new hampshire 300 cup advance; highlights of tuesday teleconference with mayfield and evernham

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002					                          Ray Cooper
New Hampshire International Speedway                               	                          Golin/Harris International 
New Hampshire 300 Advance Material                                                             803-466-9085
Highlights of Tuesday's Winston Cup Teleconference

 
JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We had a top 10 run at Richmond, and we're taking the same car back to New Hampshire, so we're real excited about it. I feel like we had a decent car the last time at New Hampshire, so we're looking forward to getting up there.

"They (Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton who have won seven of the 15 Cup races at NHIS) are both good racers and have good race teams to start with. Jeff Burton just kind of liked the track from the get-go. He's always run well there. I'm not sure what it is for them, but the way the track changes throughout the day, I think the guy who has the best car at the end of the race is the one who might have the chance to win because at the beginning you see a good race track that's got a lot of grip and by the end of it, you've got a slick track it seems like.

"I think a lot of it was getting used to the team, and as far as I'm concerned as a driver, figuring out how things are done there and the way Ray's process is set up as far as the way he runs his race team. It's like a building block. You get a foundation done and keep adding steps to that. I guess we didn't start out as good as we thought we were going to be, but now I think we're headed in the right direction. I couldn't really tell you with one answer why we haven't run well. I know we've had a lot of good runs going. I've got in a couple of wrecks this year. I've had part failures and stuff like that that's really kept us from showing our potential, but we feel like we're a solid race team and we're going to be there. We've got a teammate who's run awesome. Bill has won two races and had a great year. We get the information from them and hopefully we can keep building and get where they're at.

"It seems like we've got a lot of momentum going. We went to Darlington and didn't run as well as we thought we would, but up until that point we were getting better and better every week. We just kind of missed the setup a little bit at Darlington and came back at Richmond and really had a top five or six car all night. The way the cautions fell, the sequence of Saturday night's race got us back to 10th. It just shows we've got a good strong team that can recover from a race we thought we were going to run real well at.

"Everywhere we go we've got different feelings about the race track. We came off a good run last week, and we're excited. We're pumped up. We went to Greenville (S.C.) yesterday and shook a brand new car down there. It wasn't for this week but for later on in the year. We're just excited right now to be racing every week. We're pumped up just to get there and hopefully have another good run.
 
"You've got to know the track about midways on is not going to be like it was when you started. Who ever can prepare for that the best will be the ones who run well there. The ones who run the best, you don't hear them complaining about the race track. The ones that aren't running good, they're the ones who usually complain about it.

"I went through what Ricky (Rudd) is going through now last year. I certainly don't want to ever go through it again. This team I'm with now, this is where I've always wanted to be. Through the years I've been with different teams, and I've always had my sights set on a top-level team. I feel like this is the one. I want to do everything I can to make this team work on my part, and I feel like Ray has done the same thing. We're going to continue on doing that. I hope I can retire where I'm at. I love my sponsors. I love working with all the guys up there, and Ray has been awesome for me, so hopefully we never have to experience what Ricky and Elliott (Sadler) are experiencing now. Especially Ricky, when you've got a lot of bad blood going on within the team and you're not running good and everything happens from there. I hate it for him because I know what he's feeling right now.

"I don't want to go anywhere else. I couldn't ask for a better group of people and sponsors. To be associated with Dodge and all the Dodge dealers and UAW and Valvoline and Mountain Dew. We've got a lot of great people on this team and to have Ray as the leader of the whole group is pretty awesome. He's been really good for me as far as becoming a better driver, and I feel like I've got a long way to go yet to where I want to be, and I feel like he can certainly help me get there. I feel like I'm young, but I've raced for a long time here. I want to retire on down the road, but I don't' want to think about it right now. We want to be running better. I think we've got the potential to be better. We know we can get the job done and we can get there. If we can race 15 years together, it would be great.

"When you're with a team that's got a number, no matter what the number is, you become accustomed to that number. I can remember when I was at the 12. I really like the 12, Bobby Allison and a lot of people carried that number. You feel like it becomes a part of you, the image and what the fans associate you with. Now we've got the 19, it's been a change of heart. I don't care about the 12 at all. I really like the 19 number. The 19 is different. It's cool and it looks great on the car. Bill is 9 and I'm 19. I think it's great the way Ray has the numbers looking alike on both cars. I think different drivers have different opinions about numbers, but my favorite number right now is 19.

"About every week we're at a track with the Busch cars, I watch the Busch race, especially at the beginning of it to find out how the track is changing and what the cars are doing, whether it's getting tighter or loose or whatever, watching to see if guys are moving up and how quickly the second groove is coming in in certain places, just different things. You always learn something on Saturday watching the Busch cars. Even the ARCA cars, we watch them when we're at different tracks with them, and the trucks, too. I think any time you can watch a race before your race, especially the day before, you can gather a lot of information. You can tell if the high line is working earlier or if they can run on the bottom better. I watch it from everywhere. I've watched it from pit road some, and if it's on TV, I'll watch it on TV or on the top of the truck. You can see different things from different areas. Last weekend, I watched the truck race on Thursday night when I got to Richmond. I watched the Busch race on Friday night, and I felt like that helped me for Saturday night. Last weekend was a good example of that.

"We want to qualify well and get a good number for qualifying to start with (at New Hampshire). We're working on a good race setup. I don't go into a race being concerned about anything as much as trying to figure out what we've got to do to be the best we can. That's my biggest concern about New Hampshire. We need to get up there and get qualified well and having a good car at the end of the race. You've got to be good at the end.

"Any time you feel like you've got any edge at all it makes you feel good, but there's a lot of good cars out there. There's a lot of good teams, and a lot of good Dodge teams for sure. If we can do the best we can and keep our Dodge Dealers Dodge up front, we'll be excited about that, but certainly any time you can say that's a Dodge track or you feel like it is because a Dodge won there, you always feel good about it.

"Sammy (Johns) did a great job and he's doing a great job now in our R&D department. He's running that, and he's running our test team. He's getting us ahead for the future, and he's doing an awesome job there, but the deal we've got now and the way it's set up, I feel like it's working real well. I couldn't sit here and say I'd change anything right now about the way we're doing it. I really like it, and I'm comfortable. We've got Ray there to kind of head it in the right direction. He keeps us from veering off in the wrong direction anyway. Dave Skog (Team Manager) and Mike Kelly both doing a great job in their positions. I'm real happy with the way we're doing things and the way the team is communicating. I'm really feeling we're heading in the right direction. Whether we've shown that or not, we probably haven't yet, but I feel like we will in the future.

"Dave pretty much (calls the race) and Ray is in our pit box helping Dave along. It's like a 50-50 deal now. Dave is the team manager and actually assumes a little of the crew chief's responsibilities. We've got a great coach and a great leader there with Ray. Dave and Mike and our engineer Timmy (Malinovsky).  We've always got Ray with us, whether he's at the 9 or 19. We bounce ideas around with each other. It's a committee deal and it sounds complicated, but it really works.

"I think it's been one of the biggest things of my career. Winning a race against Dale Earnhardt certainly has to be right there as one of the highlights of my career. I think (commercial) has been good for me and the fans. I think it's helped get our name out there and build our image with Dodge and the sport and race fans. I think it's cool that the fans like it, and I certainly enjoy doing things like that. It's cool, funny and everybody watches it. I really didn't know what it was going to look like or what it was going to turn out to be until it was done, but it looked better than I ever dreamed it would look on TV.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm not disappointed with our finishes. When you're not winning or finishing in the top five or top 10, you're always disappointed. I'm as happy as I've ever been as far as the way things are going and with the race team and the direction Ray is going in. That was the most important thing for me. I want to get better week in and week out and do everything it takes to do to do that. We're certainly excited about our team and the direction we're headed in. I couldn't be happier right now with the direction the team's going in.

"If you stay focused on your own team and the direction you're going in, and you don't get distracted with the way it looks on paper, then that's what you've got to do. I think that's what we've done. We just stay focused on what we need to do and you can see it. We get better and better every week. I'm sure we're going to hit the lows again before we hit the highs, but we're going in the right direction.

"I'm excited about going to New Hampshire and one of the guys asked me why would you be excited about going there? I can't wait to race. When you're running good and feel like things are going in the right direction, you can't wait to get back to the next week. That's where we're at right now. We feel like we're just now starting to get going and we've got a lot of good things in store for the future with this team at different tracks coming up, so I'm excited about it."


RAY EVERNHAM (Car owner Evernham Motorsports Dodge Intrepid R/Ts)
"New Hampshire is a unique track. It's a flat track. Track position is important, and for awhile, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton hit a combination there that worked. I think now with the change in tires and a change in some of the things we're doing with setups, a lot of other cars are closer. I'm actually looking forward to going to Loudon, and I wasn't the first time because it hasn't been historically one of the best tracks for Bill or Jeremy. It seems like our flat track program has really come alive this year with Bill sitting on the pole there for the last race. We had a little bit of carburetor trouble that kept Bill from getting a good finish. Jeremy actually had a good run. We just didn't keep him in the track position that he needed. We're taking the same car for Jeremy and a different car for Bill and hope we can go up there and have a good run. We're focused on top 10 runs for that 9 car and building Jeremy's team so it can get closer to the top 10.

"With Jeremy, in fairness to both of us, we're just now getting to know one another. We both expected to come into this deal and go win races right off the bat. When I look back to last year, it really took six to eight months to understand Bill. I think Jeremy and I have gotten to that link now. I probably put a little too much pressure on him at the beginning of the season. I agree with him 100 percent. We're both really happy with the way things are going now. He really showed me a lot, I was really proud of him at Richmond on Saturday night. I felt like we had a fourth-place car. We had to stop for fuel and ended up 10th. He listens. He cares. He's a lot of fun to be around. I call him Eddie Haskel. I think our personal relationship, along with his personal relationship with the people here, has grown. I know the people at Dodge love him, and the UAW and Mountain Dew, they all love him. I'm trying to help them as a group, but since it's not my total responsibility for Jeremy, but if I can help as a group I'm going to continue to do that.

"As far as the templates, basically everybody has got to cut the bodies off the cars with the new roof template and body location, so I don't know that we have any cars that will pass the roof template thing. I agree with what NASCAR is trying to do, but I also don't know how many changes we can do. We basically had to change every body last year because of some template changes. The cost for that is $900,000 and a million dollars for our team and a loss of 12,000 man hours. It's a hard hit, and if we are going to go to a bigger greenhouse I want to make sure we don't have to change it. I'm willing to do what NASCAR asks to help, but I also don't want to do it every year. The body location rule is in effect for next year as is those new roof rail templates.

"When you're building a program, obviously Bill Elliott has done a tremendous job for me personally and for the race team. We've built the program around him. We just need to improve technology wise. Casey Atwood was reallly doing a good job for us, but I couldn't get to the level of technology to make the cars better. Jeremy became available and it was kind of a no brainer to get him. His level of experience, he's 33 years old so he's smack dab in the more middle of Bill and Casey. He doesn't have as much as Bill but more than Casey. He has a good technical understanding of the race car, so it was more about Jeremy becoming available.

"You want a 25-year-old driver that's won races and championships and is a pleasure to work with, doesn't want any of your licensing money and wants a minimal salary. It's hard. What's the model for a Winston Cup driver? There doesn't seem to be a set model. I've got a guy that's about 47 years old that's about as good as anybody on the race track right now. I don't know that age totally comes into it. When you look at the age of a Winston Cup driver, what you're really looking at is how much longer his career is going to last. I think some 45-year-old drivers can do everything a 25-year-old driver can do. You certainly want a guy that can do the job in a race car. Everything else like age and everything else comes as a bonus.

"I know that a lot of people are concerned about the race track (NHIS). I've got to tell you straight up that the race track didn't cause my problem the last time I was there. What I've got to work on is getting my cars handling better, making sure Bill's car runs all day and handling the stuff that I can by providing better cars for my drivers. I can't sit here and tell you that my problems in July at New Hampshire were caused by the race track.

"It's no different than begin a football coach or a baseball coach. You've got an athlete that can actually do something better than you do it, but because you don't have to do it, you can stand there and critique it. That's why sometimes the best football coaches are guys who played but really weren't great players. Because I've driven and understand what they feel doesn't mean I was a great driver. I can critique and help them think about things they might not think about, so I watch Jeremy's style and I'll talk to him about the car or race track and the things he's feeling. Sometimes a light will go off in his head. 

"A guy who hasn't driven these race cars sometimes has a hard time understanding what those guys are feeling. I try to be a little bit of a translator. I also encourage Jeremy to think about things in a different way.

"We had tried some things that weren't working before, and I really believe that's going to be the future of the sport. The things you do are getting so close and so competitive. You look at Richmond last week, 36 cars in less than three tenths of a second qualifying. Some had the same times to the third digit. There's been times I walked away because I felt like I was screwing them up. There's time when I've got to stop. I don't want to be a crew chief. If I wanted to be a crew chief, I'd still be with Jeff Gordon, but I don't want to be a crew chief. I won a lot of races and championships as a crew chief and it wouldn't be the brightest thing in the world to stand by and not use any of that that might help my guys. That's a fine line, because sometimes by trying to help you can screw them up. I walk a fine line.

"You have input into it. It just depends on what's available. NASCAR will work with you getting the number you want, but if somebody's already got it, they're not opposed to making deals back and forth. They try to work with you and get you the number you want. Sometimes that's just impossible. I had pretty good success with that 24 but somebody else has already got that one. The 9 was special to me because I wanted to do that for Bill. I thought if we could put a program together and get Bill his No. 9 back and hopefully he'll stay in my cars until he retires, so that would be great. Dodge and Mark Melling, he actually had that number, so he worked with us getting Bill that number. The 19 was my first number when I drove, so I was very lucky to get that. I requested that and NASCAR helped me get it. To me it's always been more about the man than the number. I understand the pros and cons of both, but when I look at Dale Earnhardt, his stylized No. 3, I don't think anybody should ever run that again. Richard Petty, his stylized No. 43, they shouldn't run that unless Richard wants to keep racing. That was personal to Dale and Richard.

"We've got to go back and do work we didn't have to do. I think it puts the Dodge at the Dodge at the most disadvantage. We're all new. We started in 2000 to get ready for 2001, and everybody had to rebody because they were switching to Dodge. In 2001, NASCAR came out with some decklid template changes that made everybody basically rebody all the Dodges. It takes time away from working on our motors. We're talking about 12,000 man hours to rebody all our cars, so that's stopping me from getting ahead. I'm 20 years behind my competition, the people I have to race to win championships, the Roushs, Yates, Hendricks, Gibbs. We're behind those guys and we've got to catch up somehow. Doing work that's already done is hard on us. I'm willing to do my part to help NASCAR. I just wish we could do it once and stop."


###