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NASCAR WCUP: S.Park/D.Earnhardt,Jr. Quotes Winston Cup Preview

11 January 2001

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

STEVE PARK (No. 1) Pennzoil

Steve, this year you broke through and got that first career win. A big win at Watkins Glen on the road course that had to be a big thrill near your home area. How do you top that this year?

I guess with a couple more wins. Working for the guy that I work for, he kind of likes victory lane, so he likes it when not only he but any of his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. cars can win. I'm looking for great things really out of the Pennzoil team. I think we showed in the second half of the season that the team has matured to a team capable of running up front and in the top 10 and being consistent. That's the name of the game. We just missed the top 10 by 80 points or something like that.

What is the realistic goal for this team? You barely missed the top 10 last year. Is top 10 the goal this year? I'd really like to get a top-five finish. Obviously, you want to be optimistic and stuff and we're still a young team and I'm still continuing to learn. I was telling someone earlier that when I started running in the top 10 this year, I was learning from a group of guys and all of a sudden, I started running in the top five and it was like I was starting to learn all over again. Any time you run upfront and you're running against Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace and those guys, it just seems like every time you take a step in top 10s or top fives to running up front, you continue to learn. I'm trying to win that race, but I'm also learning a lot. Paul had me testing up to the 22nd of December. Now we're going to Daytona to test. We're pumped up.

It seemed like right after you got that first victory at Watkins Glen after that you did great the race right after that. What was it about winning that race that really just put you in higher gear?

I think really it's just momentum. You can't see it, feel it, taste it, and it's just the spirit of the team is lifted.

Ingredients that go into winning races are good pit stops and good racecars and when you come off a win, the high and motivation in the team makes all the pit stops better, it keeps the engine shop working hard. It's just such a motivating factor that we just picked up momentum from it and kept running with it towards the end of the year.

When you go to Daytona to test, do you measure your progress against what you've done earlier there that day or do you take the four numbers from this Monday and Tuesday and compare yourself to that?

We really look at the numbers we've seen ourselves. Obviously, you have to beat all the other cars out there, but we have to beat ourselves too. We just look to improve every

time we go back to a racetrack. If you look at our record, we haven't really run that well at Daytona or Talladega.

I think you're also heading for your first Budweiser Shootout. Is this going to set up your whole week at Daytona a little differently and shed a different light on it, and also your teammate is going to be in his first Budweiser Shootout. What are your thoughts?

I think the opportunity to be in the Bud Shootout is great. Last year we were in the Bud Shootout Qualifier and finished third. This year they've reformatted the Bud Shootout including past winners and people that have received poles last year and a wild card from the second round qualifying, so it's going to make it a little bit easier on us because last year we were looking to running the Shootout Qualifier, winning that, and going into the Bud Shootout and we thought we had a lot more on our plates than we really did. This year, we're in the Shootout and it has made us work a little harder to build a third car that we're going to need for the Bud Shootout, but we've got some stuff in that car that we call, but you can't quote me on this, a wild guess on limited information. It's an engineering term that we use.

What does Michael add to the mix?

A lot of fun and laughs. He's a good friend of mine. I've raced against Michael in the Busch series and in Winston Cup and I think he's got an extremely large amount of talent and now he's going to be given the right opportunity to be in cars that are really competitive.

Steve, go back to your first win if you will. When you win like that after the struggle you've had, is that a confirmation in your confidence in that you're doing the right things?

Yes, I think so. You always hear blood, sweat, and tears and I've pretty much shed them all on my way to my first victory. My confidence never wavered. It was just that lack of experience that I got that first year that I thought really hurt me the second year, because I still felt like I was learning in my second year of Winston Cup and last year was my first full year with the experience I needed to be competitive.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. (No. 8) Budweiser

Talk about testing?

Well, we spent today and the two days before that testing the Corvette down in Daytona getting used to the track and trying to learn what we can to get competitive before we go back for the race. It's been a lot of fun, uneventful, just round and round and round lap after lap. Actually, we've been doing better than I expected. We were quick when we got there. I didn't progress as fast as I wanted to. I wanted to be a little bit quicker than I was. It was a good competitive pass that I ran, good enough for the race. Hopefully, when we go back, the car may be a little bit better and after I sleep on it, I'll be better too.

You, obviously, have been used to the tension in the Busch series. How was it being the media darling this year as far as all the interviews and requests. How did that change your life?

That's something that we try to strive on and work with, especially with some pretty good talent behind me in the PR department. We've had a lot of success in the Busch series and we really didn't have to ask for a lot of the attention, it was always given to us before hand. In the Winston Cup Series, we came out and won three races and got a lot of attention right out of the box, but as the year went, our success and our performance wasn't that great, but Jade (Gurss, media contact for Earnhardt, Jr.) was still able to get our name out there and get us in some pretty impressive publications. We were pretty happy with that and especially being on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED here this past month.

How much fun, compared to driving a Busch car, was it driving that Corvette around that racetrack down there?

The Corvette is a lot of fun. When we first went and tested that car, it's got a lot more grip than a Winston Cup car; they're working with large chunks of down force compared to what we have. Everything about it is just sooped up; a lot more power and a lot easier to drive. The tires are extremely slick when they're cold. I spun out twice during the test just getting on the racetrack. Other than that, once you get heat in your tires, the car is a lot of fun. There's a lot more pressure on the drivers in that series. There's a lot more things the driver is doing. Those guys are hired by the manufacturer and the way they structure the teams is a lot different. They hire a team company to come in and be the team. Then, they hire these drivers on their performance and they are expected to perform like that all the time.

Are they going to stick you with the night shift?

That's been one of the bigger jokes of the whole deal. We went yesterday and practiced in the evening. It's a lot more fun. I was a little bit nervous about doing it. The more people joked about it, the more I thought about it, but the track is so well lit you see fine. I wouldn't mind if they stuck me with that, because it's the cooler part of the day anyway.

You did so well the first half of the year, what did you see as what was responsible for why you guys dropped off so much the second half of the season? There were a lot of things. We had a lot of problems, we all had ego problems, we all had personality problems. We just all lost respect for each other....me and my teammates and me and my crew. We just kind of let it get to our heads....the success we had at the first of the year, and when we couldn't repeat that like we wanted to. We never really pointed our fingers at each other, but we did let each other know we weren't happy.

You have been around the Daytona 500 a lot, but I think this will be only the second time you've been in it. What is your mental attitude going, do you have that Daytona excitement, plus you've got an awfully big week with the 24 hours and this will be your first time in the Bud Shootout and what are your thoughts about the week you're facing?

It's so spread out that it shouldn't be anymore stressful than it has been in the past. There's a lot of pressure entering the Daytona 500. A lot of things have to be done before you can get into the race, but I'm pretty confident that I'm going to win the Daytona 500 this year, because I dreamed about it. You can call me crazy, but I'll be talking to you at the post race interview talking about how I did it. Out front all day. It was so real, it was crazy.

Where did your dad finish in this dream?

Well, he wasn't there.

Your father probably about a third of the way through the season is going to set the record for the most consecutive races breaking Terry Labonte's record. After only being in it for one year, is it kind of amazing what it must take to do it for 20 straight years, a little over 20 years?

Yes, but the year goes faster than you realize. We're just getting ready to start the year and before you know it, we'll be in New York again. It's quite an accomplishment, but I can see how it can be done.

Last year after Talladega, you said you lost the draft. How are you going to combat this....what is your strategy?

With the way the cars are and the rules have been changed and there's not really a whole lot you can do about it. That's made it a safer race. You work your way back to the front time after time and you learn something new every time you do that and before you know it, once guys who are up front all the time see you and how strong your car is, the more help you seem to get from guys.

Where is your dad, is he here today?

He stayed to test a little bit more. He had a doctor appointment too to remove a piece of metal that's been in his head since 1977, so he's kind of healing up.

When did you have that dream?

About a month ago. I remember in the dream that I kept telling myself that I won in my second try.

This is a rare sport where father and son can run together and be competitors at the same time and be successful. Is there an enormous amount of pressure for you to be successful and at the same time are you kind of counting the years when he retires and you'll be the Earnhardt that everybody really watches?

Yea, I think about that a little bit, but the thing you've got to remember is that he's got three, four, or five more years. He's said that a couple of times so by the end if I haven't figured it out, I won't ever. I look at his career and how he started out and he started out with a Rookie title and a championship after that, but then he went through several years of mediocracy where he was just struggling to finish well, but he was still winning races. Hopefully, I will give myself that tolerance of a few years to get it down and get my program and team worked out.

There's another group of guys coming up this year like Casey Atwood and Ryan Newman, young guys like that. If you were going to give them any advice about the best way to get through the first season on the Winston Cup circuit, what would it be? There are not a lot of things you can't prepare for. You just take it in stride and take one day at a time and one week after the other. The thing that was most difficult for me to deal with was the pressure of having a top-of-the-line sponsor and wondering what expectations your team had of you and your sponsor had of you. Keep your chin up and try to maintain a positive attitude, so everybody sees that. Don't put your head down.

Text Provided By Marie Mason

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