Quotes of the Week
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NASCAR driver and team owner, Michael Waltrip Racing
"It's probably nothing, but time will tell," he said. "It's easy for people to assume the worst when they get something confiscated, but from all the research I've done with my people, we wouldn't do anything to make that motor not be right. We'll see. If we're in real trouble, they would take the car. We're just having to go through a little hurdle here – make things more interesting We might have an engine problem that's just causing some blow-by with the oil, we don't know yet," Waltrip said. "They're not mad at us over it. We're not in trouble, they just don't know what happened and we don't either. We just started the motor with a new intake and it was fine. … I'm just glad to talk to Mike and those guys and understand it like I do. They were light-hearted about it. I've seen Mike get so mad his lips quiver when he tries to talk and that's when you know you've done something wrong and he was far from that." (Commenting after qualifying for the Daytona 500 when his car was impounded after a foreign substance was found inside the intake manifold)
02/11/07
TONY STEWART, NASCAR driver, Joe Gibbs Racing
Others might be thinking it, but as usual, Tony goes public, blaming the new tires "Goodyear was nice enough to bless us with." He continued, "I'm curious why we had a harder right-side tire this time around. That's been Goodyear's trend, to protect themselves from the tires going down. It really caught a lot of us off-guard." (Comments made after winning the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona blaming the majority of the driver's fish-tailing on rockier right-side rubber)
DALE EARNHARDT, Jr., NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated
"The main factor is the ownership part. It has nothing to do with money and nothing else really. I really like my team; I like how things are going. Max (Siegel) is going to be great for the company. The motors are improving, everything is on an upswing. My father has been gone for almost six years now; I want majority ownership." When asked if he wanted over 50%, Dale Jr. responded, "Absolutely." (Commenting on wanting majority ownership of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated when signing his new contract)
DALE EARNHARDT, Jr.
"Yeah, that was exactly the reaction. It wasn't so much. The reaction was more like 'I don't make the statement and make it a habit of seeking out attention all the time.' She (Teresa Earnhardt) portrayed it as I was out there waving a flag 'hey, look at me, I can dance, I can sing and check me out.' Like I'm trying to do all this different stuff. I enjoy my radio show, it's an hour long and takes no time to do. My TV show takes five days out of the year to shoot. These things are easy. I've got work delegated to other people for editing and all that stuff. I don't have to mess with it, it don't take no time at all. And it's fun. It's fun to create it; it don't make no money but it's fun to create and see the finished product; it's great. So it was, that was a little like a low blow there." (Responding to comments made by his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, about Dale Jr. needing to chose between being a public figure or a race car driver)
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NASCAR driver, Michael Waltrip Racing, Inc.
"The only person I've heard making those kinds of ridiculous statements is Jack Roush, and I have no idea what Jack is thinking," Waltrip said. "This is a global society. We're selling Whoppers in Tokyo. Chevrolets are built and sold outside the U.S., in Canada. Fords are made in Mexico. And I've heard that Dodge guy on TV talk about 'German engineering.' It's a silly argument that should be put to rest. People should be glad our sport is so popular that people want to come play with us." (Commenting on Ford rival Jack Roush's gripes about Toyota. Roush said that Toyota has so much cash, while Detroit rivals are hard up, that it might dominate the sport)
KATHERINE LEGGE, Champ Car driver
“I'm glad I am still here to accept this award, it was a pretty serious deal but the Champ Car Safety Team was right there on the spot and did a great job of taking care of me," said Katherine. “Hopefully I won't be back to win this again next year!" (Comments made after being presented the award for Biggest Hit of 2007 at the inaugural SPEED Performance Awards for her spectacular crash, from which she walked away unscathed, during the Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America at Elkhart Lake last September)
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER, Retired 7-times F1 World Champion
"It's not a very clear definition made as to my role in Ferrari so far, simply for the fact I don't want it to be. I'm lucky to have a team like this with me. They still want to involve me. They still want to use my abilities and they're happy enough to leave it up to me where I want to be involved and where not. And myself, being out of business in terms of driver replacement, I think at the moment there are only a few drivers on the market that have the absolute top level. And with Kimi, we believe we have made a very good choice to have him on our team." (Commenting on his new role with Ferrari)