Dodge/Save Mart 350 Quotes from Saturday at Infineon

June 26, 2004
 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge)

"I think we're really happy with the improvement from last year. Being
35th in the points last year and struggling like we did being my first
year in Cup I had so much to learn. To be able to come back now with the
same team and improve like we have and continue to run in the top 10
pretty much every weekend... We look back on it today and look back on
the problems we've had, parts failures and motor problems and all the
things that add up and dropped us out of races this year, if we could
have just finished those races where we were running we would be inside
the top 10. We've got a very competitive team. At the first of this year
if we could have been within the top 20 I would have been elated.
Because of how well we've been performing this year, I'm a little
disappointed that we're not further up in the points. I'm excited we've
got the potential and it's getting better all the time."

 

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN MAKE UP GROUND IN THE POINTS AT INFINEON?
"Absolutely. I've always loved road course racing. I came from that.
That's what I ran mostly coming through the ranks in open wheel. I'm
really looking forward to it. It's a lot of fun. We didn't qualify well
at all. I'm very disappointed with where we qualified. I think it was
29th, and it was horrible. We should have been better than that. We did
a lot of race trim stuff in the morning. I felt like our car was really
good. I'm looking forward to the race. It's going to be a long day.
We've got to go through the pack, but if we can keep the fenders on I
think we'll be good."

 

COMMENT ON NEW TRACK SURFACE "We came here to test and it had so much
grip it was unreal. All our gears were changing. We had different rear
end gears, different transmissions to accommodate for it. We got here
and with the Hoosier rubber on it and a lot of other guys on the track
it got a lot slicker than it was. It's obviously a lot better than it
was last year. It changed so much from the test it kinda threw us a
curveball. I think it'll be good. The packing is going to be better. I
know sometimes guys say with the grip it makes them feel more brave and
better about their cars. At the same time if you're feeling better about
your car and the car is more stable you're able to make those bolder
moves and not make mistakes. Hopefully it makes for cleaner racing and
makes it easier to pass."

 

WHAT DID YOU DO TO ADAPT TO NEXTEL CUP RACING? "I think the biggest
thing was really slowing myself down. I said that at the beginning of
last year that I needed to slow myself down a lot. Well, I needed to
slow myself down even more. These cars are just really easy to
overdrive. I'm used to driving something 1,400 pounds, 1,500 pounds. Now
I'm in something that's 3,400 pounds. That's over double the weight and
less tire. It's very easy to overdrive. You can still drive them very
hard, but they have their limit and if you go over that limit just a
little bit you're losing a lot. Just really learning that, learning to
finesse these cars. Indy cars you drive as hard as you possibly can all
the time. Every lap is like a qualifying lap. These cars you drive as
hard as you can, but don't go over the limit. If you go over the limit a
little bit you're going to learn a ton of lap time, so there was a
finesse to these cars I had to learn. It took awhile to learn it."

 

DO SOME DRIVERS HELP YOU? "Right off the bat I'm got Jamie and Sterling
to lean on. I would say the guy who helped me the most is Jimmie
Johnson. He's been a really good friend of mine for a long time. We
raced off-road together. He was the guy I could first go to when I was
running Busch and say, 'hey man, what's this track like or what's this
tire like or how do I need to approach this?' I remember last year at
Richmond at a certain time in the practice session at Richmond he would
be out of his car and come over to my car and tell me a couple of things
he had just learned. He really went out of his way to help me, and that
went a long way"

 

DOES THIS FEEL LIKE A HOME TRACK FOR YOU? "Yes, it does. Just being in
California I already feel like I'm home. I came up here and ran with the
Jim Russell Racing School for quite awhile and did most of it down at
Laguna Seca, but when they moved up here I came up here and ran a couple
of races, so I'm pretty familiar with this area. It feels like coming
back home for sure."

 

COMMENT ON YOUR "DAYS OF OUR LIVES" GUEST ROLE "The first I heard about
it was from my PR girl Heather (Kincel). They contacted NASCAR and
through NASCAR they approached us. It just worked out. It was a real
good deal for Target and a good opportunity for me to do something
different. I had a great time. It was a couple of weeks ago we did the
shoot (show will air on Wednesday, June 30). It was funny. I got dressed
and ready to go. The actors were practicing. They had their papers in
their hands going back and forth. They told me to come on it, so I
figured we were going to do a couple of practice runs. The first time I
did my lines, I kinda messed up my last line. They told me it was good,
but they said to do it again. I did it again and everybody started
clapping. They're going 'great job.' I said, 'wait a minute. If I had
known this was the real deal I would have put a little more into it.' I
guess it worked out. I saw a clip the other day and it looked like it
turned out all right. I was a little nervous about that."

 

WHAT WAS THE PLOT? "It was very soap opera. Some girl's boyfriend was
tied to a bed somewhere. He had been kidnapped. This girl wants her
boyfriend back, and she knows he's a big NASCAR fan. A friend of hers
bought the hood of my car at a race and it has a message for her
boyfriend to come back home. She's excited I'm driving the car and
sending the message to her boyfriend to come back home. It's definitely
soap opera."

 

WHAT WERE YOUR LINES ON THE SOAP OPERA? "I can't remember exactly. It
was something like the girl was real excited that I was going to be
driving the car and help her out, so I said, 'I'm glad I could help.'
Then she went on and said something else and I said something along the
lines of 'I'll win it for her today and her boyfriend.' I got a kiss on
the cheek and I said, 'I'll see you in victory lane.' It was pretty
cheesy, but it was fun."

 

COMMENT ON FEEDBACK YOU'RE GETTING FROM YOUR TEAM ABOUT PROGRESS
"Everything has been really positive. Last year they stuck it out with
me and it was a tough season. It says a lot for Chip and the team. I was
worried there about three-quarters of the way through the year last
year. You hear we're sticking with you, we're going to do this and we're
going to do that. Well, I know racing. You've got to put numbers on the
board to keep your job. They stuck with me through last year, and this
year it's been paying off. I'm real happy. Chip's been excited. Target
has been excited, and the team is pumped up. The potential this year is
to run a lot better in the points right now, and that's something we can
be proud of. Every time we've had a problem we've been running well.
When we don't have problems we're in the top 10. It's neat to see the
people that stuck it out with me get some reward out of it. It's
gratifying for me to run well, but it's also gratifying for the people
who stuck with me."

 

COMMENT ON TURN 10 "Turn 10 is definitely a tough corner. It's one of
the fastest corners on the track. There's such a fine line to getting
through there and make a bunch of time and going off. It's one of those
corners that's really touchy. You get through there and underdrive it
just a little bit and you lose a ton of lap time. If you overdrive it
you're in the dirt. If you hit it just right you're going to be real
fast. I was impressed with Jeff (Gordon) yesterday getting some wheels
off in turn 10 and still being able to keep the pole. That's a place
where you can lose a ton of lap time if you make a mistake like that. He
held on to it and got a good lap."

 

HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO WINNING A RACE? "I think we're real close. We led
at Atlanta and lost the motor. At Michigan we were nine laps down. We
had a chain break on the sway bar. We could have competed. There was a
time we started on the inside with Elliott (Sadler) and Sterling in
front of me and I felt like I could have passed them at the time. We've
had cars that could run in the top five and are capable of winning
races. We've just got to dot all the I's and cross all the T's and I
think we're a contender. We're a solid contender to be inside the top
10. If we do things right we're a solid top five. If we're on all eight
cylinders we can win races."

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