CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES MOUNTAIN
DEW SOUTHERN 500
CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES
NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES
MOUNTAIN DEW SOUTHERN 500 - RACE NOTES
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
November 14, 2004
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The No. 50 car (Todd Bodine) lost it in front of me." The crew replaced fender braces and the radiator and Waltrip continued in the race.
ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We had an awesome Cingular Wireless Chevrolet. I couldn't have asked for a better car or run, maybe just for better luck. That's the way it's been all year, so I think all of us have lost the shock-factor from having these last-minute mishaps. We easily had a top five car and it all fell apart".
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 8 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I can't believe it. Winning the Southern 500 and winning at Martinsville with what took place with the airplane and Hendrick Motorsports. Going to Atlanta and doing it. Fighting our way back in this championship. I just can't believe it. These guys here behind me won this race on pit road here today. There were a lot of race cars that were equal like the No. 6 (Martin) and the No. 24 (Gordon). I had to overcome some stuff with the No. 29 (Harvick). For some reason he's upset and trying to wreck me and stopping on the backstretch and all kinds of stuff there. But we'll get it sorted out. To overcome everything and to be in victory lane with this Lowe's Monte Carlo is awesome."
(HOW TOUGH WAS IT OUT THERE ON THIS RACE TRACK TODAY?) "It was tough. I think the cooler temperatures helped with the grip. But the hardest part was getting into Turn 3. The sun was setting all day long over there. You'd go in - I'd say for two-thirds of the race - and you'd have no idea if you were going to end up in the wall or next to it. So it was a very demanding day and this Lowe's team did everything right."
(YOU'RE 18 POINTS OUT OF THE LEAD GOING TO HOMESTEAD. WHAT DOES IT SAY ON YOUR GLOVES TODAY?) "It said a lot of things. On my mirror, I put 'don't scratch the right side', and I put a big neon sticker inside that says 'race your own race', and then my gloves said 'tame this'".
(ON BATTLING WITH KASEY KAHNE AND JAMIE MCMURRAY) "Yeah, both Kasey and Jamie stayed out and those guys were racing real hard. I knew I had to get everything I could on my new tires. I got by the No. 9 finally and then ran down the No. 42. He was doing a good job of trying to put his car where I wanted to be and I got into him a little bit off of Turn 4 and loosened him up and then finally set him up so I could get inside of him through Turns 1 and 2. But it was just good hard racing. This track is big enough, but there is such a loss in grip and so much banking that you can race like it's a short track, so it's a lot of fun. That pass was important, but for the last two pit stops, my guys got me off pit road first and that was the whole key."
(WAS IT HARD TO BE PATIENT WHEN YOU CAME OUT 10TH OR 11TH THAT ONE TIME?) "Well you really just have to race the race track. I've made enough mistakes here through my Busch career and last year as well to know that if you have a good car, you'll work your way to the front and maybe it takes 10 or 15 laps for everybody's tires to give up before you can make up some spots. So I just got comfortable and got going.
"We had a lug nut that got hung up in the wheel and kept the guys from pulling the wheel off. They put in a solid effort. We had a little bad luck sneak in there but we made the best of it."
(ON WINNING THE LAST SOUTHERN 500) "It means a lot to me to win here at this race track. It's such a tough track to race at. We have eight wins now in the season with everybody still healing from the loss of everybody on that Hendrick airplane. This is good medicine. We'll just keep rolling with it. From what I understand, we're right in the middle of this championship. So we'll just see what happens at Homestead."
(YOU'RE 18 POINTS BEHIND BUSCH AND GORDON IS 21 POINTS BEHIND. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THAT FINAL RACE?) "It's going to be a heck of a shootout. NASCAR got what they wanted here." More to follow
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (ON CHANGING THE BATTERY AT THE END) "Yeah, we got lucky the caution came out and gave us a chance to change that battery or we was going to be in bad shape. It was not a good car. We've had better cars here and we've had worse. It's not necessarily the team's fault. We, as a group, just can't really communicate about this track and I can't tell them exactly what I need. The whole place just needs new asphalt and believe me, I'd pay for it myself. I'd buy the whole damn thing if I could. Anyway, it was a good finish for us. I'm happy about Jimmie Johnson winning. Those guys have been on a tear and that's been good to see. It wasn't a great race but it wasn't a bad one."
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We got our second top 10 in a row, so we're making some progress. At the beginning of the race we were just really, really tight -- super tight. We even spun coming off of (Turn) 4. But, we were able to get the car pretty good at the end and had a good finish. We worked hard today, but managed to get a top 10 and we'll take that. We've got one more shot at a victory this season, at Homestead. We won there last season, so we'll see if we can make it two-in-a-row."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (TALK ABOUT THOSE HARD LAPS AT THE END) "Well, I'm proud of the DuPont Chevrolet team for the job they did all night long. We had great pit stops and an awesome race car. We made some big adjustments to really get the car where it needed to be. I'm happy for Jimmie and that Lowe's team. But we made a mistake and it cost us the win. We came back and fought back to third. Mistakes happen. I've made them. Everybody makes them. But right now at this time in the game in this championship, that cost us a lot. We've got some work to make up in Homestead."
(DID YOU HAVE A CAR GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN TONIGHT?) "Oh, absolutely. We just needed to be in clean air. We needed to be out front. We proved that throughout the day and the night. We got so far behind there on that one stop that I was just struggling behind them. We needed a real long run or we needed to be in clean air. One of the two."
(YOU'RE ONLY 21 POINTS BEHIND BUSCH. IS THAT WHERE YOU WANTED TO SIT GOING INTO HOMESTEAD?) "Yeah. I'm just disappointed right now that we didn't get a win. I felt like we had the car and that we had a shot at winning the race. You just don't get that opportunity that many times. I was glad to make up some points. We led a lot of laps. We've got a shot at this championship at Homestead. We're hungry and I'm glad I'm mad right now because I'm looking forward to going to Homestead really mad."
(HOW HARD WERE YOU RUNNING AT THE END?) "It definitely changed a lot throughout the day. We started off the race pretty decent. We got real loose and had to make some big adjustments. I was really proud of the guys and what they accomplished because we fell way back and then worked our way back on those long runs - I think up to third. And then with some great pit stops, came out first. We were in control of the race and had the car.
"Unfortunately we made a mistake or something happened in the pits. They said the car dropped on the air hose and cost us the win and some points in my opinion. I'm a little bit disgusted right now with that. I know we all make mistakes. It's just this late in the game, those types of mistakes can cost you a championship and even throw a championship away. I wanted to win. I saw an opportunity there. We had such an awesome car. I wanted to win. I'm happy for Jimmie. He's been so good these last 10 races and all year long really. They deserve to be a part of this championship and I'm happy to be a part of that. I'm just disgusted right now with the fact that we've kind of ruined our chances."
(WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED THIS FORMAT, WOULD YOU HAVE THOUGHT IT HIGHLY UNLIKELY THAT THE SAME GUY WOULD COME OUT AS THE POINTS LEADER EVERY RACE FOR THE 9 RACES RUN SO FAR?) "No, I definitely wouldn't. I would have thought it would shuffle around more than that. Kurt (Busch) has been consistent and that's why he's been where he's been the entire time. They had one slip-up in Atlanta and it's closed us all in there. And now, we just race. Before, they could ride just a little bit but now we're just racing hard. We're racing for wins just like we did tonight.
"That's what we've got to do at Homestead. It's anybody's race with the few points that are between us - even back to Junior. I know he didn't gain like Jimmie and I did, but it's going to be exciting and interesting and we had a good test at Homestead. I can't wait to go there."
(ON THE SUN IN TURN 3) "They should never have a race at the time that they had this race ever again. It's dangerous. Regardless of the sand blasting of the windshield, the angle of the sun is so bad that I even put tape in my car to put over my visor. And it didn't matter. You couldn't block it. They need to either start the race much sooner or much later - one of the two. They cannot race at a track like this with that type of sun in your eyes. I couldn't even see the wall. I couldn't see the race track. I couldn't see anything going into Turn 3."
(AS CLOSE AS THIS POINTS CHASE IS, IS IT A MATTER OF NOT WHO WINS IS BUT WHO LOSES IT IN REDUCING THE FIELD AND WHAT CAN YOU DO TO PREVENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN?) "That's very possible. As far as I'm concerned, all you can do is go out there and race hard and race to win. If the other guys finish ahead of you, then obviously you've done all you can do. But my goal is to try to get a big enough gap between us and those guys and not pay attention to whether they make mistakes. It's all about us not making mistakes. What can you do? Pit practice a whole lot this week and just try to focus to try and do everything. It's not just on those guys. Yeah, they made it tonight but we all make them. It's about not making them at the crucial moment. I want to make sure I don't make any mistakes at that moment. I know Robbie Loomis feels the same way as do all of us. All we can do is go out there and put the best race car on the race track that was can and do our best and try not to make mistakes.
"For us, we're behind. We're racing two guys who race for wins - not to mention Junior in the same boat. So we don't really have a choice in our strategy. Every weekend, your job is to go as hard as you can with the best car and not make mistakes. We're going to do that again next weekend and hopefully get a little bit better results than we did this weekend."
(ON THIS BEING THE LAST SOUTHERN 500) "I don't quite understand why - even if they move the date - that this can't be the Southern 500. I think if they have one race here, it ought to be called the Southern 500. But I'm glad we still have one race here next year. I like racing here. It's been a good track for me. I'm not sure what determines what the race will be called. But that's my opinion."
(WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT YOUR TEST IN HOMESTEAD?) "The track has definitely lost some grip from last year but it's still really fast. You really can abuse the tires a lot there because the speeds and the grip there are really good. My car was too tight so we're going to go back there and try to free the car up over a longer run without giving up too much at the beginning of a run. It's a beautiful facility and a great race track. I love it. I'm certainly looking forward to going there. I think we're going to put on a great race. And I can't think of a better place to go to wrap up the season and this championship."
(WHEN THE CAR CAME DOWN ON THE AIR HOSE, WERE YOU IMMEDIATELY AWARE OF IT?) "I've got a little mirror on the left side of the car. You're paying attention to how fast the stop is. I saw the guy running around the front of the car and I immediately looked in my mirror for the guy on the left rear and he wasn't there. I knew we were in trouble. And I finally saw him come around. But I had no idea what the delay was or what happened. I just know we lost a lot of spots. We got very fortunate that second caution came at the end of the race because it allowed us to come in and get another good stop in there and get four tires on and I feel like we made positions up because of that."
(YOU WERE THE FAVORITE IN THE CHASE DUE TO EXPERIENCE, BUT YOUR CREW HAD SMALL MISTAKES HAPPEN. TALK ABOUT ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES MIGHT BE WITH ALL THIS PRESSURE GOING ON) "My disadvantage is 21 points. That's the biggest thing. That, and that we didn't win tonight because I felt we had an opportunity to do that. I think our experience certainly pays off when frustration kicks in and things happen like what happened to us tonight. We're able to stay calm and stay in the game and re-group and get the best finish we can. We don't fall to pieces.
"Even when our car was a loose as it was at the beginning of the race, that's where our experience comes in to where we're able to fine-tune and get a car that's still capable of running up front and even winning like we did tonight. But I remember in 1995 going for a championship and everybody was pulling for Earnhardt as the guy who was the favorite because he had all the experience and won so many championships and we just put better race cars out there on the race track and didn't make as many mistakes and that's what's going to have to happen next weekend. It's all about who puts the best race car out there and doesn't make mistakes and finishes ahead of the other guys."
(ON RUNNING AGAINST JIMMIE JOHNSON AT HOMESTEAD) "We've always talked about it. Jimmie and I have always raced each other the same. We're going to be sharing information all year long just like we did this weekend. It benefits us as much as them. We bounce ideas off each other. Jimmie is a hard-charging driver and we have a lot of respect for one another. Regardless whether we're racing for a #1 spot, we're also racing each other for a #2 spot. So we're going to be battling one another no matter what. We really didn't get a chance to race each other tonight. We were on opposite spectrums there. But it could happen. If it does, we're going to race each other like you would anybody else. You respect each other. You try to get the position and you do everything you can to pass the guy or not get passed and hope that no contact is made."
(WILL IT TAKE A WIN TO WIN THE CHASE?) "If those other guys finish 5th or 6th.....I'm only 21 points down and I'm only three points behind Jimmie. So I've got to finish in the position that they give me 21 or 22 points on Kurt Busch and three on Jimmie. So basically we're racing to win - just like we did this weekend and last weekend. As good as Jimmie runs and Kurt runs and Mark runs, we have to get a win. We really do. That's why I'm so disappointed with tonight's finish because I felt like we had that opportunity to go to Homestead and have the confidence and momentum and everything going our way. It was still a good finish for us but not what I felt we were capable of. Next week is one race - go for broke. We have nothing to lose but to go out there and give it all we've got and hope we come out on top. I don't want to do it by somebody having bad luck.
"I want to do it because we outraced them. I hate that it comes down one race. There are definitely some races I'd like to have back in this Chase. But the facts are the facts. We've got one left and we'll try to do it."
(CONSIDERING THE PRESSURE RIGHT NOW, HOW AMAZING IS IT THAT JIMMIE JOHNSON IS WINNING SO MANY RACES?) "Oh yeah. It's absolutely amazing. No matter what's on the line, it's still amazing to win that many races in one season.
They had big problems and felt at one point that they were out of this Chase. And those wins have not only put them back into the Chase, but have gotten them momentum and everything on their side to win this thing. And so the pressure is on all of us every weekend right now. It's hard for it to get any greater than that right now. But they're executing their jobs and it's impressive without a doubt."
JIMMIE JOHNSON AND CHAD KNAUS, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET - POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
(ON HIS ROCKET RIDE TO THE TOP IN THESE PAST FEW RACES) "It's been a great ride. It's hard to think too much on emotion with what happened with the airplane at the Martinsville event. I look back to Lowe's Motor Speedway and I enjoyed that one but it doesn't come up in my memory. Martinsville doesn't even seem like we were at the race track. There was a ton on Atlanta. But that void and hole inside of me just isn't filled. Winning helps. It's put us back in the points championship. This is the first time I've thought clearly in the last three or four weeks where we're back at the track and we've found some sort of normalcy. When I look back on this year and look at 8 eight - hopefully 9 after next week - I'll smile really big. But there will always be that emptiness with what happened on the airplane."
(AFTER THE FIRST COUPLE OF RACES WITH THE CRASH AND THE ENGINE, DID YOU THINK YOU WERE OUT OF IT OR DID YOU BELIEVE YOU COULD RALLY LIKE THIS?) "I have full faith in our race team and it's amazing how you can be so close to winning and not win. And then you get into a year where you can. Last year, our worst finish was a third in the final six races.
"We knocked on the door to win a lot of races. This year, late in the going, we've been able to pick it up that spot or two to have it work out for us and get it done. I can't explain it. I don't know how or why it happens. But I'm glad to see it. Before this run of races, I thought we were out of the championship. I didn't think that three guys would have problems. I figured one guy would go clean. But all three had problems and it brought us into it."
(AT THE END, WAS IT HARD TO BE PATIENT IN GETTING BY KASEY KAHNE AND JAMIE MCMURRAY?) "I really thought I would get by both of them quicker and I expected some pressure from behind from Carl Edwards and Mark Martin. It took me a while to get by the No. 9 because it's hard to have two lanes here. I should have set him up cleaner and I could have made quicker work of him than I did. I thought I'd rail by him on the bottom. When I got to the No. 42, I set him up and tried to find one of his weaknesses, I knew if I got trapped on the inside of him that I would have trouble with him like I did with the No. 9. And then if the No. 6 and the No. 99 were close, I'd have to fight one of them. I just waited and waited. I just set them up and got them and brought it home from there."
FOR CHAD: (ON THE PIT MISTAKE WITH THE AIR HOSE FOR THE NO. 24 TEAM) "I changed tires for a long time. Stuff like that happens and it's very difficult to prevent that. Stuff like an air hose getting caught under a tire can happen very easily. I think our fifth pit stop of the night we had a lug nut get caught. Stuff like that you can't foresee and you can't prevent. There is a bit of luck right there. Maybe that tire changer on the No. 24 had his hose just a little bit too long and it got caught up underneath the tire. It may not ever happen to him again for another 20 years or however long the guy changes tires. But it's something that does happen on occasion. It just really bit them today."
FOR CHAD: (WHAT WAS YOUR STRATEGY IN YOUR NEXT TO THE LAST PIT STOP) "To go like hell. We did what we could to address the problems we had in the car at that time. We were a little bit too tight in the center and a little free off at that point so we made some air pressure adjustments and it definitely helped the car. The biggest thing that helped us there was just track position.
"We were able to get out ahead of those guys. And it worked out. On that last pit stop actually, I told Jimmie to stay out. He took it upon himself to come down pit road because he saw those guys lined up behind him. So that was all Jimmie, otherwise we would have ended up probably fourth or something. That shows he was on his toes all night long watching those guys behind him."
FOR JIMMIE: (YOU DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE THE LEAD UNTIL THE LAST RACE AND NOW YOU'VE GOT YOUR CHANCE) "That's my perspective. I know it's easy to say and tough to follow through with it. But that's something I've felt in my heart that I knew. I need to be a leader and show the guys that's what our attitude needs to be. The reason I'm taking this upon myself is that our team works the best in those situations. When we've got to play defense, we have trouble. If we show up and you stack the odds against us, things happen for us. I don't know what it is, but we always do better. We don't have anything to lose at this point. They're letting us back into this and we're going to do all we can to win another race in Homestead."
FOR JIMMIE: (ON THE SUN IN TURN 3) "It was a huge problem. It was a good two-thirds of the race that we had trouble. The first 50 laps of the race were okay. At first, I thought the sun was going to set behind the grandstands and it would be fine. But it kept moving around. It was really tough. It was like Fontana to a point where I was thinking they need to throw a caution just to let the sun go down so we could see."
FOR JIMMIE: (ON OTHER DRIVERS HAVING PROBLEMS DURING THE CHASE) "I don't think if those guys had made it clean, with all the winning that we've been able to do, that we would still have a chance at the championship. We had two really bad races and it seemed like those guys would need two really bad races. I just didn't think it would happen. We're doing our part and I'm proud of that. But it they hadn't had problems we would have had a shot."
FOR JIMMIE: (AFTER BEING CONCERNED WITH THE CHASE FORMAT, DO YOU THINK IT HAS WORKED OUT THAT YOU ARE WHERE YOU HAD EARNED BACK IN THE REGULAR SEASON?) "I don't really say there's any justice coming back to us. In our sport you have to earn everything that you get. I'm just happy to see us on the role we're capable of. We had a down spot in the season. Every team is going to have it every single year. I think as time goes on and the system gets perfected on the team side and the competition side, people are going to work harder to do their experimenting before the final 10 and really favor the 26-race side of the season. We were in a great position where we could do that and we still had some difficulties. We're just doing our jobs and that's awesome."
FOR CHAD: (HOW DO YOU KEEP BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR YOUR TEAM THIS WEEK?) "It's actually going to be pretty easy because we're going to take the same race car that we raced tonight to Homestead next weekend. There's not going to be a whole lot of time to sit back and think about it or even enjoy this victory because we're going to have to get that car turned around and prepared to go to Miami. It's not going to be real hard. The thing everybody needs to understand is that this isn't really new for us. We've been chasing the championship in these final races for the last two years. This year is the third. We've always been in positions where we've had to chase at the end of the season. The guys go back and put their heads down and work and we get riled up and ready to go down to Homestead."
FOR CHAD: (WHAT ADJUSTMENTS WILL YOU MAKE ON THE CAR FOR HOMESTEAD?) "I haven't gotten past Darlington yet. I haven't put it on paper yet. We left Homestead (test session) with a good baseline. We have a great idea of where we need to be but this car also won at Charlotte and Atlanta. Obviously it's a very good race car. We'll take it home and work on it. We've got a good package. Our engine shop has stepped it up lately. We've got a great engine going to Homestead and this is one of my favorite cars."
FOR CHAD: (DOES THE CAR HAVE A NAME?) "This is actually Jimmie Johnson's very first race car that was ever built for him specifically at the No. 24 shop. Jimmie ran this car at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2001. I'll qualify Jeff Gordon.
"He ran very competitively and unfortunately spun out and crashed even before I was associated with the team. Since we've been together and worked on this car, it's been a solid and stable car. It's just 4859. And that's the number and that's the name. It's a great race car."
FOR JIMMIE: (WHAT WENT WRONG AT THE END OF THE SEASON?) "It's hard to say. We had some failures. I made mistakes. We lost some momentum. Something happened. I don't know why or what. I guess it's a good thing in some respects when you start to have that bad luck. The failures show up and you make more mistakes. It's kind of hard to right the ship."
FOR CHAD: (YOU WORK WITH THE NO. 24 TEAM ALL THE TIME. THIS IS CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK, BASICALLY, SO AT WHAT POINT DO YOU STOP WORKING TOGETHER?) "As far as I'm concerned, it'll get separated after the last pit stop at Homestead. If there is a caution with 30 laps to go, everybody comes down pit road and we make our adjustments and then its up to the drivers at that point. Prior to that, it's going to be business as usual. We're going to give them everything that we do. They're going to give us everything they do. We'll continue to race each other like gentlemen on the race track and it'll never stop."
FOR JIMMIE: (RICK HENDRICK NOW HOLDS THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF OWNER WINS AT THIS TRACK WITH 11. CAN YOU COMMENT ON THAT?) "That's huge. I had no idea this win did that. Rick is doing well and he's trying to find some normalcy and to get things back at his dealerships and at the race track as well. We were testing last week and I spoke to him briefly on the phone. I haven't seen him but I think he's doing as well as can be expected. He sounded very happy on the phone in victory lane. I know he's smiling. With this race track and how long he's been in this sport, I know that what we did today and him taking that lead will mean a lot to him."
FOR JIMMIE: (THIS IS THE 5TH TRACK YOU HAVE SWEPT) "I don't know what it takes to do that, but I'm pretty happy we've been able to come back and do that. I think our challenge next year is to try to come back and win again.
"We seem to be able to do it in one season, but the next calendar year has been tough on the repeat. I guess that means our set-ups were good the first time and it wasn't luck."
FOR JIMMIE: (PLEASE EXPLAIN THE SITUATION WITH KEVIN HARVICK ON THE TRACK TODAY) "I have no idea and I look forward to finding out myself soon. Going down pit road before the race started, he was barking something at me and I couldn't understand what he was saying but I knew he wasn't wishing me good luck. And then throughout the race, he was trying to crowd me and race me and try to run me into the fence. I have no idea what his problem is. We'll find out soon. I'm confused."
JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:
"We were flying at the beginning of the race. The car was incredible that first run and we were able to drive right up to third of fourth.
We had a top five car just didn't quite get there. At the end of the race the adjustments on the car were really sensitive. We went through a spell where we got too loose then too tight. There at the end we were pretty good but we lost a couple spots on that last stop and it was hard to get them back.
Would've, could've, should've-- maybe we should've stayed out there on used tires like the 42 and gambled for a good finish. But you never know. To get an eighth place finish at Darlington is great, especially compared to the way we ran here in the first race. This team is running really well lately and everyone is pumped up. We're ready for Homestead and we have a lot of momentum to take there with us."
