Chevy Race Notesw - Richmond, Sept. 11
CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES
NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES
CHEVY ROCK & ROLL RACE NOTES
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
September 11, 2004
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO.48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Involved in multi-car accident: "Yeah, we were racing to win. It's hard for me to believe that the No. 41 (Casey Mears) could have made the No. 88 (Dale Jarrett) and the No. 4 (Jimmy Spencer) that mad. The No. 88 tried for three or four laps to wreck the No. 41 and couldn't get it done and then the No. 4 tried and finally did it. He was chasing him from the bottom of the race track all the way up to the marbles trying to wreck him. I don't understand why and what, but this is the way this points system works. We've got desperate guys doing desperate things. This could happen at Homestead. That's the one thing that I don't like about the points system is that you can have somebody acting like this and be completely out of a championship. This is why I'm not a big fan of this point system. We've put too much hard work and effort into this to have something stupid like this happen. We'll just roll on. Hopefully lady luck is on our side from here on out."
(WAS THIS A TARGET AT YOU?) "I have no clue. I was so confused as to why they were trying to wreck for so many laps. They finally did. I'm really curious to watch the tapes and see what happened." More to follow
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 3rd: "What a battle. This is why we're where we at in the points and why I'm so excited about these last 10 races because these guys just never give up. They just do everything that they can to get this DuPont Chevrolet up to the front. We fought it and fought it and fought it all night tonight and we had our hands full. But there at the end, it finally came back to us. That last set of tires was really good. We got lucky. Robbie (Loomis) made a great call and it paid off for us to stay in the top 10. And then somehow, miraculously got into the top five. We were very fortunate. It was just an up and down night. Luckily, the best the car was was at the beginning and the end. We really fought back. Between wrecks happening in front of me and the car going away and losing a lap and then just making that great comeback.... There at the beginning of the race, I thought man, this was going to be a fun night. That thing just drove to the front. We didn't do anything to it, but the thing just went completely away and I'm not exactly sure why. There at the end, we put a set of tires on and luckily stayed on the lead lap by staying out. Robbie made a great call and the car was great there at the end. We drove by some guys and the next thing you know we were fifth, and then fourth, and then finally third. It was a great night. I hate it for Jimmie (Johnson) that he had that problem. I saw a lot of stuff happening in front of me. I thought I was going to be in it right there with him when he went in the grass."
(WHAT DID YOU SEE?) "I just saw somebody get sideways and there were just a bunch of cars all stacked up. I drove to the bottom. Jimmie was in front of me and I was on the brakes. The car was slowing down and I was sliding right toward him and luckily he spun out of the way right as I got there. We lost some track position because we came in and changed tires and the night just got more and more interesting from there until the end."
(ON CHASING A 5TH CHAMPIONSHIP) "We just tested in New Hampshire. We're excited about these last 10 races. It's that kind of effort that we had tonight that we're going to put out every weekend for the next 10 weeks. If that doesn't get it done then the other guys can have it. But we're not going to give up this thing without a fight." More to follow
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 WELLBUTRIN CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 16th in the race, ranks 13th in the point standings: "I think we had a better car than that for the most part of the race. It was just the way the caution flags fell and we got a lap down and we were running pretty good there. It was just so hard to pass. I saw that for the past three nights here. I hate it for all the guys. We have great race team, we just haven't been able to prove it for the last six or seven races to rebound from what we had a few weeks ago. I just hate it for all the sponsors and all the guys who work on the car. We definitely tried. We just didn't do a good enough job as a race team. But there are a lot of worse things in the world right now. It stinks but at the same time we'll go on to Loudon and we've got to look forward to finishing 11th at this point in time.
(WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?) "It wasn't all about tonight. I can tell you that. Thanks for asking. We had a better car tonight than where we finished. Through the lap down deal our pit strategy was working out good until that caution flag come out just because track position is so important everywhere we go and obviously I'm not very good at that. If we would of had a better a finish, we wouldn't of made the top ten anyway. But if we had a better finish, it would have been a lot more fun."
(DID THE PERSONNEL CHANGES YOUR TEAM MADE EARLY IN THE SEASON PLAY A FACTOR IN NOT MAKING THE TOP TEN?) "I think we were going downhill before that. I hated that we had to do that. It was just something that needed to be done. Whether we made it in the top ten or didn't, we knew that decision had to be made. It's just unfortunate for us that it turned out that way because it looks like people probably point fingers at that but that really wasn't the problem."
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 12th in the race, ranks 14th in the point standings: "The car was good early. It just got a little bit loose there. In the second half of the race, we just couldn't get in the corner. But all in all, it wasn't a bad night for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. We did the best we could and that's all you can ask for."
(WERE YOU AWARE OF THE POINTS SITUATION ALL NIGHT AND WHAT YOU HAD TO DO TO TRY TO GET INTO THE TOP 10?) "I saw the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) wreck, so I knew our chances were a lot better than they were when the race started. So I knew it, but we just did what we could and that's it."
(ON NOT MAKING IT INTO THE FINAL 10 IN THE POINTS) "We did all we could tonight to put ourselves in position to make the Chase and we just fell a little short. The guys did a great job in the pits tonight. The car just was too loose on that last run."
"It's disappointing to not be in the hunt for the championship. We've had some things not go our way this year and some miscues here and there. You can't make those mistakes and expect to be there. We'll be all right. The sun will still rise tomorrow and we'll still go on racing. We've got a chance to win races still and go for that final spot at the banquet. This team hasn't given up before and we're not going to start now."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 2nd in the race - ranks 3rd in the point standings: "We got into a crash off of Turn 4 and a bunch of cars got to crashing and we just tried to squeeze by on the bottom but it jumped up in the air and the car landed back on the ground and the car didn't handle too good after that. And then I ran in the back of somebody trying to dodge a couple more wrecked cars. It just beat the car up really bad but it still drove good and that's all that really mattered. We were able to get track position and catch everybody a lap down on gas mileage and take advantage of all that and finish second. We had a good car. I think I had a top five car. We just got in a few wrecks tonight and got lucky on a few other occasions."
(ON THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP) "It's a long dang year, man and tomorrow, Sunday, we'll have off. We'll go home and relax a little bit and get ready for that last 10." More to follow
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 36th in the race, ranks 2nd in points:
DOES IT MATTER WHERE YOU FINISH IN THE POINTS GOING INTO THE CHASE?) "You want those five (points). You want everything you can get. The five points aren't that big in the scheme of things. It's just the stupidity that continues on the race track. It's the same people every week that's doing the same stuff. That upsets me more. I'm more worried about the potential loss in points in the final ten because of things like what took place tonight then I am on those five points. I hate losing the points lead but we're second and we'll go on to those final ten."
(DOES IT CHANGE YOUR OPINION ON THE FINAL TEN AFTER PITFALLS LIKE THIS?) "It worries me more. I don't know if it changes my thinking or strategy. I guess when I see guys trying to crash each other, I'll just pull over and know they're going to do it and lose five or six spots and save my race car. I guess that's all I could have done. I saw it coming. I got to the bottom lane and left myself a lot of room if something happened but unfortunately I just couldn't get stopped and turned around."
(WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?) "I think we have a great chance. We got a lot of really good tracks coming up. With this new format, I think lady luck is going to be on your side to do it. I think one DNF and you're out of luck."
(IS THERE ANYBODY WHO HAS MADE THE TOP TEN THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT?) "Mark's (Martin) probably been one of the strong starts of late. Between Mark and Kasey Kahne and the 38, they've been pretty solid week in and week out. Kasey missed, Mark's in. Mark's got a lot of momentum on his side. Nothing again Kasey Kahne, but he was a sleeper in my eyes and if he made it in the final ten he was going to be a serious threat. I think Jeremy (Mayfield) is going to be a threat but Kasey has just had that consistent run. In the big picture, the 9 not being in there is good for the rest of us."
(IS LOUDON A GREAT PLACE FOR YOU TO START?) "Loudon is a great place for us. We tested there. We'll have a great race car. I think tonight showed that we got our flat track program back where it needs to be and we'll to Loudon."
(EVEN THOUGH YOU KNEW YOU WERE IN IT, WERE YOU STRESSED AT ALL TONIGHT?) "No, I wasn't stressed. I was just really disappointed in the end to see the same guy week causing other wrecks just like he does every single week. I'm more disappointed in that and I'm more worried about that going forward in those final ten and worried about this taking place to us again and losing a championship over somebody stupid doing the same thing week over week."
(WILL YOU VOICE YOUR OPINION ON THIS BEFORE WE GET IN THE CHASE?) "No one is going to listen to myself or to any other drivers. It's got to come down from NASCAR. I'm hopeful that going into this final ten that there's a pretty good long discussion in the drivers meeting. If anybody does cross the line, I hope NASCAR parks whoever it is for the rest of the season. Just put them out, done. In my opinion they should have done that tonight and it would have sent the message going into the final ten that you do not race like that. You use your head."
(WOULD YOU TALK TO NASCAR ABOUT WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE DONE?) "You can go in and express your opinions and they're willing to listen to opinions. How they handle it, they got a lot of factors to worry about. On top of that, regardless of what they tell us and what they tell you in the drivers meeting, it doesn't mean that a driver is going to listen to that and do it. If they get upset and set off, they'll do whatever they want."
(WHAT'S CROSSING THE LINE?) "They tried for six or seven laps to wreck the 41. It started with the 88, then the 4 got in there and felt like he needed to do it as well. It was really obvious. I know they warned him before he wrecked him and caused a wreck. Nobody listened and he still did it and wrecked everybody."
(HOW MANY TESTS DO YOU HAVE LEFT? DO YOU TEST THIS COMING WEEK?) "We'll be in Talladega Monday. I know we're going to Homestead, Martinsville and Phoenix and we just tested New Hampshire."
(ON THE 48 PULLING TOGETHER AGAINST ADVERSITY) "The guys did a great job to turn the car around and get it out there. You get one shot at getting minimum speed with all the damage that we had. My guys got the thing put back to together. We got on the track and were able to pass enough cars to stay second in points. That's what it's going to take in this final ten, short format. You're going to have to be on top of your game and maybe even have to recover from some damage. This championship may be down to one point."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS: "I hated It that Jimmie had his problems. It pretty much ruined his night. And for us, at that point, started a long night for us. But they dropped the green and we were awesome. And then the thing just went completely away. I couldn't hold onto it. We had brake problems and then we just fought back. This team just never gave up. Robbie (Loomis) just kept telling me not to give up. We got a lap down and he made a gusty call to stay out and luckily the caution fell at the right time for us to stay on the lead lap. We came in and put four tires on it and the next thing I knew we were driving to the front."
(YOU JOKED ABOUT STARTING THE NEXT 10 RACES JUST 5 POINTS AHEAD OF JIMMIE, BUT IT MUST BE A GOOD FEELING TO ENTER INTO THE CHASE IN SUCH A STRONG WAY) "It is a good feeling to be up front. I'm more excited about the effort and the fight we put out there tonight more than anything else because I feel like we're going to put that kind of fight up for the next 10 weeks. We're going to give it our best effort. We're going to put everything we have - our best resources, people, race cars, engines, and everything - into it. We've got great race tracks coming up. This team is pumped up. It's going to be interesting. Yes, I wish we had a bigger gap between us and the competition, but it certainly is exciting the way this points championship is unfolding."
(WERE YOU SURPRISED AT THE AGGRESSIVE RACING TONIGHT?) "The only thing I noticed was just the hard racing that we typically have here at Richmond. I didn't think it was anything out of the norm. One time Harvick got into the back of me going into Turn 1. I didn't know if he just got in too deep or what. But other than that, I didn't see anything other than the norm."
(WHAT MADE IT SO DIFFICULT TO PASS?) "I'm not really sure. I personally think the tire is a little too hard. I had fresh tires behind guys that had stayed out on tire or who had two tires and I was good for about two or three laps and then I really couldn't do much with them. My car wasn't as good at that point as it had been earlier also. But when you look at how many laps we can run on these tires and how much the times drop off, it sure seems to me like maybe the tires are a little bit hard. But to Goodyear's defense, they want to make sure the tires aren't having failures either. The track didn't seem to have the outside groove that we've seen here in the past. A lot of times the bottom is good but then you can go way up to the top and it's almost like a cushion up there and slide up to it and bump against it and really be able to maintain some momentum on the outside."
(CAN YOU LOOK AHEAD TO HOW YOU THINK THE DRIVERS ARE GOING TO APPROACH THE FINAL 10? WILL YOU BE CONSERVATIVE OR WILL YOU HAVE TO GO FOR WINS?) "I personally think that 10 races is more than you think. I don't know if we, as a team, know any other way to race. If you're racing in the old points system, the you'd start to change how you approach races. If you were behind a lot, you'd start taking more risks trying to gain those points you need. But the way this system is, I think we just go out there and race the same way we've been racing all year long, which is basically to win. But if you don't have the car to win, you get the best possible finish you can. This team is not going to do any different. Tonight we were a 17th place car at one time and we fought back to finish third somehow. Some nights it's going to be that we have a third place car but finish 17th or 18th. We're just going to really have to roll with it that way every week. We've had some failures here recently and we can't have those. These last 10 races, you're not going to be able to have any failures.
"If you do have some kind of a problem, it's going to be crucial how fast you can react to it and how well you can come back and get as many points as you possibly can. I don't think you can be overly aggressive, but you can't be conservative either."
(ARE YOU OKAY WITH THE FACT THAT YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO RACE AGAINST 42 DRIVERS FOR THE SAME POINTS THEY'RE TRYING TO GET IN THE NEXT 10 RACES? OR, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE TOP 10 SHOULD HAVE YOUR OWN POINTS SYSTEM IF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE?) "It makes perfect sense. And I agree with that. Let's say that a guy who is fifth in points finishes fourth or fifth in a race and the next guy in points finishes 15th, I think he should get the points of like a sixth place guy. I'm confusing it even more. But you know what I'm saying. I wish we were on our own point system. Now the only difficult part of that is that it would be pretty darn confusing and all of us would be trying to figure out what's going on. But kind of like the rookie points used to be done - where it didn't matter where you finished as long as you finished behind guys that you were racing in the points, then you basically got the points right behind them and you didn't have all those gaps and stuff. I would love to see that, but the biggest thing that would make me happier is that it's great we've got those 10 guys in the system. Right now, the 45 points (difference) is nothing. There was a bigger difference in first and second coming into this race tonight than there is now from first to 10th. Personally, I don't think that's enough. It's going to be exciting and entertaining. When the whole thing's over, it's going to be very interesting. I think we're not rewarding the guys that have been up front. I don't think it should be spread out enough to where the guy in 10th and 9th doesn't have a shot at it. But those guys have to go in the streaks that Jeremy (Mayfield) has been on in order to get up there to battle for that championship. And right now, I could go from leading the points right now and very easily finish 10th in these point standings. And I don't know if anybody was in that position if they would think that that is really fair. But it is the way it is. I think we still have a shot to win this thing. But the way you talk about having a separate point system or spreading things out a little bit more between each position - we have five now, and maybe it would be 10 or maybe 15 between each position."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 THE HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET
(WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THESE FINAL TEN RACES?) "I'm just glad we know who the top ten are now. It's been an exciting time for NASCAR and for Home Depot especially with all the disasters that are going on. It's just a neat time for our country. Home Depot associates have been going to Florida and helping in the relief efforts down there with the floods. We had an awesome race here tonight. It's a pretty exciting time."
(ON HOW YOU'VE BEEN RUNNING) "I'm looking forward to all the races. Like I said earlier, we're missing something in our program. We don't know what it is. We've been testing a lot. We went to Milwaukee and tested that. We're trying to find what the variable is in the equation that we need. We're certainly trying to find it right now. We've got a great group of guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and everybody on the Home Depot team. They're going to work as hard as they can to figure out what that variable is to get us running again."
(DO YOU THINK YOU ARE HAVING SIMILAR PROBLEMS TO BOBBY LABONTE WHO HAS BEEN STRUGGLING?) "To be fair to Bobby, I think a lot of it is having a crew chief shuffle in the middle of the season like that. That's not easy. They've got a great group of guys that are working for him right now. Not to take anything away from those guys, but I think it is a transition when you work with a different group of people and different guys that are making the decisions than what you're used to. I know it's been a hard probably two months for him. He'll regroup and we'll have him on top next year."
(ARE YOU ONE THAT SUBSCRIBES TO THE THEORY THAT ONE BAD RACE IN THE FINAL TEN AND YOU'RE DONE?) "Yeah. I am actually. I'm a multi-subscriber to that theory. You're just not going to be able to have a bad night. You look at the competition in this series and you look at the guys that made the top ten, these are guys that are very capable of putting together strings of top five finishes for 16 weeks at a time."
(ON THE POINTS SYSTEM) "I wish we were still on the other system because we're struggling right now. It's let a bunch of guys catch up that probably wouldn't get caught up by the end of the year."
(ON HAVING 10 GUYS RACING FOR ONE THING AND 33 FOR ANOTHER THING) "Here's the moral of the story. The next ten races are the same ten races we had last year basically. You go to the track, you race and you get points for it. When it's over with, they'll tell us exactly where we finished in the points standings. It's still a 38-week schedule. It's different, but it's the same."
(HOW DO YOU HANDLE GUYS THAT AREN'T RACING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP IN REFERENCE TO THE JIMMY SPENCER INCIDENT?) "I've got no feelings on that."
(HOW DO YOU RACE THEN?) "You race like you do every week. You have to. Everybody else is still racing for points just like the people in the top ten are. We just got to be digging."
(AS A FORMER CHAMPION, DO YOU RELY ON THAT IN THE FINAL TEN RACES?) "We just take it one week at a time like we always have."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET - POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
(ON TODAY'S RUN) "It was another good race. We always look forward to coming to Richmond. We got a lot of good runs here. Most of the weekend the car was not too bad. There were a couple of guys better than us. We really got surprised tonight on who was good and who was bad. The 6 and 9 were really fast in practice. Me and Mark (Martin) raced a little bit together and I was pretty slow, real slow one lap. We had a good car all night. We got caught up in that wreck off of four. It didn't really damage the car too bad. It blew the shim stack out of the right rear shock and took a little compression out of the shock and made the car a little tighter but still drivable. I made a few adjustments for that. Got knocked trying to slow down for another wreck. I'm just feel real fortunate. It's pretty cool to finish the race even with the car torn up."
(DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR TEAM IS GOING INTO THE FINAL TEN RACES WITH A BIT MORE MOMENTUM?) "If you look back over the last three or four years, we finish better at the end of the season. We do. We have a history of running better at the last third of the season point. We had an average finish last year of 11th over the last 15 races. I feel pretty good about it. I think we're going to a couple of tracks we run good at. We're going to test real hard at four other race tracks. If we get through Kansas and Homestead with good finishes, those are the two tracks that are going to make it or break it for our championship hopes."
(ON THE TWO ON TRACK INCIDENTS YOU WERE INVOLVED IN?) "It was pretty exciting. I felt like it was pretty remarkable. The car again could of suffered a lot of damage in both them crashes. We got through it with minimal damage, the four tires were all pointing the same direction. The first wreck I was coming through the corner seeing smoke up high in the second groove. I thought a couple of guys got together. I tried to roll it around on the bottom. Jimmie (Johnson) tried to get down there too, got turned sideways. I jumped over his hood with the right rear tire and spun through the grass, caught a gear and got going again. I thought it ripped up. I pulled the rear end back and pulled the right rear tire backwards and thought the car was going to drive terrible. All in all the only thing when it did go up in the air and land back down, it shoved the shock piston through the chock hold so fast, it blew the stacks out of the piston. The oil was just flowing through there like water after that. So the shock was working but there was no rebound hardly in it but it didn't let the car bounce too bad. That was the first crash. When I got into Kasey (Kahne), I went in the corner. He was backing up on the top. He was really slow all night. Then he got down the bottom. I was pretty fast. By the time I caught them boys he went around on the bottom. So I went in the corner into one going to the top to hook the nose around the outside of him and force the issue to get him low to go by and he just kind of slid up in the center of the corner in front of me and I poked him with the headlight. I didn't mean to. I didn't think it was enough to spin anybody out but he must have been pretty damn loose. It took him right around. I almost ran inside of him. I didn't do it on purpose. I almost crashed into him too. His boys can be all pissed off or whatever. I didn't do it on purpose. I don't really care what they think.
"They're mad anyways. I ain't got nothing against him. We're pretty good buddies. If it cost him his chance at the top ten, I'm sorry."
(ON ONLY THE POINT CONTENDERS RACING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP INSTEAD OF ALL THE DRIVERS) "I think it's OK. That's the way they made it. It's the rules. It's the kind of system we're in. It'd be pretty boring if you tried to do it any other way. You'd be really skeptical. Half the people in here wouldn't like it, half of them would. We'd be reading all about it in the paper and it'd be pretty crappy. The way they got it now is fine. They got ten guys that are in. The rest of the field, they can decide on how hard they race 'em. Everybody is a professional. Everybody is a grown man. If you're a jerk to Kenny Schrader, you're going to get treated like a jerk back no matter whether you're in the Chase or not. You try to treat everybody with respect all year long and maybe they'll cut you a break when it comes down to it and when you need it. I think it will be pretty fun. It's a moving chicane out there. You're trying to get through the rest of the field as well as beat those nine guys. It will be fun. It will be a challenge."
