HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO PUT TOGETHER SPONSORS, EVEN IF JUST FOR A FEW RACES, TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING FOR THE RACE TEAM?
STEWART: “It’s important for us as a team. But at the same time, it’s important for Tornados. This is a time in our sport where it’s hard to find sponsors that have the availability to sponsor a car for the whole season. So making a package that works for them also is something that’s important in our sport. So it works for both sides. This is something that if it doesn’t work for them, it doesn’t work for us either.”
YOU’VE BROUGHT MANY SPONSORS TO THE SPORT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT A TIME WHEN EVERYBODY ELSE SAYS THEY CAN’T BRING IN NEW SPONSORS AND ARE LOSING SPONSORS. WHAT’S YOUR SECRET?
STEWART: “I honestly don’t know. This is a time when you don’t see a lot of new groups coming into the sport. When we made the decision to start this venture last year and Ryan came on board, I think everybody kind of rallied around that and I think that’s what’s attracted a lot of these corporations to be a part of our family is the fact that we were looked at from day one as the underdog. And I think everybody sees now how hard we’re working at it and the commitment that we have people have wanted to join because of that.”
THIS TIME LAST YEAR YOU WERE STILL PUTTING STEWART-HAAS RACING TOGETHER. CAN YOU REFLECT BACK A YEAR LATER ON THE SUCCESS? IS THERE ANY SENSE OF DISAPPOINTMENT ON HOW THE YEAR WILL END FOR YOU BASED ON WHERE YOU WERE 13 WEEKS AGO?
STEWART: “I think it’s hard to be disappointed no matter where we end up. Just by getting two cars in the Chase and winning the races we’ve won this year exceeded more than what any of you guys (media) could have anticipated and we could have anticipated we were able to do. We knew on paper that it was possible, but the reality of it was going there and competing against great race teams every week. So to be able to accomplish this goal has been an awesome year for us. It’s still no different than it was when everybody talked to us after Richmond about losing a 200-point lead of whatever it was. We knew that when we took the point lead. We knew that’s what the situation was. We’re not disappointed because of that. It just shows that we still have work to do. We were able to exceed our expectations for the year, but at the same time we won’t stop at that. We’ll keep pushing to be better and to try to be where the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) team and the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) team and the No. 5 (Mark Martin) team and all these great race teams that we’re competing against and that we’re racing for points. Those are the guys that we want to try to figure out just like they do of how to be better and how to win more races and try to put ourselves in position to win next year.”
NEWMAN: “We didn’t know. People ask about our expectations and our goals and we had some goals and we didn’t know what the expectations were going to be. To echo Tony’s thoughts, it’s not that we would ever be disappointed, I don’t think because of all the things that we’ve achieved, it’s just that we may not be totally satisfied and that’s just because we’re not standing at the lead table in Las Vegas this year so that’s pretty much it. We’ve done a lot of great things as an organization. We’ve done a lot of great things as drivers to get to where we are, and for me personally to make the big change and obviously Tony as well, didn’t have any idea what to expect, just knew that I wanted to go out there and have fun, and if we had fun, we were going to be successful one way or another.”
HAS THE LACK OF TESTING HAMPERED YOUR PROGRESS? FOR 2011, WHAT AREAS DO YOU STILL THINK NEED IMPROVEMENT?
STEWART: “When you’re working with a new group of people, the testing would help. But I can’t say that I really feel like its hurt us a lot this year; not as much as we would have thought it would have. But as far as areas we need to focus on, obviously we have an engine package at Hendrick that they worry about; we don’t really have to worry about. That’s a variable in our equation that we don’t have to concentrate on this winter because they’ll do that for us. But we’ll try to make our cars lighter and try to make our bodies better and we’ll try to make sure that we’re utilizing our resources with our seven-post shake rig and making sure that we’re trying to find every little thing that we can during the off-season to make sure that when we show up in February that we’re as prepared as we can be.”
HOW WAS THE TRACK HANDLING YESTERDAY AND HOW DO YOU EXPECT IT TO HANDLE TOMORROW?
STEWART: “The track didn’t handle; our cars did though. This is a place that I’ve spent a lot of time at. We’ve spent a lot of time here in open wheel cars, Indy cars, Midgets, Silver Crown cars and it really didn’t change a lot yesterday, honestly. The temperature was pretty cool and we got some overcast skies during practice which helped keep it from getting a lot warmer. So, I thought it stayed pretty consistent, which it normally doesn’t. It’s a very temperature-sensitive track and that’s something that I like with it. It didn’t seem like it changed a lot with temperature yesterday because we got the cloud cover that kind of helped keep the surface temp down.”
NEWMAN: “Along the same lines, I think every time we come back here it seems like it loses just a small percentage of grip and that’s a good thing because the driver has to drive and hustle the car a little bit more and a little bit differently and still be smooth. I think that as Tony said, it didn’t change a whole lot with the weather conditions, but I don’t know that it’s going to be the exact same today or tomorrow. Depending on how our practice sessions go, time-wise, and what the sun is like during the race, there may be bigger transitions tomorrow than there were yesterday or today.”
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