Daytona 500: Q&A w/Johnson, Harvick and Kahne
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| Jimmie Johnson |
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, when you know you're not hyping yourself up, not trying to make yourself look good for the team, when you know, that's a sweet spot that all athletes dream of being in. Doesn't matter if you're a batter, pitcher, receiver, quarterback, racecar driver, those are the moments you live for and hope that you have a chance to experience.
I've been very fortunate for years that that has happened, quite a few years. It is cool. There's nothing like it.
Q: (No microphone.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, it's been quite a few years since I've had that attachment to the car, now that we have the Car of Tomorrow and the way things work out. I can't tell you which car works.
We did have a car, it was No. 59 that was the bread-and-butter car for us, in the Monte-Carlo era. I didn't even need to see the numbering on the car. I just knew the way the seat fit me, the steering wheel, I knew that racecar. That car literally won 90%, 95% of our races in the Monte-Carlo era.
Q: What does it mean to be on the drivers council?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Just spending time and being aware. I think it's been a fun and good experience for everyone, even if you're not on the council. It's created a lot of conversation between the drivers. Even if we don't agree, that's fine. But having a voice, knowing your voice is heard, presenting to council members.
Now being on the council, the daily interaction that takes place, outside of my three other teammates, which I don't even talk to daily, there's much more conversation with these guys. That's been an interesting perk to it all that I didn't see coming.
Q: (No microphone.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I mean, I've been trying to bang that drum for a long time. I've talked to track owners, operators about it. I've mentioned it to all of you, as well.
I just think when you look at how many cars were taken out of the race, we would have a much better race if the grass wasn't there. I didn't hit anything. All I did was go through the grass, got the nose ripped off. I know there were many other cars that went through the same thing.
When you look at Ryan's crash on the frontstretch here, he was fine till he got on the grass, then he started flipping. Grass doesn't slow you down like asphalt does. When you look at Kyle's impact in the XFINITY race.
My opinion, grass belongs on golf courses. We need asphalt around here to slow the cars down, control the cars.
Q: Are you the kind of guy that with all your championships would have spoken up before the driver council? I envision you having a lot of ideas. If someone would ask you, you'd give them. I don't see you pounding on the door and demanding to be heard.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]JIMMIE JOHNSON: There's things that I've felt strongly about that I've gone into the NASCAR trailer and have talked before the council was in place.
I remember going in and trying to talk to Bill France Jr. scared to death because I didn't know him.
If there was something like I felt I needed to say, I've always worked the courage up to do it.
Then being in this council and being around the drivers and understanding where everybody's coming from, it's created a much more friendly environment. I think as we add another year or two under our belts, it's going to be even more productive yet.
It was fun to sit in the council meeting, and at the very end Kyle Larson said something, and we all hazed him, You are awake, you did say something.
It's intimidating. You're here in your second year, you're sitting in a room with all the NASCAR executives and the established drivers, it's hard to find the courage to say what's on your mind because you don't want to look like a fool or get it wrong.
I certainly have been much more careful about things that I say and when I say it. Now there's a much more comfortable format for everybody to get involved.
Q: If you don't ultimately win a seventh championship, have you thought about that?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: My life sucks. That would be terrible (smiling).
Q: Would you be relatively okay with that?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Absolutely. Man, honestly, my goal was to win a race when I came in. I thought, Man, if I can win a race, they'll keep me around for a couple more years, make a little money, then I'll go back racing dirt, life will be good.
To win three in that first year, I realized quickly that I needed to reframe my goals, set some new marks out there for myself.
Then I looked at a championship, then we knocked off five straight, on and on. So, yes, I'm very happy with where I'm at. Am I satisfied? No. But I'm very satisfied with where I'm at.
Q: Do you know how funny you are on Twitter when you answer questions like that? Do you sometimes sit back and laugh because you are very funny?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I do much better if I have a minute or two to process my answer. I think Clint and Junior, there are witty guys that can pull it out on the spot. Stewart is good at it. Give me a minute, let me process it, a drink and a minute, then I'll really get some good ones. It's fun.
Q: (Question regarding sending Chase to tests.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yes, he's low man, but at the same time there's certain test sessions that have come up that really could be useful for him. Getting those reps, having the seat time. Now once we get into the Goodyear tire tests, other really meaningful test sessions, even if the driver is a little grumpy about losing a day or two to testing, the driver's team, the driver's engineers, crew chiefs, Oh, hey, we want that.
We're trying to be aware of and let him get as many reps as we can. At the same time balance it all out. We towed out to Vegas to get that done because we felt like we needed a veteran driver there to start the year. It's something important to our race team because KOBALT is sponsoring the event. We're very intentional with what we're doing and how we're using the dates.
We're finding ways to haze Chase.
Q: Anything particular you want to share?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: We have to wait a few more months until he turns 21, then it's an open gate. It's like we're dealing with a minor in some respects. So we're going easy on him.
Q: How impressed are you with him? Jeff's car, his dad. That's a lot.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: It is. Thankfully his dad is Bill Elliott. Thankfully he's grown up in these motorhome lots, at the tracks, on the road. He's watched his father have great success. He's got a very, very good pulse on things.
We all see it and we all know he's going to do a very good job.
Q: How strange is it that Jeff Gordon isn't out there anymore?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: It is strange, but I still haven't raced against the 24 yet, so I don't know exactly. But it was really weird seeing a picture of him posted. I think I saw it on Twitter. He was standing around the 24 car with Chase and Alan. The car was on pole. Jeff was standing there in street clothes. I never thought I would see that.
There's been some weird, but there's more weird coming.
Q: (No microphone.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I guess competition is why. You're worried about your own stuff. You have your own issues going on. Your head is in a certain spot. You don't know this other guy that's your neighbor in the motorhome all that well. You start talking. He might be in a pissy mood, so are you. You don't have a good exchange.
Why am I doing this? Where is this going anyway? Who is this going to benefit? I have to worry about making my car go fast.
When we're all in a room and we see that NASCAR wants to hear what we have to say, the team owners want to hear what we have to say, this started a year and a half now, wow, we need to be aligned, people do care what we have to say.
In the environment I came into even, there was only a handful of drivers that felt comfortable enough and were established enough to walk into the truck and have those conversations. During that era, I was not one of those guys, so I didn't develop that line of communication.
So now we're in a place that it does. And sitting in the council meeting that I did the other day, I've known Denny and I've raced against him. I wouldn't know as much about him now and where his heart is if it wasn't for the council. Same with Brad.
You hear Kevin's points of view knowing he's been an owner, how he thinks about things. I'm learning more about my competitors than I ever did. So the environment we're in is I think very productive and it's great to have a voice.
Q: (No microphone.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Have to be early in the year after everybody's forgot about the previous years, yeah. It might work.
Q: They say drivers, even if you all get to know each other better, you can't get too close. Is that true?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: You can't. It's tough. I don't know. There's some weird energy there that you only get so close. You're closer to teammates, form deeper relationships and bonds with. But competition does things that you don't even realize.
I mean, you put your best foot forward to be open, but competition does strange things.
Q: (No microphone.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: 100%. I maybe said it a little differently. I said, Once he learns how to win a race, he's never going to stop. Once he learns how to win championships, he's never going to stop.
I feel like he has more championships in his future for sure. I think Kevin said it perfectly. He's stood in his own way many times. He's done a lot of growing. How old is he now? 28 maybe?
Q: 30.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Is he 30? One thing I was going to try to touch on is I'm thankful I came in, my first year, I was 25, then turned 26. I can't imagine coming in at 18. I was overwhelmed at 25.
He's grown up in the spotlight.
Q: (Question about being young in NASCAR.)
JIMMIE JOHNSON: The aspect of driving the car is one dimension to a Cup driver's job duties. To your kind of question there, to manage pressure, it's easy when it's simple, when you first get started. Everybody gives you the space you need. Your sponsors, we're just going to let you find your way, the team, all of that.
After eight months go by, you get to the end of the first year, have you won and can you win? You've won, can you win again? You're 15th in points, can you be 10th? You're 10th, can you be 5th? The machine starts, and that part grinds on you and wears you down. That's the part that's hard.
I think that's why you're seeing drivers retire and step down at an earlier age. It's just the grind, it's everything. If it was just simply showing up and driving like you did your rookie year, you'd never get Stewart or Jeff Gordon out of the seat. They'd go forever.
Q: What is your role in the car dealership?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: The dealership, when I had my opportunity, was as much or as little as I wanted to participate in. With it being so far away from where home is now, it's really kind of a West Coast swing. We try to do fan club events. With our golf tournament, we've built some time to come into the dealership and be around.
I've really fallen on Rick's management group to run and operate the dealership.
Down the road someday when I retire, I would have the opportunity to be more involved if I wanted to. But schedule, proximity. My name is on it more than anything. It's really Hendrick Automotive group running it behind the scenes.
Q: You won the 500 and the championship, the biggest prizes in this sport. Does having one affect the way you feel and need to win the other?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, for sure. My first for both came in the same year. So to win my first 500, it was the first time I had a title. Way back then, it was rookie or youngster Jimmie Johnson. Then all of a sudden I would go out to driver intros, it was Daytona 500-winning driver Jimmie Johnson. This race is the only race that bestows a title on its winner.
For IndyCar, it's obviously the Indy 500.
But it's very special. Guys that are on their way to at least the Hall of Fame ballot by winning, it's not really championship related. This race is massive and can completely make a career whole for someone.
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| Kevin Harvick |
KEVIN HARVICK
Q: How many times have you watched the replay of that last lap in 2007 when you won this race? What's it like to relive that?
KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, it still gives me goosebumps every time that I see it happen because it's one of those moments where you didn't really expect to be in that position with everything that had happened 12, 15 laps before that.
I think as you see everything unfold, you see it coming to the line, then win the race. When you go back to remembering what it was like inside of the car, how excited you were, all the things you got to do the next week, it was pretty neat.
It's hard to put any race together, let alone this one. There's just so many things that have to go your way. I think that year was probably a year that you didn't think you probably had the car to win. I can think of a few years where it felt like you had the car to win and you didn't win because of something going wrong.
You never know when it's all going to line up. You have to keep trying to plug away and keep yourself in contention.
Q: How many times will you watch that last lap?
KEVIN HARVICK: I've seen it a lot.
Q: Obviously your fans were excited. Did you get any hate mail from Mark Martin fans? Any reaction from his group?
KEVIN HARVICK: I get hate mail from just about everybody's fans (laughter). But that usually means that things are going okay. The more they're hating on you, probably the better that you're doing. I've definitely learned that over the last couple years.
You know, I'm a huge Mark Martin fan, too. Seeing him have the opportunity to win the Daytona 500, not have it all play out there in the last couple hundred yards, definitely could have been a life-altering moment for him. But it was for us, too.
Somebody has to be the bad guy. In the end it's still definitely the biggest race I've ever won, one single race that I've ever won in my career.
Q: When you and him talked after that…
KEVIN HARVICK: Look, I'm going to do the Mark Martin fan deal this year, too. It's not something that we don't talk about. I think as you look at Mark, Mark is one of those guys that probably doesn't get enough credit for what he has done for this sport. Just a lot of those guys don't because of the grind and the things they went through to make their racing career what it was.
Last time I talked to him was probably two weeks ago. I told him, I said, Dude, you need to come around more.
He was like, Sometimes I don't know if I'm wanted or if I'm not wanted.
I said, You call me any time because I'm always up for a conversation with you.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]He's always got a great story, has great stories, has been a huge part of this sport.
Q: Do you remember any details about the first conversation after that race?
KEVIN HARVICK: I don't remember exactly where the first conversation about that was. I'm sure in typical Mark Martin fashion, he just looked down and shook his head.
Q: Daytona and the championship, do you think winning one of them takes the pressure off, the need to win the other is not so great? Does it matter if you've won one what the other one means?
KEVIN HARVICK: Well, it probably won't matter when you haven't done them both. Now that you have won them both, you can for sure check those off your list. I think as a driver, not having won the championship or not having won the Daytona 500, you're telling a story if you don't want to win one or the other.
It's nice and fortunate to be in the position where we have won them both because they're both unique events to win. I think as a NASCAR racer, both things that you have on your checklist that you want to accomplish.
I think as you look at the championship, I'm not sure you would trade a championship for a Daytona 500 win, but I'd say that would be a good question for Tony. He's got three, so he's got one to spare. He might trade one of those championships for a Daytona 500 win.
Q: Do you get to experience by watching tape or whatever the moment of winning the 500? The championship is more difficult to do that, right? How do you reminisce about that?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think it's definitely different than what it used to be. I think as you go through the old style, the original points system, even before the Chase, it was kind of a week-to-week thing. You built upon that.
Now over those last 10 weeks, every week is so intense because you know that any moment can end it, any moment can make it move forward. So every moment matters so much in the last 10 weeks of our season.
It's so hard to get to Homestead, and then to win the championship was very rewarding after going through those 10 weeks. I guess that's the new norm, with that intensity over the 10-week period, having going to Homestead and look like you're capable of winning the race, because that's the way it's happened over the last two years.
It's different to relate to those two scenarios, but it's an intense scenario now.
Q: (Question regarding the charter system.)
KEVIN HARVICK: I haven't personally been involved in that. I know our guys from our office and Stewart-Haas worked it out in a couple hours. It didn't seem like it was that big a deal.
I know there's a lot of guys that have expressed some concern on where they are with things. But for us, my team has kept me involved really throughout the whole process, how it was going to work.
I guess I should feel fortunate from that side of it. But there's definitely some things that have to be different from what they were, but as long as everybody was open with each other, it didn't seem like it was that big of a deal to work out.
Q: (Another question regarding the charter system.)
KEVIN HARVICK: I think everybody knew there was going to be some contractual stuff that we had to work through. For me, I wanted it to happen as openly and as quick as possible because I didn't want it to linger and have things be brought up that really didn't need to be brought up and cause tension between teams.
That was my ultimate goal. I'm not going to sit around and pinch pennies just because of the fact I think I'm being treated unfairly. I want to just be treated fairly. That was really all that I was looking for. I felt like our team did that.
I think the biggest thing throughout this whole process is seeing some stability for the team owners. I think as a sport, you look at where the TV contract put the racetracks and it put NASCAR, in general, from a stability standpoint. To see the team owners kind of get left out of that was a little bit disheartening, I guess you could say, just for the fact that I feel that's probably the most important part of this thing, is the team owners and stability, putting cars on the racetrack.
As you look at this whole process, you see some of the things that has come out of this, now the charter system, giving those owners to have something that's worth something, it's important for our sport.
Q: Do the drivers feel like they're next to be taken care of? Are you happy collectively with your position in the sport or do you think there need to be more changes to happen?
KEVIN HARVICK: Let's put it this way. I've been in this sport for a long time now. I feel like I went through it right at the tail end of its peak. I think there's a lot of challenges for the youngest generation of our sport coming through as a driver.
But I also feel like, you know, our generation of drivers has to help pave that road as to how it's going to function and how it's going to move forward. So I think there's a lot of things that have to be passed down the ladder, I guess you could say, to make sure those guys understand what they're dealing with.
Dealing from an agency side of things and seeing other sports and seeing these young athletes, seeing agents and people take advantage of people that just want to be in a position, sometimes it can ruin their career, can put them in a bad spot. I just think there's a lot of the younger guys that are in that position because they can be held over a fence I guess you could say. If you want to drive, you need to sign this.
I think there's a lot of things that need to be cleared up so that those guys don't get put in those positions moving forward.
Q: (Question regarding paying it forward.)
KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, I think hopefully as some of those guys go through their career, they want to take charge a little bit more. It just seems like our generation of guys has had to take charge of their career, has had to take charge of how things were working, understand how they were working.
Now you have this really young generation of drivers that have come in that don't really understand a lot of that. I think you can very easily be taken advantage of, so you need to understand what's going on. Some of that responsibility is going to fall on that generation's responsibility to understand what's going on. Hopefully they can receive some of that information and start to have the people around them to help them understand it so that they don't get taken advantage of.
Q: Before you got started, Dale Earnhardt was pretty much the voice of the garage. He could walk into NASCAR. Later it became Jeff Gordon. Do you feel that's your role now?
KEVIN HARVICK: I don't know that I'm 'that guy'. I think there's definitely some guys that can go in and voice their opinion. I would walk in and voice my opinion. I feel like this is as open of a sport as it's ever been with the NASCAR folks and the drivers and the communication and things that are going on.
It used to just be one guy here or there. I think that has changed. I think the landscape of that has changed a little bit with NASCAR creating the council and the drivers going in and talking about things.
The restart rule is a great example of something that evolved from a council meeting through NASCAR. I think there's a number of things that you look at. I think, heck, just something as simple as that Daytona picture out there. I don't think a lot of people even realize that that picture wasn't being taken anymore.
How are you going to relate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016, what his car looked like at the Daytona 500 compared to his dad's in 1993. You don't even have those references anymore. Just little things like that can go a long ways. I think there's a collaboration among everybody to make the sport better.
Q: Who do you feel is 'that guy'?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think you're going to be stronger if it's not just one guy. I think the days of having one guy is probably not there anymore.
Q: Do you think in Dale's day, a lot of it was for the betterment of the garage area, but also for the betterment of Dale Earnhardt?
KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, but I mean, when you look at a deal, let's just take the Chase authentics group of drivers, he was stronger with everybody. Drivers are stronger with a core group of drivers that is helping push things forward, but it's also stronger with a whole group of drivers to help push the sport forward.
You can say that Dale wanted to make himself better, but Dale also wanted to make everybody better because in the end, if he made everybody better, he was going to be stronger, too.
One person isn't going to keep this thing standing up.
Q: (No microphone.)
KEVIN HARVICK: Keelan's go-kart kind of goes in spurts. You never know what day he's going to ask to take it outside. He definitely goes out and rides it on occasion still.
Q: Who are you looking forward to hooking up with during the race?
KEVIN HARVICK: Whoever can push me the fastest (laughter).
Q: You're there at the end of every race, led the most laps, amazing season last year. How do you convert those second-place finishes to wins?
KEVIN HARVICK: I don't think there's anything missing. I think all that stuff goes in cycles. I think Phoenix is a great example. The only thing that beat us there was the rain. Can't control the rain. Knocked two valve stems off of wheels last year leading races. Blew up two motors leading races. That's six or seven races right there.
I think circumstances, there's a lot of things you can't control. We have very short memories. That's been one thing that we've preached for a long time. No matter what happened on Sunday, win or lose, we do not dwell on things at all. We're very short-term thinkers.
I think for us it's really just continuing to put yourself in position. I use this as an example. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race in Phoenix because it rained. We dominated the race all day. He was leading the Coke 600 in 2013 or '14, ran out of gas coming out of turn four and we won the race.
Those things go in cycles. You're going to have things work out, you're not going to have things work out. You're going to win races that you shouldn't win. If you can capitalize, they're almost harder when you're in position to win them all day, which is something I hadn't really learned a lot about till the last couple years because they're hard to manage. You have 42 other cars that are going to gamble to do anything they can to try to win the race.
It's really just narrow-minded, short-term thinking, move yourself ahead and try to keep putting yourself in position.
Q: (No microphone.)
KEVIN HARVICK: It's been a culture change, for sure, at Stewart-Haas Racing. I think as you look at Billy, Buga, Dax coming in to be our engineers, some of the engineers coming in to work within the organization, we have crew chiefs sitting in a circle, we have engineers sitting in a circle communicating with each other. I think that's only going to be for the betterment of the whole company, which in turn, just like the sport, you're not going to stand strong on your own. If you make everybody else around you better, it's going to make you better, as well.
Q: (No microphone.)
KEVIN HARVICK: I think when you look at that particular story, him breaking his foot, his leg, everything that happened, to come back and be competitive, have the championship work out the way that it did, I think it's obviously a hell of an accomplishment. You have to respect that and you have to look at what they did, look at that as a good story.
I think Kyle has always had the capability. I think in the past Kyle probably got in the way of Kyle. I think for all of us, we can all say that about ourselves. I think as life goes on, you mature as a person. Talent itself doesn't carry you. You have to have it all in the right place.
Q: Do you think he's more mature now?
KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think we all mature with age. I think kids have a funny way of maturing you. I think you can still have that competitive spirit and handle situations better than you probably have in the past. It makes you not only a better person, but also it makes you a better racer, because when you get all those things in balance, you start thinking about things, not putting your team in those positions to have to answer questions that are something to do with anything besides racing, those questions aren't beneficial.
You got to minimize the noise because nine times out of ten you can probably handle the noise, but it's affecting your team in a lot of different ways than it affects you.
Q: Are you still on the drivers council?
KEVIN HARVICK: I think so (laughter).
Q: How important is it for you to be on it? How important is it for the rest of the drivers that somebody like you is in it?
KEVIN HARVICK: It's hard to understand the value that you have in yourself and being in a position.
Q: What do you feel like you can add?
KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think when you're talking about the younger guys, I think it's different because of the fact that, I mean, Kyle Larson is probably the only guy that's been around anything council-wise or anything like that.
I think the more communication that there is for the younger generation or even the guys that aren't in the clique as far as one of the core teams that are performing well, if we can elevate the process of making those guys aware of what's going on or knowing what's going on or how to handle things or how you handled things, it's going to make everybody better in a more stable position.
I think just relating to some of the issues that you've heard about or seen as you've gone through the last 15 years, there's just certain fights that you don't want to pick with certain things because those battles have been long fought a long time ago.
There's a lot of enthusiasm, but sometimes there's not a lot of realistic expectation of making things happen in people that have been here for a while.
Q: (Question about having a consistent team and how difficult it is.)
KEVIN HARVICK: I think the thing about the last two years, it's made me recognize just how important team chemistry is and getting the right people in the right places. It's not that we never had the money or the parts and pieces to go be competitive, but seeing the people that I have on my team and the details that they can get out of every corner of that car, everything that we have access to, has been pretty eye-opening.
I think having a group of people that all wanted to be on the No. 4 team at SHR for me has been probably the biggest eye-opener, seeing how important it was. I knew the people were important, but seeing the chemistry in people is something you'll maybe never be able to do this again as a group of people for me and my race team, but every person there was hired by Rodney, interviewed by Rodney and Greg, and put on that team for a specific reason, and wanted to be there.
Usually you get put into somebody else's team with their people, but not in this situation. It was all built around what we wanted to build with the No. 4 car.
Q: How impressed are you with Chase Elliott?
KEVIN HARVICK: He's done a good job.
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| Kasey Kahne |
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS
DO YOU FEEL ANY KIND OF PRESSURE GOING INTO THIS YEAR?
“I feel like I want to run well and we need to run well. It all goes to preparation and I’m working with the team and the team is preparing, and things like that. So I don’t feel any pressure, but I have to run well if I want to stay in the 5 car for a long time. But you can only do what you can do at the same time. We’re working hard to have the team be where it needs to be and myself, the crew chief and the engineers communicating the right way. If we do that, I don’t see why we wouldn’t run really well."
DO YOU FEEL THAT EVERYTHING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO ME HAS HAPPENED AND THIS IS GOING TO BE A GOOD YEAR?
“I would hope. I feel like there have been plenty of ups and downs, wrong place and wrong time so often – probably since 2012 – as much as anything or at least since I left Red Bull. Hopefully those days are somewhat behind us. Bad luck is part of racing. We all have it. Some have it more than others. It’s about where you’re at on the track, the places you put yourself in and who you’re racing around, and how they respect you. Which, to me, that respect level changes with different drivers. Hopefully, it’s the same on their side as it is on mine and then we won’t have any issues."
CAN YOU COMPARE THIS YEAR TO OTHER YEARS?
“I would say it’s been fairly normal. I thought we were OK in practice, qualified OK. For a Hendrick car I felt a little slower than what I’ve been the last year, year and a half qualifying for these races. So I wasn’t pleased with that, but it is what it is. I know my car will race really well. And then in the Unlimited we had a great car, moved up through and got spun toward the end of the race. Things were going really well, and I would say that’s fairly normal for a SpeedWeeks for me."
HOW MUCH HAVE YOU AND THE OTHER DRIVERS HAD TO GO BACK TO THE AGENTS AND LOOK AT THE CONTRACTS?
“I think there are a couple areas we have to look at that the owners come to us and say these are changing so let’s look at it and figure it out. To me, basically we’re not trying to renew any contracts, we’re not trying to change any of the stuff in them other than the things that are changing on the owner side. To me, some of that is just point fund money and race winnings. It hasn’t been too big a deal for us, but I have paid close attention to what’s going on and hopefully this week we get our deal completely done."
ANY SENSE HOW THIS IS GOING TO WASH?
“Just going off of averages — which I think a lot of the owner money, the whole charter system, all of it, the purse money – a lot of that stuff is set up off of averages over the years to make the most sense for all the teams. And if I run similar to who I’ve ran probably over the last 10 years, I would say I’ll wind up making a little bit more money."
DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO RUN TRUCKS THIS YEAR?
“I don’t have any plans to run in trucks. Last year kind of came up late as well, and we were in that race at Charlotte and were able to win. That was cool. It was a highlight of my season. But I don’t have any plans to run at this point in time, but I’m going to pay attention to the truck race with their new rules. I have one Xfinity race this Saturday, and that usually changes to add one or two more. Last year I think I ran 10 NASCAR races other than Cup, and this year I plan on running one. I actually would like to spend a little more time with my Sprint Car teams. If I get an opportunity to race there, where it doesn’t affect my Cup deal, I’d like to race more Sprint Car races and things like that on the dirt. I would rather do that at this point in time and full in on the Cup stuff."
YOUR NAME COMES UP ABOUT RUNNING THE INDY 500, ESPECIALLY WITH THIS YEAR BEING THE 100TH.
“I actually thought it would be really awesome to run the 100th and be part of that. I’ve always wanted to be part of that and do some IndyCar stuff. I worked on a couple of deals, but nothing really played out. Maybe in the future there still would be an opportunity to do something. I loved watching Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, AJ Allmendinger and then Kurt Busch what they’ve done over the years. And then Jeff Gordon going back and forth with what he did last year driving the pace car. I’ve always been a huge fan of what those guys are doing."
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]DID IT GET AS FAR AS TALKING WITH TEAMS?
“It actually was more about the team and being in the right spot and things like that. It’s definitely on my radar. It’s something that could happen in the future. It didn’t really get off the ground, but I did some talking to see what was out there."
HOW IS THE OUTLOOK FOR THIS YEAR?
“I think it looks really good. The guys put a great off-season in, put a lot of work in. We ended pretty strong. Through August, we weren’t very good. Then the last two months of the year I thought we were pretty quick and pretty close to where we needed to be. We’re still working to get better, but we’re in a much better place today than we were a year ago at this time."
WHO WOULD YOUR PICK BE OF WHICH OF THESE YOUNG DRIVERS WILL HAVE THAT STAR POWER 15 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD?
“That’s tough; there’s a lot that goes into it. I think my teammate, Chase Elliott, as far as where he’s come from, where he’s going, the car he’s in now, the opportunity he has, and the person he is, I think he has as good an opportunity as anybody to do this for a long time and very successfully."
HOW DO YOU THINK HE’LL NAVIGATE THROUGH THE WHOLE FAME THING?
“I think he’ll handle it really well because that’s who he is. I think he’s grown up right. He’s had his parents behind him in a lot of ways. Bill was a fan favorite for so many years and a great race car driver. He did so much for the sport. I think Chase will be just fine with whatever is thrown at him. He just has his head on his shoulders. Not everybody has that, so it’s good to see that."
ARE YOU SURPRISED HE HASN’T WON A CHAMPIONSHIP?
“I’m not really surprised because I think that championship is so tough to win. You can have a great season all the way to the end and not win it. He’s run well, he won at a lot of the big races, he’s a great teammate. He’s right there so it could be this year. It’s not an easy task at all."
HOW GOOD DO YOU THINK HE COULD BE THIS YEAR?
“We’ll just have to wait and see. He’s ready for it. He’s had a lot of laps prior to being in a Cup car. It’s big shoes to fill. It’s been one of the best Cup cars that has been in the sport in my opinion and he has it now. He has a team behind and has a lot going for him. He might do really, really well or he might just do good. Seems like rookies run really well, the ones that are prepared. I could see Chase doing that. He definitely has it all right there in front of him."
HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THE DIGITAL DASHBOARD?
“It’s been good. It’s definitely different. You look down once in a while and you’re looking in the wrong spot. I wouldn’t want the old gauges after running it once or twice already. I like it. Keep working on it to make it simple on pit road. That’s the biggest change for me is just getting down pit road and try to be really consistent with my numbers and the speed that I want to run. Once we get that down, I see it being really good."
SOME HAVE SAID IT LAGS AND OTHERS HAVE SAID IT’S TOO RESPONSIVE.
“I think it’s too responsive at this point in time compared to my old tach. That’s just on pit road stuff, so I changed colors and lights around after the Unlimited to be prepared for the 150 on Thursday. I think we’ll keep tweaking until you get it right where you want it."
WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THE RESPONSIVENESS?
“Your foot and your eyes, you’re looking up and looking down and you’re trying not to run over the car in front of you. Your RPMs change so quickly that it’s just a little tougher to run super close to that speed limit of 55, but you don’t run 55. You run 59.5. So to not speed and not go back down to 56, it’s just a little tougher because it jumps around a little quicker. There’s just a lot going on. Our other ones were a little slower. It’s just a matter of getting used to it more than anything."
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND AT THE SHOP?
“On the Cup side, it’s definitely the sponsor stuff and some of the other commitments you have changes the amount of time you have working with the guys on the race car. There is a little more what a driver will do at a sprint car shop than at a Cup shop."
WHO IS YOUR GO-TO GUY TO SPEAK TO?
“One thing I like to do is work out hard and get my mind off things. I would say the guy I would talk to the most is my buddy Brad Sweet. He’s raced some NASCAR stuff, some sprint car stuff and he understands what I have going on at times."