Big weekend. Obviously it always is this time of year for you and your team. Wanted to ask you first, I know you don’t usually do a whole lot of differing paint schemes, but this weekend at Lowe’s it’s a little bit different. And what’s happening this year with the 48 at the 600?
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JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, this year Lowe’s is going to run a special paint scheme, as you mentioned. And what’s really cool about it is we’re going to be honoring obviously the servicemen and women and especially the ones that work inside the Lowe’s stores and for Lowe’s. There will be 12,000 names on the hood and deck hood of the car of veterans or enlisted servicemen and women that work for Lowe’s right now.
So just a fun event altogether. I have a lot of good luck with the special paint scheme at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and I hope it comes together for a victory for us on Sunday night.
Q Jimmie, tell us about your overall record at Lowe’s. The other night you showed some flashes of brilliance maybe getting that edge back before you got turned around. Just wondered, at one time you seemed to have a very clear – cut edge at Lowe’s. Do you think in the last couple of years that maybe you and Chad have lost that edge, or was it just circumstances? And do you foresee, do y’all have a package that might get it back this weekend?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I think more than anything, when they resurfaced the track, it made the track much more forgiving and the setup that worked so well for us didn’t give us an edge at the track. The track was a little rough, abrasive, and our shop package and the line – I also feel a big part of our success was there’s a must – take line in 3 and 4 that I can always set our car up to run.
As soon as I would hit that spot, I’d fly through 3 and 4 and pass two cars at a time sometimes through there. So with the new surface, it changed the track and it also took away that edge, and I think made the track a little bit more forgiving in some respects.
It’s been tough to get a comfortable tire on the car with the speeds we’ve been running. I think we’re there now. The speeds are so high and the track is – they almost did too good of a job repaving the track, and it took away the advantage that we had.
Q Jimmie, can you talk about the endurance aspects of this race, and, you know, we have so many people running headlines and doing stories but obviously people who are not in the race car. Can you put in perspective, you’ve been successful at this race, the endurance part of it?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, definitely takes more out of you. It’s a longer event. You’ve got to focus a lot on hydration. You need to eat during the course of the race to make sure you have energy for the end of it when it really matters.
I mean, in today’s driver lineup, everybody’s doing some type of training. Guys that are running the Nationwide races and Cup races, it shouldn’t be a big stretch for them. But in general we all prepare for it and it’s not really that big of a deal.
I think it’s more of a mental thing that our minds are programmed for 500 miles and when you hear halfway and you look up at the scoreboard and you realize you’ve gone 300 and you’ve got 300 to go, it’s kind of a mental thing that you have to focus on.
Q Following up on what Claire just asked, can you also talk about the importance of your pit crew and Chad and the longer race versus 3–, 400–mile races?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: The strategy changes some. So from the pit box, the guys have to focus on that. There’s certainly going to be more pit stops with the longer event. I think with the old track it was much more difficult for the crew members because whenever the pits were open we took tires. It was a lot like Atlanta.
Now the track we can go – from what I saw the other night, some guys went two or three stops on the left side tires at the All-Star Race. I think the repetition may be down because of the tire and the surface combination, but it’s a long race.
It’s been a long couple of weeks at home. It’s fun. There’s a lot of energy. But at the same time it’s all draining on the system. So I think that everybody will be excited to run the race, but when it’s done, take Monday off, sleep in and charge the batteries and get ready for the next one.
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Q I just wanted to know, do you feel like personally that your driving style is more suitable for a longer race like the 600s or more of a sprint type of race like the All-Star Race?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: You know, during my career I’ve had to work harder on qualifying and harder on sprints than anything. I feel that where I am now I can do both really well. But in the early years of my Cup career, definitely the longer races worked better. I think we showed that. Our stats would also reflect that as well.
I still think the 600 race is a good race for us. That’s what we’re known for, for the long, grinding races and always staying on top of the adjustments for the car. Hopefully we can do that again and make it happen this weekend.
Q And is the 600 too long, in your opinion, and do you think there should be other races that long?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: You know, it’s a popular question. I do agree in general that we can shorten up a lot of the races. I do like the 600-mile race from a history standpoint. And I also like the challenge, to work on the car all night long. Start in the day, go to the night, the longer race, all the aspects that come with it.
Especially with the old track, when you finish 600 miles at the old Lowe’s Motor Speedway you knew you accomplished something. In that respect I like it.
At the end of the day we need to make sure we have the audience captured for a period of time and keep their interest. If it was shortened because we needed to do that to help with the fan base, I would understand that. But I’d like to keep it at 600, if we could.
Q Jimmie, two completely different questions for you. First, can you tell me something funny about Mark Martin that you’ve learned about him? Second of all, I wanted to talk to you about Stewart-Haas drivers. Are they teammates or competitors or both? And do you share information with Stewart and those guys?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Mark is an interesting guy. I’ve always watched in interviews and heard that he can have the best car and still think that his car’s terrible. I’ve heard a lot of funny stories over the years and I’ve experienced it firsthand.
And I’ve learned that when he doesn’t say a lot and he doesn’t have a lot bad to say about his car, what’s going on, then he’s really got a good race car. We sat down in our debrief, didn’t have much to say. Just said he didn’t want anybody to screw it up for him. He didn’t want anybody to touch the race car and mess it up. It was sort of positive, but didn’t want anybody to mess it you. And he went on and dominated the night and won the race. So I found it pretty funny.
The Stewart-Haas guys, I know there’s a lot of information being shared between the crew chiefs and engineers. From my standpoint I look at them as a competitor. I’m certainly happy for them and the success they’ve had and from a standpoint, friendship level with Tony and Ryan. And also knowing that affiliation is there.
But on the track, I look at them more as competition than I do the 5 or the 88 or the 24.
Q You’ve got to have a great car to be successful. Do you also need good team chemistry, or can you win races and championships with a team that doesn’t necessarily get along?
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JIMMIE JOHNSON: I think you can win some races. I don’t think you can win a championship. It’s so tough. And the way the Chase works out with 10 races, takes a few months or if not more to run that, you know, the 10 races I guess three months basically.
You will fall apart. You will break down. You have to – you don’t have to be best friends and everything be rosy and great all the time, but there has to be a level of respect between many levels of the race team. It’s not just the driver/crew chief level. It’s a team sport. I know on Sunday it looks like it’s maybe just the driver and the crew chief, but it’s a team sport and it takes the whole team to make it work.
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