Chevrolet NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Saturday practice #2 (Happy Hour) quotes - Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Todd Berrier

(Crew chief) #29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet

 


WHAT HAPPENED DURING QUALIFYING YESTERDAY WITH KEVIN HAVING TO MOVE TO
THE BACK? 

 

"Wrong is wrong.  We tried something we felt was in the grey area and
NASCAR felt otherwise.  We have a really good car, so we'll just have to
race our way to the front."

 

Ken Howes

Competion director, Hendrick Motorsports

 

HOW HAS THE WEEKEND BEEN FOR HENDRICK?

So far I'd probably call it okay. In qualifying we were reasonable. We
took a severe beating from the #12 car, but then so did a lot of others.
As a group we're all fairly close. Brian Vickers had some problems
qualifying. This morning, everyone is trying to get to grips with the
smaller spoiler and different tires. Track temperatures change from one
practice to another.

 

THE NEW RULES SEEM TO HAVE AN EFFECT DIFFERENT HERE THAN IN CALIFORNIA

Yeah. It's probably something to do with the banking of the track. It's
a flatter track than California and a different style. Everyone expected
that so we're having to deal with that. 

 

YOUR NEW ROLE IS COMPETITON DIRECTOR, CORRECT?

It really means the race teams are my responsibility. I'm really here
just being a granddad, I guess to those teams and just watching over
everything.

 

WHAT IS THE FEEDBACK YOU'VE RECEIVED FROM THE TEAMS THIS WEEKEND?

It varies, each driver and as the practice session goes. We've got a lot
to talk about this afternoon. We've got loose tires, tight cars and
they're changing within the practice session. We're learning, rapidly.
Hopefully we're learning fast enough.

 




Jeff Gordon

#24 DuPont Chevrolet

HOW DID HAPPY GO FOR YOU TODAY?

Well, I was pretty happy in the first practice. I though the balance was
good. We knew the track temperature was going to warm up for the second
practice and the track was going to be a bit slicker. And it did. That
definitely threw us off. We've got a lot of notes to go over and we'll
put our heads together to get better. I think we'll be in good shape
tomorrow.

 

YOU'VE GOT SOME GOOD TRACKS COMING UP, WITH ATLANTA AND MARTINSVILLE.
WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT WE'LL SEE AT ATLANTA?

Jimmie Johnson went testing with Goodyear there. He said it was a
handful, so I'm expecting Atlanta to be one of our biggest challenges
with these new rules. It's one of those places where it's hard to go
there and test to get good information from. I think that you're going
to see a lot of people struggling there and hopefully we'll get it
figured out.

 

HOW ARE YOU FARING OFF THE TRACK IN VEGAS?

I'm faring extremely well and I usually do because I don't go to the
tables when I'm here, so I know I'm going to leave with all my money.