Ford NASCAR Media Day (Morning Session Quotes)

NASCAR Media Day got underway today with all of the drivers in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series taking questions from the media. Below are
comments from the morning session with featured Ford drivers.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – ARE YOU THE DESIGNATED TESTER AS
FAR AS THIS NEW RULE ABOUT BUMP DRAFTING? “Yeah, I’m gonna test it.
I’m gonna push until somebody spins out. That’s the only way to find
out. We all know. We’re drivers. We know what the limits are. Now
that NASCAR has said, ‘We’re not gonna be the limit,’ the limit
becomes when the guy in front of you spins out – when you push him too
much – so we have to regulate that ourselves. Just like at Talladega
when Carl spun me out in the middle of the corner and we wrecked a
bunch of cars, that was the limit. NASCAR wasn’t enforcing the no
bump-drafting and we all wrecked, so we know that’s the limit. Now we
don’t have to worry about NASCAR, we can just ride on that limit.”
ARE YOU MORE COMFORTABLE NOW WITH THIS RULE? “Yes. I’m more
comfortable. I may be a little more nervous with some of the other
people that I’m gonna be racing with – they don’t maybe quite know
what the limit is – and, let’s face it, as a race car driver, we test
the limit every lap, whether we’re at California or Vegas. We drive
down in the corner as fast as we can until the car slides. It’s loose
or it’s tight and then we come in and work on it, so we’re technically
testing the limit every lap. But when you talk about testing the
limit at a restrictor plate track, that’s different. Testing the
limit becomes, ‘How much can you push that guy in front of you?’ And
the limit becomes when he takes off upside-down. That’s the limit.
There’s gonna be more action, which, because people are gonna be
testing that limit and pushing more, so it’s gonna be a little bit
more aggressive and a little bit more action, and, inevitably, maybe
another accident or two along the way.” IF THINGS GET TOO WILD DURING
THIS WEEK DO YOU FORESEE NASCAR STEPPING IN AND TELLING YOU GUYS TO
CALM DOWN? “I perfectly see them telling people to calm down, but I
don’t think we’ll see them come in and take some of it back. There’s
nothing wrong with saying, ‘Calm down.’ They may do that on the radio
during the race. They’ve done that in practice. They’ve said, ‘Hey
guys, back it down a little bit. We know you haven’t been in a car
for four months, but back it off a notch.’” WHAT ABOUT SELF-POLICING.
HOW DOES THAT WORK? “Like I said, it’s going to work because the
self-police part is until that guy in front of you spins out or
somebody causes a wreck because that’s the police point. The idea is
to push the guy in front of you, or guys in front of you, or go as
fast as you can go until something happens. That’s what racing is
about.” WHY DIDN’T IT WORK BEFORE? “Because they saw accidents like
Talladega, where Carl turned me around. All of our accidents come
from trying to push in the corner because the Laws of Physics – if you
look at the car going around the corner – think about when you took an
off ramp fast. You’re going around there pretty darn fast, maybe
faster than you should be going, now if a guy pushes you in the back,
what’s gonna happen? It’s probably not gonna be good, so you can do
it very lightly. NASCAR felt like they wanted to step in and say,
‘Guys, quit pushing in the corner like that,’ and then we quit pushing
in the corner and everybody was all mad about it and said the race was
boring. So NASCAR said, ‘OK, fine. You guys can do what you want.
Police yourself,’ so we’re gonna go back to policing ourselves.” ARE
YOU SURPRISED WITH ALL THE CHANGES TO TRY AND STIR THINGS UP? “Yeah,
to try and give us a little more throttle response, to give us more
bump drafting and let us police it. Putting the spoiler back on the
race car is gonna turn this world around. I drove the car at Texas
with a spoiler on it and the car acts completely different in my eyes.
Now, I was by myself. Maybe when you get other cars around it’ll be
the same, I don’t know. But when I put the spoiler on I felt it was
different.” HOW? “It turns better on corner exit. The car is a
little bit like, not looser but when it gets loose it turns better.
That is a characteristic of the spoiler and that’s what these cars, I
think, need and I think it’ll make the racing a lot better.” IS IT
TRUE PEOPLE WILL SPIN MORE IN QUALIFYING OR A LESS FOREGIVING CAR? “I
think it will. Yes.” SO WILL IT AFFECT QUALIFYING? “Not so much.
People spin out in qualifying. Let me raise my hand. I wrecked at
Dover qualifying. I watched Dale Jarrett wreck at Charlotte
qualifying. Michael McDowell at Texas. We know that’s testing the
limit. We’re going as fast as we can. In qualifying they say, ‘Put
your helmet on, strap in, and go as fast as you can without making a
mistake.’ ‘OK, let me try.’ I mean, that’s what we do. That’s what
qualifying is and sometimes we get over the edge and sometimes we
don’t, but we’re trying to get as close to the edge as we can with
what the car will do. Some cars will do more than other cars.” DO
YOU THINK WE’LL SEE DRIVERS PUSHING THE LIMIT TODAY IN SHOOTOUT
PRACTICE? “Yeah, I’m ready to go. I can’t wait to strap in and go.
That’s what this is gonna be about. Now, keep in mind, Daytona has
been very hard to bump draft in the corner already. It’s hard because
the corners are really rough. You watch the cars and stand down in
there in the corner and really look at the car, the car moves up and
down a lot, so we never really bump drafted in the corner here that
much. We could at Talladega because Talladega is like a piece of
glass. You can push all the way around there, easy. But here, we
never really could, but this is always good racing. Why would we
expect anything different than good racing?” WHAT ABOUT THE NEW PLATE
SIZE? “Closing rates are gonna be more, put a little bit more drag in
the car so the car is gonna have a lot more acceleration. You’re
gonna be able to push the guy better because you’re gonna have more
throttle. So when you get behind a guy and not have that air on you,
but have more power, you’ll be able to push better. We’re gonna be
getting it.” HOW DO YOU BEAT JIMMIE AND WIN THE TITLE? “I don’t
know. Find him in a dark alley? We’re all just trying so hard. I
don’t want to sound like a broken record, but we’ve got our cars
lighter a little bit. We’ve got a little more downforce on the car –
10, 20, 30 pounds of downforce in the car. We found a front geometry
that creates a little more jacking force, and we think the engineer
guys like it. We have revolutionized into a newer, better bump stop
that we think is gonna be better. We’ve been working hard on our pit
crew. We’ve got the FR9 Ford engine coming along, so you take all
those things and scoop them up and we say that’s what’s gonna beat
Jimmie Johnson this year.” IS THE SPOILER THE GREAT EQUALIZER? “We
hope that, besides all that we’ve done, when the spoiler comes that it
takes a little bit different setup, it takes a little bit different
spring combination, maybe a little bit different shocks, different
attitude of the car. We didn’t have enough time to mess with that.
Kind of like throwing the towel and starting over a little bit, we
hope that will kind of give everybody a chance to start figuring it
out over again.” HAVE YOU INCORPORATED SOME OF THOSE CHANGES BECAUSE
OF RPM? “Absolutely. Some of those geometries, some of those bump
stops, some of that downforce has been a combination of what’s
everybody doing. Let’s face it. Anytime you take two good
organizations – that Evernham/Gillett/Petty technology, which was
three organizations put into one – come in with the Roush Fenway
organization – we’ve been able to shed some light on their stuff and
they’ve been able to shed light on our stuff, so, certainly, it’s
gonna be better for both of us.” DO YOU EXPECT THE SHORT TRACK RACES
TO BE MORE ENTHUSIASTIC? “It could be. I don’t know that the rule
really intended for those race tracks to be a lot different. I felt
it was more of the restrictor plate racing that they’re gonna kind of
relax on a little bit, but we’re already pushing and shoving at those
places.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON COMING TO DAYTONA FOR THE FIRST
TIME? “I remember going, ‘This is huge. This is my opportunity.’
Actually, the very first time I came here I had a really fast car and
my engine blew up in the 150 and I didn’t make it, so that was
disappointing because I had a good car. The second time I came here I
made it and ever since then I’ve been in the points, but that’s my
first memory of it. And then coming here, was it my second full year
when we sat on the pole for the 500, so that was pretty neat.”
PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE
WEARING RICHARD PETTY’S COLORS? “It’s cool. They’ve got cool
clothes. The shop is looking good, so it’s coming along.” WHAT DO
YOU THINK ON THE CHANGEOVER? “It’s gone a lot smoother than I
expected. It’s been a quick off-season with the way they had to change
shops, go up to Statesville, and now they’re in the process of going
back to Concord with the new shop being re-modeled. That’s all
getting finished up, but at the same time things are getting done
efficiently, so that’s all you can ask for. I think we’ve built some
pretty good Fords to bring down to Daytona.” WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
SLUGGER LABBE AS YOUR NEW CREW CHIEF? “Slugger is a go-getter. He’s
on the chip and he works hard. He’s a lot of fun to be around and we
got to spend a lot of time together this off-season, but I’m looking
forward to getting to know him even better.” DOES RUNNING THE ROLEX
HELP KNOCK OFF THE COBWEBS? “Anytime you’re in a race car it’s a good
thing. I got to log some laps around Daytona. The track is as rough
as ever, so it should be a lot of fun to race in the 150s and the 500,
but anytime you’re in the car you’re physically getting prepared for
the next race. You can do all you can during the off-season in the
gym, but when you get in the race car, that’s when your mind sharpens
and you get ready to go.” DO YOU RACE GO-KARTS? “I do, but it’s hard
to do with snow on the ground in North Carolina. I have a few karts
and I’m in the process of getting them fixed. I’ve got minor problems
with both of them.” DOES RUNNING A GO-KART HELP YOU PHYSICALLY? AJ
ALLMENDINGER SAID IT DOES. “I think anybody that runs a kart or
anything in the off-season is gonna have an advantage over the people
that didn’t. If he (AJ Allmendinger) has been running his kart, then
he’ll have that little edge on all of us until we get to probably the
second or third race of the year, but, luckily, Daytona is not that
physical of a track, so we’ll all get up to speed quickly.” HOW HAVE
YOU HANDLED ALL THE ADJUSTMENTS THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS WITH YOUR
RACE TEAM AND MOVING AROUND FROM YEAR TO YEAR? “The off-season
changes, of course, but there are a lot of the same people coming
over. It’s all part of the ballgame, so it’s all in the name of
making progress.” WILL RUNNING NATIONWIDE FULL-TIME HELP YOUR CUP
EFFORT? “I think just logging laps around the tracks that we’re gonna
race on Sunday. It’s been a couple years since I’ve run full-time in
the series, but running part-time last year opened my eyes to how
racing Saturday helps you on Sunday. It’s a long schedule for sure.
There are a handful of races where we’re traveling back and forth,
where it might be more of a hindrance than an advantage, but, at the
end of the year, if we’re up there in points it’ll be a good year.”
WITH THE CUP CAR GOING BACK TO A SPOILER LATER THIS YEAR WILL RUNNING
NATIONWIDE GIVE YOU AN EDGE? “Probably not, just because the cars
mechanically are so different, but when the Nationwide car runs the
COT full-time in 2011, I think you’ll see a lot more guys jumping back
and forth because the cars are very similar. They’ll run the same
chassis. The bodies are a little bit different, but you can learn
things from that.” WHAT’S THE FORCE BEHIND RUNNING NATIONWIDE
FULL-TIME THIS YEAR? “Seeing how that helped on Sunday. Friday is
kind of a pain the butt because you’re jumping back and forth and you
don’t have the time to concentrate on both cars, but when Saturday
rolls around and you strap into the race in the Nationwide car, you
can just focus on what you need to do to get around the track –
different grooves, how the track is racing, and then you can apply
that on Sunday.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GOING TO ROAD AMERICA THIS
YEAR? “Road America, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, is
my favorite race track. I’m looking forward to it because it’s a cool
part of the country. It’s a shame we can’t be in Milwaukee with the
history that track has, but Road America is turning a new page and I’m
looking forward to it.” DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A TITLE CONTENDER IN
NATIONWIDE? “I don’t even know who is racing full-time. I know Carl
is, but I’m not sure who else. Roush Fenway is a strong team. Carl
has won a lot of races with them, and they won with David (Ragan) last
year. Every team there won last year, so we’ve got to keep that
streak alive.” DAYTONA SPRINGS OPTIMISM. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AS
SPEEDWEEKS BEGINS? “We’ll know a lot when we unload on Friday, but
Slugger assures me that we have a fast car, and with the way the Fords
ran on plate tracks last year, I know we will. Daytona is still a
restrictor plate track, but you still have to handle. At the end of
the day, you know you’re gonna be in a big pack all day long and
you’ve got to dodge the spinning cars. California and Vegas will be a
truer test of how the year is gonna go, but, like I said before, we’re
just really happy with the way things have progressed between Richard
Petty Motorsports and the merger with Yates, and with the alliance of
all the Ford teams working under one umbrella. It’s a cool thing.”
DOES THE 500 HAVE ANY SPECIAL MEMORY? “It’s always the kickoff to a
new year. I grew up in Wisconsin, so there was always about three
feet of snow on the ground. We couldn’t do a whole lot of racing,
unless it was on ice, but every Daytona 500 Sunday my dad, me and all
the guys in our family would sit down and watch the race.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 37 Long John’s Silver Ford Fusion – WHAT IS YOUR
MAIN GOAL THIS SEASON WITH A NEW TEAM? “More than anything we just
want to run competitively – take our bad days and just finish, and the
days where we have a good car, shoot for a top 10 or a top 15.
Realistically, I think our goals are to run in the top 20 and if we
can finish 20th-25th in points, I think it would be a good season for
us and then try to elevate that and do a better job in 2011.” HOW
WILL THE SPOILER CHANGE THE CAR ON THE TRACK? “I guess we’re not
really sure until we get out there and compete against each other, but
the preliminary reports say it makes the car a little looser and puts
front downforce on the car. I think that’s definitely something these
cars need. These cars, typically in the past, have always been kind
of tight in the middle of the corner. You turn down in and then right
at the apex they kind of quit turning, so if we can do something to
help those front ends turn a little bit, I think that’s a good thing.
I’m sure NASCAR has worked very hard in the windtunnel to make the
spoiler feel as close to the wing as they can when we implement it and
get going. Hopefully, there’s nothing major that’s different. I hope
it’s all relatively close to the wing. I think it looks a lot better
and I think a lot of the fans think it looks a lot better, and if it
helps the race cars turn a little bit, I think that’s great.” CAN YOU
EXPLAIN HOW YOUR TEAM IS ALIGNED FOR SPEEDWEEKS VERSUS THE REST OF THE
SEASON? “We shuffled them around a little bit. I’m gonna be driving
the 34 car with Long John Silver’s on it all season long with the
exception of Daytona. I’m gonna drive the 37 ExtenZe car. That’s his
car and he’s gonna drive that all season, but he wasn’t approved by
NASCAR to run the 2.5-mile speedway. He didn’t have enough experience
to do that, so they moved me over to his car. They had an open seat,
and John Andretti had some sponsorship with him and he has a great
relationship with this team, so he slid into the 34. Robert
Richardson is gonna drive the 38 here with the sponsorship he brought,
and then David Gilliland is gonna drive it in California and most of
the races from there on out.” WILL YOU TAKE YOUR TEAM OVER TO THE 37
OR JUST YOU? “We actually switched drivers. That’s the best way to
explain it. John Andretti was gonna do the Shootout with the 34 car,
and it was just gonna be hard for John to work with Steven Lane for
the Shootout and then have Steven Lane work with me for the 500 week
and be shuffling back and forth. We just decided to keep John with
the 34 bunch and me with the 37 bunch. The only negative that can
come out of that is if I finish really poorly, Kevin Conway is gonna
have my points, and if John Andretti finishes really poorly, I’m gonna
have his points. It’s kind of nice to be in control. If I go out and
run 43rd, well I know that’s the hand I dealt myself, but if John
Andretti does that, it stinks and I have to go pick up the pieces.
But John is gonna do a good job and I’ll do a good job for Kevin. We
all know we’re gonna do the best we can, so, really, this is probably
the easiest way to do it.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – HOW WILL IT BE TO HAVE
THAT YATES HORSEPOWER? ” You’re gonna be pushing down even harder
because you know what’s under your right foot. It was something that
for the last three races of the season last year I got to feel, and
when you’ve got Doug Yates building your horsepower and everybody at
that engine shop, you know getting in the race car that’s something
that you don’t have to worry about. That’s not on your mind like,
‘Man, do I have enough horsepower?’ You know you’ve got the
horsepower there and it just makes your job a little bit easier. It
took us last year from running 15th-20th to running 8th-12th – just by
putting a bigger motor in our race car. That was something that you
know coming to Daytona you’re not gonna have to worry about.” IS
THERE ANY WAY OF QUANTIFYING HOW MUCH THOSE THREE RACES HAVE HELPED AS
FAR AS PREPARING FOR THIS SEASON? “It was a big deal. We’ve changed
our race cars a little bit to try and make them better with being part
of the Ford Racing family, trying to take all of the resources that we
had there to make our race cars better, but just getting there and
doing those three races, I think it relaxed everybody just a little
bit. Elliott got to run it at Talladega. He was fast there and
almost won the race there, and it was a big deal to show our team,
‘OK, this is where we can be already, and now we need to improve from
there.’ We took those notes from those three races, kept fine-tuning
and tried to make our cars better coming into this season. We come to
Daytona and Daytona is its own race. I think once we get past this
race, I know we’re gonna have a great opportunity to go out there and
try to win the 500, but once you get to Fontana that’s really when the
season starts, so I’m really looking forward to that.” GREG BIFFLE
WAS SAYING THERE ARE ALREADY THINGS THAT YOU GUYS WERE DOING LAST YEAR
THAT THEY’VE INCORPORATED AT ROUSH FENWAY. IS THAT RECIPROCAL? “Of
course. Roush Fenway is one of the best organizations around in Cup
racing and has been for the last how-many years, but, obviously, they
weren’t where they wanted to be last year either. Hopefully, we can
help them a little bit and, for them, hopefully they can help us. I
think we’re gonna see that. We’re taking notes from both race
organizations to try and make everybody’s car a lot better. For me,
still being fairly young at this, yeah, it’s coming into my fourth
year but I’ve only had 2.5 years of racing, so with that stable of
drivers they have over there and the guys I’ve got to work with at
Richard Petty Motorsports, it’s just gonna help me all-around inside
and out of the race car. I’m gonna get better talking to guys like
Greg and Carl and David and Matt. Obviously, that experience with
Kasey last year helped me a ton and, hopefully, in return I can do
some things that they learn from and I can help them. But I know
right away that they’re gonna help me more than I’m gonna help them.”
DO YOU FEEL ANYTHING SPECIAL PRESSURE DRIVING THE 43 CAR? “Of course,
and I’ve always been the one to put the most pressure on myself. This
just adds a little bit of it, but, at the same point, being part of
Best Buy and knowing what they’ve meant to this sport, it’s just
everything. I know that this really is my best opportunity this
season to go out there and shine and show them what I can do. I’m in
the 500. We’ve got the full season locked in. We’re ready to go and
I know this is my best chance. I try not to put too much pressure on
myself, but the end result is I always do. But knowing that I’m in
the 43 it’s an honor for me just to be a part of Richard Petty
Motorsports, but now to be in the 43 and to have Richard personally
pick me to be in his race car, it’s an honor. I’m a big auto racing
fan. I’m probably as big of a fan as I am a driver and I love the
history of this sport. The 43 is probably the biggest history that it
has, along with the 3, so it just means so much and I want to go out
there and represent Richard in and out of the race car the best that I
can. I’m not speaking on his behalf, but, to me, I know that if I
could get the 43 back in Victory Lane it would mean the world to him.
He was in Victory Lane last year with Kasey, but I think to get his
own number back into Victory Lane would mean so much to him. Whether
I go out there and win one race for him or 100 races, to get that 43
back in Victory Lane would mean the world to me. It would be
something whether I won a ton of races or I never won again, I could
take that and just be proud I was able to accomplish that.” JUST
DON’T WIN MORE THAN 200. HE MIGHT GET A LITTLE MAD. “If I could get
a quarter of the way or a third, I would be OK with it. (laughing)”
DO YOU RECALL YOUR FIRST TRIP TO DAYTONA? “It was just nerve-wracking
in general. Coming to Daytona, the history of this place, what it
means to be in the 500. I spent three years trying to be in the show
and last year, luckily, made it. For two years I had to go through
watching driver introductions, watching all the famous people and know
that technically I wasn’t a part of it because I was just another fan
being around there, I was wasn’t in the show. Last year, to finally
be a part of it and to go through the whole day on Sunday – waking up
and doing the sponsor things, going through the autograph sessions,
driver intros, driver’s meeting, just everything – getting to see
everybody that is a part of this great race it was just so cool. I
can’t really describe into words what it felt like, but I’m never
gonna lose that feeling. Everytime I come back here it’s gonna be the
same thing. I’m just happy now I don’t have to fight to get into the
show anymore because that was the most gut-wrenching, mind-numbing,
just the worst thing as a race car driver I’ve ever had to go through.
So I’m happy I get to skip that part, but still be part of the show.”
DID YOU DO ANYTHING FUN IN THE OFF-SEASON? “I tried to race some
go-karts. That was supposed to be fun, but I got my butt kicked a lot
by a lot of 15 and 16-year-olds. That was at the PRI show in Orlando
and here for WKA kart week. That was awful. I’ve already told my
race team, I said, ‘We need to have a good year because between
December I got my butt whooped enough by people. I don’t want to
experience that anymore. I’ve already had enough of that this year,
so that was supposed to be fun. It wasn’t a lot of fun, but I’m not a
vacation guy. I don’t like going on vacation. I like working out. I
feel like I’m always active. If I could drive something everyday of
my life I would, so I got to do some go-karting, a little bit of
testing and obviously did the Rolex, so, to me, that’s my fun.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – THOUGHTS ON BUMP
DRAFTING. “I think NASCAR probably not regulating the bump draft
stuff as much is probably fine. I think there’s still gonna be rough
driving penalties if you have that, just like there is at every race,
and, really, the drivers do a pretty good job of policing themselves.
You’ve got to race with these guys for 38 weeks and you’re not gonna
go out and try to wrong somebody on purpose, or try to cause the wreck
or do any of that stuff anyway. You’re, hopefully, gonna stop before
you get to that edge no matter what track you’re at and where you’re
racing because nobody wants to wreck and nobody wants to get wrecked.
You’re gonna race everybody as hard as you can race them without going
over that edge anyway.” YOU’VE HAD A YEAR TO DIGEST WHAT HAPPENED
HERE WHEN YOU WON. HOW DOES IT LOOK TODAY? “Speedweeks last year was
really weird because it was really frustrating for me all week, and
then obviously it was the best it could have possibly been in the 500.
We missed the wreck. We had a great handling car and started in the
back and worked our way all the way to the front, so the 500 was
obviously great for us. So it was an interesting week. It took three
cars and every single different thing we could think of setup-wise. I
mean, the cars just didn’t drive how I wanted them to in the Shootout
and the 150, and all week in practice we just really struggled, but
finally got it right for the 500. I hope it’s not that hard this
year, but I hope we have the same result. It was a total team effort
all week to continue to work on the stuff to try to get it to drive
like we wanted it to.” AFTER GETTING WRECKED IN THE 150, DREW MADE
THE DECISION TO GO WITH THE BACK-UP ON THE TRUCK AS OPPOSED TO YOUR
SUGGESTION OF BRINGING BACK THE SHOOTOUT CAR FROM THE PREVIOUS WEEK.
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AT THAT POINT WITH A ROOKIE CREW CHIEF? “These
cars aren’t like the old car as much. All of these cars are pretty
close to the same and they’re easier to duplicate than what they were
before, and the Shootout car, I thought, ran pretty good. I didn’t
really know what the back-up car was, but I knew it was third in his
order of what he thought was the best, so I thought we would run our
second-best car instead of our third-best car, if we had the chance to
bring that car back. But with the repairs and all they had to make, I
guess that was hard to get done, so it all turned out in the end.”
WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL REACTION WHEN YOU HEARD THEY CALLED THE RACE AND
YOU HAD WON THE 500? “I was happy. In these kind of races you never
know what’s gonna happen. I felt good if we didn’t go back to green
because our car was really fast and we worked our way to the front,
but yet in a plate race you never know. You’ve got to be in the right
place at the right time and you’ve got to be hooked up in the right
draft, so you don’t know what’s gonna happen. I was pretty relieved
and pretty surprised and excited that we were gonna end up winning
it.” AFTER THE FIRST TWO RACES OF LAST YEAR IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE A
SHOE-IN FOR THE CHASE. HOW DISAPPOINTED WERE YOU WITH HOW THINGS
WENT? “It was really disappointing. After California we were on the
way home and I’ve been around long enough to know that nothing is for
sure, but yet before last year we made the chase every year and even
sometimes without winning any races. So to be able to come out of the
box and win the first two, and one of them being a plate race, I
wasn’t even really considering we were gonna fall out of the top 12 in
points with as consistent as we usually are, and then to go to Vegas
and break on the first lap and finish last, that was really kind of a
reality check to say the least. It was just really difficult from
there on out. We could never really get everything to go exactly
right.” HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO PINPOINT WHAT THE PROBLEMS WERE? “I
don’t think it’s one thing. If I had to pick out the main thing is
that our cars weren’t fast enough. If we unloaded faster as an
organization, as a group, as a team every Friday when we got to the
track, I think we probably would have made the chase and ran better.
But because our cars weren’t very fast, if we didn’t do everything
exactly perfect on race day, we didn’t get good finishes at all and we
didn’t finish nearly good enough to make it. So when you have good
running cars, you can afford to make a couple of mistakes or maybe not
get as good a fuel mileage or maybe not do everything quite right on
race day and still recover and get an OK finish, and then you know
your stuff runs good enough. Whereas, the next week you’ll get a
better finish and make up some of those points. Well, our stuff
wasn’t like that. If we did everything perfect this year, we’d finish
12th-16th or something like that, and if we didn’t, we were 25th. Our
stuff just didn’t run good enough.” WHAT CONCERNS DO YOU HAVE WITH
THE NEW ENGINE PACKAGE? “I didn’t run the new engine at Homestead. I
ran it at Talladega and that was it. As far as I know, we have one in
here for practice and qualifying, but I don’t think we’re gonna race
one here, either. I know that they’re not quite ready to run them
full-time yet. I’m looking forward to when they do get it done and we
can start running it full-time, but I think that’s gonna be a little
while down the road.” HOW FRUSTRATING WAS LAST YEAR FOR YOU AFTER
YOUR PREVIOUS CONSISTENCY? “Really, 2008 and 2009 have probably been
two of the most frustrating years of my career, honestly, and last
year was really frustrating. Even though we started off so good, it
was really just a weird year because we were just brimming with
confidence after California, obviously, and then about two or three
months in we just couldn’t get anything to go right. It was just
really frustrating for a lot of different reasons and at a lot of
different levels, so I’m hoping that this year is not a repeat of that
for sure. I feel we’ve hopefully gotten smarter, and this being our
second year with Drew and Chip and me working together – all three of
us – we’ll improve on a lot of that stuff and come out of the box
stronger and make better decisions and get better finishes.” DO YOU
HAVE A SENSE OF WHERE YOU GUYS ARE IN 2010? “We’ve changed a lot of
things, so if we don’t run better it’s not from a lack of trying
because we certainly changed a lot of things. I think we’ve improved
our cars a lot. We’ve tried to look over everything and make it
better for everybody, but, to be honest, you don’t really know where
you’re at until you get four or five weeks into the season. With no
off-season testing and with these cars as tight as all the tolerances
and rules are, we don’t really know where we’re gonna be at until we
get into the meat of the season.” AS THE DEFENDING 500 WINNER, WHAT
ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE WHO WANT TO WIN IT ONE DAY? “Well, I
want to win it again so I wouldn’t give them any advice (laughing).
We tried for a long time. We’ve had a lot of years down here where we
actually ran pretty good and there was one year in particular where I
thought we definitely, for sure, had the car to win hands-down and got
crashed out. So we’ve had some good cars. We’ve had some
opportunities to win and get good finishes down here, but never really
did it until last year. It’s the biggest race of the year, but you
have to approach it like any other race.” DOES MOVING TO FOUR CARS
HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE ORGANIZATION? “I think the way things
are set up with Ford Racing and with the Petty-Yates merger and all
that stuff, we didn’t really downsize from what I see. We did in the
shop, and made some more room in the shop, and they changed the way
things work there because we only have four cars under that roof, so I
think if we didn’t have any alliances with any other teams that it
would maybe change things a little bit and I’m not sure if it would be
positive or negative, to be honest with you. There are benefits about
being big, but there are also a lot of drawbacks about being too big –
a lot of drawbacks about being too big, in my opinion. I know
business-wise it’s better. If everything is going perfect, you have
more people to draw information from and all that kind of stuff, but
there are also some drawbacks with it, too. I don’t really foresee it
changing things a lot from where we were.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – NOTE: David Gilliland
will debut in the No. 38 Tack Bell Ford Fusion at California and
compete in 33 races with Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING ASSOCIATED WITH YATES RACING AGAIN? “It’s
awesome. I really, really enjoyed working with Travis when I was at
Yates and now we’re at Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing and
back in the 38, so it’s got a lot of good ingredients here. I’m
excited about it. I’m really looking forward to it and feel good
about our chances. It’s gonna be a building year. Front Row
Motorsports has gone from one team to three teams and it’s gonna take
a little bit of time, but I feel like we have everything we need to
have a successful season.” WHAT DO YOU SEE WITH THIS ORGANIZATION
THAT MAKES YOU SO OPTIMISTIC? “Bob Jenkins is a great guy. He’s
definitely got the desire to go out and be competitive and run well
week in and week out, and that’s what I want to do. Travis and I have
kind of gotten kicked around a little bit and we’re in a rebuilding
process as well, so all of us together feel like if we all pull
together, we can make some great things happen.”