Chevrolet NASCAR NEXTEL Cup: Nemechek takes pole in Michigan

Qualifying Quotes

 

Michigan International Speedway

August 20, 2005

 

Joe Nemechek

#01 U.S. Army Chevrolet

Pole Winner

 

 

GREAT QUALIFYING RUN TODAY

Yeah, it's been long overdue. I'm so proud of my whole U.S. Army team.
All the men and women serving in our military-I know they're watching
all around the world today and I'm so proud of what we do and I know
they're proud to see that U.S. Army car running good and in front. My
lap was a pretty good lap. I didn't get everything out of it that I
should have, but it's kind of like everybody else, you think you can get
a little more. We'll take what we can get and this U.S. Army Chevy is
just as good in race trim as it is in qualifying, so I'm ready to go.

 

DID YOU HEART SINK AFTER YOU QUALIFIED WELL AND THE RAIN CAME
OUT-POTENTIALLY NEGATING YOUR LAP?

It absolutely did, but that's kind of how our luck's been. We've been so
close to winning and there has been two or three races we've given away
right there at the end. And now to get this pole means a lot to the team
and the crew. We have a lot of chemistry on right now. I mean, this
whole year has been good. Ryan Pemberton and myself have been
communicating well, I'm giving him good feedback and when I hop in those
cars I got faith that they're going to go fast. Just getting all I can
right now.

 

(Note: Nemechek was unable to come to the media center for an extended
pole winner press conference as he was scheduled to immediately run in
the Domino's Pizza 250 Busch Series race at MIS)

 

Jeff Gordon

#24 DuPont Chevrolet

2nd position

 

Well, obviously really good. Big pickup for us from yesterday. We did
come here and test and we made one qualifying run in testing and felt
good about and thought we could go pull a top 5 off but then yesterday
we were pretty far off. So, just loose. Asked the guys if they could
tighten the car up and we drew and early number which on these impound
races are usually good because you have a noon start so it's better to
go early so we had great conditions. I was really nervous when that rain
came that we were going to have that same thing happen to us as what
happened at Watkins Glen. You know, I'm thankful that NASCAR decided to
run those last five cars and here we are sitting on the front row. 

 

IS QUALIFYING SO WELL AN INDICATION OF BOTH HOW GOOD YOUR CAR IS IN RACE
AND QUALIFYING TRIM?

I hope so. I didn't think we were really that good yesterday in race
conditions or qualifying conditions, but you know, the test that we had
I felt we were really good there. So, the team made quite a few changes
and felt like we made improvements and then for qualifying, I felt that
we had a good car yesterday, we just were way too loose. So the guys got
the car tightened up enough and like I said, that early (draw) number.
So, I'm not really sure what it's necessarily going to be like tomorrow.
I hear the conditions are supposed to be cooler, which I would be happy
with because we were a little bit loose. Maybe it would give us a little
bit more grip. I think we've got a good plan, a good car, a good team.
Tomorrow I think just having good track position is going to be
important. This isn't one of the most tracks you go to for track
position, but good pit stall. Just kind of a confidence builder is how
I'm kind of looking at it moreso than anything else. I don't think
because we qualify good-really I'm not putting too much into that, I'm
just happy we qualified where we did.

 

DO YOU THINK TODAY'S QUALIFYING WILL MAKE A STATEMENT TO THE OTHER
DRIVERS THAT YOU'RE READY TO GET INTO THE TOP 10?

I hope so. I think it's a statement for our team and a statement for
others. We are very serious about it and we just need some good things
to go our way and we had that happen today by the rain going away, the
track drying off and able to qualify where we ran instead of going back
to a points position, so I'm certainly looking at that as a positive and
we did come here and test and usually when you test it's going to pay
off and we tested a Bristol-hope it pays off there too. We'll be testing
at Richmond. I think that the guys that we're racing against know that
if we put a string of races together we're a major threat to get back in
the top 10. All those expectations come along with one that should be up
there in the points, I think those same things apply to being outside
the top 10 and knowing you can't count us out.

 

YOU NEVER GAVE UP AT WATKINS GLEN. IS IT THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE THAT WILL
DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM OTHER GUYS ON THE BUBBLE?

I think that everybody has that kind of attitude. When you're out there
and you're on this level and this level of pressure and the quality of
teams behind you, you're going to step it up. You're going to push as
hard as you can. It comes down to preparation of cars, setups, pit crew
and the driver communication between the team and then a little bit good
fortune. It's taken the same things to get into the top 10 as it is guys
at the end of the year to run for the championship. 

 

YOU ARE ANSWERING A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CHASE ALL THE TIME-HOW IS
THAT PRESSURE?

Well, I feel like no matter where you're at in the points, what your
situation is, there is always pressure. If you're outside the top 35,
those guys have a ton of pressure on them trying to qualify in the race.
If you're outside the top 10, there's pressure to get in. If you're in
the points, the pressure is there to stay there and win the
championship. So, I don't think the pressure increases for anybody out
there. It's really big on everybody. Maybe just a little bit different
type of pressure. It has been a bit tiring to get-it's more frustrating
than anything else, not to get the questions, it's that we're not able
to get ourselves out of this whole. It just seems that every weekend
something bites us and at the end of the race I'm getting asked, you
know, what do you think your chances are? Here's another race-what do
you think your chances are? And that's frustrating. But, we've put
ourselves in that position and we have to get ourselves out of it. I
just look at it like it could be a great story if we get ourselves back
in that top 10 and go get that championship.

 

RE: YOUR PRESENCE IN THE CHASE AND HOW THAT MIGHT INTIMIDATE OTHER
DRIVERS

Well, I don't know. We've had one of those crazy years and I haven't
thought a whole lot about what other guys are thinking other than what
we've got to do to get ourselves in there. I do know that the Hendrick
Motorsports organization, our team, our past history. There's a reason
why those expectations are on us and it's because when it's on the line,
we're very capable of stepping it up. We tell ourselves this, but I
think other people recognize it as well, that you can't count us out and
we could strike at any moment. You know, the way I look at it is our
performances haven't been as bad as our finishes. I think we're
certainly a top 10 team and car but I don't know if up until this point
in the season we could say we're championship-caliber. But also know
that the season has gone in cycles. You've seen guys that ran really
strong in the beginning of the year that maybe haven't run as strong in
the middle. You've got Tony Stewart who has been phenomenal recently but
he wasn't that spectacular in the beginning and there's no reason that
cycle can't come to us as well and I'm sure that there are teams out
there that would prefer not to find out if that cycle comes our way.

 

DOES BEING BITTEN SO MANY TIMES THIS SUMMER CHIP ON YOUR OPTIMISM?

Yes and no. To me, I've always been a realist and whether we were having
a phenomenal season and went out there and qualified on the front row, I
would still be sitting there and saying, well that's qualifying and
doesn't mean as much for the race. You know, at Phoenix we were on the
pole and it was an impound race and we weren't that good in the race.
I'm just saying that I'm excited about qualifying where we did, but I'm
not really sure what the race is going to be like until we take the
green flag. And I don't build things up. That's just always been my
approach. With the way the season has gone I'm certainly not going to
build things up. I'm just going to play it as it goes along and give
100% of everything I've got and know my team is giving it everything
they've got and just hope that it works out the way we want it to.

 

WHERE HAVE YOU TESTED RECENTLY AND BECAUSE OF YOUR POSITION IN THE
POINTS HAS IT CHANGED THAT?

It has changed things for us. Last year we saved a lot of our tests for
the end of the season and we modified that a bit this year because we
felt like we overloaded ourselves, even though we got good information
we felt we wore the team out when we got to the race track. It was just
too much traveling and work. So, we weren't going to load it up quite as
heavy this year. But, when we found ourselves struggling outside the top
10 the way we were, we came here and tested two weeks ago a week ago. We
tested in Bristol this past week and I don't think we were planning on
doing that. And we're testing at Richmond and I don't know if we were
planning on testing at Richmond either. And the team took David Green
with the car. They went to Milwaukee and tested. There's definitely been
a heavy load put on the guys to make the Chase and know that it's not
only to make the Chase but it's trying to figure out where we're off and
how we need to get better. And I think it's good-whether it is just the
attitude of the guys, just finding things out when we go test. But I
think the performance of our cars has definitely gotten better over the
last month. I'm definitely happy about that. I felt like we ran great at
Indy. I felt we ran a little bit better at the last Pocono. We ran great
at Watkins Glen and we had a pretty good test here and great test at
Bristol, so I think we've got some good things in store for us. And the
thing is that all those were one day tests, so we've got more dates left
if we need them. We didn't do two day tests.

 

WHAT IF ONE OF THE DRIVERS WHO HASN'T WON A RACE ENDS UP WINNING THE
CHAMPIONSHIP? DOES THAT TARNISH THE TITLE?

Well, it tarnishes what they tried to do with the Chase. I think the
Chase is really based on trying to build excitement and push guys to be
more aggressive and win more races. But, that's the only about is that
we've got a points system that's built on consistency and then we change
how it's structured to make this exciting 10-race stretch but then it's
still about consistency and the guy could finish top 5 every weekend in
those last 10 races and still win that championship. It's very possible
that it could happen. But I think just know that there is 10 races on
the line, guys are really pushing and being on the line and chances are
the guy who wins the championship is at least going to have one win
under his belt. Either sometime in the season or those last 10.

 

I'm really curious to see-the guys who haven't won a race yet who have
been consistent and are in the top 10-I'm curious to see, if once they
get into the Chase if they step it up a notch. Is it they're playing
that card because they just want to secure their position the top 10 and
they know their consistency over 26 races will do that, and then they
start pushing the limits of getting aggressive. They know the worse they
can be is 10th. I'm curious to see it unfold because it could be really
interesting.

 

RE: BRISTOL - HAS THE TRACK CHANGED DRAMATICALLY FROM WHEN YOU WERE
THERE IN THE SPRING?

I think they changed the tire a little bit-they changed the right side
tire I believe. They've got a little bit better tire. The track is the
same old Bristol. You know, it's fast, rough and we've never done a
night test. And it wasn't so much a night test, we ran til 8:00pm. The
lights never came on, but the sun was down so we were trying to read the
conditions and how the track changes when the sun goes down because
we've been so good during the day race, but not quite as good during the
night race, so we're trying to learn some things there.

 

Kyle Busch

#5 Kellogg's Chevrolet

4th position

 

HOW WAS YOUR LAP?

It was good. Being the first car out after the rain delay after the jet
dryers on the track, putting the fuel they do, you're kind of hesitant
going into the first turn because nobody has gone before you in that
condition. So, I wish I was able to follow Joe out there after he was
able to make his run. We probably could have been a tenth, at least a
tenth, better than what we ended up running. Overall, though, I'm pretty
excited about tomorrow's race. That was a pretty good lap for the
Kellogg's Chevy just to be able to put it up front within the top 5.
It's a good effort for the team and everything they did today and
yesterday getting it prepared was excellent.

 

Brian Vickers

#25 GMAC / ditech.com Chevrolet

7th position

 

Yeah, it was okay. It was loose. It got out from under me both times in
turn 3 and there's not a lot we can do about it, but it wasn't bad. 

 

HOW DID IT FEEL TO BE ONE OF THE FIRST ONES OUT THERE ON THE TRACK AFTER
THE RAIN DELAY?

Yeah, it felt like it had a lot of grip. It did. I think going out after
the rain and the jet dryers didn't help any. I'm not going to say that
was the difference between the pole, because we were still a little too
loose anyway, but it definitely didn't help.

 

Jimmie Johnson

#48 Lowe's Chevrolet

10th position

 

RE: DELAYED QUALIFYING AND HOW THAT CHANGES THINGS FOR THE START

Well, it wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that we blew an engine
in first practice, so it is good though because we'll have a good pit
stop pick and all that. We'll take that and go with it. But, I'm going
to start at the back and drive this Lowe's Monte Carlo up through the
field. Looking at the radar it looks like it's going to take a while to
get the track dry-it's pretty wet. The Busch race is coming up. I would
say we're probably going to get the track dry just in time for the rain
to come back. 

 

HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT TO PREPARE FOR QUALIFYING AND THEN RIGHT BEFORE
FIND OUT IT'S BEEN DELAYED DUE TO RAIN?

I think now that this is my fourth year in the sport, you can't get too
excited about anything. If you're Joe Nemechek right now he does have
the right to go off and be too excited about it. But everyone else, I
think once you're in the sport a while I think you just have to roll
with it. With all the races we have during the year, so rain out and
some don't. Some you think they are going to rain out and they don't.
So, you've just got to roll with it and go on. 

 

YOU'VE NEVER WON AT MICHIGAN-WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?

It's going to take a lot. This has been a bad track for us. We've been
competitive at times during the race, had some good finishes set up. I
think I ran out of fuel one time, running third or so. That was by far
my best race and we still didn't have anything for DJ when he won it.
So, hopefully we get it figured out. We've been great at Fontana. But
what we've had at Fontana doesn't directly apply here. We've been a 10th
of 15th place car. So, hopefully we got everything right. A new package
once again-every time we come back we're trying something new and
hopefully this is what we need.

 

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

#8 Budweiser Chevrolet

16th position

 

HOW WAS YOUR LAP?

Yeah, real good. Especially with the early draw. Hopefully it will warm
up here and the sun will come out a little bit and slow some of these
other guys down. I was real happy with my lap. We worked yesterday on
race runs only and didn't do any qualifying runs. So that was a real
good effort. A lot of good guessing on my team's part and the car was
real comfortable.

 

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE NEWS THIS WEEK ABOUT TONY EURY, JR.
SIGNING A LONG-TERM CONTRACT WITH DEI?

Just, you know, I wanted him to sign on. I was glad that he was able to
talk to other people to find out where he is in this business and I
think that's fair for him and fair for everybody to really know where
they stand. And, it helped him in what his decision was going to be and
so he could make the right decision for himself. And, I'm real glad for
the decision he made. And I think that puts me and him with an
opportunity to work together in the future. You know, aside from my own
motives, he's a huge asset to the company. He's one of the most
important people at the company as far as knowledge of the sport,
knowledge of the cars, where the sport is headed from mechanically and
technically. He's a huge asset.

 

WOULD HE BE YOUR FIRST CHOICE FOR A CREW CHIEF NEXT YEAR?

Not quite ready to talk about that.

 

DOES IT HELP TO HAVE SOMEONE SO CLOSE LIKE THAT STAY AT THE COMPANY?

Yeah, you know, people like that will do the best they can to maintain
the integrity of the company. Kind of maintain the vision, so to speak.
And, take care of things and treat thigns as their own, more so. I think
that's one thing that we have at DEI that a lot of other teams don't
have, is that when you come there-I don't know if it's just
different-there is a sense of, it's just bigger than the company, you
know what I mean? Everybody takes care of things. Things are a little
more well respected. Parts, pieces. Stuff is taken care of and it lasts
longer. That's one thing. Tony, Jr. has spent so much time around there
and been there so long, pretty much. I'd say a good 50% of who is he
today was built there. A lot of it comes from Robert Gee, spent a lot of
time with Grandaddy. That was kind of his foundation, but he learned a
lot at Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated. It's awesome that he's willing to-I
mean, obviously he could go to some stronger teams at this point. And,
he could obviously probably make some more money. But I think he chose
to make decision that won't wake him up in the middle of the night, you
know what I mean?

 

Bobby Labonte

#18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet

18th position

 

HOW WAS YOUR LAP?

We didn't make a qualifying run yesterday. I got in the fence right at
the end of first practice, so they worked real hard to get the car back
in shape. They did a great job do that, so we didn't make a qualifying
run. So, the first lap was kind of easy and the second lap I had a
little bit better feel about what was going on. Good job from all the
guys and I'm not sure where we'll end up but still pretty happy with it.

 

Scott Riggs

#10 Valvoline Chevrolet

19th position

 

HOW WAS YOUR LAP?

Yeah, it was pretty good for us. We didn't spend a lot of time on
qualifying effort yesterday. Tried to, but the lap we tried to make, the
car got really loose so we had to call if off. So, you know, don't know
what it's going to hold up as far as that laps goes, but feel pretty
good about our race setup. We worked a lot of laps on our race setup. 

 

PEOPLE TALK ABOUT STRATEGY AND TIRES HERE-YOU GUYS KNOW YOU HAVE THE
ENGINE PART COVERED, THOUGH

Oh yeah, never have to worry about Hendrick horsepower. We'll always
have great horsepower. We feel we've got our car working pretty well and
we've got our geometry figured out. Rodney's been doing a good job on
getting the car like he wants it. I think that we've had some good cars.
There have been a lot of good cars here lately than we've been able to
show and we just want to get a good finish. 

 

Tony Stewart

#20 The Home Depot Chevrolet

36th position

 

HOW WAS YOUR LAP?

It was alright. It was just a little bit free on entry, but that's the
way you want it when you're in qualifying trim. I'm pretty excited and I
think it's going to be good for tomorrow.

 

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION REGARDING THE PROBATION FROM THE BUSCH INCIDENT?

I can understand. The good thing is they're consistent with what they
do. You know, it wasn't a real big deal, but they're consistent with it.
Brian and I didn't have any problems with it and afterwards we were
laughing about it, actually. The hard thing with NASCAR is that they
don't give you an avenue to vent your frustrations when you have them
with another driver. And they know that, too. It puts us in the bad
position that we're all in. You know, the good thing is we do get a
chance to talk about it when it's over and when we laugh about it we
know it's alright then. 

 

Kevin Harvick

#29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet

42ND position

 

The GM Goodwrench Chevy was good. It stuck real well in turns 1 and 2.
Just got loose on me in turns 3 and 4. It just felt so good that I drove
it in there and it got a little bit loose. We'll race good. It's been
good all week.