Chevy Race Notes - NHIS, July 25
CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES
NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES
SIEMENS 300 RACE NOTES
NEW HAMPSHIRE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
July 25, 2004
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Pre-race update per a Budweiser Team Rep: The plan for today's race remains the same, which is for Dale Jr. will start the race and then turn the wheel over to Martin Truex Jr. during the first caution.
The drivers did not practice the seat swap, but think it will go relatively smoothly. Since Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Jr. are the same size and use the exact same harnesses and seat belts, no major equipment changes are necessary.
However, the team has attached some surgical tubing to the seat harnesses that will act like a spring and make unhooking, hooking, and adjusting the belts a much easier and quicker process. This technique was borrowed from the Corvette Racing program, where multiple drivers of various sizes and shapes drive one race car during an event.
The Budweiser Team has also put a cool box in the No. 8 Chevy.
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RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Brought out the caution on lap 60: "I made contact at Turn 2. The car behind me got into my right rear and put us in the wall."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Comments after making the driver switch with Martin Truex Jr. during the caution on lap 60:
(HOW DO YOU FEEL?) "There aren't many people I'd let drive my car. Martin's one of them. Luckily he was available this weekend. The car is not that good. I think the car might be worse than I am. It's real loose in and real tight in the middle. It won't turn in the middle at all. Hopefully we can work on it and get it a lot better and get a pretty good finish. We were good all weekend in practice with Martin in the car. I know we can get a good run. We've just got to get the car a lot better.
"I was doing okay. The car just wasn't as good as I thought it would be or that it had been all weekend. It ain't no fun getting out, I'm going to tell you that. I like running here. But Martin is going to do a good job for me so it'll be okay."
(HOW DO YOU INJURIES FEEL AND HOW WERE THEY OVER THE COURSE OF THAT RUN?) "My injuries didn't really hurt bad, but it's hard. It's a pain I ain't never felt before. But I was in two burn centers and I saw some people in there that are a lot worse off than I was. It made me really appreciate how lucky I was to get out of there with just the little burns I've got on my legs. But it's not good enough to drive a car all weekend but hopefully next weekend we will be."
(IT WAS A NICE DRIVER CHANGE. HOW ARE YOU FEELING?) "I don't feel too bad. Martin's been doing a real good job all weekend. The car isn't handling too great but we're going to work on that to get a good finish today."
(WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON? ARE YOU GOING TO STAY OUT HERE AND WATCH THE RACE?) "I don't know what I plan on doing really. I thought I'd get back and probably change clothes. But we're just going to see what happens. This is a winning team. I think Martin can run good. This has been a good track for him over the years. I hated getting out of the car.
"That ain't no fun. I trust Martin and what he can do. Hell, he's probably better than I am at getting around this place. With this car and this team, he's got a great chance today."
(YOU STAYED IN THE CAR FOR 60 LAPS. WHERE DID IT WORK THE BEST?) "It wasn't working at all. The car wasn't handling too good. They've been working with the car all weekend. It's been fast all weekend. I really haven't been tuned in as much as Martin. The car is just not driving today like it has been all weekend. It's a little loose in but they're working on the car and hopefully will make it better.
(THE FANS WISH YOU WELL. THEY JUST GAVE YOU A BIG CHEER) "I'll tell you what, the fans have been great. They've sent cards and well wishes. It's been quite an experience. Aside from the injuries, I wouldn't change anything. I've learned a lot of things through it and I'll be a better race car driver once I'm back to 100 percent."
(ON MAKING THE DRIVER SWITCH) "I don't think it was that big of a deal. My burns weren't bothering me so bad, but the car wasn't driving so good. Martin does a good job around here. He'll be fine as long as he's staying calm and not being too anxious. He's used to those quick Busch races - and being in split mode all day. not staying in the car all day. You've got to take your time here. You've got to save the tires. I think he's the guy who can do a good job for me. He's been driving it all weekend and he's been doing a great job."
(ON HIS BURNS) "It just hurts. I mean it hurts all the time. That's all it does. It just hurts. But sitting down is a whole lot better than standing up."
(HOW READY DO YOU THINK YOU'LL BE FOR POCONO NEXT WEEK?) "I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. That's what we did this weekend. We just didn't know. And, we won't know."
RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I don't know what happened. We spun around and I don't know what happened. I'm pretty frustrated right now. I really don't know what to say. We had high expectations. We got together with Jimmy. I hate accepting the responsibility of getting together with him; it's just typical tight racing. But then we just got lifted in the right rear - just got picked up and turned into the wall. It killed the car. So it took us 50 laps to repair it and we went back out and just make some laps and it just blew apart. I haven't had any thing just blow apart like that in a long time. I honestly don't know why. It's not like you can say you're frustrated about this or that, I'm just frustrated."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 2nd:
"It was a great day for us. I tell you what, when they dropped the green flag I thought we had something for 'em. We just got loose in and really couldn't get on top of it all day. But I'll tell you what, a second place finish makes me really proud of the DuPont Chevrolet team. I wanted to say hello and send my prayers and thoughts to the whole Hendrick family. It's been a tough week. But Pops would have been proud of that effort we put out there today. I'm real happy. To come from where we started and finish where we did - I'm real proud of that effort.
"We were able to get up there and battle with those guys. I don't know if we were a second-place car, but we had a real good car on the restarts. I thought I could get up there beside Kurt (Busch), but we had the No.12 (Ryan Newman) behind us and everything. I would have had to give him a pretty big nudge to get him out of the way for that win. It may have cost us a win and maybe even second. I'm real proud of this team to have brought this car from 24th to second." More to follow
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 5th: "We kept working on it all day. We got tight there. Greg (Zipadelli, crew chief) made a big change on the right rear. We just cranked some weight in it and got a little too free there. We had a good run there with Matt (Kenseth). I'm tickled to death to go to a track where not very many cars can say they came out of there without a scratch and we don't have scratch one on our car."
(WAS THERE A LOT OF GRIP ON THE TRACK TODAY?) "I don't think so. I think the heat kind of made it a little bit slippery, which made for good racing. It made the track wide and made it to where we could all race each other a little bit. I think it was a good race and hopefully the fans enjoyed it today."
"We had a good day. Obviously we would've liked to be higher than fifth, but it's just another top-five and this is the time of year where we start putting those together. So, that's what we need to do."
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 11th: "We got close to a top 10, but we just weren't with it today. We didn't have anything figured out. An 11th place finish out of that is pretty good for us and we're excited about that. Luckily we stopped the bleeding before we bled to death with that two-tire strategy and got us up in there."
(DID YOU LEARN SOME THINGS THIS WEEKEND?) "Oh, yeah. We definitely learned what car not to bring back here in a month or so. But I would expect that the No. 48 Lowe's team will be back here testing very soon."
(YOU WERE FAST IN QUALIFING, SLOWER IN HAPPY HOUR YESTERDAY, AND DEFINITELY OFF TODAY. WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?) "We're not sure. In Happy Hour, we weren't real pleased with the car and we went back to last year's set-up hoping that would be what we needed. It actually made it a lot looser. With the new shock package, new tire combination, and the track aging a little bit we just didn't have the ideal set-up today."
MARTIN TRUEX JR., RELIEF DRIVER FOR DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 31st: (HOW WAS YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE IN A CUP RACE?) "We were actually making out pretty good. We picked up some spots there in the beginning. We got up there and that's when we got real tight and of course that's when we got spun out. That was the end of our day. It knocked the tow out really bad and then we actually got really tight and lost another lap.
"If that wouldn't have happened, I think we could have gotten it fixed and gotten the Lucky Dog because I think we were fast enough to do that once we got the car going. But like I said, once we got the tow knocked out and didn't have time to fix it, the car just wouldn't go at all. And that's how we lost the second lap and had no chance of getting the free pass and it just ruined our day. Our car was pretty decent at the end."
(WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU SPUN OUT?) "I don't know. I was really tight and I was running up high. (Ken) Schrader was under me for a few laps. And actually on that lap I moved higher than I had been running. I don't know what happened. I don't know if he locked the brakes up or what he did. But he just drove up my quarter panel and wrecked me. There was nothing I could do about it."
(WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED WITH THE SPIN OR THE FINISH OR WHAT?) "Well, with the finish. It's better than 43rd. All they wanted was last-place points. They wanted him (Dale Jr.) to start the race and me to get in the car and get everything I could. And, 15 spots is 15 spots. I'm just disappointed in the way it ran. If I hadn't have gotten spun out, I really think we could have run good. We had our car going good at the end of the race. We just lost too much time when we got the tow knocked out."
(DID YOU AND SCHRADER GET INTO IT A COUPLE OF TIMES?) "I don't know why he was running me like that. I was trying to run him clean. But what are you going to do?"
(WHEN YOU MADE THE DRIVER SWITCH, WERE YOU EXCITED OR NERVOUS OR ANYTHING?) "I was fine. I thought it was cool that we did it so quick. We didn't even practice this morning like we had planned. I just hopped down in there and threw the belts across me and the next thing I knew, I was going. So that worked good. I wouldn't mind doing that again. But I would have liked to finish better."
(DID YOU FIND YOUR AIR HOSE OR WATER HOSE OR WHATEVER IT WAS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR?) "Yeah, I found them both. It all happened so quick. By the time I finally got my gloves on it was time to go green. We went green and at the next caution I found all my stuff and was good to go. It was a fun race."
(WILL YOU DO THIS AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT POCONO?) "Hopefully not. Hopefully Junior is good to go. I'll get my shot in my own car hopefully some day."
(DID JUNIOR SAY ANYTHING TO YOU ON THE RADIO DURING THE RACE?) "No, I haven't talked to him. I think he got out of here pretty quick to rest up. The team was pretty happy with everything under the circumstances. When we got wrecked, it killed our day because we lost another lap trying to fix it. It just made the car handle terrible until we got the car fixed, which was 150 laps later. Once we got it fixed, the car was really good and I was happy with it. I could pass cars and I was able to run with the top five or six cars."
(NEAR THE END, WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE NO. 2 AND THE NO. 88 BEHIND YOU?) "As soon as those guys would get to me, within a half a car length, I'd let them go. And then I'd wait for another opening and I'd go again. Rusty (Wallace) was two or three or four car lengths behind me the whole time. I was just in there (the trailer) changing and I heard them on TV complaining about me holding them up, which I don't understand because I two or three car lengths ahead of him the whole time. So, what are you going to do? I'm a rookie. They'll always blame something on me."
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 6th: "We had a top 10 finish for the NAPA team. We finished sixth. We were up in second spot and then had a bad pit stop and then wound up getting way in the back and fought our way all the way up to sixth. I'm real proud of the effort. We had a brake problem. The fan that cools the brakes on the front end of the car malfunctioned and so I had to really drive the car carefully. It hurt me some. I figured out how to deal with it. But we lost some speed because of that. All-in-all, it was a really good day.
"The points situation was improved and we moved up to 16th. Mainly, we gained on the top 10 again - only 15 points, with seven (races) to go and 200 back If I do the math correctly right quick, that's about 30 points a race. So we'll just have to try to do it and get it done. That's very important to do. We're going to Watkins Glen tonight and spend the day there tomorrow testing. And then it's off to home for a couple of days and then to Pocono."
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 13th: "Track position was key out there today and once we lost it with those couple of bad pit stops, I knew we were going to be in trouble. Not getting a chance to pit and make up some gound really hurt us as well as all those cautions toward the end. My GM Goodwrench Chevy was tight toward the end and at every restart it took about 10 laps to get the tires to stop chattering because they had no heat in them. There was just way too much traffic back in the back to make up any kind of ground there toward the end. It's frustrating because we had a pretty decent car today."
ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 25th: "We just couldn't find a good balance today. My front tires were chattering the majority of the first half, and I went back and forth between really loose and tight handling the rest of the day.
"It's disappointing because I love racing here, but not the way we did today. We missed it this time and have won here before. It doesn't make sense.
"I'm still confused about not receiving the Lucky Dog during the seventh caut9ion of the day. The No. 21 (Ricky Rudd) was the first car a lap down and wrecked. I was the second car a lap down, but was denied the Lucky Dog. I did eventually get the Lucky Dog two cautions after that, but I just don't get it. I know if you are the second car a lap down and spin the first car one lap down, you do not receive the Lucky Dog, but I didn't touch the No. 21. Richard Childress and I have a few questions for NASCAR, that's for sure."
TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 16th and advanced from 21st to 20th and is within 147 points of 15th-place Mark Martin with 17 races remaining: "We started today the way we finished practice yesterday ... just a little off on the chassis. We made some adjustments to the car and it got better, but track position was the whole ballgame and we never really made that big move to the front.
"I know 800 races sounds like a lot and I don't think I ever figured I'd run that many, but it's an honor to be in that small group of drivers that's reached that number (Richard Petty, Dave Marcis, Ricky Rudd, Darrell Waltrip). Today's finish helped us a little in the points, too, so that's important."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 2nd - he's had five poles and four wins this season.....this was his 8th top-five finish and his 14th top-10 finish. Post-race press conference highlights:
"We had a real strong car at the beginning and then fell off a little bit during the middle and then had a real strong car there at the end. When they dropped the green, I was very excited because we were passing cars and really driving strong to the front. We got a little bit loose toward the end of that run getting into the corner - and we struggled with that throughout most of the day - but it was a really solid effort by the team. We struggled on Friday in qualifying, but I think we learned some things for when we come back.
"We certainly were good today, but we weren't as good as the No. 97. I made a few attempts there at the end. I got a couple of good restarts and got a run on him and tried to just force him to make a mistake and maybe get too aggressive and put some pressure on him. He did a couple of times and I got my nose underneath him. But he was just so strong I really just couldn't finish it off. There at the end on that last restart, I spun the tires and pretty much took away our chances of getting another run on him. I just tried to tuck in there behind him and pull off a second-place finish. I'm very happy with it."
(WHAT CHANGES DID THE TEAM MAKE FROM FRIDAY TO MAKE YOUR CAR SO STRONG ON SUNDAY?) "We tried a little something different in the geometry on the front end of the car. We didn't come up here and test. We did that on purpose. We decided to use this as more of a test for when we come back here in the final 10. Race conditions are the best way to learn things. I thought we learned a lot. But we changed something in the front end for Saturday and the car just came right back to life. It was one of those changes that took too long for us to do on Friday, so I was asking for the change. We tried to work around it. We didn't have time because we were the first to qualify."
(TODAY, THE WINNER STARTED 32ND AND THE RUNNER-UP STARTED 24TH. WHAT'S CHANGED?) "The Bahre's have done a great job with the configuring the track to give us more lanes to pass on. When they changed the banking here, it really changed this race track. It made an outside groove and made a little bit more room for cars to get underneath. At the beginning when I was passing cars, that was the best I've ever seen cars pass. I wasn't the only one, obviously, because the No. 97 (Kurt Busch) and the No. 17 (Matt Kenseth) were coming up behind me as well. I think Goodyear chose a good tire here. I think a softer tire here is good and also the track configuration. Last year we had trouble with the rubber or the surface - I don't know what it was - but we had a little trouble today. It seemed to be real good other than the brake markers down there in Turn 1 - everything was real good for passing and for racing side-by-side."
(DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO EXPERIMENT WITH THINGS BETWEEN NOW AND THE FINAL 10 RACES?) "We've been saving a lot of our tests for a lot of those tracks in the last 10 races. Obviously we're going to be heavily testing and trying not to wear the team out and trying to learn as much as we can prior to those last 10 races. We're fortunate to be in a position right now to play that strategy because we're pretty solidly in the top 10 and things are going well for us. Obviously we're going to do some things differently when we come back here. We weren't the fastest car, but we were one of them. We got beat pretty bad by that No. 97 (Busch) car and the No. 12 (Newman) most of the day. We're going to change some things there.
But as far as I'm concerned, if there's one of those tracks in the last 10, we're going to use it as test if we're not already testing there."
(ON TRYING TO CATCH KURT BUSCH) "Kurt did a good job on the restarts because he never did the same thing twice. And that's important when you're the leader and restarts are as important as they are. One of the places where my car was real strong was on the restarts. For a lap or two I could really hang with him and seemed to pull away from the guys behind us. The first couple of restarts, he was leaving early. One time, I anticipated him leaving early and I just poked my nose down there and just got out of his mirror just to make him try to drive in there deeper. And the funny thing is that he made a big mistake down in Turn 1, but the problem was that I made one too. That last one (restart) he did the exact opposite. He actually slowed us way down and I got to his bumper and he then he took off and I spun the tires. And so it was pretty much over right there when it began."
(IN WHAT WAY IS THIS A GLIMPSE OF WHAT WE MIGHT SEE IN SEPTEMBER?) "Other than weather conditions, I would say as long as Goodyear keeps the same tire we should see a lot of the same thing - other than Jimmie Johnson, I think this is one of his strongest tracks and he'll be a lot faster when we come back. But obviously we learn every race. You'd be surprised at what a lot of teams will learn and how they'll be stronger when they come back. The No. 97 and the No. 17 - those Roush cars were strong and those are the guys we're going to have to beat - plus the No.12 car."
(WILL YOU BRING THIS SAME CAR BACK IN SEPTEMBER?) "I don't know. I'm not sure if we have plans to take this car anywhere or now. If we have plans to take it somewhere, we'll still take it there. We've got good race cars and we can duplicate a car to make sure we bring a good one back here. But I don't know the answer to that question."
(DID LOSING THOSE BRAKE MARKERS IN TURN 1 HAVE ANY AFFECT ON THINGS?) "Not as much as I thought it was going to. Luckily for me, I had a Rev Limiter in the car so I just used that as my brake marker. So if I didn't get off Turn 4 very good and I waited for the rev chip to hit, I'd be in trouble (laughs). I like having reference points out there. I would have liked to have had just a mark on the wall. We asked for it several times - just put a paint stripe or something on the wall. I understand why they wanted to pull them off because they were falling off and causing cautions. But we don't want to take too much time in those cautions to replace things like that or fix it. A stripe of paint would be easy to do and quick."
(WITH THE WAY THE RACE WAS GOING DOWN, WERE YOU CONCERNED THERE MIGHT BE A GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED AT THE END?) "Yeah, I was. If you look at the way it ended, it was basically a five-lap shootout anyway. It kind of worked out to be the same thing. I was thinking to myself that the first race we have the new rule we'd have it end that way. I think that because we go single file with those closing laps it helps on the restarts not to have as many cautions. When you go double file with those lapped cars, that's usually where the wrecks happen. I was hoping it would stay clean all the way to the end."
(CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH YOUR PASS ON THE NO.12 CAR?) "When the No. 97 (Busch) got inside of him (Newman), I dove down into Turn 1 and I was following the No. 97 but saw the No. 12 car get on the brakes real hard and cut left like he was going to try to go back underneath him, and when he tried to do that he got really loose and slid up the track and I was able to get by him."
(IF YOU HAD QUALIFIED BETTER, YOU WOULD HAVE HAD A BETTER FINISH?) "The No. 97 won and he started further back than we did. Yeah, that would have been nice because you can do a little bit different set-up that way. We started really loose to be able to maneuver through traffic and pass because you really get tight behind other cars here. I would like to have started a little bit tighter. But every time we did that, it hurt the middle of the corner and it didn't seem to help the entry and exit where we needed it. I know we didn't drive up there fast, but by New Hampshire standards we drove up there pretty quick.
"I felt like we were a fifth or sixth place car. When we got up to second, I didn't know if we were going to be able to hold them off. But I realized that track position is still really crucial here. I don't know what could have happened if I could have gotten in front of that No. 97. I don't know if I could have held him off."
(THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED DIDN'T SEEM TO HAVE AN IMPACT TODAY, BUT DO YOU THINK IT WILL IN THE FUTURE?) "It's going to be an impact somewhere. Today we had something close to that with the five-lap shootout. It's going to happen. It might not change the outcome of the race, but it might. We'll just have to deal with it when it happens."
(HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO RUNNING OUT OF GAS TODAY?) "I hope we were in the green to make it. They were telling me when we first put fuel in it to really save a lot of fuel. So you run around there in fourth gear and take it out of gear and do a lot of things. But at this track, you really have to scuff your tires a lot. You have to get a lot of heat built up because cold tires are tough and tricky. What you try to do is scuff your tires and when you do, you use a lot of fuel. I was trying to ride around there in fourth gear and not scuff my tires until the last second and then scuff them really hard and go back racing."
