ON RACING AT MARTINSVILLE AND DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS
“I watched these races in ‘07 and ‘08 and they seemed to be really good races. And then I was here for the first race this year. I had a great race. I started toward the rear of the field based on points because it rained and where we were. It worked well for us and we worked our way into the top 10 and ran there and it seemed to be a fairly clean race with good racing. And that’s what I expect. I expect the double-file restarts to be very similar to what we’ve had at the other races where we’ve had winners and losers, but they have worked better than I expected and I hope that they work better than expected here.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA WAS TALKING ABOUT THE OPENNESS OF THE NASCAR GARAGE, ASKING YOUR FOR HELP, AND HOW COMPETITORS HELP COMPETITORS, WHY DO YOU HELP? FOR JUAN, IT WAS AN ADJUSTMENT COMING FROM F-1
“First of all one of the biggest forms of flattery is to have someone come and want to talk to me and want my opinion or advice; it’s very flattering. It’s something I’ve done ever since I really got hooked up with Ray Dillon in 1979, I have done an enormous amount of it. In 1980 and ‘81 we built race cars and our customers came and I did the set-up on their car to set their car up just exactly like mine and they paid me $100 cash and I was loving it! And then they would come to me at the race track, because we were always the fastest, and I always figured back then I could beat them anyway, you know?
“And it was very flattering and it was part of my duty to be a house car and (Dick) Trickle and some of those guys had always been that way with me as well. And it was fairly open. I was open with Rusty Wallace. I raced with him before we got to NASCAR. He told me everything that he had, loud, in the middle of the pit. You know how Rusty was (laughs). Anytime Rusty needed or wanted to know what I was doing on set-ups, and this was set-ups, this wasn’t driving back then, this was even set-ups which is more critical. That’s not traded today in the NASCAR garage like that.
“Do I think (Juan Pablo) Montoya could beat me? Sometimes. He’s probably going to beat me whether I answer his question honestly or not. And I’d much rather be honest than dishonest. And I’m flattered that he asked me the questions. He’ll figure out a way to beat me on any given day whether I answer honestly or not. So, we don’t share technical race car information today like we did 15 years ago. Rusty and I always told each other what we had in our cars 15 years ago here at Martinsville. And the drivers don’t do that. So it has closed up a log.”
ON THE 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HENDRICK PLANE CRASH
“Because I’m closer to the organization, I feel the pain that radiates throughout the organization and obviously feel and sense the pain; not only that is associated with this weekend but periodically other times as well. So, it is a source of great pain when you can feel it throughout the organization.”
WHAT IS JUAN PABLO MONTOYA DOING BETTER; WHERE HAS HE GAINED?
“He is gaining in every respect, but his biggest gain has been to drive the car and to come in and tell the team what the car is doing and what he needs it to do better. And that couldn’t come the first year he was here. It’s impossible. It comes with experience. He’s also developed a great touch or a very good strong touch in being able to rally his team around him even though at times he might be a little bit short-fused a little bit about things, but nothing like he was two years ago at this point in time. Communication, understanding, and he’s learned to really drive the car even when it’s loose. He is as good as I thought he was and he’s proving it. But before he got here, I thought he was this good and I think Juan can get still better yet going forward with even more experience.”
YOU’VE CALLED JIMMIE JOHNSON ‘SUPERMAN’ AND YOU’VE RACED SOME OF THE BEST DRIVERS OF ALL TIME, DO YOU THINK JIMMIE IS BETTER THAN THOSE GUYS OR DO YOU THINK HE’S A PRODUCT OF BEING IN A GREAT SYSTEM RIGHT NOW?
“Yeah, I think he’s as good. It’s a different time and a different day and age. But had he been here with me when I was racing Dale Earnhardt in the early ‘90’s for the title, I think Jimmie would have held his ground. In my opinion, it appears to me that he would have held his ground better than I hold mine.”
TECHNICALLY, IS THERE A WAY TO RACE THOSE GUYS JUST WITH DRIVING SKILLS?
“That’s not fair. Jimmie does his on technical. Earnhardt did his with his hands (laughs). Earnhardt did a lot of what he did with his hands and he wasn’t near above playing head games as well. Jimmie is good because of technical; because he works physically and understands about the car and writes things down. Dale Earnhardt didn’t take notes after every race and make out a full page set of notes after every single race so that they could go back to them before the next race. Dale just piled in that thing and wheeled it like an animal, you know? Jimmie understands that the way he can win is to make his car better than everyone’s and he focuses on that and he makes his health better, physically, as well. So he’s doing it all.”
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