CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES AUTO CLUB
500 RACE NOTES CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY
May 2, 2004
J.D. GIBBS, PRESIDENT OF JOE GIBBS RACING (ON TONY STEWART INCIDENTS WITH RUSTY WALLACE AND JEFF GORDON DRUING THE RACE) "That was just kind of racing there. On the Jeff deal, the (Tony's) spotter was talking over there and he apologized to Greg (Zipadelli, crew chief) and said that he screwed that up. That was just a mistake on our part in not giving him information.
(DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE GETTING A SMEAR CAMPAIGN GOING AGAINST TONY IN THE GARAGE?) "It comes and goes. It's the guys. There were a few things going early in the year and it's just kind of escalated a little bit there. But I think, again, for the last two races - Terry was an accident and he apologized for that and he had a deal with Jeff today when somebody stepped on the radio (two talking at the same time). When you look at the race, there's stuff going on all over the place with people hitting guys. Tony is about as certain as they come on the race track. That's just his history. It'll blow over in a little bit and hopefully it'll only be talked about until Wednesday."
(SO THERE IS NOTHING YOU NEED TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT?) "Obviously, that's just racing. More often you walk away unhappy than happy. No, we'll just go on to next week. Bobby (Labonte) had a bad deal there with the fuel thing there at the end. But he ran well. We'll move on and hopefully have some more fun at Richmond."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:
(On the incident with the #2 car of Rusty Wallace)
"We came off of (turn) two and we got together and that put him in the wall, but the corner before that he drove right down into the left side of us like we weren't even there. So, I don't know why he's pointing the finger at somebody else. I got underneath him and I got loose coming up off of two. I didn't try to get into him, but in the corner before that he's the one that drove into us.
"He wants to talk about what I did to him at Bristol. Well, I remember a day when drivers were a little more cordial than they are today, and that when a faster driver came up, guys like Mark Martin - guys who respect everybody - would let them go and then work on their car and come back and get them later on in the race. But Rusty's not that way. He's out for Rusty. He's not going to move over for anybody. He doesn't care if it's about a 50/50 race where you're working with people. It's all about Rusty right now.
"The deal off of two was an accident. I don't know if he tucked up against the side of it to get a pull in the draft or what, but I got real loose all of a sudden for no reason. I got into him and then pulled off as soon as I could. I didn't stay on him. I tugged on the wheel. I could've pinned him against the fence and I didn't do that.
"It's easy to point fingers at a guy when he's down right now. I'll just take it, I guess, and go on. But if he wants to point fingers then he can keep pointing fingers. I used to have a lot of respect for him too. He wants to talk about respect, well, he had the opportunity to show me respect at Bristol and he didn't do it. So, I don't know what he's complaining about. He's got nothing to complain about.
(On the incident with the #24 car of Jeff Gordon)
"My spotter and my crew chief were talking about the damage on the car, so Mark (Robertson, spotter) was trying to tell Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) what was going on with the car. But during that he didn't let me know that the '24' car was even there. It startled me because I didn't even see him coming. I wasn't trying to hold anybody up, because I let everybody else go who was faster than me at that point. So obviously I wasn't trying to hold Jeff up either."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I'm wiped out. I feel like I was in a fight all day it was so hot out there. I fought the car all day. It never did the same thing twice. It wasn't until about the last hundred laps or so that I could do anything with it. "
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I'll tell you what, if we have days like this and finish in the Top 10, I'll be happy. The GM Goodwrench Chevy got a bad set of tires there in the middle of the race and it really got me loose in the corners. We were on the verge of getting lapped when we got a caution. That gave us a chance to fix what we needed and get the car get back good enough to work with. A run-in with the No. 88 car knocked the left front fender in and fought a tight condition there at the end.
"It's weird, but that set of tires may have actually helped us because it gave us two chances to gas-n-go before that final green flag run. We were able to pick up a bunch of spots there at the end when everyone started running out of gas.
"This hasn't been my best race track so we really tried hard to make good and I think we did that today. It's nice to finish this good so close to home."
WARD BURTON, NO. 0 NETZERO CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "That was a good run for us. We needed that. We overcame a lot of adversity there after we spun on the front stretch. Tony made great adjustments to the NetZero Chevrolet all day and we're pretty happy with that finish. Our Hendrick motor ran great all day and I'm proud of this team for not giving up."
TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: On 7th-place finish ...."That's huge for this team at this point of the season and it's a great day for Hendrick Motorsports, with three cars in the top 10. We've struggled and have been looking for a breakthrough, and I believe we got it today. We just kept adjusting on the car and working on it, but still wound up too loose late in those green-flag runs. This is the best we've run at this track since the first couple years we came out there and I think that's a sign that we're heading in the right direction. And we're going to a track where we've had a lot of success in the past (Richmond), so this is a great chance for the team to really build some momentum."
JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Note: Nemechek was running 10th when he ran out of fuel with two laps to go)
"Not much to say except it's frustrating to see another good finish go south. The calculations showed that we would have enough fuel and I was also trying to conserve fuel on the last run. What probably hurt us was that we ran by ourselves and didn't have any drafting partners. When you run alone it eats up more fuel. This is the fourth straight event that something has happened to us late in the race that cost us a top-10 finish. One of these days it's going to turn in our favor, and when it does, it's going to be good."
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (OBVIOUSLY YOU RAN OUT OF FUEL. WAS THIS A MISCALCULATION OR A GAMBLE?) "I don't know. I didn't ask. Nobody told me that we were going to be close, so I didn't ask. I think we went a lot faster that run too so maybe that had something to do with it. But anyway, it was a good day for us to finish fifth. With that second place that we had going there it's hard to complain too much."
"I think what got us there was when we made up a lot of time there on Jeff (Gordon). We got within probably a second or so of him I guess and then ran out of gas going into Turn 1 on the last lap. So we finished fifth. The guys did a great job today. I'm sure we didn't miscalculate, we just came up a little bit short after that last run."
(ON BEING THE FASTEST CAR ON THE TRACK FOR THE LAST 45 LAPS) "We didn't make an adjustment. We just put tires on and took off. I told them not to make an adjustment. The first two laps were really good. I figured it would give up there in the long run. And it did some, but not like it did earlier in the day. We just got it right for the track there at the end of the race."
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It was an exciting day. We'll take it any way we can get it. When guys ran out of gas, we were able to take second. I was really settled into fifth and thought that was where we were going to end up. There are a lot of elements to this team and fuel mileage was one of them. Congratulations to Jeff Gordon and his entire team. It was a great day for Hendrick Motorsports to finish one-two. We were good in the middle part of the race, but there at the end I just got so tight that I just didn't have anything for anybody.
"This whole team is just extremely consistent. We had to overcome a whole lot of adversity this weekend. We crashed our primary car in practice and ended up in
our back-up car. My hat's off to this entire Lowe's team. I just can't believe it to be in second today."
(WAS IT HOT IN THE CAR?) "I have a great system in the car to help keep me cool. But when you still have 100-degree air blowing across your body, it's like having a blowtorch blowing on you. But I don't feel too bad." More to follow
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Holy cow, we got here at the inaugural race, but it's been a while since we've been here (victory lane). But I went to do my burnout and spin around in the grass, and I ran out of gas. It's an amazing run. Robbie Loomis (crew chief) did an amazing job. We weren't the best car. We weren't really one of the top five after yesterday in practice. But these guys just dialed it in. I couldn't be happier. I've just got to thank all my sponsors. It's just been amazing these last two weeks."
(ON THE MOMENTUM OF WINNING TWO WEEKS IN A ROW) "When you have race cars like we do and a team like this and the research like we do at Hendrick Motorsports - by the way, Randy Dorton and the engine shop, that thing was going down the straight-aways. But we do have momentum right now. We're going to enjoy one over the off-weekend and just try to keep the momentum for when we come back.
"This team is just awesome. These guys never give up. They just work so hard. We just worked so hard yesterday getting this car dialed in. But when they dropped the green flag, this Dupont Chevrolet just drove straight to the front and it was just a joy to drive. Those last several laps when Bobby Labonte was running me down, I was getting real loose and trying to conserve fuel. We had great calculations and great communications by Robbie Loomis and Brian Whitsel and all the guys on this Dupont team."
(ARE YOU IN A GROOVE OF RACES WHERE YOU RUN WELL?) "This is not a track where we've done well the last few times. We've been a 5th, 6th, or 7th place car, which isn't bad, but we've stepped it up today. Bobby Labonte, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and all those guys are so strong on these types of tracks and we're competing with them. This has given us a lot of confidence in what we're doing. This is a great race car. This is the car we had at Atlanta and Texas.
"But we're looking forward to the schedule. There are a lot of great races. We want to be in the top 10 so we can really go after them in the last 10 races."
(ON BEING 27 POINTS OF THE LEAD) "That's incredible. It's been an amazing four or five races that we've had. After Darlington, we had a pretty tough wreck there, and we just shook it off and just kept on plugging away and going strong. It makes we really proud to get behind the wheel of that car when you know you've got guys like that behind. That was the baddest engine I've ever had underneath the hood of a race car." More to follow
JIMMIE JOHNSON POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
"I was really searching around trying to find a line. My car wasn't handling very well. So I was pretty focused on what I was doing. I looked up and saw the No. 9 (Kasey Kahne) was pretty close to me and pulling it down to the inside. I looked right in front of him and the No. 19 (Jeremy Mayfield) was there. I thought, 'Shoot, there's two spots'. Then I saw the No. 18 (Bobby Labonte) and on the back straight-away weaving around and then I caught him the next lap. When I saw them running out of gas, I was afraid to say anything on the radio. But I started letting off real early. I didn't want to run out too. But then, I didn't think we were in a position to run out of gas. I was surprised to see people run out of gas. We didn't have any communication on my radio about that. But it must have been close for so many people to run out."
(WHAT IS CONTRIBUTING TO YOUR RECENT SUCCESS WEEK-IN AND WEEK-OUT?) "We really pride ourselves on being consistent and not making any mistakes and focusing more on that instead of being the fastest in one segment or have the fastest pit stop. We really believe that being a consistent race team is going to bring us a championship. I'm glad that it shows. Some weeks it doesn't and some weeks it does. What really amazes me is that we're able to bounce back when we're down and out. I mean, we finished second today in a back-up car."
(DID YOU FEEL YOU WERE LOW ON FUEL? DID YOU HEAR IT SLOSHING AT THE VERY END?) "No, I made it around okay. I slowed down. I noticed they were pushing the NO. 24 (Gordon) to victory lane and I didn't see smoke. We were in a very similar situation."
(WERE THERE ANY CLOSE CALLS TODAY?) "Numerous. There at the beginning with the No. 20 (Tony Stewart) when he and the No. 2 (Wallace) were racing real hard, Rusty was squeezed up against the outside wall. And also, the No. 24 (Gordon) was trying to get around the No. 20 (Stewart) and I don't think his spotter let him know because he came up pretty quick and slammed the No. 24 into the wall too. But in both of those instances, I was just inches around those cars and though we were all going to be in a big pile."
(HOW DIFFERENT WAS THE RACE TRACK THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST YEAR?) "I want to say the track was the same. The grooves seemed to work out the same. But it seemed like the compound or the rubber would lay down in the tire - almost like a dirt track - and you would have to move around in different stages in the race just because so many people had run through that area. You could almost see a dark shiny spot. You'd have to dodge that. It was like a slick spot on a dirt track. Every 15 or 20 laps, that spot would move and you'd have to keep moving around to miss it."
(BASED ON YOUR SUCCESS TODAY, WILL YOU HAVE A SIMILAR SET-UP FOR THE NIGHT RACE HERE IN THE FALL?) "I think the same set-up and concept will apply. I don't think the track will get as slick and we won't put down as much rubber because the sun won't be beating on the track and the cars will have a little bit more grip from that."
(IS TONY STEWART LOSING RESPECT OF SOME OF THE DRIVERS?) "When you're around Tony, you have to race him in a certain way just like you do a lot of people. I think what you have today is that Rusty (Wallace) is one of the most strong-minded guys out there and (so is) Tony. So you've got a battle of two very strong-minded and competitive guys. So it's not going to be pretty either way. Being behind it, I saw that those guys were racing really hard. Nobody was doing anything wrong. The problem was that they were racing so hard so early that they were so close it sucked the air off of the back of the No. 20 (Stewart) and took the No. 2 (Wallace) into the fence off of Turn 2. But I had a front row seat for it. I could see that something was going to take place. It was just a matter of time because they were running into one another down the straight-away and not leaving each other a lot of room."
JEFF GORDON POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
Note: This was Gordon's 66 career NASCAR Cup victory and is now only 27 points out of first place in the point standings. Teammate Jimmie Johnson is just 25 points back. This is Gordon's third victory in eight career starts at California Speedway. Also, this is the 15th time in his career that he's posted back-to-back victories.
"Just right from the beginning, I was so impressed with how well the car was working. When they dropped the green, both Jimmie Johnson and I drove straight
to the front. I was impressed with all the adjustments Robbie Loomis and the guys made to the car because I wasn't real happy with it when I left yesterday. I just remember battling Kasey Kahne and chasing and chasing him and not really making any headway. I finally got by him. I knew we had one more pit stop to go and that we'd be close on fuel on all those things. We had a great stop and I was shocked to see myself pulling away from him. I was just on cruise control.
" I knew we had to conserve a little bit of fuel. I tried not to push it too hard yet maintain a good pace. About that time the car started to get really loose. Kasey gained on me every once in a while when I'd get sideways down turns 1 and 2.
"They told me to keep an eye on the No. 18 car (Bobby Labonte). But I was pushing as hard as I could but I definitely had my hands full. It looked like a lot of guys were struggling there at the end holding on to the cars. Everybody was getting loose. Fuel mileage was not even on my mind. Once we got down to the finish, I was just trying to stay ahead of Bobby (Labonte). I knew it was going to be really close.
"When we took the white flag, it was a huge relief. But I hated it for him because he had a great car there at the end. But it allowed me to go conservative on that last lap to keep the car from coming around on me. The first thing I did was look at my fuel pressure gauge. It was fluxuating a little bit. I wasn't sure what that meant. Luckily I made it to the finish and then I did my burnout and then I ran out of gas. That's why we had to push it down pit road."
ROBBIE LOOMIS:
(DID YOU THINK IT WOULD BE THAT CLOSE?) "Yes, we knew it was extremely close. We felt like we were within a lap and a half to the good side and we relayed that message to Jeff. The teams work real hard. We lost some last year and got
ourselves in some trouble. The engine room has just done a great job. We try to look at every area of drag on the car and the fuel economy and they've really picked it up. We just had great communication on top of the box to Jeff - far enough out there with 50 to go that he knew whenever he could take care of it a little bit, he would."
(WHAT WAS GOING WRONG A FEW WEEKS AGO? WHAT HAS CHANGED?)
LOOMIS: "We went through a very rough 2000 season. Since that time, we've won the championship. That gave me some confidence. But the biggest thing is that Jeff talks to me a lot. We talked at Bristol. He said no matter what we come across or how we get criticized, he believed in this race team and what we are doing. There are things we need to improve, but he believes in the guys and that we can do it. When you have that kind of confidence from a guy who has won four championships, it gives you confidence to get back to the team and walk through the shop on a bad day and know that we can put our best foot forward. That's the biggest thing about Jeff Gordon. If you have a bad weekend, he puts it behind him. That helps us with our confidence and to be able to prepare the car for the next week."
(ON THE POST-DARLINGTON SHIFT FOR THE TEAM?)
GORDON: "Well, 2000 was a tough year for us. We questioned ourselves. Once you overcome adversity, it allows you to overcome it more and more and deal with it in a better way. I'm very fortunate that the people at Hendrick Motorsports never lose sight of that. Each week, no matter what's thrown at us, we put it behind us and go to the next week. The criticism doesn't come from within us. It comes from outside. Everyone has a story to write. Some days we have the best car and the best team out there, but the results don't show it. Today we had the best car when it counted. But we didn't really have the best car there at the very end because Bobby (Labonte) was coming. So it's just funny how things work out."
(ON THE REALIZATION THAT BOBBY LABONTE HAD RUN OUT OF FUEL) "Honestly, I was pushing the car as hard as I could. I want to look at the right rear tire on that car because it almost felt like we abused it or something happened. That was really the first time I'd started a run off in clean air and ran through the whole run in clean air. Kasey Kahne had been in front of me for so long that it helped tighten the car up and so my car was just awesome before that. We put those four tires on there at the end and it took off right away. But it somehow built up heat to the right rear tire and I was just holding on tight. There at the end, it was everything I could do just to keep the car from spinning out down the middle of Turns 1 and 2.
"Bobby was coming but I was just trying to drive the car as straight as I could. I knew if I pushed too hard I was going to make a big mistake and he was going to catch me immediately. So as much as I hated to see him close that gap, I just had to drive it straight. When they said he was out of gas, I could let off (laughs) and drive through the corners very slow. That last lap was by far the slowest lap I made all day long - because I could."
(ON A LOT OF ATTENTION RECENTLY BEING PAID TO THE YOUNGER DRIVERS - DO YOU MISS THE ATTENTION AT LITTLE BIT?) "I like getting attention because I did something good on the race track or because we won a race or a championship. Sometimes I feel for guys like Dale Jr. because he's got a lot of weight on his shoulders and a lot of pressure and that can be tough. But honestly, I am enjoying my thirties a lot more than I thought I would because I'm comfortable with myself and the role I'm in. I don't need to be the guy in the headlines every weekend. I only want to be there if I did something worthy. I feel like I have a voice. Some people listen to it and that's a nice thing. There's nothing better than having respect in this garage area. It's taken me a long time to get it. I don't mind these kids coming along and getting some of the limelight. They are young guns and they are talented. I'm happy for them. I'm also happy when I can pass them and go to victory lane and see that they're behind me."
(DO YOU HAVE EMPATHY FOR THE YOUNG GUYS AND WHAT THEY'RE GOING THROUGH?) "The only difference is there are a lot more eyes and ears that are part of the sport. Marketing has gone to a whole new level. The expectation on these guys is very high. That's got to be tough. From what I can see, the majority of them are handling it very well and I'm proud of that. If I saw something I'd probably say something. But I think they're doing a good job.
"But I wasn't expected to win races as a rookie. I wasn't expected to do anything other than try to bring the car back in once piece and I didn't do that very often either. My rookie year was the toughest year I've ever had in this sport. After that, I was finally able to get that yellow tape off my rear bumper and focus on what I needed to focus on. I think everybody's rookie year is their toughest."
(WHAT MAKES YOU SO STRONG AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY?) "I've been hearing about how dominant we've been here, but all I've been able to think about lately is the last three or four years we've been here we've stunk (laughs). The numbers are great, but I only look at the results of last year or the year before. I like this track. It's really matured. This track has grooves all over the place. It's not easy to drive. I would like to say it's a lot like Michigan, but it really isn't. It's a much different beast. Yesterday during Happy Hour, I did not like this race track. But today when they dropped the green, I like it a lot because of what Robbie did to the car. I can honestly say that today, the horsepower was amazing. That really means a lot here at California Speedway."
(WHY DOESN'T THE HEAT BOTHER YOU?) "I'll be honest. I never got hot at all today. I don't know why other than I've been drinking a lot of water. This new carbon seat we have is great. We've worked on how to vent it and how to put the air into it. I have an air conditioner but I didn't even run the thing until the last 100 laps. I like to conserve to make sure it blows cool air out the whole time. Sometimes if you start it at the beginning of the race, it goes away. I'd rather have the cool air at the beginning of the race instead of at the end. But even when I didn't have the air on, I have a blower that just blows whatever temperature the outside air is. I stayed very hydrated. I felt like a million bucks today. The seat is cooler. The only thing that got hot on me was my foot. We have one of the best systems. You have to learn how to manage yourself coming into these races. Maybe that's an advantage of being one of the old guys."
(ON YOUR INCIDENT WITH TONY STEWART, WERE YOU CONCERNED THAT IT DID ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR?) "I was real concerned. I didn't know what the heck happened. I was on the outside in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and we were just coming off there side-by-side and I thought he didn't see me or his spotter didn't tell him I was there. I don't know what happened. That turn can be pretty tricky over there. Sometimes it'll suck you out to the wall. That's my only guess because I was just going by on the outside and got squeezed into the wall. We hit pretty hard. I knew it tore the left front fender up on it. Luckily there was a caution not too long after that and Robbie and the guys were able to take a look at it and make adjustments for the damage."
