Chevy Race Notes - Darlington, Mar 21

CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES 

CAROLINA DODGE DEALERS 400 RACE NOTES

DARLINGTON RACEWAY

March 21, 2004

 

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: 

"As soon as I let off the gas getting into Turn 3, I got a flat tire. Away it went. We spun out and got some heavy damage. We weren't in that bad of shape, but the No. 77 (Brendan Gaughan) came by and I hit him and that turned me head-on into the outside wall. So we've got some damage to the NAPA Chevy. It's very disappointing, but sometimes stuff happens in life that's craziness. We've had our share of bad luck. But there isn't anything we can do about that. It's a tough day."

 

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"I'm going to be okay. I'm pretty sore right now. I was right behind Elliott Sadler going into Turn 1 and I just couldn't see through the smoke up ahead. The spotter said to go low, but by that time I was already committed to the outside lane. When the smoke cleared, Andy Hillenburg was sitting right in front of me. I tried to slow the car down, but I just got right into him. When cars spin here or wrecks happen, it's hard to stay out of them at Darlington.

 

"I'll be sore tomorrow. I haven't taken a hit like that possibly ever. The HANS device did its job, thankfully. The belts did their job. It's unfortunate. I don't know what happened there with Andy getting spun, but I'll tell you what, there are a bunch of cars out there that do not belong out there. They're way off the pace. They're in the way. We about had several wrecks before that and I came on the radio and asked if NASCAR could take some guys off the track, not just because they're slow but because they're in the way. This is a narrow, tight race track. It's a hard enough track to race with guys who are at speed. It's just frustrating right now. 

 

"That was a heavy hit. I was just riding behind Elliott Sadler. There was so much smoke I didn't know which way to go. My spotter said to go low, but Elliott was already right there on the low side and I couldn't go anywhere. Unfortunately I drove right into him (Hillenburg). 

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ISSUE OF SLOWER CARS BEING INCLUDED IN THE 43-CAR FIELD?

"It's been an issue. I think in qualifying, maybe there's a certain percent. In Formula I has a 107 percent rule. This is the NEXTEL Cup Series, man. I mean this is the best of the best. We don't need to have cars there that are just out there making a qualifying attempt and making the race. Everyone is caught up in this 43-cars. 

      

"I don't care if there are 43 cars. I don't know if the people in the stands really care if there are 43 cars. We need cars out there that are competitive and that need to be out there competing for position, not just riding around."

 

ARE YOU GOING TO ASK NASCAR TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?

"We talk about it all the time. They've tried to address it with a minimum speed. Maybe the minimum speed needs to be adjusted."

 

ON ANDY HILLENBURG'S COMMENT THAT HE JUST NEEDED A FASTER RACE CAR:

"As long as they are allowed to go out there and run the speeds, they by all means. It's nothing against them. I don't know if that was Andy's fault. But I know there are other cars out there that are definitely not up to the speed that the need to be to be in this series."

 

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "No. 10 car ran over us after the caution came out. He'll have to explain that one to me. There are some things that you accept and move on. But he'll have to explain that one to me."

 

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - FINISHED 4TH:

"Yesterday, I would never have thought we'd be this good. We changed just about everything under the car. They worked real hard all night long. I'd like to thank everybody back at the shop. This is where it helps when you run the Busch car on Saturday and then you come back to the Cup car on Sunday."

 

WERE YOU BETTER ON THE SHORTER RUNS OR LONGER RUNS?

"I think we were better on the longer runs. There at the end we made a change. I was just a little bit too lose for about the first 15 laps. We tried to tighten it up with some air pressure there at the end. I'm real proud of these guys. We ended up with a top five finish, which is our best finish of the year and hopefully we can build some momentum from there.

 

"We've had some absolutely terrible luck. We've been running good and most time we should have been in the top15 at least, but we came up with big ole' goose eggs instead.  We have missed it. We were really good at Atlanta last week, but couldn't get our lap back. Today we ran up front all day. I'm really happy - real happy for the guys. They gave me awesome pit stops in pit lane. But we were way too loose for the short runs. We were really good on long runs. It was unbelievable."

 

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 2nd:

"It was a handful early on but the guys adjusted on it, Michael and everybody worked real hard to get this car better throughout the day. We missed out a little bit at Atlanta. If I had known that then, I wouldn't have gone to work on Sunday. But anyway, the guys did a good job. We got beat out there at the end. On the short runs, we weren't quite as good. Obviously on the long runs, we were before that caution came out when Kyle (Petty) blew his motor. But the caution flag got us. It was still a great run for us. It was a good top five and we needed that." More to follow

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Winner:

"I can't believe I've won Darlington. This is unbelievable. This has always been a goal of mine to win at Darlington. We've always had a great car and been very close. And then to do it today with the great car that we had is awesome. We had great teamwork. We had a great car on short runs. The pit stops made the difference and got us the lead and got us the win. 

 

"Bobby (Labonte) had the better car. I knew I had better air being in the lead and I knew I just had to protect it. I knew he was coming but luckily it was a short run and we were able to bring this Lowe's Monte Carlo to Victory Lane. This is an awesome day. I can't believe it. This is the highlight of my career so far." More to follow

 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 8th: 

"The GM Goodwrench Chevy started out super-tight. We started with small adjustments, but nothing really helped. Something knocked a hole in our nose early on in the race and I don't know if that was the cause or not. We struggled there for a while and then caught a break when we were the Lucky Dog (got his lap back). It gave us a chance to work on the car, fix the hole, and throw two rubbers in the rear. That must have been the trick because we were on it from there. I tried not to use up too much of the tires, but the car was driving so good. It was a lot of fun racing there at the end. I'm proud of this GM Goodwrench team. They helped me hang in there and we just kept working on it. It paid off big time today."

 

BOBBY LABONTE POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

"We were pretty good there up until that last caution with about 18 laps to go. The car was really good at that point in time. We just probably weren't as strong on short runs as some of the other guys. There at the end when the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) got in front of us out of the pits, we had a few laps that we couldn't run because of the caution flags there. We just couldn't get by him. We tried our best and just couldn't do it. At the same time, Ryan (Newman) was coming awful strong, so if we had a lot of green flag laps, we might have finished third. It was still a good day for us.  We worked on the car continuously all day. It was one of our better days, communication-wise for Michael (McSwain, crew chief) and I.  At the same time, when you start off a little closer it's a whole lot easier than if you start way off. Sometimes you hit it and sometimes you don't. We worked really good today. We just came up a little short. But it was a fun race." 

 

"We got it better throughout the day. Obviously that last run we had prior to the caution flag with 18 laps to go followed by a couple more caution flags was when it was the best. We passed Kurt Busch and took the lead and the car was handling perfect. We obviously didn't want to mess with it when the caution came out.  The 48 car beat us off pit road and we ended up chasing him for second."

 

IF YOU HAD ONE MORE LAP, COULD YOU HAVE BEATEN JIMMIE JOHNSON?

"I don't know. If we had one more lap, we might have gotten beaten for second. So you never know. We were pretty good. We were better on the long runs. The guys did a great job in the pits and got better throughout the day by tweaking on it. That wasn't good enough for us, but it was almost good enough for us."

 

WITHOUT THAT LAST CAUTION, ARE YOU PRETTY SURE YOU WOULD HAVE WON THE RACE?

"It's hard to say. I believe that if I had gotten out front, I might have been like the No.l48 car. He'd have been all over me and maybe not have made the pass, but we were good enough to get close to him but not make the pass. It is a pretty narrow place to race on. That might have made the difference. You never know. We had a pretty good car for those last four laps. We had to pass a car and it's kind of hard to make that pass sometimes - especially when you're making four qualifying laps there at the end."

 

WITH THE NEW SAFER BARRIERS, DID THE NARROWER GROOVE MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?

"You had to pick and choose your places a little bit more. I didn't quite see as much passing going on today as there has been. Obviously it played out where the narrower upper groove did not allow you to get your car up there and be at speed. And then the narrower groove made you lower and harder for somebody to pass. 

 

"So in those terms, I would say it was a little bit more difficult than in the pass. But, it was still a good race. You just had to play with the wall being 30 inches closer. I think everybody did a pretty good job."

 

ON THE NEXT TO THE LAST LAP, HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO GETTING BY JIMMIE JOHNSON?

"Not close enough. It was close, but I couldn't get the run off the corner. It's always a hard corner to come off of on the bottom when somebody's got momentum going on the outside. You can get them throughout the day there, but on a short run - if their car is working pretty good - it's hard to pass. And then you've still got to gain momentum down the straightaway. I knew we had a fender underneath him there. But when you're making qualifying laps, it's difficult. It was going to be hard to pass unless he slipped or something."

 

ON HIS TEAM BOUNCING BACK AT DARLINGTON AFTER ATLANTA

"We didn't have a good day at Atlanta. I think we know why, but it's kind of like what Dale Jr. said after Las Vegas. We're really not sure we did as bad as we did at Atlanta. But we have an idea. But it is definitely a confidence-booster to come from last weekend when we were two laps down and finished 18th, to today where we finished second.

 

"Second is disappointing after leading there toward the end and not getting that chance to get around Jimmie, but at the same time it was a great confidence builder. Michael and I talked all week long. We said we had to do something or we weren't going to have jobs for very long. We knew we'd better figure out something better than what we did in Atlanta. He and the guys at the shop kept up with what was going on and made some changes.  We brought a little different car here than what we had last weekend, which was our best car. And now we've got one just a little bit better. They did a great job and brought me a good race car. It was definitely a lot of fun coming back from last weekend."

 

ON RACING AT BRISTOL NEXT WEEKEND

"Bristol hasn't been all that bad. I think we had more of a struggle last fall than we did in the springtime. I think we finished pretty good. It can be like Darlington. A couple of guys today looked like they weren't having any fun and Bristol can be the same thing. I feel like going into Bristol is going to be no different than any other time. We have to go in and do the best we can. Coming off a good run today is obviously going to help out. So we're looking forward to that."

 

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"We worked hard all day to end up in the top 10 and that's where we were with about 15 (laps) to go. Then we had that deal with getting on pit road with (Greg) Biffle. I didn't see it, so I don't know other than what my spotter told me, and what he said was that Biffle drove up underneath us. Tony (Stewart) sped up to try to get back around him, where he should've been. But then we missed pit road because he got in the sand there and slid past the cone. That's frustrating to know that we had a terrible car and we battled back. Through a lot of runs, we passed a lot of cars and got back up in the top 10. That's what we said we wanted to do when we came here. This hasn't been our best place. We've had decent finishes, but we've never just really run well. We just tried to run in the top 10. That's what we needed to do, and we gave up seven spots there at the end. It's frustrating that stuff like that happens; because it seems like if it's going to happen it's going to happen to us. Just another comment I can put in my book."

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON AND CHAD KNAUS POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE:

 

JOHNSON:

"We had a strong car. We could hold our own in traffic. I could maybe get a spot or two on restarts. But the pit stops were and the teamwork on pit road was what really got us in position to lead the race. We led through two cycles there. In the long run we would loosen up a little bit and I'd burn the rear tires off the car and we'd have to work on it some. 

 

"When we were sitting in third before that last caution came out, before we were able to hit pit road and get the lead, I wanted a caution to come out in a way, because I felt with the pit stops we'd been having that I could maybe have a shot at winning the race. But at the same time, I was hoping that everything that would turn out all right and we'd at least finish third or better. 

 

"Luckily we had a great stop. The guys were on the money all day long. And then I just had to deal with Bobby there at the end. He was really fast. He was probably one of the best cars at the end of the race. We were as good as he was on the short run, but on the long run he was one of the better cars. The way it shook out it was a sprint race at the end. With our track position, we were able to hang on."

 

"It was a really good pit stop. The guys did a great job. We'd been a little bit off on our pit stops all year long and the guys have been focusing really hard with their foot speed, hand and eye coordination, and the weight training. We've really tried to step that up. They've been practicing at least twice a day every day that all the guys are at the shop. It's really starting to pay some dividends. They're back into the swing of things the way they used to be. I'm really proud of them. The biggest thing we tried to do today was to maintain an even keel playing field. That's what they did. They showed that with consistency by having three consecutive 12.6-second pit stops. That was just awesome."

 

GOING INTO THAT LAST PIT STOP, DID YOU SENSE YOU COULD WIN THE RACE?

"Absolutely. It was show time and they really stepped up to the plate and they hit a home run. That's what this team is so good at. When the money's on the line, they really shine."

 

ON THE TRACK BEING TIGHTER DUE TO THE SAFER BARRIERS

JOHNSON:

"It was tougher. This place is one of the toughest tracks already. Usually you'd have four or five laps out of 10 laps where you'd take a big deep breath after you slid into a turn because you missed the wall that time. Well now it's six or seven out of 10 laps. That last two feet is where the grip was - what was left in the race track. I had a really hard time off of Turn 4 running the high line, where I've always had good luck. But I just couldn't get it right the whole day. I had to turn off the wall a little early to get a straight run off the bottom because for whatever reason, I couldn't make the top work. It definitely narrowed things up. It made it even tighter when you caught cars that were off the pace. That was the biggest scare for everyone. When you were by yourself and you're racing for position, it made a small difference. But when you had somebody off the pace, it was a nightmare."

 

ON THE PIT ENTRY AREA STRATEGY:

KNAUS:

"We really looked at it. Pit road here is very difficult. It's hard on entry. With the way they've got the access tunnels on pit road, it gets really congested. We wanted to make sure we were in position so that when we got out of our pit, we had a clean race track. What made that possible for us was being able to stay in the top five all day. 

     

"We could run up there toward the front, come in and have a nice clean entry, and then get out there close to the wall. That was really important. You could see that in that last pit stop when Bobby Labonte came out. He was not able to accelerate all the way off the way he would usually and, and that slowed him down a little bit and we were able to hold the position. Typically, what you try to do is to get a good 'in' and a good 'out'. It was fortunate for us, unfortunate for our teammate, Jeff Gordon, that the No. 80 car fell out and we had an opening in front of us and behind us."

 

JOHNSON:

"Because we qualified 11th, we looked for holes so that we could either have an easy exit or an easy entry and get the car positioned so you're not trapped. All the spots were gone. Really, the first part of the race it was hurting us because you've got a lot of cars on the lead lap and I'd have to leave my pit stall in traffic that was still trying to come in. It worked out better in the second half of the race. We wanted to make sure we could control our own destiny."

 

WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR PIT STALL, ARE THERE WAYS THAT YOU CAN PLAY WITH THAT TO CUT ANOTHER SECOND OR TWO OFF?

JOHNSON:

"You try to. But they'll ding you if you get too aggressive. Really, you just accelerate to the line in front of you and when you hit that line, you've got to do your pit road speed and hope that everybody else is. Sometimes when you have everybody peeling off into their pits in a tight pit area like we have here, I think they get a little congested as they start to turn in, and lose some time. I had a clean in and a clean out - especially when the traffic was gone. I'd just accelerate out and hit my line and hold it at the right rpm and hope it all worked out." 

KNAUS: "Just to add on that, NASCAR did come down and tell us that they were watching us to make sure we weren't doing that, saying that we were. And NASCAR was timing us throughout the whole pit road and we did not have an issue there."

 

JOHNSON:

"If that were the case - speeding up and slowing down - the way they time it is from line to line. So, if I sped up and slowed down to be legal in time, it would be the same amount of time. I think people were not anticipating us having such good stops. When you have three 12.5 second stops, it's hard to beat that."

     

LATE IN THE RACE, IT LOOKED LIKE THERE WERE SOME TIMES WHEN BOBBY LABONTE MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET UNDER YOU BUT HE COULDN'T GET BY.  WHAT WAS GOING ON THERE?

JOHNSON:

"Being the lead car, you're definitely in a better aero situation. We were a little tighter than what we were before, so I think he may have been a little bit better at the start of that run, but I had the advantage because of the track position. He'd stick his nose under me. I knew if I blocked him, he wouldn't appreciate that and probably would have tried moving me. So I'd leave him a lane to race in. After I'd left him a lane to race in, and I was on the top and on new tires I could be really aggressive, my momentum would carry me back by him on the straightaway. I saw the green nose inside of me and I thought I'd better not lose this thing now. But I was able to carry it up off the corner and clear him back down the straightaway. I think if the race would have been a 20-lap shootout at the end, I'm not sure how it would have ended. Bobby was pretty strong. But I think we were definitely making a lot of progress on our car and we would have been there battling with him either way."

 

IN VICTORY LANE, YOU SAID YOU FELT THIS WAS THE BIGGEST WIN OF YOUR CAREER.  WHY?

JOHNSON:

"I hope this isn't the last win of my career (laughs). But this is such a tough race track. From the moment I drove a lap around here, I thought you'd have to be the most incredible driver to be successful here. When you look at the people who have had success here, they're the best in the business. Just to be able to win here and overcome this track, is awesome. I didn't put a mark on the right side of the race car. I got two of them in practice, but in the race I never touched the wall. I hit my marks and was there all day long. This is one of the toughest tracks we go to, if not the toughest. I set a goal to Chad and the guys last year that I wanted to win one at Darlington, Rockingham, and Martinsville. In my opinion, those are the three toughest tracks we go to."

 

DID THE NEW WALLS MAKE IT EVEN TOUGHER?

JOHNSON:

"It was tougher. I think it was tougher to work traffic more than anything. By yourself, you just adjust. You just find the groove. It's not that big. In traffic, it's a lot tougher."

 

WITH THE LOSS OF SPACE ON THE TRACK, DID YOU HAVE TO ADJUST THE CAR ACCORDINGLY OR DID YOU LET JIMMIE DO THE ADJUSTING?

KNAUS:

"That's the trickiest thing about Darlington is that it's ever-changing. Whether they put the walls up or not, the set-up you had from the previous year wasn't going to work. It wasn't a big adjustment for us. Jimmie, personally, had to do some adjusting. The grip level that everybody talks about up close to the wall, the grip that everybody was afraid was going to go away, was still there for a lot of people because everybody was running down in that 10 - 12 inches away from the wall. But really, that's kind of up to the driver. We just adjusted accordingly with whatever the track called for."

 

HOW MUCH OF A CONCERN TO YOU ARE FIELD FILLERS?

JOHNSON:

"It's a big concern, not only with guys not up to speed, but when you've got crashed cars out there. Michael Waltrip and Dale Jarrett did an incredible job out there today. Those guys were tore up and finding a way to get out of the way. When you have guys who are off the pace and tore up cars in the way, that's why they set a minimum speed so you don't have these problems. Maybe that minimum speed needs to be closed up some more. Maybe they need to raise that speed so we don't have those problems. It is a problem. I'm glad Jeff Gordon is okay and that the driver of the No. 80 (Andy Hillenburg) is okay.  It was quite an impact. As I went by, I felt the concussion inside my race car and I was 10 - 15 feet away from them. It was pretty big."

 

COULD YOU TELL YOU BEAT BOBBY LABONTE IN THAT LAST PIT STOP, AND WITH THE WAY THE TRACK IS NOW, WILL MORE RACES BE WON OFF OF THE PITS?

JOHNSON:

"I did know that I was ahead of Bobby at the end of pit road. When you go out on the race track and have to pass somebody on your own and abuse your tires and worsen your aero situation, you wear yourself out faster. But if you're in a situation where you can pass guys on pit road, that's the importance of pit stops. For every track you go to, you can say it's more important. But it just seems to be important everywhere."

 

SINCE YOU ARE FROM CALIFORNIA, WHEN DID YOU COME TO REALIZE THAT DARLINGTON IS A RACER'S RACE?

JOHNSON:

"I came here in 1996 and watched. I wasn't even racing stock cars yet. The track was flipped. I watched Jeff Gordon win that day and how crazy it looked from standing these shoot up next to the wall. And then I watched Ricky Craven crash the day before in a Busch car and I realized how hard you can hit the wall. So there were a couple of things that really popped out at me that make me respect this race from just watching. I was more than impressed."

 

BEFORE AN IMPORTANT PIT STOP, DO YOU PUMP THE GUYS UP?

KNAUS:

"Our guys are really good about knowing when it's time to really pull one out. But the biggest thing that you have when you're dealing with a pit crew - just like any other professional team - is nerves. When those guys stand up on the wall, they get nervous and they get anxious. There's a bunch of excitement and the pressure is on the line. It would be just like you're a wide receiver going out there trying to make a touchdown in football. So we try to tone them down a little bit and get them to relax and take a deep breath before the car actually gets down pit road. We try to get them to focus on the job at hand and pay attention to only what they have to do. I think that helps. We have a couple of guys on our pit crew that are just animals. They go flat out 24 hours a day. That's great in some cases. But when you're out there doing a pit stop and you have to be smooth and methodical and follow the choreography of the pit stop, you've just got to calm down a little bit."

 

ARE THESE THE SAME GUYS YOU'VE HAD SINCE 2001?

KNAUS:

"No. They are the same guys we've had since mid-season 2003 until now."