at the shop just building cars.  Then there is the whole learning process with the engineers and Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) trying to figure out what this car needs to go fast.  There are a lot of different components to getting a car down here ready to win the Daytona 500.  Some teams are just trying to get here and get in the show and others are trying to win it.  I’m really proud of the effort that has been put in by our team to come down here, sit on the front row and have as good of a race car as we have.  It shows what kind of organization that we are and the depth that we have.  These are the moments where I feel like where we can shine because of being through this process before in the past.  Knowing how to bring the whole team together, not just the No. 24 team, and other teams as well it’s the engine shop, the chassis shop, hanging bodies and everything that goes into a process of a new car.
 
“It’s a learning process for sure.  Trying to understand what kind of balance the car is going to have out front or in the draft or further back in the draft.  That is still going to be a learning process.  We were out front most of the time in the 150, so that is why we wanted to do some drafting yesterday being behind cars and get a little bit of an understanding with some adjustments to see how they affected the car.”
 
WITH ALL THE HYPE SURROUNDING DANICA (PATRICK) THIS WEEK IT’S KIND OF FUNNY HOW YOU HAVE KIND OF FLOWN UNDER THE RADAR  AS FAR TURNING OUT THE NUMBERS YOU HAVE. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW IT HAS BEEN THIS WEEK WITH ALL THE HYPE AROUND DANICA (PATRICK) AND NOT ON YOU?
“I think we are in the best position to win the race.  Everybody has sort of been under the radar other than maybe (Kevin) Harvick winning two races.  I think those guys look very strong with a great chance to win the Daytona 500.  Obviously, Danica brings a lot of attention and that is fantastic for our sport.  For us we are just doing our jobs, doing our thing and we have a great race car, great race team.  It’s nice to be able to just go about it without too much attention on us, too many expectations and hype so that there are not any distractions.”
 
ALAN (GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF) WAS SAYING THE OTHER DAY AS MUCH AS YOU GUYS WANT TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 YOU ALSO REALLY WANT TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START AND NOT PUT YOURSELF IN A HOLE LIKE YOU DID LAST YEAR IS THAT WHAT YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO FOCUS ON?
“It’s true you know.  We experienced that last year and as competitive as this sport is, it’s hard to climb your way back up into those top-10 in points when you get that far behind. That is definitely something that when we look at our season of 2012 and we look at approaching 2013 what is important to us it’s to get more consistency early on in the season and get off to a good start.  Of course we want to win, we want to win every race, but we also want to make sure that we are crossing our ‘T’s’ dotting our ‘I’s’ and when we have a bad day that it’s a 10th-place finish, not a 35th-place finish.”
 
EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THE UNKNOWN FACTOR HERE WITH THE NEW CAR.  WILL THAT BE THE SAME NEXT WEEK IN PHOENIX?
“Oh absolutely, there are a couple of teams that have tested out there, but even since then the cars have evolved and changed.  The teams are constantly learning what these cars need and taking them to the wind tunnel and trying to make improvements to the aerodynamics.  Then the drivers in that learning curve of how this car is going to drive different and how to get the balance with this car that you need to go fast.  You go from here having a low downforce package to going to Phoenix with a high downforce package in completely different scenarios.”
 
YOU HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN TWO DIFFERENT STYLE RACES THIS WEEKEND, PACK RACING AND SINGLE FILE.  WHAT TYPE OF RACING DO YOU THINK WE ARE GOING TO SEE TOMORROW?
“Personally, I love the kind of racing from a driver standpoint this is the type of racing that I enjoy doing at Daytona.  You have to think, you have to be smart, you have to be aggressive at times and you have to have a good handling car.  So it brings the whole team aspect into it.  I hope the fans can appreciate this type of racing because I think when it comes down to the end of this race the excitement is going to be there.  But in between it’s going to be strategy, it’s going to be thought provoking and there are going to be moments of some side-by-side great racing.  There is also going to be moments where people are trying to plan out and strategize.  To me that is the best of all worlds and why I love this package that we have here.  It’s not going to be like the Truck race was last night.  Some people might say, well I wish it was.  For me, I don’t.  I love this type of racing.  I think that we are going to see a little bit of both.
 
“I think that when you put 43 cars out there…what I love about this is you have a purpose and a challenge to make passes to get to the front.  You need to be at the front because your car is going to drive much better at the front.  You don’t want to hang around the back because your car is not going to drive well and you’ve got a chance of losing the draft.  You are going to push yourself to figure out a way to get to the front.  There are cars that are going to be handling good at the beginning of a run and not so good at the end of a run.  So you are going to start to see passes happen in those last 10 laps before a pit stop.  Then you are going to have cautions where they are going to stack up and everybody is going to be jockeying for position being aggressive and there is going to be sparks flying and action.  I can’t predict exactly what we are going to see, but I think you are going to see guys being more aggressive than they were in the 150’s because that was the 150.  That was just trying to get position for the (Daytona) 500.
 
“This is the Daytona 500 this is what it is all for the biggest race that we have and everybody wants to win it.  So you are going to see some guys be more aggressive and you are going to see other guys strategizing trying to just maintain and keep that position that they need, that they feel like is going to get them the win.”
 
YOU MENTIONED (KEVIN) HARVICK EARLIER.  DO YOU THINK HE’S MOTIVATED AT ALL BY THIS BEING HIS LAST YEAR AT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING (RCR) AND TRYING TO PROVE THINGS GO OUT ON A HIGH NOTE?
“Yes and no, I think that he seems to me to be a guy who no matter what he is driving he is going out there to win.  I think there is probably some relief in some ways that he has made th
is announcement and that he can just go about his business.  When things are good everything is going to be good.  When things start to get challenging and difficult that is when we are going to really see what kind of connection and team that they really are.  Harvick is a professional.  He is going to be professional about it and so it RCR.  They have got a car and a team that can win the Daytona 500.  They are going to go out there and try to win it. I wouldn’t expect anything any different.”
 
WHAT DOES A VETERAN NEED TO SEE FROM A ROOKIE OR NEWCOMER TO WANT TO WORK WITH THEM AT THIS TRACK?
“I think you just want to see them being patient not making hasty decisions.  Rookies usually are impatient they get in line and they just want to jump out of it and go backwards.  Or just not really making things work.  If you see their car out of control, sliding around then it doesn’t matter if they are a rookie or not you are going to stay away from them.  Somebody that is kind of just going along with the flow of the race and when you they don’t do anything that sends a message to you  where you think ‘oh that’s a rookie’ other than that yellow stripe on the rear bumper you are going to work with them.”
 
WHAT KIND OF PROCESS DID YOU USE TO WORK WITH TREVOR BAYNE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO WHEN HE WAS A ROOKIE?
“Trevor was pushing me to the front, so I kind of liked that. (LAUGHS). That’s always a good thing…it doesn’t matter. My car wasn’t out of control. He was being smooth. Right away we realized he had a fast race car, and we could work our way to the front. So, that was definitely a positive.”
 
ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT STARTING ON THE INSIDE WASN’T THE BEST PLACE TO BE?
“I expected that. I am anticipating that. We’ll do everything we can to make that inside lane work. Having Harvick behind me, we’ll try to keep him there to make that inside lane get up there. With our series, it looks like the outside in the beginning definitely is an advantage. For whatever reason, it just seems like that outside lane is able to stall that inside lane, and not allow it to get the momentum that it needs. We’ll see what happens.”
 
IS IT UNUSUAL TO SEE SO MANY TEAMS SIT OUT PRACTICE? DID WE SEE THIS BEFORE, OR IS THIS A PRODUCT OF THE NEW CAR?
“I don’t know. I think the more accidents you see earlier in the week, the less people want to practice the day before the Daytona 500. I feel like we, for us, all I can speak for is us, we’ve had a good week. I think we learned a lot in the 150 (Duel Qualifying Race), and we just need to fine tune. We were able to do that yesterday, so we don’t really reason.  If there was something that popped up that we wanted to try and do, then we’d be out there today. Unless something has changed, we don’t anticipate going out today. When you feel like you’ve got a car that is in position to win the race, and you learned almost everything we need to learn…the thing is unless you are in a big pack, you are not going to learn a whole lot more. We don’t want to risk being in a big pack in practice. We’ll do that in the race when it really counts.”
 
DO YOU THINK THIS NEW CAR IS GOING TO TAKE A FULL YEAR TO SOLVE THAT LAST MYSTERY, TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT?
“There are some things you can’t resolve. When you are in 15th or 20th in a line of cars, it’s not going to drive good. I don’t know that there is a whole lot you can do to fix that. You can play around with shocks; and rebound; and different types of geometry to try and help that. But you can’t resolve air not touching the car and pushing the car down into the race track. Beyond that, we’ll just have to wait and see of the 500 goes. Based on how the 150 went, I feel like we are very well prepared; as prepared as I think we’ve been in a very long time for the 500. I think we are always learning. I think we are always learning. We are always trying to be better. We’ll go through this race, and afterwards we’ll debrief and see what we could have done better. And, that’s even if we win the race.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BRAD KESELOWSKI CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN (FRANCE) AND LESA (FRANCE KENNEDY)?
“We don’t know what the conversation was as far as I know. It’s kind of hard to comment on. They might have been supportive. They might have been reprimanding, who knows. It is not out of the ordinary for a new champion to feel confident to be able to express their opinion on things. Brad cares a lot about the sport. He’s not trying to do anything that would hurt the sport. When you are that open, it doesn’t surprise me that NASCAR is going to talk about it. I don’t think it necessarily means that they are saying ‘Don’t do that’.”
 
ACTUALLY THEY SAID SOME OF HIS OPINIONS WERE LESS THAN INFORMED, AND THAT WAS ONE OF THE REASONS THEY WANTED TO TALK TO HIM:
“I can see that coming from them. I think wanting him to have all the details. He was pretty descriptive with a lot of it.”
 
DID YOU TAKE ISSUE WITH ANY OF IT?
“Listen, I applaud a guy who’s passionate about the sport, and wants to give his opinion.”
 
EVIDENTLY YOU AREN’T THE ONLY DRIVER WHOSE DAUGHTER WANTED TO MEET DANICA PATRICK. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT HER POTENTIAL TO BE RELEVANT MUCH BEYOND THE RACING SURFACE?
“Oh, absolutely. Very relevant. Taking this sport into a whole new territory. I think that is fantastic. When my daughter wants to meet somebody, whether it is Danica or Minnie Mouse, I’m going to do all I can to try to make that happen. That tells you what kind of relevance and impact that they are making. I think it is fantastic. I hope to see more of it.”
 
DO YOU THINK CHEVYS HAVE AN ADVANTAGE HERE?
“I can say the same thing I’ve always said when we come down here to Daytona and you see one manufacturer look good. Yes, Chevy…they love racing. They put a lot into it. But, the teams of Hendrick, and Stewart-Haas and Childress are very strong teams. Always have been. They have always represented their manufacturer very, very well. Especially when it comes to big races like Daytona.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK WAS SAYING THAT THE RACING IS A LOT LIKE 2003. OTHERS SAY IT IS A LOT LIKE THE MID-90S. DO YOU SEE THAT? DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH BOTH OF THOSE ERAS?
“I’m very comfortable with what we have out there. I like this package which means it will probably change. (LAUGHS) I like the fact you’ve got to be careful. The cars, they change over a run. There’s no more of this tandem drafting, which I was never a fan of driving blind at over 200 miles per hour pushing somebody into who knows what. You have to strategize. You got to think.  You have to decide whether you want to run the inside lane or the outside lane. You have to pass one at a time sometimes. I think that is cool. The fact that you can pass; it’s not easy to, but you can. It takes laps to build that run, and that momentum. You have to take risks, but you also have to have patience. I think that suits me very well. I’m happy that it is back to what it was several years ago.”
 
DO YOU THINK THAT FAVORS THE VETERANS?
“It does. But at the same time, it’s how drivers are able to adapt to that. The drivers have gotten used to pushing one another around have got to get used to something completely different. The ones that can adapt quickly, or the veterans that are used to that type of racing, I think they’ll be the ones that are going to shine.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN AND MATT BORLAND (CREW CHIEF), NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed the reuniting of the two as crew chief and driver for the 2013 season, winning the Daytona 500 in 2008, and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE MATT BORLAND BACK AT THE HELM CALLING THE SHOTS?
RYAN NEWMAN: “Really excited the four races we had together at the end of 2012 I think our average finish was 7.9.  Just really glad, most people don’t realize that Matt was the best man in Krissie (wife) and I’s wedding so he is obviously always been a great friend.  From a competition level, professional level and a crew chief to driver relationship level we have had great successes and we have always had our failures because you can’t succeed all the time in this sport.  We have learned from both the things that we’ve succeeded at and the things that we have failed at.  Really look forward to just getting back on the success train of wins and poles and leading laps and having good finishes for Quicken Loans and all of our other sponsors.  What we put together last year for those last four races from a team standpoint, Matt has done his homework in the off season and we are really excited to start 2013 with a good shot at winning the (Daytona) 500.  They did a really good job of bringing a fast Quicken Loans car down here to qualify fourth.  I made a mistake in the duel.  Those guys have worked really hard to get the car ready for the (Daytona) 500 and I think we are getting really close to having a very competitive car.”
 
MATT TALK ABOUT BEING REUNITED WITH A DRIVER THAT CERTAINLY YOU HAVE SHARED A GREAT DEAL OF SUCCESS WITH DURING YOUR CAREER:
MATT BORLAND: “It’s definitely been great.  Ryan is an awesome guy, obviously a great driver.  It’s a little nerve racking being back on the box making all the mistakes again all those kinds of things.  Getting nervous about things, but it’s awesome to work with him again.  Just hear all his feedback and be able to go out there and compete for top-five’s and lead laps and do all those things that make the sport what it is and make it a lot of fun.”
 
THERE IS SOME SPECIAL NEWS TODAY FROM YOUR SPONSOR QUICKEN LOANS. TELL US ABOUT THAT:
RYAN NEWMAN: “We are really excited about the partnership with Quicken Loans, Stewart-Hass and myself to have them double up with their sponsorship of races.  Something that really connects them to the fans is their sweepstakes programs.  We had two successful ones last year and this year’s ‘Bring it Home’ sweepstakes every time I finish in the top five regardless if it is the Quicken Loans race or not five fans get their mortgage paid.  They do that by going on qlracing.com website and register.  Obviously, the more times you register per race or each race the better opportunity you have to get that reward.  It’s a great way…who doesn’t want their mortgage paid?  Quicken Loans can offer that to be able to tie it all together with the race fans and our race car we are really proud and excited to do that with them.” 
 
WOULD YOU TALK ABOUT THE ROLE OF A TEST DRIVER TO HAVE SOMEBODY LIKE SCOTT RIGGS TO COME IN FROM THE OUTSIDE AND WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE SOMEBODY FROM THE OUTSIDE?
MATT BORLAND: “Scott and those guys were actually doing a test while we were down here running the 150’s and it just gives you that much more opportunity to go and do more testing and do more research to try and get everything right so when we go and race, we have everything right. There’s a lot of durability things with this new car. There are a lot of new questions and a lot of new things that are going to go right and wrong. The more of those things you can figure out that are going to go wrong and get them fixed before the race, the better off you’ll be.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN: “It’s supposedly a homework program for myself and Tony (Stewart) and Danica (Patrick). Scott can give us some feedback about the way the car is driving but a lot of it really is the durability-side of it, the testing-side of it, especially this year with the rear-end stuff as far as the camber and the axels and things like that so when the questions we’ve had in our testing and how that can be mileaged-out. You can’t really mileage it out on a race weekend other than racing it. We mock all those things up on a race car and take it to the track and testing everything at different race tracks makes a huge difference. You go to a place like Martinsville where you get the heavy braking and heavy deceleration; you go to a place like Las Vegas and you work on wheel-bearing loads and things like that with more downforce in the race car. So there’s a lot of things that we don’t want to have to have any worry about when we get strapped in for 500-miles here at Daytona.”
 
INAUDIBLE
RYAN NEWMAN: “I don’t think it’s as much that, otherwise they would have us doing it. I mean it’s just you want to have somebody that you respect and you trust with the information that you have to be able to make it beneficial for everybody; otherwise, there’s no point in doing homework, just have somebody else copy it.”
 
YOU ARE BOTH ENGINEERS. CAN YOU TRY TO GIVE US A SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF HOW THE SHAPE OF THE CAR AND THE SHARK FIN AND ALL THAT HAS AFFECTED THE AERODYNAMICS AND THE SIDE DRAFT?
RYAN NEWMAN: “I think if you look at the front of all the cars, they’re a little boxier. They for sure match their production counterpart, in which we’re proud to have Chevrolets because the actual race car and the production car are both rear wheel drive, fuel-injected cars. But if you look at the shape of the car, it punches a little different hole. It’s got some upper edges to it. If you look at our old cars, whether it was back to the original car that I started with or the car of tomorrow, they were much more rounded and these cars have much less of that teardrop effect but ideal shape that you would have for drag. That makes the cars buffet around and the air moves around a little bit differently. I think we’ve got a different situation now with the shark fin and the spoiler and the way that the two match and made up in essence that the spoiler used to actually stick out past the shark fin and now it doesn’t anymore. And the shark fin is just as tall as the spoiler. So, you get some different aero-interactions with cars on the inside of you and behind you than you typically were used to. We were used to that for three, four, or five years. It wasn’t as much of a change, I would say, in the way that the cars aerodynamically drove, when we went from a wing to a spoiler as we went from the Gen-5 car to the Gen-6 car.”
 
MATT BORLAND: “Just to add on that, next week when we go to Phoenix and for all the downforce tracks, the package is totally changed and different from what we’re racing here in Daytona where we’re having a lot more downforce on the car and a lot bigger spoiler and a lot bigger pan, whereas at Daytona we’ve got less spoiler, less splitter, so you have a lot less downforce on the car. There’s also sort of two totally different packages within this same year and this same car.”
 
HAVE YOU MADE A DECISION ON WHETHER YOU’LL TEST AT LAS VEGAS JUST BEFORE THAT RACE?
RYAN NEWMAN: “We are, right?
 
MATT BORLAND: “Are you talking about the day before the test, or the open test? The extra day? Yes. Are you talking about an open test at Vegas, or the day before the race weekend? Because the day before the race weekend is open to everybody.
 
RYAN NEWMAN: The Thursday before the race weekend which they originally called a test day, then they changed it to a practice day.  Yes, we’ll be there.
“
 
CONSIDERING WHAT YOU GUYS HAVE A RESOURCES, WHETHER IT’S DEVELOPING THE TEST TEAM, OR HAVING AN IN-HOUSE WIND TUNNEL, HAS IT SURPRISED YOU THAT THE THREE CARS PLACED IN THE TOP-FIVE IN QUALIFYING?
MATT BORLAND: “Surprising, maybe yes, maybe no. Obviously the guys have done a lot of work over the winter. A lot of focus was put on trying to make the cars qualify really well. So from that aspect, no it is not surprising. But, you never know when you come down here what you are going to have, and it was fantastic with all the work Mobil did, all our partners did helping us get those cars ready. And, then just executing on qualifying day. It was great to see. Like I said, it is kind of a double-edged sword there. You are surprised, but you are not surprised.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN: “We were second in Talladega by thousandths of a second last year. So, we had speed last year. It wasn’t like all of a sudden we just got speed.”
 
TONY KEEPS GOING TO THE FACT THAT WITH MOBIL 1 THERE IS SOMETHING BEYOND JUST BEING A SPONSOR:
RYAN NEWMAN: “We have integrity in our answers, yes. We believe they make a difference, that is why we say it.”
 
WHEN YOU THINK BACK TO WINNING THIS RACE, WHAT COMES IN THERE?
RYAN NEWMAN: “I think it was an amazing moment in my racing career; my driving career; my family; and all those things that go into it – for myself personally, Roger (Penske), my Dad, so many people. But it’s in the past. The track’s changed; the tires have changed; the cars have changed; my crew has changed; a lot of things have changed. I know I still have the ability because the walls and the banking are still there, and are virtually the same. I have the confidence to do what I need to do, but, you can’t just say because I’ve done it, I can do it again. If you do, and you do do it, you merely got lucky. It takes a lot of things to make it right so that you can be in Victory Lane on Sunday.”
 
WHEN YOU LOOK AT TONY, WHAT DO YOU SEE IN HIS BODY LANGUAGE AFTER THE WEEK HE HAS HAD WITH YOU, DANICA AND HIS OWN CAR?
RYAN NEWMAN: “Just that he needs a couple of hours at the chiropractor, that’s about it. (LAUGHS) No, I think he’s definitely very happy to see the way that the cars qualified. That is a big part of coming here, and we were very open about it when we tested that we were putting our emphasis on speed, not drafting. At least from the No. 39 side. To come here and do what we did in qualifying made somewhat of a statement, no doubt. Tony also knows that when the racing starts that the speed is only a part of it, there’s a lot more to it. We all have be shiny in what we have to achieve. But body language-wise, he’s Tony. He’s usually got a bruise from a rock in a sprint car. His neck hurts a little bit because he got it up on his side. That type of thing. That’s his body language.”

Mark Reuss Named Honorary Pace Car Driver for Daytona 500
President of General Motors North America Instrumental in Bringing Chevrolet SS to NASCAR
 
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Mark Reuss, General Motors North America president , who was instrumental in bringing the new Chevrolet SS to NASCAR, will be the honorary pace car driver Sunday for the 55th running of the Daytona 500.
 
He will be behind the wheel of a 2014 production Chevrolet SS.
 
“Leading the Daytona 500 starting field to green driving a 2014 Chevrolet SS pace car on one of the most famous race tracks in the world will be a special honor for me,” Reuss said. “I can’t wait to drive across the start/finish line and on into Turn 1. I know it will be difficult to turn down onto pit road when it’s over because I will want to make that moment last as long as possible.”

The 2014 Chevrolet SS pace car has been busy during its Speedweeks debut, earlier pacing The Sprint Unlimited and both Budweiser Duels. The 2014 Chevrolet SS is the first V-8, rear-wheel drive performance sedan for Chevrolet since 1996.
 
“The Chevrolet brand was largely built on the strength of rear-drive performance sedans, yet it’s been 17 years since we’ve offered one,” Reuss said when the production car was unveiled at the track last weekend. “The all-new Chevrolet SS fills that void and fills it better than any other vehicle in the brand’s rich history. The comfort, convenience, spaciousness and V-8 power make the SS a total performance package unlike any other on the road today.”
 
The Chevrolet SS accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in about five seconds – making it one of the quickest sedans on the market.
 
The 2014 Chevrolet SS will be available in the fourth quarter of 2013, with prices set closer to the on-sale date.
 
This is the first time that Reuss has been an honorary pace car driver for a NASCAR race.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
 
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his outlook for the Daytona 500, his charity involvement, new sponsorship for three races, Danica Patrick, and more.  Full Transcript:
 
ON NEW SPONSORSHIP
“We talked during the Media Tour about having nine races left to sell and we’re proud to announce this week that we’ve got three of those sold to Rush Truck Centers. They’re going to be on the car at Fontana, the spring Martinsville race, and spring Richmond races. We’ve had a relationship with them since 2010 and it’s obviously growing. It’s grown to three primaries this year. Mobil 1 will be the ‘b’ sponsor on the car for all three of those races. So, we still have six races of inventory left, but we’ve got three committed to Rush Truck Centers now.”
 
ON THE DAYTONA 500 AND HOW HIS CAR IS
“It’s kind of weird on Friday to be sitting here and I won’t see that car again until Sunday. So, we’ve actually run all we’re going to run the car until the 500, which the motor that was in the car today is the race engine, so we basically worked on our chassis set-up and made sure we did our final run on the motor just to make sure there were no vibrations and no leaks and no problems. I don’t know where we ended-up in the second session, if we were still on the top of the board or not, but it seemed like it had really good speed and I’m excited about Sunday now. It’s going to be kind of nice to have a day off from the Cup car and be able to focus strictly on the Nationwide car tomorrow. I’m excited. We’ve made it through the whole week without a scratch on that car and it’s about as ready as it can get for the 500. So I’m excited. I feel like we’ve got a car that’s capable of winning the race. It’s just a matter of whether the driver does a good job behind the steering wheel and puts it’s it the right positions.”
 
WHERE WAS YOUR FOCUS ON CHASSIS SET-UP THIS MORNING?
“I was actually tight yesterday too. So, we went to free it up to see if we could get it more neutral. I think we ran 28 consecutive laps out there, so we had plenty of heat in the tires during that run. We ran the top of the track; we ran the bottom of the track, so we pretty much know what we’ve got now and have a pretty good handle on it.”
 
YOU WERE STRONG IN THE UNLIMITED AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A GOOD CAR FOR SUNDAY. DOES THAT MAKE YOU MORE ANXIOUS OR FEELING LIKE MAYBE THIS IS THE YEAR WHEN YOU WIN THIS RACE?
“Well, even with the way the cars run all week, it’s no guarantee. It’s still a chess match. You’ve still got to put yourself in the right position and be there at the end. I’m comfortable, I guess, more than anything right now. I felt good when I got out of the car today. I didn’t feel like we still have work to do to get the car balanced or to get speed out of the car. I feel like we’ve got both of those right now. So, as far as the car is concerned, I’m really happy and content with it. Like I say the weird thing is just knowing that we do have practice tomorrow and we won’t run a lap in that car tomorrow. So, I guess I’m just calm at this point. It’s just a matter of waiting until Sunday and going out and doing our job.”
 
CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW YOU AND YOUR FELLOW DRIVERS SPEND SUCH A LARGE AMOUNT OF YOUR TIME DOING CHARITY WORK; FOR EXAMPLE WITH DARRELL GWYNN?
“Darrell has done this twice a year for a long time now; I don’t know how many consecutive years he’s done it here and at Homestead. You’d never have a hard time getting drivers to go do it. All the drivers are supportive of charities like that. We’re all very supportive of each other’s charities as well. It’s something you’re pretty proud of when you come into this sport and realizing how hectic all of our schedules are, but at the same time, how willing the drivers are to donate the limited about of free time that they do have to really good causes to help generate money.”
 
IS IT UNUSUAL FOR YOU TO BE CALM BEFORE THIS RACE OR DOES THIS RACE MAKE YOU NERVOUS MOST YEARS?
“Oh, it always makes you nervous because you always want to win the biggest race of the year. But when I say nervous, it’s not like you lose sleep over it. But I guess today when I say I’m calm about it, it’s like I’m really happy with my car. I got out and I looked at (crew chief) Steve Addington and he’s like I’m content if you are and I’m like I honestly don’t know what else to ask for with the car. So, it’s nice from a driver’s side to be able to say I don’t know what else to ask you for. I don’t know what else I need. So, it’s a good scenario. When there’s not a scratch on it, it’s ready to race. Those guys are going to have the whole day tomorrow to just get everything ready and go over everything with a fine-tooth comb and make sure everything is absolutely perfect and ready for Sunday. That’s a position I don’t know that we’ve ever been in. I think we’ve always run final practice and if nothing else, at least run 15 or 20 laps in final practice. To have this year and know that we’re finished and ready to go, it’s nice for those guys to have that opportunity and time to get ready for the race and we’re not going to be doubled-up tomorrow, so we’ll have a pretty relaxing day tomorrow to get ready for Sunday.”
 
RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN RELAXING TO YOU. CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE CHANGE AND THE NATURE OF PLATE RACING WITH THIS GEN-6 CAR AND IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT
“I love it. I love actually being able to see through the car in front of me and see what’s going on and not just being cramped up the bumper of the guy up in front of you and trying to make sure you’re in the right spot to try to get an opening of air. It’s a lot more fun, at least from my standpoint as a driver. I like it a lot better than the tandem style that we had. You’ll never hurt my feelings if I never have to physically push another car again in the Cup Series the rest of my life.”
 
TONY, YOU DIDN’T HAVE THE SEASON YOU WANTED LAST YEAR, HAS DANICA’S PERFORMANCE THIS WEEK AND THE SUCCESS OF YOUR THREE CARS ENERGIZED YOU?
“I don’t know that Daytona energizes you. It is once you go to two or three 1.5-mile tracks that you get excited about what you’ve got. Daytona is Daytona. It is kind of a separate entity than the rest of the season. This week has been an awesome week. We didn’t end up with the finish we wanted in the Unlimited the other night, but still had a strong run. Showed strength in the race. Sunday (qualifying) was a dream for a car owner to have your three cars in the top-five spots on the grid. Danica and I got through unscathed. Ryan (Newman) had a problem yesterday (in the Duel races). We know what it was. We know what to do to solve it to keep that from happening again. He’s in a backup car, and he seems to like his backup car so far. As far as the 10 days that you are down here, it is kind of a mini season of it’s own just getting through the 500. Up to this point, it’s been really, really good. Obviously, being here today talking about a new sponsor for three races – that’s been the icing on the cake so far.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD MEAN FOR THIS SPORT IF DANICA WERE TO WIN ON SUNDAY? AND IF YOU TWO ARE RUNNING ONE AND TWO, WILL THAT THOUGHT CROSS YOUR MIND AT ALL?
“No, it will not. And you guys will know more what it means than we will.  We just try to figure out how to win races. I mean, it was huge obviously. You are asking me before it happens, and I got to see how big it was after she got on the pole what it meant, and how big it was news-wise. I’m just guessing knowing how big it was after qualifying, if she were to win the race, it would be huge.”
 
DO YOU THINK DANICA HAS BEEN HANDICAPPED JUST
WORRYING ABOUT NOT WRECKING THE CAR, AND NOT REALLY DOING A WHOLE LOT OF DRAFTING AS FAR AS PREPARATION FOR THIS RACE? THE NATIONWIDE RACE WILL BE A TANDEM RACE, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE FROM THAT RACE TO SUNDAY?
“No, not at all. It’s two totally different forms of drafting. Two different styles. So tomorrow won’t do anything. As far as handicapping, I don’t know that it has handicapped her at all. It is a 500 mile race, she is going to learn a lot during the race as well as what she learned yesterday. Yesterday her car was tight. She just didn’t have the car to get up there. She had speed today in practice. Her car is really fast too, so I mean, she’s got the car she needs. It’s just a matter of being in the right positions. Yesterday it was hard to be in the right position. I think the 500 miles will be a trial and error process for everybody including her to learn what we need to do for those last 100 miles to get in position to try and win.”
 
DANICA SAID SHE WILL GET AFTER IT ON SUNDAY.  WILL YOU RUN YOUR OWN RACE, OR WILL YOU WANT TO GO WITH HER AND GET IN THE DRAFT WITH HER TO GIVE HER SOME SUPPORT?
“You obviously want to work with your teammates. Nobody has mentioned Ryan Newman. I don’t know if you guys know, but he’s my teammate too. He drives the No. 39 car for Stewart-Haas. Been there for five years now. Just to let you know that we do actually have another teammate too that runs for us. Yea, we’ll do anything we can to work with our teammates. For 400 miles…working with your teammates for the first 100 miles isn’t going to accomplish anything. You aren’t helping anything, but you aren’t hurting anything. You have to try stuff that you want to try when you want to try it, and learn the things you need to learn for those last 100 miles.  Other than that. In a perfect scenario, you are helping a teammate, or a teammate is helping you at the end. That’s what you would like to have. But, there’s going to be times and scenarios during the day – pit stops – there’s going to be a lot of things that happen that don’t lead you to necessarily being around your teammate all the time. You can’t just stop what you are doing because you have a teammate somewhere else in every scenario.”
 
YOU’VE BEEN IN THE POSITION WHERE YOU’VE SWEPT EVERYTHING COMING INTO THE 500 AND EVERYBODY SAID ‘OH HE’S THE FAVORITE’, AND YOU KNOW THAT DOESN’T TRANSLATE TO ANYTHING. NOW KEVIN (HARVICK) IS SORT OF IN THAT POSITION, AND HE’S BUILDING STEAM AS THE GUY TO BEAT. NO. 1 IS HE THE GUY TO BEAT? NO. 2 WHY CAN YOU RUN WELL AND WIN EVERYTHING AND THEN NOT PULL IT OFF ON THE BIG DAY AND THE ONE THAT COUNTS?
“You don’t have the whole field in either of the two races leading up to it is part of that reason. It is a 20-car or 22-car shootout on Saturday night. You have half the field, which is about the same amount of cars, 22 or 23 cars, on Thursday. Sometimes the scenarios just don’t work out. Sometimes you have bad luck that didn’t creep up in the first two races. There is just a number of things that can happen on Sunday’s race that don’t happen, or hadn’t happened up to that point in the other two races. I think it is actually a good position for Kevin this week. It doesn’t seem to be as easy to come from the back to the front as it has been in the past. I think having that experience, and the laps that he has led up front, he’s learned a lot that can be really, really valuable at the end if he’s in that scenario again. That is good knowledge to have going into Sunday’s race.”

DANICA PATRICK AND TONY GIBSON (CREW CHIEF), NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed starting on the pole for the 55th running of the Daytona 500, their strategy for the rest of the weekend and the Daytona 500 and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT HOW PRACTICE HAS BEEN GOING; HOW THE DUEL WENT FOR YOU AS LOOK AHEAD TO THE DAYTONA 500:
DANICA: “The Duel was fine. I started on the bottom. Tony (Stewart) was right behind me if I started there, so we thought that was kind of the best place to be. We didn’t really know that it was going to be so obvious that we needed to start on the top; that’s why we will do that for the 500 on Sunday. Tony just stayed back there, so I just stayed with him. We just kind of fell back; we got three-wide a little bit at one point, and I just got out of it and let that pass and then dropped to the back. The car was pretty tight, so there wasn’t a lot I could do anyway. Passing seems tough without a fair amount of help. And even when you get that, it sometimes get stopped-up by somebody dropping down in front of the lane, and slowing it up. So, it is going to be interesting to see how things end up working out on Sunday. Practice today was really the most amount race running I felt like I’ve had. We did 32 laps straight. I was running with great cars – Jeff (Gordon), Kasey (Kahne), Tony. I think Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) got in mix at one point. It was a good group of cars to be with. We stayed out there for a long time. Just got a feel for things. I don’t think we even expected to do so much running. The car was good from the get-go. Tony (Gibson, crew chief) made some nice adjustments from the Duel to today. We’re feeling much more comfortable and confident with the balance going into Sunday.”
 
TONY, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE THINGS FROM THE CAR? SOME OF THE THINGS YOUR CREW HAS WORKED ON, AND HOW THINGS ARE SHAKING OUT FOR YOUR TEAM: TONY GIBSON: “We’re just trying to keep speed in it. We were way, way, way too tight for the Duel. We kind of over-adjusted there; we weren’t sure. We figured with the weather that we needed to be tightened up a little bit: especially starting on the front row on the inside. Our plan was to stay with Stewart right behind us. We were hoping to be able to pull away – at least both of us at the start and get to the high-side. But that didn’t happen. So once we got back there…just stay out of trouble and help Stewart if he got in some trouble and had to catch back up. You are going to have to have all the speed that you can get in these race cars. We were just too tight. I felt like we killed our speed with over-adjustments. We worked on some things last night based off her comments mainly just to keep speed in it. Mid-corner speed is going to be big. I think you get runs; pushes from other cars and you suck up really well. But, your mid-corner speed is going to have to extremely good to duck down and pass somebody on the inside and get a run. I felt like we made some pretty good gains today. I felt like there are a couple of other things me and Danica talked about that we need to be a little bit better at car-wise. So we are going to work on those tonight and go into the 500…just some small things.
 
“Some shock adjustments we’ve been working on to keep speed in the car, and the right front spring we worked on a little bit. Just things to keep it in traffic. Keep the car consistent because when you are out front, all the air is on the front-end and the back-end gets light. And when you are in traffic, the whole car kind of lifts out of the race track, and you lose that pressure on the nose. Just working on things to make the car consistent no matter where she is at. We were in the front; we were in the back; we were the fourth car; third car; second car today around some really good race cars. Some fast race cars. Some of the guys you are going to have to contend with for the win. I felt like we did make the car better. We have some more stuff to do to make sure we can win this thing. We have speed, and she can definitely get it done. I think we have some partners out there that seem to me are committed to helping us there. I know we’ve been holding her back. We haven’t been letting her race, and I know that is frustrating to try to protect your race car so you can lead the field down. But, we are going to cut her lose on Sunday. I told her she can treat it like a video game. If you feel like you want to pull out and pass, go for it.”
 
DANICA: “I finally said in the hauler after we were done ‘We are definitely, definitely, definitely starting on the front row for the 500 now because we are done.”
 
TONY GIBSON: We’re done.”
 
DANICA, WITH ALL THE ATTENTION YOU ARE GETTING FOR BEING ON THE POLE, DOES THAT PUT ANY MORE PRESSURE ON YOU TO BE COMPETITIVE AND THAT YOU ARE SORT OF BECOMING THE FACE OF THIS RACE?
DANICA: “I’m just going to answer your question about if I feel more pressure. I can understand that there will be more hope out there, and there will be a lot of people that will be excited, and anxious to see what happens. But, I put plenty of pressure on myself, and I want to go out there, and I want to win the race, and I want to run strong all day. I want to do all those things for myself. I don’t think that anyone can make me feel it anymore. I guess I’m okay. I’m noticing by the attention that is getting that it would be….when you are already being watched a lot in those moments. It happened in the Indy 500 in 2005 where qualifying came and went, and we missed out on the pole, and everybody was watching me to see what happened in the race, and have it go down in an exciting fashion and come close to winning it, it blows up even bigger then because so many people are watching. I can understand that could happen. It’s going to be a big challenge no doubt. There are a lot of really good drivers that know what they’re doing. I need to go out there, and I need to just hold my own. I also need to…I’m thinking about more what I have to do, not what’s going to happen. Doesn’t do me any good to think about what’s going to happen.”
 
IT WILL LIKELY CHANGE DURING THE RACE, BUT ARE THERE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO DRAFT WITH? IS THERE SOMEBODY YOU HAVEN’T HAD A CHANCE TO DRAFT WITH YET?
DANICA: “You’ll take anybody you can get. It really doesn’t matter. It’s a little bit different now that we’re not bump drafting. So, it’s not like you have people that you feel more comfortable with or not. It’s just pushing with air. So, I think that you’ll take anyone you can get to try and pull out and pass people. It’s going to take a fair amount of them. So, I’ll take ‘em where I can get ‘em.”
 
DON’T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY. BOTH OF YOU TALKED ABOUT WINNING THE RACE. PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT OH, SHE WON THE POLE AND THAT’S GREAT. BUT SHE PROBABLY WON’T BE UP THERE RUNNING FOR THE WIN ON SUNDAY. WHY ARE YOU BOTH SO CONFIDENT THAT YOU CAN BE A CONTENDER AND GO GET THIS WIN?
TONY GIBSON: “Well, I can answer that. I have 100 percent confidence in her skills and her ability. I’ve seen it just in the two races we did last year. We were sitting there running 11th or 12th in Phoenix on the lead lap and running with guys I never dreamed we’d be running with. So, she’s got the talent and she’s got the ability and she’s already proven in the Nationwide Series, from what I’ve seen, on the speedway stuff she definitely gets the respect and people know she’s fast. She can draft. She knows how the air works. She gets a lot of that from IndyCar. So I have 100 percent confidence that she can win the Daytona 500. I can remember Derrike Cope and nobody gave him a chance either, but I saw him in Victory Lane and I actually hung the body on that car so I know it can be done. And I think she’s definitely got the support from her team and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports that she can get it done. From what I’ve seen out there today with practice and we
ran 32 laps and we had four of the Hendrick cars and us and the No. 14 (Tony Stewart) car and we shuffled around and moved. She would lead and run second and third and Jeff (Gordon) and those guys were just like she was a part of them. They had no concerns. I definitely have all the confidence in the world we can win it.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CONCERN ABOUT THE HANDLING OF THE CAR AT THE STAGE YOUR AT RIGHT NOW?
DANICA: “I was saying earlier that I think one of the things that I have worried a little bit too much about on these speedways is being really fair and caring about every single driver out there and trying to show them I’m loyal being behind them or things like that.  What you end up noticing with a lot of guys that are at the front is they go.  When other drivers see someone that wants to go they want to go too and they will go with them.  I think I just need to be a little bit more aggressive from that standpoint and stop worrying so much about being in line and being loyal and worry more about getting to the front if I’m not there for some reason.  I guess I’m concerned that I will pull out and I will just keep shuffling to the back because nobody will go with me.  I guess that would be the big concern for Sunday.  There is nothing you can do about that you’ve just got to try.”
 
YOU LOOK AT THE PROGENY OF A LOT OF THE ESTABLISHED STARS RIGHT NOW THEY ARE ALL LITTLE GIRLS.  DO YOU THINK YOUR POLE VICTORY MIGHT CREATE THE NEXT WAVE OF DRIVERS?  CAN YOU WIN THIS RACE?
DANICA: “It’s funny because a couple of nights before that Carl Edwards came over with his daughter.  I have known since last year she was a huge fan of mine.  She was over at the bus and Carl was saying that it’s good that she sees me in real life and in person because he’s like ‘because to her you are like some mythical creature that doesn’t exist’. She had green shoes on, green GoDaddy shoes on.  She is a big fan.  After qualifying Jimmie Johnson brought his little girl over because she wanted to meet me.  I mean that is three pretty big drivers that have little girls that wanted to meet me that is very flattering.  I don’t know, but I think you can only lead by example and I don’t necessarily want my example to be to step outside the box and be a girl in a guy’s world.  That is not what I’m trying to say, but, if you have a talent for something to not be afraid to follow through with it and not feel different.  Not feel like you are less qualified or less competent to be able to do the job because you are different is to ignore that and let it be about what you potential is. Can I win?  Yeah, absolutely I believe the statistic is a 17 percent chance starting from the pole.  That is what somebody told me.  I feel comfortable in this kind of race situation.  I feel comfortable in the draft.  I feel comfortable with these speeds they are not a problem.  For me it is just about finding out how to pass cars and having who I need to do it with, if I need somebody how to use them the best ways to get by.  If I get shuffled back, which to be quite honest, it’s probably going to happen.  I doubt that you will see someone lead the whole thing.  You are going to have to figure out how to pass.  I know I’m inexperienced, I know that I’m a rookie out there.  I will do the best job I can.  I believe I do have a chance to win.  I do believe experience would help but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have a chance to win.”
 
YOU WERE MENTIONING EVERYTHING YOU DID TO THE CAR YOU LIKED IT.  EVERYTHING YOU DID MADE IT FASTER.  WHAT WAS IT YOU WERE PLAYING AROUND WITH MORE COMING FROM A FORMULA SET-UP BASIS AND DO YOU THINK IT HAS ANY IMPACT ON YOUR SETTING UP THE CAR THE INCREASED CAMBER CHANGE?
DANICA: “I would love to sound smart right now, but I have no idea what they do to these cars. I have no idea.  I really don’t.  I tried in the very beginning when I jumped into stock cars to read set-up sheets.  I don’t even know how to read a tape measure.  I am not qualified to give you that answer, but this man is.  I’m not sure if he is going to give you the answer because then he would be telling you what we did to the car, but I’ll let him take it from here.”
 
TONY GIBSON: “I think the difference in the cambers can be taken either way.  There are going to be tracks that taking advantage of the max camber rule NASCAR has given us it’s not going to work everywhere we go, there are going to be certain tracks it’s going to want more in the right than it is in the left.  It’s going to want to be maxed out and not maxed out.  We have had three different housings in our car since we’ve been here just experimenting with that.  Today was a prime example we had a totally different housing in today with different cambers and things that we didn’t have in the 150’s.  I think it’s just a matter of we are building a notebook on what she is going to want to feel and what the car is going to want on different tracks and different tires.  I don’t know that we will ever pin point every track will want this.  That is some of our gains.  This whole week and a half with the new camber rule in the back, but it’s an ongoing process.  It’s not easy a lot of guys are doing the same things.  I don’t think I’ve seen as many housings change at a race track in all my life.  When NASCAR gives you a rule that you can work within you are going to work within it.  Just right now everybody is just trying to figure out what this tire is going to want, what this car is going to want and I don’t know that we will figure it out this year.  It may take us two years to figure out.  If they give us the opportunity to work in that area we are going to work in it pretty hard.”
 
FOLLOWING UP ON THE DAUGHTER’S THING WITH CARL (EDWARDS), JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND JEFF (GORDON) ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF RACING THAT HAS ALSO HAPPENED OVER THE LAST FOUR OR FIVE DAYS THAT IS PRETTY COOL LIKE THAT?
“Not really around anybody else.  I’ve been stuck here at the track (laughs).  The only other outside things I see are the articles you guys write.  I think that it is a strong enough example with Carl (Edwards) and Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) that something is impacting kids.  In fact I did have one other thing happen with a guy.  I was in the gym and I didn’t know him, but he obviously works on a team.  He wanted to show me this video of a couple of kids that were two years old.  They were both his kids so unless they were twins they must have been two and three or two and four or something, they were young.  It was a magazine that I was on the cover of.  The kids were shown a picture and asked ‘who is this’ they both knew who I was.  They said my name and he said I have no idea how they know who you are.  I have no idea.  I don’t get it either.  I don’t know where it is coming from.  I don’t know if it’s something that they see on TV that doesn’t seem to be so obvious to a parent or if their kids once they are in school if it’s part of some curriculum. I’m not really sure.  I think it’s an interesting thing though.  It’s very flattering and it’s a fortunate situation to find myself in.  I enjoy being inspirational to these kids.  I’d love to know why.”
 
TONY GIBSON: “I will say this much.  I have handed out more lugnuts to little girls at those little windows in the garage area than I have since I have been here.  It’s pretty amazing to see the little kids and the girls especially walk up with their GoDaddy stuff on and their hats.  All they want to do is get a glimpse and get a picture and be part of it.  That part of it I know you guys probably don’t see, but from being in th
e garage and having the windows down and the kids coming up writing things on the window.  I’ve gone through I bet you 50 lugnuts that I have handed out to little girls.  I think that is really cool for our sport and I think it’s going to help our sport grow.”
 
CAN YOU SIGN A LUGNUT?
DANICA: “Yes, you can.”
 
TONY GIBSON: “What I do is I write little 10’s on them. I just take a Sharpie and put a 10 on the lugnut and hand it to the kids.  We have gone through a whole bag of lugnuts since we have been here.”
 
DANICA: “You made a good point about the window.  The window for the garage there is tons of writing on the window and I didn’t know it was all there.  I’m going to have to go out and read it all.  I’m sure there are some pretty cool messages.”
 
YOUR BOSS TONY STEWART DIDN’T HAVE THE KIND OF YEAR HE WANTED TO LAST YEAR.  DO YOU THINK YOUR WEEK THIS YEAR HAS ENERGIZED HIM TOO?
DANICA: “That is not a question I can answer.  I have no idea.  I think that if anything all I can say is that he should feel proud that he has three very fast cars.  He should feel proud that a team with his name on it and that he has helped build put a car on the pole for the Daytona 500.  He should feel proud that he was a part of putting us together.  Those are all things that I think he should feel proud for.  Now does it amp him up or give him excitement I really don’t know.  I have definitely shown how appreciative I am for everything that he has put in front of me and the opportunities he has given me.  And just the fact that someone like Tony Stewart will endorse me that means a lot to a lot of people.  It helps out on the track, it helps in the garage area and it helps the general public.  I’m grateful.”
 
YOU ARE A PETITE DRIVER FOR SUCH A BIG CAR DO YOU DO ANY EXERCISES TO INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH TO DRIVE THESE CARS?
DANICA: “I work out of course.  I lift weight and I do cardio.  Those are the things that I think are important.  Power steering is pretty nice in these cars so I think the moments I need to be prepared for are when it goes out, if it goes out.  These cars are really repetitive so I feel like it’s important to take care of your body too.  Just for that repetitive motion so you don’t get any kind of like over use fatigue.  Really with stock cars, indy cars were very physical especially on the road courses without any kind of power steering.  These cars are hot.  They are really hot and in the summer months when it comes along I’ve just learned a lot about hydration and how important that is.  I’ve always worked out as much to drive the car and have that be easy as to feel good.  And be able to do a nice job and look good for my sponsors.  There are lots of reasons.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BUDWEISER DUEL AT DAYTONA QUALIFYING RACE I
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER NOTES & QUOTES
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
TWO FOR TWO SO FAR HERE DURING BUDWEISER SPEEDWEEKS AT DAYTONA THIS CAR, THIS RACE, THIS TYPE OF WEATHER CONDITIONS HOW MUCH DIFFERENT WAS THE HANDLING OF THIS RACE CAR TODAY?
“The handling was definitely a lot looser for us than what we were the other night.  It stayed consistent so it was manageable.  I just want to thank everybody on our Budweiser Chevrolet team.  To win the sponsors race in the Bud Duels here it’s hard to align all that and put it all together.  It all worked out for us today.  Gil (Martin, crew chief) made a great call on pit road and it all worked out.”
 
SO MANY TIMES THIS WEEK WE’VE BEEN HEARING THE WORD UNKNOWN FROM ALL OF YOU DRIVERS ABOUT HOW THIS GENERATION SIX RACE CAR IS GOING TO HANDLE IN THE DRAFT WITH LIMITED DRAFTING PRACTICE WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING?
“You’ve just got to be precise in your moves if you get yourself in the wrong spot like we did at the beginning of the race in the middle you just can’t go anywhere.  The only place you are going in backwards.  It’s hard to get yourself into the hole that you need when you make a mistake.  Usually you go back several car lengths you’ve just got to be precise about making the right moves.”
 
EARLIER IN THE RACE WE SAW YOU GUYS RUNNING THE OUTSIDE LANE WHEN IT WAS TIME TO COUNT THE LAPS HERE IN THE CLOSING STAGES THE BOTTOM SIDE.  IS THERE A PREFERRED WAY TO ATTACK THIS TRACK?
“When those guys were coming up through there we were kind of 10th or 12th in that pack.  I saw them coming on the bottom and we were able to kind of break that top line up a little bit and get them spread out.  Finally, a couple of holes to jump up into then the bottom would come back.  We would get past a couple more there at the end especially after that pit stop I figured the bottom was going to be the place; since we didn’t have the biggest pack to make the least amount of time so that the pack behind us could make up the least amount of time.  Luckily, it all played out our way.  Hopefully, we can do it one more time.”   
 
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST THING YOU LEARNED TODAY?
“I think the biggest thing is the cars were definitely a little bit freer. My car was a little big free up off the corner, but man, the way the draft worked out, you really had to be precise on timing because if you weren’t you’d get hung out. I want to thank all the race fans, Sprint, Budweiser, Jimmy John’s, Chevrolet, Champion, Hunt Brothers, Bad Boys Buggies; everybody that helps this Chevrolet out, and all these guys on this RCR team.”
 
ARE YOU GOING TO PUT KEELAN BACK IN THE CAR? YOU’VE HAD HIM IN THE CAR TWICE, AND TWICE YOU’VE WON:
Hey, I don’t know what that is, but man, we are just having a good time. Having DeLana and Keelan here just adds a great balance to my life. Just relaxing. Ready to race.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SIXTH
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN TODAY’S RACE?
 “The top line seemed to be where you needed to be. I think there were a lot of guys who weren’t going to be content just riding in line. They kept trying to make a move, and it seemed like the more guys did it in the back half (of the field), the more guys started getting lined up together and working with each other, and I think we started to make a dent at it before pit stops.
 
“Pit crews are going to make a huge difference on Sunday. That’s going to be the difference between which pack you come out in. You’re going to have to have good stops to stay up there all day.”
 
HOW MUCH DO YOU BALANCE APPLYING WHAT YOU LEARNED TODAY DURING THESE NEXT COUPLE OF PRACTICE SESSIONS WITH SAVING YOUR RACE CAR FOR SUNDAY?  
“It’s just risk versus reward. Every time you go out there you’ll try to be selective about who you go with, and I think you’ll see what we’ve already seen to this point in practice. I don’t think you’ll see big packs. I think you’ll see a lot of smaller packs go out and run with each other versus one big group.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH:
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN THIS RACE THAT YOU CAN APPLY ON SUNDAY IN THE DAYTONA 500?
“I definitely learned that the outside is pretty good. But I think do I have to start on the inside on Sunday? I’m not really sure. Where does the pole start? The outside is looking pretty nice. So they definitely carried a lot of momentum. I was really tight to start the race off. We were really conservative with the set-up and we wanted to make sure the back was locked-down, but it was just way too tight; especially around (Turns) 3 and 4. So, we freed it up at the first stop. Speaking of the first stop, my tach was way off.
 
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY
“Yeah, it’s not an exciting mission when you’ve just got to bring it home. But, it is for the Daytona 500, so you’ve got to keep that in mind. I learned that the outside is strong and it carries a lot of good momentum. And then I learned that you need some friends. I also learned that you can’t be too tight because that outside is what’s good but you can’t be too tight, which mine was. It was way too tight at the start. But we wanted to be conservative. We didn’t want to have any issues with the GoDaddy car. We wanted to make sure we’ve got it on that front row for Sunday. Again, it’s not the most exciting way to race, but something was wrong with the tach. I didn’t know what speed I was doing, so I just went really slow. I tried to hit the right revs and I realized there’s no lights for those revs. So, I knew there was something wrong and then when I got out there on the track it showed I was going 10,000 rpm. I’m sure I’d love to have the kind of speed that comes with 10,000 rpm gives you, but it wasn’t right. So, it’s good to get those little bugs out of the way. We’ll fix them and be solid for Sunday.”
 
DO YOU FEEL YOU LEARNED SOME THINGS IN TERMS OF DRAFTING DURING THIS RACE?
“I’ll be really honest. I didn’t feel like I got a lot of great experience on how to pass or the draft so much. I was able to hang with the group. I guess I did learn that being too tight is pretty detrimental here. If you can’t keep your foot in it and run up behind cars, then you’re going to struggle to make moves. It looks really hard to pass, to be honest.
 
“Jimmie (Johnson) was walking by the car and he said it was just tough to pass unless you’ve got a bunch of people behind you. So the outside got the momentum, but the inside is the shorter distance so they kind of end up being the same if not worse, on the bottom; so it might cause for some anxious drivers come Sunday.”
 
DID YOU MAKE SOME FRIENDS OUT THERE?
“I don’t know. I hung around the back. I’m not really sure what I did or if I made friends. But, usually you make the kind of friends you want when you’re running up front and you’re pulling people along and they’re like, you’re fast and I want to go with you. But we were definitely a little too tight and being a little too conservative to put ourselves up there in the mix.
 
“I hate coming to the end like that and just lying back on those starts. That’s not fun. But it’s also really ignorant to drive up into the pack and be part of an accident for absolutely no reason. You’re really not going to learn much there. So, we just finished the race off and made another change and it kind of ended up being like a test session for us.”
 
DO YOU FEEL AS PREPARED AS YOU CAN BE GOING IN ON SUNDAY?
“No. I think I wish I knew more. I wish I felt more situations. But again, let’s not overlook the fact that we’ve got Saturday practice.”
 
TELL US ABOUT Y
OUR DAY: “I learned some. I think what I really need to do is go down to (Kevin) Harvick’s bus tonight and figure out what he’s got going on. Because he’s got it figured out here this year. So, good job to him. The top line was the way to go. I lifted a little on the start because I got a bit of a jump, and I didn’t want them to close so fast and then get freight-trained in a real scary way. I lifted a little on the start; I don’t know if I should have or not. But the top was the way to go. Once I dropped back, we just hung there, and I was really tight. We tightened up yesterday, and we tightened it up even more for today. I feel like we kind of overshot there.
 
“But that’s alright. It ended up being kind of like a test session. Then when we pitted with Tony with a bunch of others, something happened with my tach, and I wasn’t getting the revs I needed to know what I was doing on pit lane. When I was running out there, I was doing about 10,000 rpm and I am pretty sure that’s not right!”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FOURTH
SOLID DAY FOR YOU, WHAT DID YOU LEARN OUT THERE?  WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE RACE?
“It’s really tough to pass.  When another car gets near your rear tire it’s like you threw the parachute out.  Just a new vehicle, a new way to race we are trying to understand how to make our car better in those situations, just trying to learn really.  Great run, a Chevy won, I think we were in position to win ourselves too so a very good day.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FIFTH
TALK ABOUT THE RACE:
“We will take a top-five in a qualifying race that is nice.  It just boosts up the team and now they have a car they can polish on.  We just need to keep pushing harder to find a bit more speed. It’s unique with the draft on how squirrely the cars can get.  I’m happy that we had enough of a car that was underneath me to stay stable and to be able to draft, not on the aggressive side but to not have to play defense.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 9TH: WHAT DID YOU LEARN OUT THERE:
“We’ve got to work on our handling. Our car was really really tight. At the first, we were on the splitter pretty bad; we worked on it yesterday and went a little too far. Got a little too aggressive with that. But put a packer in on that pit stop, and it was still real tight. I was having to lift in the center of three and four, just to get off the corner. I had to lift real big getting into one on the first lap where Juan (Pablo Montoya) got into the fence behind us. We hadn’t been around any packs. I didn’t anticipate really the balance being a big deal because the car does have a good downforce package; we thought the balance would be pretty close. Figured we would be fighting loose a little big. We have to work on it. We will; we’ll fix it.”
 
ANYTHING YOU LEARN GOING TO HELP YOU FOR THE 500?
“We’ve got a good car. I was able to do some things. I did learn a few things about when those guys get up top. I found some ways to make gains; make passes one car at a time. If you get greedy and try to get a couple, you end up getting trained to the back. Learned a lot of things out there. Just how this car is working with this package that will help us on Sunday.”
 
HOW INDICATIVE IS THAT OF WHAT WE’LL SEE ON SUNDAY?
“I think it is exactly what you are going to see. You’ll see a lot of racing. It’ll be single file around the bottom some. It will be single file around the top some. Then all of a sudden everybody will start racing for no apparent reason. Then it’ll go back to running single file for awhile. We don’t really dictate that as driver. Not the field. The field really is at the mercy of the guys of front. If those guys up front chose to race a certain way, the filed sort of has to follow suit just to be able to maintain the draft. I think it will be a good race. It’s a long race, you know. We can’t run three-wide every lap as much as everybody would like to see that. I think its good racing.”
 
CAN YOU WIN?  “Anybody can win, but we’ve got a good piece. We’ve got a real good car. We get that balance right, and get the thing to turning good, we’ll have a great shot.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BUDWEISER DUEL AT DAYTONA QUALIFYING RACE II
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER NOTES & QUOTES
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
GOOD SOLID EFFORT, YOU GUYS WERE PATIENT THEN WHEN IT WAS THE CLOSING LAPS OF THIS EVENT YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRY TO JUMP IN THERE AND GAIN SOME SPOTS.  WHAT DID YOU LEARN DIVING OUT OF LINE LATE IN THE RACE?
“I had a really good pusher Austin Dillon so that helped a lot.  I wanted to do it with two (laps) to go, but we didn’t have a run at that point so we had to wait until one (lap) to go.  I was able to get by the No. 20 and then get close to the No. 18, but Kyle (Busch) was strong.  We would have needed more laps to try to work together to see if we could have passed him at any point.  It was still a great run for our Farmers Insurance Chevrolet.  Looking forward to the (Daytona) 500 we made some gains since Saturday nights Sprint Unlimited race, just feel like we are getting closer and closer.  I’m excited about where we are at right now.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 33 HONEY NUT CHEERIOS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
YOU GOT 60 LAPS UNDER YOUR BELT IN A DRAFT FINALLY WHAT DID YOU LEARN OUT IN 60 LAPS?
“Quite a bit, it was fun out there.  I had some good people helping me with (Jeff) Burton and Kasey (Kahne).  I wanted to get a Chevrolet in Victory Lane, but it was awesome to get in the race.  When they told me we were in I was looking forward to just having that Sunday.  It’s going to be awesome; I will always remember the first one.”
 
DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD ENOUGH CAR TO PULL OUT SHOULD YOU HAVE NEEDED TO?
“I could get some runs every now and then through the tri-oval.  There at the end that is why I was kind of like ‘let’s go right now’ it happened and we got there pretty quick, but just not enough to get the No. 18.”
 
NOT A BAD JOB FOR A ROOKIE IN YOUR FIRST QUALIFYING DUEL.
“Yeah, that’s awesome. After that first one, we still weren’t in it so we got a little nervous before that. So, we stayed in it all day and rode that top line. I ran behind Kasey (Kahne) the whole time. I was waiting for a Chevy to get into Victory Lane right there.
 
“I just couldn’t get enough of a run at Kyle (Busch). His car was really good. But I want to thank Honey Nut Cheerios for giving me this opportunity and this is an awesome feeling and I’ll always remember the first one.”
 
ON HIS EXPECTATIONS FOR DAYTONA
“”Yeah, we’ve got a good hot rod. This thing is all about being there at the end; going into conservation mode early and then getting them at the end.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH:
HOW WAS IT? “It was great. Real happy with the Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS. The car is fast; drove really good. Of course, I was out front the whole time, but there are two things that I take from this. This is why you want to qualify on the front row, because of a little incident like that (pit road speeding penalty). As well as, that is why we race this race. It’s nice, because we need to learn that now on the tach, and on pit road to make sure that doesn’t happen in the 500.”
 
DID YOU HAVE A TACH GUAGE PROBLEM? “I think we just missed on…you want to maximize everything you have out there. Every opportunity. You don’t want give up anything on pit road, and we were just a little bit too aggressive with our setting. I ran it spot on where it needs to be. They gave us the numbers, it was just a tiny bit over in three segments. It wasn’t that we had a problem or anything like that, we just pushed it too hard.”
 
IS IT DIFFICULT TO PASS THE LEADER? “I would have liked to have been up there with Kasey Kahne. You have got to have somebody go with you; you can’t do it by yourself. But you can get a run, definitely. No doubt about it. I knew Kasey was just sitting there behind me just waiting for the right moment and opportunity late in this race. This is a real thinking race now. It comes down to the way it used to. You get yourself in position. Everybody kind of rides, and thinks about what they have. You have to have your car handling pretty good, which is tough to do further back in traffic. It looked like a few guys had a few small issues; nothing major. But it is hard to make it up through the field, and everybody is working together like that in that single file lane. That is the way it used to be. Long enough runs, especially when it’s a little warmer and sun out, you are going to be able to make some moves. I was happy to see Kasey get up there at least to second. I think in the closing laps of a run, you start to see some moves happening.”
 
WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN SOMETHING OUT THERE THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW?
“I was out front, but I learned we have a very fast race car, which is the best thing to learn. Car handled good. Drove good. But, we were out front. The only thing you kind of wish is that you got a little bit further back to see what to expect. But, I feel good. We had a great day. Brought the car, our Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS back in one piece. We’re starting on the front row of Sunday’s Daytona 500 with a very good race car.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, following engine failure during practice for the Budweiser Duel at Daytona Qualifying Races:
 
WHAT HAPPENED?
“We broke a motor, it’s as simple as that. They’ll figure out what happen. I’m sure there is some logical explanation as to what happened, but, we’ll just put a new one in and start at the back of the Qualifier tomorrow, and race up through there.”
 
WILL YOU GO TO BED A LITTLE WORRIED TONIGHT?
“No, it’s just part of racing.”
 
IS THIS ANY SORT OF A SETBACK?
“Not really. Everything is good. We were just making some single car runs by ourselves. Everything seemed like it was working. Just trying to find a little more speed, and we found a few things that seemed to help the car. We’ll try to get out in this next practice, and see what else we can learn, but everything should be fine.”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING THAT IT WAS GOING?
“No.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – Crashed during first practice run; will repair the car – not going to back-up.
 
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“I don’t know.  I want to watch first (after watching the replay).  My car came around.  I don’t know if it was the air off of Carl’s (Edwards) car or what.  My car just came around.  (Referring to the replay) You can see the backend getting light there.  I think it’s just an aero situation, but that was news to me.  Carl (Edwards) came over and said ‘hey man’… I said ‘I don’t even know what to tell you yet’.  It was unfortunate for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet, but that is why we had practice.  That was my first experience, but I guess my car just got light in the back going into the corner.”
 
HOW BADLY WOUNDED IS YOUR CAR?
“I think it’s totally fixable, it’s just a matter of time and getting practice and everything else.  Matt (Borland, crew chief) and the guys are assessing the situation.”
 
CARL (EDWARDS) CAME OVER IMMEDIATELY TO TALK TO YOU.  WHAT DID YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT?
“Just what happened.  I didn’t know what happened and he honestly admitted that he didn’t know what happened.  Just all of a sudden my car was going across his nose.  He did say that he tried to come up and put the air brakes on me.  I think in doing so it just made my car that loose.  I hadn’t been loose the entire time.  It was just something new and a different characteristic of this car I guess.”
 
YOU HAVE NOT FELT THAT SIMILAR SITUATION WHY IS THAT DIFFERENT?  A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT A WEIRD AERO DEAL THERE?
“I think some of it has to do with the huge shark fin that we have on that side.  When you pack air up on that side it’s not going to the spoiler it’s getting blocked off from the spoiler.  There are a lot of things to think about and talk about.”
 
YOU GUYS ARE PLANNING TO FIX THE DAMAGE RIGHT?
“We are going to fix it.  It’s a Catch-22 we brought this car for a reason.  The engine is fine; it never spun backwards all that stuff is good.  We don’t think we will make it back out for the second practice, but we will be fine.”
 
EVEN IF YOU DID WOULD YOU PRACTICE DRAFTING OR DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DONE?
“No, we will still practice drafting.  That is what it is going to take to win the (Daytona) 500.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed making his 400th Sprint Cup Series start, what winning the Daytona 500 means to him and other topics.  FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
JIMMIE WILL BE MAKING HIS 400TH  START DURING THE 55TH RUNNING OF THE DAYTONA 500 AND LOWE’S HAS BEEN HIS SPONSOR FOR ALL 400.  JIMMIE AND JEFF GORDON ARE THE ONLY TWO DRIVERS TO HAVE THE SAME SPONSOR FOR ALL 400 STARTS:
“That’s awesome.  Time flies by it’s hard to imagine 400 starts already.  So proud of the fact that every one of those starts has been with Lowe’s on the side of the race car.  They are an amazing sponsor and look forward to many more great years together.”
 
HOW DID YOU APPROACH IT WHEN YOU WERE ON THE POLE AS A ROOKIE?  HOW DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD APPROACH IT?  IS IT OKAY FOR THEM TO JUST PARK AND NOT RISK WRECKING THE CAR AND LOSING THAT STARTING POSITION OR DO YOU TRY TO TAKE AS MUCH OF AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN?
“Well, it’s really up to them.  They are not the only team facing that decision.  I think all the cars that are secured a spot are trying to balance that right now.  It just isn’t worth it.  We all know everybody is low on car count.  If you are fortunate enough to be on that front row do you really want to push it?  There is no need to.  It’s going to be a fine balance and there is going to be a lot of internal struggles and arguments with drivers, teams, crew chiefs especially trying to give their driver the direction they want to go.  Whatever she decides to do it’s to her best interest and we’ve got our own stuff to worry about on the No. 48 car.  We are wrestling with the same notion.  In 2002, my situation was a bit different.  If I didn’t win the pole I wouldn’t have been in the (Daytona) 500.  I had an incident on the back straightaway where I was forced below the yellow line and had to serve a penalty for him.  I wouldn’t have made the race.  If we qualified third I wouldn’t have been in the show.  It was very nice to have locked in and had that in my back pocket.  Or we would have been here at 399 starts instead.”
 
DID YOU TREAT THAT RACE AS JUST I’M GOING TO RACE ALL OUT REGARDLESS?
“At that point in time we really didn’t have a concern about car count.  We raced and I was trying to learn it was real important for me to get every lap that I could.  Sure we didn’t want to crash the car, but we were in that old style car for a long period of time. Cars would come from the fall Talladega race if you made it and you would carry them into Daytona and kind of update them a little bit as the rules changed.  We had a much deeper inventory of cars to pull from.”
 
YOUR 400TH START, RICHARD PETTY FINISHED WITH 1100 OR SOME STARTS, THREE TIMES WHAT YOU HAVE.  COULD YOU IMAGINE MAKING THAT MANY STARTS?  ALSO, I DON’T THINK YOU HAVE HAD A RELEVANT FINISH HERE IN SEVERAL YEARS IS THAT SOMETHING YOU THINK ABOUT AT ALL?  DO YOU EVER GO BACK AND THINK MAYBE I’M NOT APPROACHING THIS RIGHT OR SOMETHING?
“First of all for the ‘King’, one I think he had more opportunities to race than we do today so that helps.  I don’t know how many years of service he put in, but it’s 20, 30, I still might be wrong.  Definitely over 20 I would assume.  It is just amazing.  All of the years that he put in helped build the sport to what it is today.  I thank him for all 1100 starts that he put in and the growth that he kind of spurred along within the sport.  I doubt that any current driver will get to that number.  Mark Martin is trying and I’m not sure where he is at.  I assume he is pretty short still in that number count.
 
“The 500 has been tough I have won Duels, I’ve won the Shootout and we have been here in July and have been very competitive and have finished in the top three.  But, the 500 it has been a trophy and I think I might have a 10th or something, but my memory says a lot of DNF’s (Did not finish).  Last year’s was about as bad as it gets.  Leaving the first lap crashing that wasn’t a good one. We will hopefully make 2.7 miles this year before anything happens.”
 
WHAT DID THAT 2006 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPIONSHIP MEAN TO YOU?  IT DID TRIGGER YOUR FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON.  WHAT DOES WINNING THIS RACE MEAN?  WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THE MEDIA TOUR THAT FOLLOWS IT?
“For me I wanted to be in elite company.  My dreams were to try to be the best in this sport.  The way you do that is by winning big events and championships.  That was prior to a championship.  First realistic goal on my list was a (Daytona) 500 win or a Brickyard win.  I think we were able to get both that year.  It was a big year in a lot of ways.  We all know the history of the sport, the history of this track and dream and wish and hope that you can come in here and win.  The way the race turned out I drove a very smart race, stuck to a certain mindset.  Was able to get some help on the last lap to maintain the lead and defend my position to the finish line.  I was so excited and had a big night with my crew guys.  Then I think at 7:00 a.m. things kicked off over here at the speedway.  As much as I love that day that was one of the most painful days in Jimmie Johnson’s history.”
 
WHY IS THAT?
“I may have celebrated a bit too much the night before.  Then dealing with that, being asked the same question over and over and trying to look awake, alert and happy.  Man, I was having a lot of pain, but it was worth it.”
 
WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT FEW DAYS?  WHERE DID THEY WISK YOU OFF TO?
“I had no idea what that media tour was like.  I can’t remember exactly, but I assume New York.  I don’t know if we went to the (ESPN) car wash or not after that one.  I had heard about and watched I think not long before Ward Burton won and I remember seeing Ward Burton everywhere the following two days.  I thought ‘man that is so cool I want to do that’.  Halfway through I’m like ‘I just want to go home’.  Is this thing over yet?  That’s amazing that one race packs such a punch and can do so much for a team, driver, sponsor and it means so much within the sport.”
 
FROM WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN OF THIS CAR HOW DO YOU IMAGINE THE PLANNING, THE STRATEGY OVER THE LAST FIVE OR 10 LAPS SUNDAY IS GOING TO CHANGE?
“The cars look a lot like the ’05, ’06 car to me.  I feel like track position is going to be important.  You are going to have to race for it.  I was surprised to see the middle lane work so well in the Unlimited.  Defending your position is going to be important.  Before you could fight your way up and just kind of sit in the first couple of rows and let the race kind of evolve from there.  It seems to me that the outside lane does carry a bit more momentum.  They can stop the inside lane.  If you work your way to the front you can’t just be content sitting in the bottom lane or really even the middle lane.  You might have to move around from the head of the line.  Even if you are a row or two back and there is an opening stay open minded, keep your eyes open and move around it to help stay up front.  Track position is going to be key on that last, I assume, last restart.  You are going to need to be in the first couple of rows to have a shot at it.”
 
IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE TO A DRIVER TO START RACING SOONER AND HAVE A SHORTER RAIN DELAY? SECONDLY, DO DRIVERS THINK DANICA (PATRICK) HAS ANY SORT OF WEIGHT ADVANTAGE BECAUSE SHE IS LIGHTER?
“It doesn’t hurt to have things turned around quicker.  I think sure it helps the driver some, it helps the teams.  Hopefully, we are at the track for a shorter period of time.  It’s just good for everyone, especially, getting into the next work week.  More importantly for the fans, the viewing audience at the track and at home I think it’s key to get the tracks dried faster. I’m very happy with that.  The way the weight works I think they adjust it and they put weight on cars where you have lighter drivers so it all balances out.”
 
CONSIDERING HOW MANY DRIVER’S IN NASCAR HAVE RACED FORMULA AND WITH THIS NEW CAR WITH THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE SUSPENSIONS IN THE BACK AND THE WEIGHT THAT THEY HAVE CHANGED AND THE AERO PACKAGE THAT THE FORMER FORMULA DRIVERS PERHAPS HAVE AN ADVANTAGE WOULD YOU AGREE WITH THAT?
“Well, I think the aero balance is helpful for the Formula drivers just because the vehicles they raced in had so much downforce.  The sensation that comes with downforce the car is very secure and stable and you can drive the car hard.  I think the Gen-6 car will help the open wheel guys some.  I’m not sure it will overcome the advantage that a NASCAR driver has that always been in a sedan or in a stock car, but it is directionally helpful for the open wheel drivers definitely.”
 
YOU SHOWED US A PHOTO THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT IN YOUR BOOK WHEN YOU WERE LEAVING TALLADEGA I GUESS IT WAS LAST YEAR IS THAT SUM UP HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT PLATE RACING RIGHT NOW?  I THINK YOU TWEETED AFTER THE RACE THE OTHER NIGHT YOU ARE TRYING TO LIKE IT, BUT YOUR JUST NOT SURE.
“It is.  It’s such a balance too because one win and you are in Victory Lane and it’s the coolest rush because you are gambling the whole race.  When it hits, it’s a lot like hitting it in the casino.  The rush is amazing, but it’s a different kind of racing.  Especially for the No. 48 team we have had a lot of torn up race cars lately.  It’s starting to get a little old, but we will keep racing.  We will keep building cars and be out there trying to get all the points we can.”
 
GOING INTO THIS RACE THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME CURIOSITY WEATHER OR NOT SOME OF THE VETERANS WILL DRAFT WITH DANICA (PATRICK).  WILL YOU DRAFT WITH DANICA?
“When I was a rookie coming in Jeff (Gordon) told me quickly.  There may be some of that going on where guys won’t work with rookies, but the biggest reason that Jeff (Gordon) said that he wouldn’t work with a rookie was that they make the wrong moves.  He says to me ‘make the right moves.  Give people a reason to follow you and it won’t matter.’ Once the race progresses and gets going, you really forget about paint jobs and who is in what car.  It is who is making the right moves.  Who is going to help me, because you can’t do it on your own out there. It gets real selfish and greedy and if somebody is making the right decision and the right move you are going to go with them.  It doesn’t matter how much experience they have.  That is really the key.  I’m sure at times even with Jeff (Gordon) telling me that I felt like nobody worked with me, they would much rather go with a veteran, no the veteran was making the right decision that is why they went with the veteran.”
 
IN TERMS OF MAKING THE RIGHT MOVES WHAT TYPES OF THINGS ARE YOU GOING TO BE WATCHING HER DO? 
“She has shown through the Nationwide Series that she is competitive and she can get in there and mix it up.  Kind of hold a straight wheel in the important situations and has led laps and has been up front.  I think through a large degree she is great.  She is there, she’s fine.  It’s really about when you get close to the front and if you make a move and the wrong move you lose 15 spots.  You don’t want to make those decisions.  You don’t want to be back in the eye of the storm.  If she is making the good offensive moves to move forward you stay with that person, you stay with her.  If it’s a move that you know hasn’t worked over your own experience and past history.  ‘Nope, go ahead’ and back they go and start all over again.  You just don’t want to be in that position.  Because once you get some track position you finally relax a little bit and know that you are up there with guys that are playing the game right and being mindful that it’s a long race.  When you get in the eye of the storm everybody is so eager to get out of there that it gets a little bit chaotic.”