NASCAR WCUP: Chevrolet Driver Comments, Rockingham Pre Race
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DupontAutomotive Finishes Chevrolet Monte Carlo
(pole-sitter): “The temperatures are cool. Goodyear’s got a differenttire
here that just doesn’t seem to come in as fast even though it’s a great
tire. I have felt all along that the second lap, if you gave up the first
one,should be a little better. You should carry a little more momentum. I
didn’t notice many other guys doing it that way, but I’m glad we just stuck
with our own plan. The guys freed the car up from practice. It was just a
great lapand a great effort. I’m real proud of what we accomplished here
today becausethe last time I went out there in practice, it wasn’t very
pretty. Actually what I told myself was that I wasgoing to go out there at
the end of practice and make my qualifying run and runreal hard right from
the start and see what it does. If it was underneath me, then I’m going to
go with that. If it didn’t feel like it with underneathme, I was going to go
with another approach. I had mixed emotions. But it just seemed to work for
us.” (With four wins here, and onepole ‘95, this is your second pole. Howdoes that feel?) “We’ve had greatqualifying efforts here even though we’ve only sat on one (other) pole. We’vealways been pretty close up there towards the front. Today I think it had a lotto do with something missing when we all got here to the garage this morning. Ialso feel like there was maybe an extra boost of power behind all of us to doour jobs. My team did a great jobpreparing us today. We tested here andcame back and everything was totally different. The tires, even though we tested them, they just didn’t seem tohave the grip that they had today. Wehad been struggling with the car pushing really bad getting into the corners.And we freed the car a bunch. It didn’tseem to help during practice, but when I went out there for qualifying and gaveup that first lap and went for it on the second lap, got some heat in thetires, got some momentum built up and then the car turned and did a lot ofthings I didn’t expect it to do. It wasa great effort and I think there was a little something behind it. In practice, I was not the guy that wasgoing to sit on the pole. That’s why Iput this No. 3 hat on and let everybody know we’re thinking of Dale I want todedicate this pole to him. It’s a greatopportunity to let everyone know how much I respected him and how much we’regoing to miss him.”
(Can you tell us about afond memory you have with Dale Eanhardt?) “We weren’t great fishing buddies or anything, but he was somebody thatI respected greatly and I learned a lot from him – more than he everimagined. And probably even more offthe race track than on the race track. Actually when we were racing forchampionships, we didn’t get to race together all that much. Even though wewere battling for the championship, it’d seem like he’d have a good run and I’dhave a bad day. Or he’d have a bad dayand I’d have a good run. But wedefinitely had some good battles at Daytona and Talladega where’s he’sthe master. That’s probably where I learned the most as far as on the racetrack. If you beat Dale Earnhardt atTalladega, your whole world would change as far as your confidence level.
“My fondest memory was thefirst time I was in IROC (Daytona ‘95) and I didn’t know what I was doing buthe certainly did. Anyway, we got sideby side with Ken Schrader coming onto the back straightaway, and Dale wasbehind me and I thought he was going to push me but of course he took me threewide. All three of us were just right in a line heading down the backstraightaway. For some reason, Idecided to look over and there was Schrader. He was just looking straight ahead, very focused. He was not going to lift. And then I looked to the left and there wasDale, just beaming and smiling looking over at me. He was having a ball outthere. That’s the way he was. He was so comfortable in hisenvironment. I also knew he wasn’t goingto lift and that I was going to have to be the one to lift and sure enough, Iwas. It was unbelievable to me that theguy who has never even run IROC and who has only been in Winston Cup maybe oneyear, had to be the bigger man to let off the gas. I guess that was because I knew what I was up against. I’ll never forget that day.”
(How meaningful was it tohave Dale Earnhardt toast you with a glass of milk at the Waldorf Astoria?) “I thinking we were toasting one another.Earlier in the he had made a comment and a joke about what they’d do if I wonthe championship because they wouldn’t be able to serve champagne, they’d haveto serve milk, I guess. He was a guythat was very intense and very dedicated. He was also a guy who would razz you and have fun and he was theIntimidator, no doubt. He lived up tothat name. Whether on the race track oroff the race track playing that game of ‘What is it going to take to win thechampionship’, he pulled every trick out of the bag to try an intimidate you andget your mind off it. But he was alsobeing Earnhardt and having fun with it. And when it was all said and done, we were able to toast one another.Most of it was me being able to toast him of how much I respected him and whatan honor it was for me to be able to battle him for the championship and comeout on top.”
Steve Park, No. 1 PennzoilChevrolet Monte Carlo (qualified 2nd): “It felt fanastic. We gave up one of our Chevrolet Monte Carlosto Michael Waltrip over the winter time, and that’s the car we’re running. The new car is still sitting at home so thiscar is a tried and true type car that we’ve run here before that we’ve hadsuccess through testing and a great engine program. I know you guys all get tired of hearing it but it as a greateffort by all the guys back at the shop. But it’s a true team effort at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and the wholePennzoil team has worked hard. We had somuch fun in the Budweiser Shootout (at Daytona) we were hopingwe’d get back in it again, so we’ll just have to try to get a pole somewhereelse.”
(Did you feel like you goteverything out of that lap?) “Yeah, I think so. We ran a little bit faster in the morning practice and we endedup breaking an engine. We ran one lap, broke an engine, the guys changed theengine in like 40 minutes which gave us the opportunity to get out there fortwo more runs. In the last qualifying run, we ran in the .30’s and then the carhad a lot of grip and then we ran a .41 and the car had obviously had lost alot of grip just from the temperatures coming up from this morning. The car handledgood, I couldn’t have asked for better. The car turned good and had plenty of grip coming up off the corner.Maybe Jeff (Gordon) had a little bit of something there, scuffing his tires onthe first lap or something. But all daylong we were making the runs like we did in qualifying, so we weren’t going tochange anything at that point.”
(How good does it feel tobe on the track, and how does it contribute to the healing process?) “Ithink it contributes a lot. We’ve had along week. I’m tired. I’ve never done so little and have been sotired in my whole life. It’s been an emotionally draining week. We had the opportunity to come hereyesterday (Friday) for the press conference and it just definitely feels greatto be back at the race track and doing what we love to do. Getting back in the race car I think is thefirst step in the healing process that we’re all going to go through.”
(Is getting back in thecar difficult?) “After a tragedylike we all suffered, it’s part of the healing process. I honestly wish I could have gotten back inthe race car on Wednesday and got back to doing what we all do. It’s myjob. That’s all I’ve done since I was10 years old. Sitting around and dwelling on things that have happened in thepast and things that have happened this week, really work on your emotions.Getting back in the car doing what you love to do and doing what comesnaturally helps heal you mind and is the first step of starting to put thistragedy behind us.”
(How was qualifying whenDale Earnhardt was still with us?) “Well, usually, when we were fast on the practice sheet, he’d come overand want to know what kind of shocks and springs we have. He typically never qualified well. He’d raceyou to the end when they dropped that green flag. He’s come over if we were running good and, never ask, he prettymuch told us, as he always did, to tell him what was in the car and what wethought of it to help him in his qualifying effort. As we all know, he wasn’t one of the best qualifiers. We didn’t see a glimpse of him (today), andagain, that’s part of the healing process. But I feel like I’m surrounded byhundreds of family members when I’m at the track and not just myteam. We’ve had a lot of support from all the other race teams and themedia. I’d like to take this time infact to thank everybody – especially the media. They’ve done such a professional job from the television to theprint, and giving Dale Jr. and Michael and me a little bit of time to reflecton what we’ve gone through and then to come back here and do our job.”
Michael Waltrip, No. 15NAPA Chevrolet Monte Carlo (qualified 7th): “I know how good itfelt to win that race last week (the Daytona 500), but you don’t know how goodthat just felt. Man. I loaded myself up. I lost sight of the goal this morning, andwrecked. I prayed and prayed that it would work out, because making this racewas just huge for me. And we did it.”
Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GMGoodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo (qualified 36th): “Not bad forour first time and the conditions we were dealt. I think we did fine. Ithink once we get into race trim, we’ll be great. We got four laps of practicethis morning, and we’ll make it work.”
Jerry Nadeau, No. 25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet Monte Carlo(qualified 12th): “When we tested here in January, we were muchfaster. I’m sure the UAW-DelphiChevrolet will be better in race mode, but this isn’t where I had hoped to bein qualifying. When we tested here, itwas a lot cooler and the car was more responsive. Now I can’t get I it to do what I want it to. It just doesn’t get the bite I want it to inthe turns.”
Terry Labonte, No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo(qualified 36th): “We don’t typically qualify in the morning andit’s much cooler. The car felt good, itjust wasn’t as fast as we practiced. Ithought we were going to be able to back-up what we did in practice, but wedidn’t.”
Mike Skinner, No. 31 Lowe’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo(qualified 44th): “Our car was extremely loose. We made some air pressure adjustments. We were like 25th in practice andwe felt like we needed to improve on that. And we went a full 180 degrees inthe wrong direction. We should have went the other way. Just live and learn.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo(qualified 25th): “Wehave a good car. A top ten car. But (in qualifying) the car was not what wepracticed today.”
More from Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Dupont Automotive FinishesChevrolet Monte Carlo:
(Did you look up to Dale Earnhardt as a hero?) “When I was a kid, growing up, as I gotinto the sport, Dale Earnhardt became a hero. I never knew how great he was asa race car driver. I was able to bearound him enough to know he was also a very good person. Any race car driver will tell you he’s theirhero. He was so good with so many thingand so comfortable with the race car.”
(Do you feel a sense of obligation to take over as theleader in this sport?) “I can promise you I’m not wearing this hat becauseI want to fill those shoes. DaleEarnhardt cannot be replaced. Thissport will go on and continue to be very successful. As far as relations go in the garage area, Dale did a very goodjob at balancing things. He spent timewith Mr. France and with Mike Helton. He’d voice his opinion and I learned alot of that from him. He’d encourage meto go up and just sit up there and just listen or talk. I don’t know if he knew or felt like thatwas his responsibility or his role, it was just a part of being a champion thatyou get comfortable spending that time up in that (NASCAR) truck or picking upthe phone and calling people with NASCAR or other drivers and teams. In no waydo I feel like I was the second guy in line and now I move to the top. That’s not the way it works. I’m anotherdriver out here that’s trying to win races and championships. A part of my job is to spend time withNASCAR and talk to them about thing
Text Provided By Nancy Wager
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