Chevy Notes - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Media Conf.

     CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

SIEMENS 300 ADVANCE

NEW HAMPSHIRE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

July 23, 2004

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO IN THE NEXTEL CUP SERIES, MET WITH MEDIA TO DISCUSS LAST WEEKEND'S ACCIDENT WHILE DRIVING THE NO. 8 CORVETTE C5-R DURING WARM-UP FOR THE INFINEON GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES AT INFINEON RACEWAY.

 

RICHIE GILMORE, DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORTS AT DALE EARNHARDT INC., TONY EURY SR., CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 8 BUDWEISER TEAM, AND MARTIN TRUEX JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 8 CHEVROLET FOR CHANCE 2 MOTORSPORTS IN THE NASCAR BUSCH SERIES, WERE ALSO PRESENT.

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF MEDIA Q&A'S:

 

STATEMENT BY RICHIE GILMORE: "We wanted to get everybody together this morning and tell them what we're going to do this weekend. Our plan right now is for the Budweiser Team to run Martin Truex Jr. today in practice and qualifying. Junior will get in the car tomorrow and practice and start the race on Sunday. We'd like everybody to respect Dale Jr. and the race team this weekend and give us as much room and space as possible so we can get ample practice time with Martin and Junior."

 

STATEMENT BY MARTIN TRUEX JR.: "Obviously, I'm real excited to have this opportunity. I'm real thankful and proud that they picked me to do this, but obviously this isn't the way we'd like to get our first NEXTEL Cup start. But we're a team player and here to help Junior. He's real focused to win the championship and we're here to help get him all the points we can get and hopefully do a good job this weekend for him and Budweiser."

 

STATEMENT BY DALE EARNHARDT, JR:  "We're real glad to have Martin available to help me this weekend.  Unfortunately after the wreck last weekend, I won't be able to run the entire race so it's really disappointing. I've never been in this situation before. It's kind of difficult, but I'm glad that Martin's going to be able to do it because he's a good race car driver and a good friend. We're just looking forward to getting things going this weekend and seeing how he does."

 

STATEMENT BY TONY EURY, SR.: "Well, you know this is not the situation we want to be in. Jimmie Johnson is giving us a hard time on that points race. We had to make a decision on what we wanted to do here and Dale Jr. is very disappointed that this happened, but we're going to make the best of it. I think we made the best choice on the guy we're going to put in the car. He's shown last year and this year that he's definitely got some talent. He's ours. He belongs to DEI and we're going to use him and we're going to get the best out of this we can get. Hopefully next week we'll be able to run the whole race."

 

QUESTION FOR MARTIN TRUEX, JR. (HOW DIFFICULT IS IT GOING TO BE TO MAKE THE DRIVER CHANGE ON SUNDAY?) "I'm not sure. Hopefully we'll be able to get a caution and be able to do it without losing a lap or anything like that.  We'll just have to see what happens. I don't think it's going to be all that hard, it's just going to take a little bit of time."

 

QUESTIONS FOR RICHIE GILMORE (WHAT'S THE ACTUAL PLAN FOR THE WEEKEND?) "Right now, we're going to see how Dale Jr. feels tomorrow after running a few laps of practice. Physically, the doctor said he's in great shape.  The thing we've got to worry about is the heat.  We're going to have some cool temperatures here on Sunday - they say around 70 degrees - so that'll help. I think we'll know a lot after tomorrow and seeing how he feels in the race car. We'll go from there."

 

(WHAT'S THE REASON FOR HAVING JUNIOR JUST PRACTICE THE CAR?) GILMORE: "Right now, we want to get as good a qualifying position as possible. We figure getting more time with Martin and the team together today will give him more time for Sunday and get the car qualified up front and getting a good pit stall. Picking a good pit stall will hopefully help us make the driver change."

 

(WERE THERE ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT HAVING JUNIOR SIT OUT THIS RACE?) GILMORE: "Yeah, we've discussed it and we know it's 100 percent Dale's choice to make. He feels he can do it. It's been his decision."

 

(ON HIS BURNS) "Burning isn't comfortable, no matter where it's at. The ones on my legs haven't really bothered me too bad, just the muscles have been aching and carrying on. I've really never been in this situation or have known what to expect in these conditions. It's something new every day with the pain and that's why we've got to do the 'wait and see' approach to see how it goes. That's why we haven't sent out too much information from our inner circle because we really have had to just wait and see how this plays itself out. 

 

"Every day I feel a lot better. I feel pretty capable of being able to qualify the car today if that was absolutely the rule. But since we aren't totally required to do that, I think if Martin has the time with the team this weekend it will give him a better opportunity to get as good a finish as he can on Sunday. But with the burns, I've got my mother with me. She's been with me at the doctor's. I have had Steve Crisp (long time DEI employee) and a bunch of good people have been helping me.  The doctors at the burn center in Sacramento and the doctors at the burn center in Raleigh have given me all the advise they can give me and now I'm taking care of myself at home and changing the dressings as much as I can and keeping my face clean as much as I can."

 

(ARE YOU TAKING PAIN MEDICATION?) "I was on some pain killers earlier in the week. But to be able to race this weekend and know that I won't be affected by that stuff, I had to get off of them early in the middle of the week. So it's the price you pay. It's difficult to get a little sleep during the night, but it's worth it."

 

(WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THE ACCIDENT AND THE AFTERMATH?) "The wreck was firey and hot. The pain was intense. I remember everything about the wreck. I remember sliding and hitting and bursting into flames and climbing out and crawling away and getting up and getting put on a stretcher and going to the infield care center and getting Morphine and that was it (laughs). If you want detail by detail, I can maybe give you that somewhere down the road. But it was quite an experience and not one I want to go through again. Unfortunately, accidents happen. Everybody is well aware of that. 

 

"I don't know if I'd change anything about it because I made a lot of friends. I found out I had closer friends than I every anticipated. And I found out that I even had a few enemies. So, it's been a good week. Aside from the injuries, I've had a lot of good will wishes from a lot of people. They've made a big difference. A lot of my fans have been real supportive. I was in the hospital in Sacramento - kind of undisclosed for about 24 hours - and received a lot of cards and stuff. My doctors and everybody was great.

 

"If the opportunity presented itself tomorrow and if they parked that C5-R out the door right there, I'd get right back in it. It's one of the most fun cars to drive. The company and the people are great. They are family. They treated me like family with my dad in 2001. They treated me like family this past weekend. All the drivers were very supportive after the crash. The entire thing just amazed me even before - but even after the crash it was more evident of why I'm with them when I get an opportunity to get with them. It's what I love to do. I love to drive. I love to race. I take the risk every time I get in the car, no matter what car it is."

 

(DOES NASCAR NEED TO PUT A RULE IN PLACE THAT DOESN'T FORCE A DRIVER TO START THE RACE WITH AN INJURY?) "I don't think so. I don't know. It would be good not to have to do anything this weekend and just be able to heal up and not worry about it. But that isn't fair to the guys who are well capable of running all 500 miles. So, I don't know. It's not my position to spout out scenarios and hypotheses and stuff like that. We're just doing what we can within the guidelines we have in NASCAR. What we're going to do this weekend has been done a million times within NASCAR. If there were rules in place, we would reform to those. Like I said, I could get in the car. I've been cleared injury-wise, burn-wise, head-wise, and everything from one end to the other. I could get in the car and be very capable of getting a good qualifying run. It's painful to walk around. Actually, the most comfortable position for me was sitting in the race car. To be able to give Martin more time is a better opportunity for us to get the better finish. With the situation that we're in, how can we get the most points? I think that's probably the route to take to get them. What we have within this system is good. 

 

"But NASCAR is probably in a state of change, so there may be something different down the road."

 

(DID THE CAR HAVE AN ON-BOARD FIRE EXTINGUISH SYSTEM AND IF SO, DID YOU DEPLOY IT?) "It did have a system. I couldn't see it. When the car caught fire, as a lot of you might have seen, all I saw was fire. I didn't even see where to go to get out. I just got out somehow. But there was fire within the helmet and all around the visor so there wasn't even a thought to pull any type of lever to get anything like that going. I was just trying to find out how to get to where the fire wasn't."

 

(ON WEARING FIRE RETARDANT UNDERWEAR AND OTHER SAFETY EQUIPMENT) "One of the things that I didn't want to do was to come away from this and be some sort of preacher on a soap box about safety. I know within my experiences, I could tell people that want to listen what I've been through and what I would do and what I'm going to do. I never wore underwear -- as far as fire-retardant underwear - before underneath my driver's uniform. I've done it on occasion here and there in my career. But it wasn't something I practiced religiously. That weekend, I took Steve Crisp with me and he brought along my along my suit. He had all that prepared. There happened to be some underwear in the bag. I didn't have a t-shirt to wear underneath my uniform like I usually do. I just usually only wore a t-shirt. And so I put that on my upper body, but I just wore my boxers. So my legs got burned and nothing else did except I've got a little spot on my neck. 

 

"So it shows me I need to be wearing everything I can wear and utilize as much precaution as possible. My opinion was that it'll never happen to me or that I'll never be in that situation. But you never can tell. And you never know. Even though you think you're good enough or your smart enough, or whatever. Even though you're not putting yourself in the position, you'll get there one day somehow, maybe not by your own doing and maybe by somebody else's whatever, but I'm going to wear the underwear because it made a big difference. I'm going to maybe try and look for some ways to combat allowing the fire to come up inside the full-faced helmet."

      

(IS THIS GOING TO AFFECT YOUR MINDSET?) "Actually, no. I felt pretty resilient to get back into my Cup car and get going. I don't have any problems with it. I don't know how to explain it. I like the Corvette. I enjoy racing it. It's a lot of fun to drive. It's a great race car. I hate to be the guy that backed it into the wall and burned it to the ground. They've told me a 100 times that anytime I want, I've got an open invitation to get over there and drive with them. It's a great opportunity. It's an endurance car and I don't know of a lot of guys in this garage who can say they've driven those type of cars. That's a three-time Le Mans winner. So it's fun to be in the car. It's fun to be around those people. They have a great passion for racing. I go over there and do that because it's kind of what I miss out of the reason I started racing. I'd do it (again) next weekend if we had a weekend off. It's not changed me as far as my drive and determination. It's changed me in maybe the way I caution and take measures to prepare myself and protect myself and maybe the people I care about. But as far as being able to get back in there with the eye of the tiger and all that stuff, I'm ready to get going."

 

(ON SUNDAY DO YOU PLAN TO SPOT FOR MARTIN TRUEX JR. AFTER YOU GET OUT OF THE CAR?) "I don't really think Martin is going to need my help as far as spotting goes. I'll put on a radio. I'll be the last thing on his mind, probably. Tony and those guys have worked with a rookie in the past and have steered him okay. I think he's in great hands and he's going to have all the help he can handle. I'm just excited to see what he can do in a real good race car. I told him it's going to be the best car he ever drove. I'm just disappointed really, because we've run so well here in the past. I was looking forward to coming here. It just really felt like we were closing in on getting a win here. We've gotten top fives and we've led a lot of laps in the last couple of races here. It's going to be hard just getting out of the car."

 

(WITH THE NEW POINT SYSTEM, YOU COULD PROBABLY AFFORDED TO JUST SKIP THIS RACE. WAS THERE ANY THOUGHT TO THAT AT ALL?) "There were some people within the organization that had that opinion. But I just felt like I was capable of doing it. The situation isn't as extreme as that as far as the injuries.  I can get in the car and I can go. Let's do it. What's the big deal? 

      

"I could sit out, but man, when that race starts, I'm going to be sitting there well capable of having started that car. There's no reason why I shouldn't do what I'm capable of doing even if it's just to be able to get 75 points or whatever. Let's get that. I don't want to short-change ourselves and that's what we'd be doing if we didn't come here and try to do what we could so."

 

(WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THE CAR ON SUNDAY?) "I don't know what I'll do. I'll just watch the race, I reckon. I've never been in that situation before. I'll just sit on the pit box if there's room or wherever there's room and put on some sunscreen and tune in (laughs). 

 

(WAS THERE A CARBON FIBER SEAT IN THE CORVETTE AND WILL YOU CHANGE YOUR SEAT IN THE CUP CAR?) "I believe the seat was carbon fiber. I never really looked at it. I think it was. I had an insert in there. It was really cool because normally the drivers have to change and pull and tighten belts and stuff when they make a drivers change. But I just yanked my insert out and Boris (Said, co-driver) fit right in there. He didn't even have to change the belts. So I had an insert in there and the seat was comfortable and the car was great. It was like an 18-G impact. Those cars are so fast and quick through the corners that you take five g's in the corners. I didn't even really think the hit was that hard. I knew it was hard enough to tear that car up and knock us out of being able to start the race. I knew we'd have to withdraw. But I didn't think the hit was hard at all. I won't be changing the seats in my Cup car. We've been working real hard to get the seats in my Cup car good and I like them the way they are. We're still always trying to make them better. But I feel like it's like apples and oranges, really, between the two."