CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES SYLVANIA 300

     NEW HAMPSHIRE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

September 19, 2004

 

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Sidelined due to accident: "I don't think any of us are going to get Mulligans. That's probably going to take us out of the championship. That's part of it. We'll have another car for next weekend and we'll come out and try to get this Home Depot Monte Carlo up front."

 

(WITH 9 RACES TO GO, HOW FRUSTRATING IS WHAT HAPPENED TODAY?) "Well, it wasn't but two years ago that we left Daytona 43rd and came back and won. So, it can happen again this year. But to try to make up that amount of points in nine more races is virtually impossible. I can promise you one thing. This team has never given up and they're not going to give up now."

 

(WAS THERE SOME HARD RACING OUT THERE?) "Nah, I think if you watch the tape it's pretty self-explanatory."

 

(CAN YOU OVERCOME STUFF LIKE THIS?) "Yeah, but you can't do it with only nine more races to go. That's been my concern all along about this and it happened to us in the first race."

 

(WERE YOU AFRAID THAT SOMETHING LIKE THIS WOULD HAPPEN?) "You know it can happen. Its just part of racing. I don't know what everybody wants me to say right now. We're leaving here early because we've got a tore up race car that we got involved in somebody else's wreck. That's just part of our sport. It's what happens."

 

(DO YOU THINK THIS WILL HAPPEN TO THE OTHER TOP 10 DRIVERS?) "I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I can't worry about what those other guys do. All I can do is go out and try to win the next nine race in a row."

 

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (CAN YOU STILL FIGURE INTO THIS CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE?) "Talk to me after Homestead and I'll tell you if we can. It ain't over 'til it's over. It's just disappointing. We end up where we end up. But that's just the breaks. When you race with idiots, some things are going to happen. We're going to Dover to win. That's all."

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We were just really too loose there at the end. I don't really understand why. We want to get back into the top 10 before we can expect to be in the top five and winning. So it was a good day today for us. I definitely wish we would have been a few spots higher."

 

(DID THE CAR JUST GET AWAY FROM YOU OR DID YOU HAVE TIRE PROBLEMS?) "Track position meant so much. If your cycle on pitting put you up toward the front and you are able to maintain good speeds and run up there and then when you're stuck in the back it's really tough to pass. I could get a few spots to get back in the top 10 but then you'd be out of tires and that's all you could do. It just didn't work out, but it was still a good day for us."

 

(A FEW OF THE TOP 10 COMPETITORS FELL OFF TODAY DURING THE RACE. DOES THAT GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO BUILD ON?) "Yeah, it's survival. Anything can happen. We have this track and Martinsville and Talladega and you've got to just be on your toes and take care of stuff. We didn't get a win today and we're not leading in the points right now but that doesn't matter. We just have to keep collecting points and keep going from there."

 

(WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON ANOTHER GUY HELPING OUT A COUPLE OF THE CONTENDERS EARLY ON IN THIS RACE - THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?) "Oh really? I didn't have a clue what took place but you've got guys out there and everybody has their own agenda and everybody is trying hard. It's just no fun when somebody that isn't in the points battle makes a mistake and takes everybody out, but that's the risk you take. When all 42 other cars are still on the track and some guys are competing for a championship, that's just the risk that everybody is taking."

 

(IS THIS A MATTER OF KEEPING YOUR COOL WHEN THINGS GET LIKE THAT?)  "We need to collect points. The whole mindset of all or nothing is out the window. We can't win a championship like that with just 10 races. So we just took care of our stuff and did what we could and tried to get as many points as possible."

 

 

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We didn't have a very good run going today. We started out great, but it just went away from there. We never could really get a handle on it. We were very fortunate for that last caution and pulled out a 7th place finish. That's good. I'm happy with that, but I'm not happy with getting beat as bad as we did today. But I knew the No. 97 (Kurt Busch) and the No. 17 (Matt Kenseth) were going to be really strong today. So it's no surprise that they were where they were. We stayed close to them. This wasn't our best track and that's why we tested here. Now we're going to go to the next one and see what we can pull out of there."

 

(GIVEN THAT THREE OF THE TOP 10 DRIVERS HAD SEVERE PROBLEMS TODAY, WAS THIS THE SORT OF STEADY START YOU WERE LOOKING FOR?) "Exactly. When you look at those guys and their troubles and they have a long hard battle ahead of them. But for us, we needed a top 10 and to get up there and get a 7th in the end, I was very happy. I wasn't happy with our performance today, but I was happy with 7th at the end."

 

(HAVING SEEN ROBBY GORDON GET INVOLVED IN SEVERAL INCIDENTS TODAY, IS THAT MORE OF A CONCERN NOW THAT WE'VE SEEN HOW SOMEBODY OUTSIDE THE TOP 10 CAN REALLY DAMAGE SOMEONE'S POSITION IN THE TOP 10?) "All this stuff that's happening right now and the stuff that will happen in the next nine weeks is what NASCAR is going to have to look at to evaluate this system and whether or not it fares for everyone or how it works out. But it's just kind of something for us to wait and see."

 

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 USG SHEETROCK/U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET - Finished 6th: "Overall it was an excellent performance. The USG Sheetrock/U.S. Army Chevy was good all day and the guys did an awesome job with the pit stops, especially the last one when we really needed it. I was able to pass today and once I got to the front I stayed there. We needed long runs to make the car go and that's what we got. I hated to give up a top five at the end, but it's just a good feeling to get a little momentum on our side right now. When you come into a race without any practice time that makes for a very difficult situation. But we're learning -- we weren't good the first time we came here in July but we learned from that race. Ryan (crew chief Ryan Pemberton) made some great pre-race decisions. One of the key moments for us today came early when we did not pit during the second caution (lap 35). 

      

"We gained a lot of spots by staying out (from 19th to seventh) and everybody knows that track position is so important at this track. The reason we didn't pit on that second caution was because the car was that good. And when you have a good car, you can afford to take some gambles. That was a perfect call by Ryan."   

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 3rd - Post-race press conference highlights:  "My car was good. We guessed on the set-up. We ran a little bit of race trim in qualifying practice (Friday) and kind of had an idea of what we needed to run. And the car was pretty good all day. We needed to loosen it up in the center and tighten it up on the exit and we could never really get that one little adjustment we needed.  But it was fun. We didn't have a good enough car for a top five finish and I'm pretty happy about that."

 

(ON THIS BEING A HUGE CONTRAST FROM THE LAST TIME YOU RACED HERE WITH YOUR BURN INJURIES) "Yeah, we came here the last time and everybody knows that story. But we really ran very close to the same set up. The car was just better for some reason. We worked on a few things and tried a few other things. It was really nothing special. I don't want to speculate, but Martin (Truex Jr.) was practicing and Matt (Kenseth) came over to me and said Martin was really overdriving the car and he had no business being out there (Kenseth, who was also participating in the press conference said: "I never said that". Both drivers laughed). No, he didn't say that.  But he was driving the car real, real hard and they went in a totally different direction with the set-up. And when I got in the car to race, I was way, way too tight. I don't know whether it was just Martin's inexperience or what. Luckily we didn't have too much practice this weekend. We seem to do real good in that situation when nobody else can get a chance to figure their car out because most of the time or sometimes we're not good at figuring it out anyway - no matter how much practice we have. So we got to start on an even playing field this weekend. It was fun."

 

(WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU CAME OUT OF THE PITS WITH MICHAEL WALTRIP? DID YOU TRY TO SIGNAL TO HIM TO GET OUT OF THE WAY?) "Yeah, I was waving at him. I was really upset about it. He got two tires. We came off pit road side-by-side. He drove the car all the way up to the yellow line as if I wasn't even there. And then went in the corner. I thought he was trying give me the spot. 

 

"And then when we got to the center of the corner and he'd still be there and I'd about wreck into the side of him. That happened for three or four laps. I came out right behind Matt (Kenseth) and I was a straightaway behind him when I got by the No. 15 (Waltrip) finally. So I was just trying to figure out where he was getting his team orders from because whoever was giving them to him needs a new check. I think we need to give him a check. Whoever they're working for, we need to see where they're getting their kickback. I was upset about it. I'm sure Michael didn't mean anything by it. I'm sure he was just trying to race and do what you do. His car was really loose it seemed. And he was just trying to go and I needed a little help there and I expected to get a little and I didn't get any."

 

(HOW WORRIED ARE YOU ABOUT SOMEBODY OUTSIDE OF THE TOP 10 TAKING DRIVERS OUT?  WE SAW THAT TODAY WITH TONY STEWART AND JEREMY MAYFIELD AND IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU AS WELL) "It depends on who you race with. The people I was around today raced me with maybe a minimal amount of more respect than I normally get. Some guys aren't going to change. You could paint these walls black and there are some guys that wouldn't know the difference. But some of the guys out there know what's going on. They know who is in the Chase and I think they give you respect for that, I guess. Some guys don't. From car to car, I think the answer to that question is going to be different."

 

(WAS THE RACING MORE INTENSE TODAY?) "No. In your brain it was more intense but the actual actions you were doing weren't more intense if that makes any sense. I didn't see guys going into the corner with life or death intentions on making a pass. Everybody seemed to be smart. One of the things I saw was that guys wanted to be around at the end of the race. I saw a lot more of that with guys giving a lot more room maybe. But there was some hard racing at times. I think you ran harder for some reason. You really, really pushed your equipment when you were, say when you were in single file. You really pushed your equipment hard than you want to or anticipate doing. My car laid on the rev chip on the front straightaway 300 times today. So we pushed our equipment. We had a high gear to make the motor turn. We took risks with that. I think they did the same thing on the race track. Now the racing is always intense for me, but it wasn't any more than usual."

 

(SINCE THERE WERE SO FEW CAUTIONS, DID YOU MAKE A LOT OF RADICAL ADJUSTMENT OR JUST DO MINOR STUFF LIKE YOU NORMALLY DO?) "We didn't make any major adjustment all day. We started the race out and the car was pretty good. I was a little tight in the center. We took a round of bite out, but that didn't work. We put it back in. We softened the spring rates across the front on the tires on the next stop. That helped a lot. That's when I took the lead from Kurt (Busch). I got a little bit too loose on the exit of the corner after that so we made some more adjustments and at that time I don't know exactly what they did. I think  (Tony Eury) Jr. dropped a track bar down a half-round round and put a half-pound in the right front for the last adjustment. So that's not really typically a lot. The car started out so good. I told them it was small stuff we needed and not to go to far and that they would have an angry race car driver. So they took it easy and we got the car a little bitter and a little better and it was just not quite good enough to beat Kurt (Busch). He had an awesome car. I think we would have had to come in here and change the springs and shocks to beat him."

 

(IS THIS LIKE A HURDLES RACE WHERE YOU GUYS HAVE GOT 10 HURDLES BETWEEN YOU AND THE FINISH LINE AND YOU GOT OVER ONE TODAY, BUT A COUPLE OF GUYS DIDN'T?) "That would be a perfect analogy. If you were to use that, I would agree with it. The way I look at it is that you've got to go every week and try to get what you can as an end result. If your car is a 20th place car, you've got to try to muscle it up to maybe just outside of the top 10, but you can't just take the risk of wrecking. You can't get involved in crashes or get cut tires. You've got to try to minimize all the mistakes you can on pit road. Everything has to be minimal. Every lap you're going to be a lot more nervous I think now than you were before. Is this the lap where the motor blows or a tire comes apart? You've seen so many more motor and tire failures this year than we normally see and you really are curious about it. It's almost as expected as a debris caution with 25 laps to go (laughs). But I was really worried about starting off the Chase with a poor finish, but I'm really happy today to be able to say that we started it off well. Hopefully it continues to catapult us week after week with good finishes."

 

(WITH THE WAY THE NO. 8 HAS RUN THE LAST FEW WEEKS, IS YOUR CONFIDENCE STARTING TO GROW THAT YOU CAN WIN THIS THING?) "Yeah, I guess it's starting to grow. It started to grow right at the Bristol win. When my legs weren't feeling too good, I really didn't want to be in the race car. 

      

"That kind of worried me a little bit. I had this amazing determination and drive at the start of the year. I was just focused and we were getting the results and the finishes and we were leading the points. Then we went to Pocono and places like that. Those places really drain the determination and drive right out of you. But we got though the summer and then went back to Bristol and won that race. We had such a good weekend winning the Busch race and then the Cup race, it was instantly a huge jump in confidence. We went to California and I expected us to run poorly there. But right in the middle of the race we found something to help the car. That helps. I haven't forgotten about that. Our run at Richmond last week was inspirational to the team and to everyone that we're trying hard. I've gotten that drive back - that fire that I had at the start of the year that I've definitely going to have to have to win the championship. It's there when it's fun and when I get along with the people I'm working with. When they're a pain in the ass and making my life miserable, I get pissed off. So that's how things work. When things are good that's how it happens. And when things go bad, that's a result of it. But I think we're in a streak where we're going to finish this season out pretty spectacularly and hopefully with the championship. I really feel like we can win it."

 

(DID YOU MAKE CHANGES AND TAKE RISKS TO TRY TO WIN THIS RACE, OR BECAUSE OF THE POINTS? DOES THIS CHANGE YOUR APPROACH?) "Yeah, I was saying earlier outside - the guy asked me if we were conservative today - and we were conservative with our changes. We didn't want to go too far and turn a third place car into a 10th place car in a matter of seconds. Maybe we could just adjust it to make it a second place car or a fourth place car. I'd rather do that than make a major mistake. We were conservative in what we changed and how we thought toward changes and toward the race track changing. We were conservative in those aspects, but on the race track we ran hard and hard and hard every lap and every corner and every entry. We were just really driving hard. That was one thing that was different today was just the pace. Normally when we start 500 mile races, you'll run hard for three or four laps and see what you've got and get what spots you can while you can get them until the last 100 miles. And then everybody knows what kind of car they've got. If it's good, they run good. If it's bad, they just ride it out until they can make it better. But it's only those last 100 miles when you see that 110 percent from all the drivers and everyone's driving hard and driving in the corner over everyone's head and stuff. 

 

"We saw that every lap today from where I was at. So I think that's the difference. We were conservative on pit road and we took it easy. We were trying to be real smart not to make too many big mistakes or changes and get out of hand. We took four tires every time no matter what. That was our pit strategy. We never took two (tires). We took gas one time. But on the race track, it was intense racing."

 

(WAS THAT 110 PERCENT FROM THE TOP 10 DRIVERS OR FROM EVERYBODY?)  "That's a loaded question. But the guys out of the running were racing hard. Even the guys, like Jamie, was racing hard. He wanted to get a good finish. Dale Jarrett at one point was racing so hard. I thought wow, he really wanted a good finish before the end of the season. They want to be up there among the top. They want to win races. If a guy who is not in the Chase wins the race, that's a pretty big deal."

 

(WAS THERE TALK AMONG THE GUYS, DRIVER TO DRIVER, BEFORE THIS RACE AS TO HOW EVERYONE WOULD RACE?) "I don't think you'll ever see the day when we and Matt (Kenseth) would sit down and tell each other our strategies of how we're each going to drive it. I don't think you'll ever see that. We don't talk racing. The last thing I want to talk to Matt Kenseth about is racing unless it's just five minutes after the race and that's the end of it. Maybe the No. 48 and the No. 24 do, or will, especially at Talladega. They'll want to get it clear with each other that they need each other's help and they'd better give it to each other. If it were me, that's what I'd be doing."

 

(IF YOU LOOK AT THE STATS, ABOUT TWO OF THE 10 RACES IN THE CHASE ARE BAD ONES FOR EACH DRIVER.  WHAT DO YOU THINK THE ODDS ARE THAT THE GUY WHO WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP IS THE GUY WHO HAS NO RACES LIKE THAT OUT OF THE LAST 10?) "The odds are great. I think the guy who wins the championship is going to finish inside the top 20 at every one of the 10 races. That's what I believe. I believe that's how to win the championship. I think that's what'll happen."

 

(OF ALL THE 10 RACES IN THE CHASE, WHERE DID THIS ONE RANK IN IMPORTANCE TO YOU?) "I expected to come here this weekend and get a top 10. A top five would be a bonus so I'm real happy today. But I thought we could run 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th."

 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It was a good day. We ran in the top five all day but wound up finishing 10th. But that last set of tires was just loose. We came in and put two tires on trying to win the race, but we were still just a little bit too loose there at the end. It was a good bounce back for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet."

 

WARD BURTON, NO. 0 NETZERO CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We started off really tight. The nose would chatter in the center on exit. It was pretty much what we've done the last few weeks. When we tried to fix that we'd just take the back of the car out of the track. I wish I could do a little bit better for Chevrolet right now, but we've just got to figure out where we're missing it."

 

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It was a good day. We didn't need that debris caution. We got two tires and so we were trying to fight our way home and gave up a couple of spots late because our tires wearing down on the left side. But the crew just did a great job calling the race. They got me out front and I led some laps. I'm just real proud of the NAPA team and the job they did today."