Chevy Advance - Harvick & Johnson, June 18

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CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

DHL 400

MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

June 18, 2004

Page 1

 

KEVIN HARVICK, DRIVER OF THE NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET FIELDED BY RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING, HELD A Q&A SESSION WITH THE MEDIA PRIOR TO FRIDAY MORNING'S PRACTICE REGARDING THE NASCAR PENALITIES INCURRED AFTER THE POCONO 500 LAST WEEKEND.

 

KEVIN HARVICK:

"I don't really have anything (a statement) prepared. We presented NASCAR with everything that they needed. The skid marks are very evident on the race track and I wish now I would have taken a picture of it so I could have given it to all you guys (the media).  There are two straight black skid marks and a wheel hop where it spins out. If you really go back and look at the one angle that FOX showed, if you look at that particular tape, there's no way you can spin somebody out under caution without at least knocking the grill out of your car or tearing the back bumper. There wasn't a mark on the front of my car. There wasn't a mark on the back bumper. That's the way it is. It is what it is at this point. It's just like John Darby told me. He said your past is probably why you're getting a fine. So, I don't think that's probably the right way to go about things, but what has been right in the last few weeks?"

 

(IS IT CORRECT THAT NOBODY WAS TOLD TO GO TO THE NASCAR HAULER UNTIL AFTER MATT KENSETH SPUN YOU OUT?)

"As far as I know, it was right there at the end of the race. You know the fuel cell was knocked out of our car and in all reality, we should have been right behind the No. 9 car in the scoring. That was the part that we were the most tore up about - the fact that we lost 31 points and that was probably the best we've ever run at Pocono. And then to lose the 31 points and be caught up in something we didn't really have anything to do with other than the fact that we got hit three times. It's just he way it is. We're not going to gripe and complain about it, we're just going to go on and do what we have to do. It's not the first time and it probably won't be the last. I've done a lot of wrong things and that's the first time I've ever, ever talked to Mike Helton twice and presented everything we presented.

      

"It's just like Jim Hunter said in USA Today, 'I'm dealing with my own set of facts, but they are facts.' And whether they like it or not, they're hard core facts and that's the reason that Richard (Childress) and myself are at the point where we are where we're just a little bit bent out of shape about there being any fine on our part whatsoever."

 

(ARE YOU GOING TO APPEAL NASCAR'S DECISION?)

"The appeal system, it doesn't work. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. You're going to lose. It's not worth the time."

 

(MATT KENSETH SAID THE TRACK IS FULL OF SKID MARKS. IF YOU LOOK AT THE TRACK, THERE ARE SKID MARKS EVERYWHERE. WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT THAT?)

"Well, he may have said the track is full of skid marks, but if you go back and look at the tape there was only one spot after the race that was full of gravel and that's the spot that that they didn't sweep and used as the excuse not to go back to green. Myself and Richard sat out on the race track after the race and took a golf cart out there while the race fans were exiting the race track and that set of skid marks is really apparent when you go back and look at the video."

 

(CONSIDERING WHAT'S HAPPENED THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, WHAT'S YOUR LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE ON HOW THE RACE WILL BE RUN THIS SUNDAY?)

"Well, it's not very good. Something has to be fixed. The race fans are throwing stuff on the race track every week and doing things they usually don't do. In the past month, it's happened a few times. We've got to fix it. We've got to do something to make it better and that all lies in the sanctioning body's hands. Last weekend, our issue probably covered up some of that. But it wasn't just last weekend that needs to be covered up. The racing back to the yellow thing and the scoring thing are not in good shape right now. It's the same people running the race every week."

 

      

(DO YOU THINK THE RACES SHOULD ALWAYS FINISH UNDER GREEN?)

"There are a lot of things you'd like to see different. You'd like to see the races finish under green. You'd like to see a lot less caution laps. We run more under caution than we do green. But I think they see the same things and hopefully they're going to fix it."

 

(DO YOU THINK NASCAR WILL BE UPSET WITH YOU FOR SPEAKING OUT?)

"Well, here's the deal. We dealt with Mike Helton in two of the three instances and when the fine came down he had John Darby call and I let him know how I felt about the whole thing and I don't feel very good about it. The last year and a half or so I've tried to be politically correct and do things the way that they're supposed to be done. But in the end, it doesn't matter. You can be the nice guy; you can be the bad guy, you can be whatever you want. I'm going to go back and be myself. And that's who I am. So if you've got a question, come on over and ask because I'm going to let you know how I feel."

 

(ARE YOU GETTING TIRED OF TALKING ABOUT ISSUES LIKE THE SCORING SYSTEM AND RACING BACK TO THE YELLOW?)

"This particular subject is something we shouldn't even have to talk about. As a racer and as a participant, you don't want to be involved in the same thing week after week. Usually the problems are fixed and you go on. This problem just keeps coming back over and over. Hopefully they can go back and do something that affects the way the races are run and finished and hopefully we can get it all straightened out.

 

"From my standpoint, I've paid $148,000 worth of fines since 2001. I haven't had one of them that makes 100 percent sense from the last one. And that's what we need. We need some consistency. We don't need section 12A or whatever that section of the rulebook is where it's their discretion. To me it should be black and white rules. It's no different than the incident we had at Nashville last week. Is it a rule or is it not? Don't just tell us that's our policy. Tell us it's a rule. 

      

"If it's not a rule, then you're not wrong. If it is a rule, then you're wrong. We had an incident at Talladega where they felt the rule was tampered with a little bit on our Busch cars. There was no penalty, there was no anything. But for the next six weeks, they made us tear our car apart. That's not right. Either you're right or you're wrong. That's the way it needs to be. There doesn't need to be a NASCAR discretion. Sure, there's going to be some things that are NASCAR's discretion, but when it comes down to it, there needs to be some rules that are followed consistently here."

 

(DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE BEING TARGETED SOMETIMES?)

"I was told by John Darby I was part of the reason that the penalty is what it is -- for your past. That's me. It's not fair. That's been addressed. I think it was something he probably shouldn't have said, but he said it. And it still gets on my nerves and it frustrates me a lot."

 

(HAVE YOU AND MATT KENSETH DISCUSSED WHAT HAPPENED AND/OR MADE AMENDS?)

"Well, the thing with Matt started at Martinsville when he wrecked us. I think when you look at that situation; he tries to be the nice guy and tries to say all the things he says. Like I said, you have to take it for what it is and go on with it. We've presented everything they needed to see and that was it. We're just going with it."

 

"It's like I told him in Martinsville. He was complaining about the way I race.  I race hard and I race as hard as I can around everybody. He is of the mold of stop and point and pull over. I have to race hard. That's the way I was taught to race. Like I told him there. He is never wrong and he's the champ and he's going to think what he wants and that's what it is.  I can promise you that I'm probably more stubborn than he is."

 

 

      

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO ALSO HELD A Q&A SESSION WITH THE MEDIA PRIOR TO FRIDAY'S PRACTICE SESSION.

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON:

(HOW DO YOU COMPARE THE NO. 8 TEAM OF DALE EARNHARDT JR. AND YOUR TEAM? ARE YOU BOTH HAVING SPECIAL YEARS?)

"Every driver and every team has to have a special year in order to win a championship. It comes with the territory. Do I think it's their year? They've been very strong. Do I hope it's my year? Absolutely. I hope that the way we've been performing shows how we're going to be in the final 10 races. It's a whole new environment with the way the points shape up. I wouldn't say it's been like a Matt Kenseth year for them so far. They've had a lot of good fortune come their way. But Matt, last year, was fast with the misfortune that turned into good luck for him. The No. 8 has had a strong year. But now I'm rambling about things when it's really a little too early to tell. As soon as we get a good read on it, everything starts over and you have a five-point race again. It gives us a lot of things to talk about.  You can work out a strategy but by race 27, it's a whole new race. You just start over."

 

(IS THE POINT SYSTEM FAIR?)

"From a competition side, I don't think the new rules really show who the true champion is or will be. It may work out that way and a good car will always rise to the occasion.  But I think giving somebody that would have been 12th or 15th in points a shot at winning the championship if they don't have a DNF in the final 10 (races), that isn't proving a true champion in my opinion. This is 36 races; 500- mile races. It's about endurance. It's about showing consistency and I think our point system should reflect that. The point system is for entertainment. It isn't based on the pure aspect of being a champion in our sport the way it's been for the past for the last 50 years or whatever it's been. It's TV-based, not competition-based. Being a competitor, I don't like that. I don't think it's fair if Dale Jr. has a 300-point lead and he goes into race 27 and it's (only) a five-point lead. 

      

"The same goes for me. It isn't fair to me to have that washed away and have to start over with a five-point separation. I don't think that's right."

 

(WOULD YOU HAVE MADE ANY CHANGES IN THE POINT SYSTEM?)

"I think the point system did need to reward the winner of an event and separate him more. Finishing second and leading the most laps and then tying the winner for the number of points, I don't think that's right. They made a good adjustment to separate first and second. I would have fine-tuned maybe the top three or top five in points to make a bigger gap to make people race harder for each position toward the front. But I wouldn't have restructured everything like it is if I were King for a Day."

 

(SUNDAY IS FATHER'S DAY. WHAT HAS IT MEANT TO YOU TO HAVE YOUR DAD SO CLOSE BY?)

"It's been an amazing ride. I realize now the sacrifices my family made to let my brothers and me go have fun. My dad wasn't gambling on his children succeeding and steering his future. He did it solely because he knew it was fun and he wanted his kids to have a good time and loved his family. I'm so appreciative of everything he sacrificed and all the money he's spent to take my brothers and me all over the place to go racing. Our house wasn't the nicest house and we didn't have the nicest cars. But we had the cool new motorcycles and toys to ride and learn on. I'm happy all those sacrifices he made has turned into a career for me and I'm able to give back to my family. I have my dad close by every week and I've shared some special moments with him in Victory Lane. It's been a neat experience."

 

(WHEN YOU SEE A SEA OF RED IN THE GRANDSTANDS, IS ANYBODY WHO GETS IN A POINTS RACE WITH DALE JR. ALMOST NATURALLY GOING TO BE LIKE THE OTHER GUY?  LIKE PEARSON WAS TO PETTY?) 

"There's always going to be that aspect in our sport. I think you hit on it with Pearson and Petty and even probably Earnhardt Sr. when he was competing for his championships. But it's going to be there. 

      

"Would I like to be the guy looking up and seeing blue everywhere? Sure. But it's not that way. You see a sea of red. It's my job to go out and win races and create my fan base and show them by performance that this No. 48 team and Jimmie Johnson is something to cheer for. With our sport it's the familiar face and the popularity of that person. I think it's fair. You need to recognize the stars. But I think there are a lot of stars in our sport aside from Dale Jr. that deserve recognition as well. I think our sport is grasping that. There are a lot of neat stories in this garage area."

 

(AS CRAZY AS IT'S GOING TO BE AT THE YEAR-END CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP, IS THE NO. 48 TEAM PREPARED FOR THE PRESSURE?)

"We've had the No. 24 team as a model. Our two teams work together side-by-side. When our guys come in on Monday morning, they're wearing a Lowe's shirt and a DuPont shirt and they work on both cars. From the first day, our team has had that championship mindset. We didn't have to learn that or develop that. We've had that presence around us. From our first race, we had championship on the brain. We let things roll off our shoulders quickly and move onto the next race if we've had a bad one. And that helps. I think we're good with dealing with pressure. I think pressure motivates them in a weird way."

 

(ON ALL THE RECENT RULE CHANGES) 

"There are a lot of things that are different now and a lot of rules and more gray areas to work within. After Dover and the problems we had, I commend NASCAR on the changes they made and I agree with every change that they made. They made things go quicker under caution and speed that process up. What happened in Pocono was just human error. It was a mistake. Our sport has that and will continue to have that. The poor flagman has probably been roasted to death over this deal, but it was just a mistake on his part. Where I'm frustrated is where NASCAR knows they made a mistake and they didn't come back and correct it or fix it. There are four of you who did the right thing and 39 of you that didn't. That's the part that frustrates me. But you're going to have human error. 

      

"What happened last week can happen any week. But I think they're making the right steps to fix the problems we had at Dover."

 

(IF YOU COULD MAKE ONE CHANGE TO THE POINT SYSTEM, WHAT WOULD IT BE?)

"I would put the overall points chase back to the way it was last year. If we ran 10 races per year in a NEXTEL All-Star event format, this point system would make sense. It would be great. But when you have millions and millions of dollars in it plus the hard work that goes into it, 500-mile races, and 36 races a year, your point system needs to reflect what your series is about and that's consistency. I don't think our system reflects that right now from the competition side. From the entertainment side, you couldn't ask for anything better.  From my standpoint in the final 10, I can't have a DNF. I've got to worry about other teammates who are helping their teammates out. There are so many different things that change the competition. It's not about racing and it's not about being a champion. It's about jockeying for position and not upsetting anyone and looking out for teammates and conserving and looking for top fives instead of wins. So it's really going to change the dynamics of our championship battle. I think a true champion is the team who shows all year long when they can do and what the team is capable of."

 

(CAN YOU LOOK AT IT LIKE A PLAYOFF LIKE OTHER SPORTS?)

"In any other playoff system, you work down to the best two teams. Right now, you take the top 10 or 15 based on the spread and you give the 15th place football team a shot at winning the championship if they are lucky. And that's not fair. I don't think that's right."