NASCAR Loudon Friday Press Conference
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| Jimmie Johnson |
| Getty Images for NASCAR |
Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson captured the 50th pole position for the Chevrolet SS race car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) with a quick lap of 28.430 seconds/133.971 mph in his No. 48 Lowe's Chevy SS. It marked Johnson's 35th career pole in 526 races and his first of the 2016 season thus far.
"We're really excited about this because we've had a tough month or two," said Johnson, a former three-time winner at the 1.058-mile track. "I'm proud of the team and proud to take the 50th pole for the Chevy SS today. That's very special. We unloaded well and put up some great laps and then when I went out on our final set of tires the end of practice. I thought something was wrong with the car. It just was not like it had been and we were left with some tough decisions on what to do. We put the car back to where it was when we unloaded and had a great qualifying session. We had to adjust on it a little bit and I was certainly building my confidence in the car and what it was capable of. By the time we made it to the third session, we had a very low lap count on our tires, which I also feel worked in our favor to put up a fast lap in our Lowe's Chevy SS."
Kurt Busch, also a three-time winner at NHMS, qualified his No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevy SS in fourth overall, and will start from the outside position in the second row in Sunday's New Hampshire 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Chase Elliott was the fastest qualifying rookie placing his No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevy SS in the seventh starting spot.
Former Sprint Cup champion, Kevin Harvick, 2006 winner at the ‘Magic Mile', will start eighth in the No. 4 Jimmy John's Chevrolet SS and AJ Allmendinger put up the tenth quickest time in the No. 47 Bush's Grillin Beans Chevrolet SS.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Quicken Loans Chevy SS and Tony Stewart, pilot of the No. 14 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, qualified 11th and 12th, respectively, to give Team Chevy seven of the Top-12 starting positions.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) qualified second, Martin Truex Jr., (Toyota) qualified third, and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) rounded out the Top 5 with a fifth-place qualifying effort.
All the action from New Hampshire Motor Speedway is scheduled to begin on Sunday July 17 at 1:30 p.m., ET. Live coverage will be available on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), PRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
TELL US HOW IT FELT OUT THERE YOU SEEM PRETTY EXCITED:
"Yeah, really excited. We have had, as everybody knows, a tough month or two. To be back in the media center is a nice feeling. I even forgot that I had to come here. It's amazing how fast things change. Just proud of the team. We unloaded well and put up some great laps. Our final set of tires we put on at the end of practice I went out and I thought something was wrong with the car. It just was not like it had been. Then we were left with some tough decisions on what to do. We were going to put the car back to where it was when we unloaded when we knew we had stickers on the car and how the car responded and had a great qualifying session. We had to adjust on it a little bit. I was certainly building my confidence in the car and what it was capable of. By the time we made it to the third session we had a very low lap count on our tires, which I also feel worked in our favor to put up a fast lap there in that third session."
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE UP FRONT AT THIS TRACK?
"This place I would go as far as to say it's the most important track for qualifying and track position. Short race, very difficult to pass, if fuel strategy comes into play it's a different dynamic and a different race, but the last few races have been races. In that situation you need track position. Now the key is to keep it, but at least we are starting with it."
HOW WELCOME IS THIS AFTER THE ROUGH STRETCH YOU HAVE HAD? IS THIS REALLY A BOOST FOR YOU GUYS?
"Yeah, absolutely, anytime you are fast it's a huge boost. Especially, to come through the trying practice session that we had and the big question mark in our mind. ‘What happened?' The car was half a second faster on scuffed tires than it was when we put the stickers on to go at the end and I couldn't even stay on the racing line. So, something really weird went on. So, to rebound from that builds a lot of confidence for us. We worked hard on this race car that we brought here it's a new car so to validate that is big for the shop, big for Chad (Knaus, crew chief), big for our engineers. Today is a big day for us."
HOW BIG IS IT FOR THE NO. 48 TEAM TO KNOW THEY HAVE THE SPEED? WITH THIS WEEKEND BEING VERY HOT HERE HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PREPARE FOR THAT COME SUNDAY?
"It feel really good to be the fastest car here. I have to say that through the news that we all learned yesterday with Dale not being able to be in the car, it was just mind blowing to hear those things. I'm so happy for him that he is not afraid to stand up and say ‘hey I need to sit out.' Very proud of him, but he did come here and test for us. He gave us the foundation for the way our cars unloaded today. Big thanks to the No. 88 team, Dale, Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys for having a great test session and giving us the opportunity to get the pole today.
"With the heat it's really hydration related. So, right here (lifts beverage) you just have to keep loading up and you can't do it the day of. You have to start from the time, probably three days out and really make sure that you have the right electrolyte balance going in and enough volume of fluid to make it through the hot summer days."
WHAT DO YOU ALL LOSE WHEN DALE, JR. IS NOT AT THE TRACK? IS IT ANYMORE PIVOTAL THAT HE IS NOT HERE THIS WEEKEND CONSIDERING HE DID DO THE TEST HERE?
"Yeah, the debrief, the information coming from the car… we all know driving styles and crew chief styles per car, so when there is somebody different in the car or a different crew chief it certainly puts those remarks or the information you receive kind of into question and you just wonder. And the fact that Dale tested here that just makes it even a larger issue. He felt two days' worth of testing and so many different combinations of set-up's in the car. It's one thing to read it in the database, but to actually talk to a driver that has experienced the shock or the spring or the bump stop and how it reacted those verbal and face-to-face conversations are so much more impactful than reading it in notes. We are going to miss that part for sure."
WITH THE ISSUE YOU HAD IN PRACTICE WERE YOU CONFIDENT YOU COULD MAKE IT TO THE FINAL ROUND?
"With experience I try to just wash it away and start over. I hopped on my bike (Matt) Kenseth and I went for a 32 mile bike ride and just cleared our brains. I came back clean sheet of paper and tried to walk to the race car as if it was my first time in the car and didn't have any baggage that I carried with me. I think experience has helped me get to that spot. Younger years I certainly worried about things and over sensitive and over thinking a lot of what goes on. I think experience helps in these situations. Fortunately, the car was so different that one run that something was just flat out wrong. It wasn't even the race car that I drove 10 laps prior to. Something was off."
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD ABOUT DALE EARNHARDT, JR. WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL REACTION TO IT?
"More than anything just again, am proud of him to recognize that he doesn't feel right and to say something about it. I talked to him last week when he thought he had a sinus infection. I suggested a few things that I take that I know are legal with the drug screening policy. I have seasonal allergies that I have to fight with. He thought something like that was going on with him, but clearly there is more to it. I have had my fair share of hard hits. I've had a few concussions and the one thing about concussions is everybody responds differently to them. Some people are more sensitive. The repeat concussions and the sensitivity to it changes as well. We are all different. It is very difficult for me to comment because I know what I have been through and I don't know what he has been through. Again, I think and it started right away when the news came out how everybody was happy that he said something about it. He is going to go through great lengths to make sure he understands what is going on and try to if at all possible address it and try to improve that situation so he is not so sensitive to it in the future."
WHEN YOU SAID SOMETHING WAS BROKEN IT WAS JUST A BAD SET OF TIRES?
"We did not find anything broken or wrong. To me it felt like…
BUT THAT IS WHAT YOU SAID ON THE RADIO RIGHT?
"Yep, something is broken, something is wrong. I thought that the right front spring was out of the bucket was the way it felt to me. It felt like the nose of the car was really high and it just wouldn't go down and travel and turn. It just was up. So, I thought a spring came out of its perch or out of the bucket. When we got back in everything checked out and all we did was change the tires and went out and qualified on pole."
WHERE DO YOU THINK HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS STANDS AGAINST JOE GIBBS RACING AND TEAM PENSKE WITH EIGHT RACES REMAINING UNTIL THE CHASE?
"Depending on the track I think it alternates between a Penske car or a Gibbs car. Those guys have been the class of the field, especially as the summer has pressed on. We had a test in Indy where we tried to learn a lot. We have some more tests coming up for the company. I feel like we are trying to close the gap right now to what they have going on. Thankfully, we still have two months left to close the gap."
BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID ON THE RADIO, RIGHT? ‘I THINK SOMETHING'S BROKEN'
"Yes. Something's broken; something's wrong. I thought that the right front spring was out of the bucket is the way it felt to me. It felt like the nose of the car was really high and it just wouldn't go down and travel and turn. It was just up. So, I thought the spring came out of it's perch or out of the bucket and when we got back in, everything checked out and all we did was change tires and went out and qualified on pole."
CURRENTLY WITH 8 RACES TO GO BEFORE THE CHASE, WHERE DO YOU THINK HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS STANDS AGAINST JOE GIBBS RACING AND TEAM PENSKE?
"Yeah, depending on the track, I think it alternates between a Penske car or a Gibbs car and those guys have been the class of the field; especially as the summer has pressed on. We had a test at Indy where we tried and learned a lot. We have some more tests coming up for the company and I feel like we're trying to close the gap right now, to what they have going on. Thankfully we still have two months left to close the gap."
AFTER A DAY LIKE YOU HAD AT KENTUCKY, HOW DO YOU HANDLE IT? WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE TEAM MEETING ON MONDAY OR TUESDAY?
"Yeah, man it's tough. You hate tearing up cars. The first car I thought we had a couple of tenths on the field. So that, I felt really bad about. We still had a great backup car and opening start, went from ninth to fourth and was hanging around there doing just fine and was just aggressive trying to get back to the front on new tires and lost it. So, it happens. But when a driver loses two cars in a weekend and it's on him, it was a long, slow week for me. I felt really bad for the guys. So, you try to shrug it off and move on and thankfully this weekend got here soon enough. Or, I guess we were in Indy so that kind of helped things advance. We got back on the race track."
HAVING TESTED IN INDY, IF YOU CAN WIN HERE, HOW BIG WILL THAT BE? ALSO THIS IS A CHASE TRACK, SO WOULD THAT CLOSE THE GAP BETWEEN GIBBS AND PENSKE?
"For sure. Whenever we're at Chase tracks, we're always very aware of that and hope to have a good first trip and build on that to come back for an even better second trip. Our short track program, we've put a lot of effort into it to improve our cars and be more competitive; and I think Richmond showed a lot of promise for the No. 48 team. It's a very difficult track for us and we had a very competitive day. And then we improved on that, we felt, and brought a similar car, but with some updates to it, here. Except for that one run at the end of practice, it felt like we did a nice job improving the car. We're validating some new stuff for our short track program and today's a great step in the right direction for that."
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU HEARD THAT JEFF GORDON WAS GOING TO BE IN THE CAR AT INDY IF JUNIOR CAN'T DRIVE THERE?
"Somebody had better call him. I think he's in the South of France drinking Rose. We need to sober him up and get him back (laughter). The posts I've seen from him and his wife, they're having a big time over there. We need to send some Gatorade over there and get him hydrated and get him back for Indy."
DO YOU THINK IT'S CONCEIVABLE THAT AFTER 8 MONTHS OUT OF THE CAR, HE COULD WIN?
"I've learned to never underestimate that man, without a doubt. And it's Indy, a place that he loves dearly. He's the most winning driver there. I'm sure it will take a few laps to knock the rust off and get going but there's enough on-track time and the race is long enough that he'll have a shot."
JUST TO CLARIFY, DID YOU SAY A 32-MILE BIKE RIDE?
"Yes."
HOW LONG DID THAT TAKE?
"And hour-fifty; just under two hours."
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED DONATING YOUR BRAIN LIKE DALE JUNIOR SAID HE WOULD DO? HAVE YOU SUFFERED THE KIND OF HITS IN YOUR CAREER THAT WOULD MAKE YOU CONCERNED FOR YOUR OVERALL HEALTH?
"I've never considered it. I guess I'm afraid what they'll find or not find. But in all seriousness, I am an organ donor so it wouldn't bother me to do that, but it's something I've not taken steps in and have not discussed at all.
"I've had concussions especially racing off-road and motocross. I had plenty as a kid; a couple in a stock car. There was one at Indy. I had one at Watkins Glen, a mild one there. But I've not been sensitive to them. And there are guys that crash, and we're all used to hitting the call, there's some people that are just more sensitive to it and I am very fortunate that I haven't been that sensitive to concussions in my career. Big hits have happened and I've been grilled by the medical staff and I'm like no, I'm fine. So, I guess I'm lucky on that side of it."