dodge notes, quotes from friday at LVMS

Friday, March 5, 2004.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.
              
RAY EVERNHAM (President and CEO Evernham Motorsports)

NOTE: Bill Elliott will compete in his first points race of the season
in Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Elliott
will drive the No. 91 UAW-DaimlerChrysler NTC Dodge with an Evernham
Motorsports chassis, the first production in-house chassis built by
Evernham Motorsports.

"This is our first production in-house chassis," Evernham said. "It's
really pretty much the same. It's built by the NASCAR rules. You want to
try to build your own cars if you can. To get an advantage, you want to
keep it in-house. There's nothing trick about it. It's pretty much a
production piece.

"Everybody on the team has had a lot of input with it. We've been
developing it for more than a year, and Bill and Jeremy and all the team
directors having been helping with it. Waiting to get all our technology
together probably put it a year behind, but it was the right way to do
it. We finally got all of our software and our engineering department
really strong and stable. One side of me wanted to rush and get it done
and the other side of me knew we were better off if I was patient. This
is probably a year behind where I would have liked to debut it."

WILL THE NEW RULES COME INTO PLAY SUNDAY AT LVMS?

"I think the tires and spoiler will come into play, I just don't know
how much. There was a lot of drop off in last year's race here, too.
We'll see. It didn't seem to affect everybody at Rockingham, but it
didn't in 1998 when they cut the spoilers, either. It was here when
everything showed up, so we'll have to wait until after the race and
see."

 

WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH KASEY KAHNE'S RUN AT ROCKINGHAM?

"I knew the speed was there, but it surprised me how calm he was and
what a good job he did racing the racetrack. He didn't make rookie
mistakes. That surprised me."

 

IS IT GOOD TO HAVE BILL ELLIOTT BACK ON THE TRACK?

"Yes, and I'd like to have him back for 10 races if anybody's got any
money (for sponsorship)."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 91 UAW-DaimlerChrysler NTC Dodge)

"It's been great watching the races. It was the best decision I ever
made. After watching Kasey at Rockingham, that just solidified where I'm
at. Now that I'm back at the track, I'm ready to go racing. To tell you
the truth, I know I made the right decision (by running a partial
schedule in 2004). It's been great so far."

 

YOU INTRODUCED THE PRESIDENT AT DAYTONA. HOW'D THAT HAPPEN? "I just got
asked to do it, and I did it. It went through Lesa France and the White
House. We had talked about it on Tuesday and it changed every day. I
didn't know if it was going to happen or not. I enjoyed it more than
racing that day. Restrictor plate racing is so tough these days, and I
really didn't miss that. It was a good deal from my standpoint. To have
the opportunity to do that, it took away from not racing that day and
made it a nice deal.

 

"We didn't talk much at Daytona, but when I went to the White House in
December before the banquet, we spent a lot of time talking. He took
several of us in the Oval Office, and we talked about different things
in the Oval Office. I guess each president gets to decorate it and pick
out certain things to put in there. He was explaining the pictures he
had in there and what they meant to him and the carpet his wife picked
out. I just perceive him as a real good guy. Right, wrong or
indifferent, he makes a decision and sticks by his guns and he goes on
down the road. Through all of it it was a good deal. I was nervous
(introducing President Bush at Daytona). It was like qualifying for
Bristol. You hold your breath until you do it. I told Lesa that if I
passed out she'd have to pick me up when I went up to introduce him."

 

HOW'S YOUR SCHEDULE LOOK FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON?

"Right now, Vegas and Texas is it. I'd like to do more, but it depends
on what Ray ends up doing and what we put together. UAW is on the car
this weekend, and that'll be a great plug for them. I hope we can do
some good for them."

 

COMMENT ON THE NEW CHASSIS

"We tested it out here, and that's what we're doing. I liked it real
well. We're here to refine it and make things better and implement it
into the 9 and 19."

 

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU WORKED WITH KASEY?

"Kasey did a good job at Rockingham. He's got a lot of racing knowledge.
I think a lot of people are forgetting that. He's got great equipment.
He's a good kid, and he's got his act together. I think I might be able
to throw a couple of things his way at some tracks. He's going to get to
do it his way. I'm not in his face. If he has a question, I'll be there
to answer. He's got a feel that he's got to work out with the car. When
they were here testing they had been here two days. I came in at the end
of the second day, and I couldn't really help him until I got on the
track the next day. It's going to be an up and down deal. As well as
he's done so far, I don't foresee him having a big problem."

 

ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE RACE SUNDAY?

"We're here on a different agenda than the rest of the guys. We don't
have to worry about points, and that makes a lot less pressure for us.
We're here to run good. That's a part of the equation. This is a new
group of guys together, and I'm a part of this new deal. I don't think
it's going to be that difficult. We've got good equipment. Working out
the new chassis might take a time or two, but the more we learn the
better it'll be for the whole team."

 

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak Easy Care Dodge)

"As long as I believe in what's being built, I believe we can win. It's
not that we are a new team, but we are new. We have new Dodges, new
chassis, new to the Penske organization. Our horsepower is not new.
Everybody knows about the Penske-Jasper engines. We're still trying to
get things dialed in, get our engineering right, get our chassis done,
get everything from the Penske side of things. Each week we've been
getting better. Las Vegas is our next shot at doing better. I think
there's no reason we can't go to any racetrack and win. Look at my
teammates, Ryan and Rusty, they're fast every week. There's no reason we
can't start matching that. We're getting better engineering wise,
testing wise. The team is gelling. If there's a week you can, at least
there's no rookie on the racetrack here. Maybe we are a Raybestos Rookie
in the world of things, but not at this racetrack, so I feel pretty
good."

 

IS THERE A TRACK SECRET AT LAS VEGAS?

"This is a throwout from my older owner Bill McAnally. He owned the
Orleans Racing team with my father. We won Winston West championships
with Bill. There's a big bump up in turn four, a big black spot on the
pavement. It's called the Bill McAnally turn. Right before I started
driving for him, he was still driving and he almost burned to the ground
out there. The safety crews got to him, and he got out OK, but he left a
mark on the speedway. I always laugh and say 'that's my owner's mark
right there.'

 

"This track has nothing on it that's tricky. There's a dip down low in
four and there's a bump up high in four. If you're really good in
qualifying, you hit the dip. If you're tight in the race you run over
the bump. Every other time you run between it."

 

COMMENT ON THE NEW TIRES

"You come here for the test and there's no rubber on the racetrack and
marbles are everywhere. You're not running three and four wide like you
can in the race. Goodyear always does a fantastic job of building race
tires. They're not here trying to hurt us. They've kept me safe my
entire life. They've building something trying to make racing more
exciting. NASCAR is trying to make rules with the spoilers. I drove a
truck last year, and I don't care. Shane Wilson (crew chief) and the
Penske guys will figure that out. With any luck, I'll tell 'em what it's
doing and they'll fix it. I still don't care about the softer tires,
harder tires, spoiler, no spoiler. We all have to drive the same thing,
and NASCAR does a good job with that."

 

HAVE YOU HAD EXPERIENCE CONSERVING TIRES?

"Back in the Winston West days and Craftsman Truck days, the races are a
lot shorter, but you also get less tires. When you only get four sets of
tires on a weekend for a Craftsman Truck race and one of them is burned
off by the time you get to the race, you've got three sets for the race.
You do have to learn how to conserve tires. Shane taught me a lot about
that. We really worked hard on those things. The coaches I've got up
there now, Billy Wilburn and Buddy Baker, those guys are more accustomed
to these longer races. They coach me with that. Roger Penske is on my
radio giving me coaching tips."

 

WHAT'S BEEN THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT SO FAR FROM TRUCKS TO CUP? "I always
like to make myself available. The toughest thing for me now is to say
the word no. I don't like to say the word no. The Penske-Jasper folks
have been great getting me places, and they take all the pressure off. I
like to stop and talk to the fans. I'm having to learn to say the word
no more often, and I don't like that. The biggest thing I have to do is
getting used to is looking at the fans and saying I promise I'll be
back. I do spend an extra 30 seconds with them than five seconds. If one
time I have to go I just ask they understand that."

 

HAVE YOU HAD ANY TIME TO HAVE FUN OUT HERE?

"I've been having a great time. It doesn't matter if I'm running around
or not. Being home has been nice. I've said it before. This race is
going to be great and exciting but also a headache. I've got 30 tickets
in the grandstands, 25 tickets in my dad's suite, seven tickets in the
pits and a million other people asking. All the hotel rooms are full.
The restaurants are all full. Everybody wants to come out and have a
little fun. It's fun. It's home, but it's also a headache, and that's
why we got out here a little early. We had 70,000 show up and cheer for
us at the Craftsman Truck race. Vegas is always good for us. I'm staying
at the house. Me and my roommate are back home, hanging out and playing
with the PlayStation.

 

"I got to go to my nephew's baptism. I'm his Godfather. They planned it
around this, and the Penske-Jasper folks left me that time so I could do
it. That's special to me. I love my nieces and nephews. Last night
signing autographs, my nephew Johnny sat there and signed with me all
night. My family is big to me, and my nieces and nephews mean the world
to me."

 

ROOKIES HAVE FINISHED THIRD AND SECOND IN THE FIRST TWO RACES. CAN YOU
TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL HERE?

"The Raybestos rookies are putting pressure on us early this year.
Third, second and the only number left is first. We've got to have
another rookie in the top three just because we're doing it every week.
If there is a week I can choose to do it, please, please, let me choose
this one."