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TALK ABOUT YOUR OUTLOOK RACING HERE AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
“This is a great facility in a great location. Great part of the country to come to not only because of the tremendous facility, but because the fans support it in such an incredible way. The fan support here not only with numbers but with enthusiasm is overwhelming.”
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK OVER YOUR CAREER, CAN YOU RELATE TO WHO YOU WERE WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED HERE?
“It is a good point. It brings up some odd memories. One of them certainly was that I was too young. Back then, they didn’t want any young drivers. Jeff Gordon really was the one that changed all of that. Before that, they weren’t looking for young talented drivers; they were looking for the experienced ones. A lot of differences though. But there are some similarities in the fact that, I was not a preferred driver; I wasn’t in high-demand and not in a high-demand category now based on my age. But, we’re doing it. We were doing it then and we are doing it now. There are similarities and there are some vast differences. Back then, we were certainly struggling for the finances to do this and we are certainly in a better position now than we were then.”
COMING OFF OF TALLADEGA, IS YOUR HEART BROKEN TO REALIZE YOU ARE IN ANOTHER UPHILL CLIMB FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP?
“Definitely no heartbreak whatsoever. But Talladega did rub because I would rather get beat then turn over, you know what I mean? I want to go down racing and not like that. But you know what, we raced. We raced all day. We raced like we just couldn’t be in a wreck. I was in one I didn’t even see. I never even knew I was going to be in that wreck until I was turning over. So…what the hay. Obviously, the performance of the No. 48 has been phenomenal and we have given it a good fight, but we haven’t quite matched their performance, although we gave him a pretty good run until Martinsville and Charlotte. That is all we can do. Certainly, I wasn’t BS’ing you guys; I didn’t take this job to go try and get a championship trophy. I took this job, you know why, and doggone, it has worked out pretty good. We have been in a position; it still could happen the race is still on for the top-six positions. We are going to race. I can’t wait! I can’t wait to get on the track here at Texas; it is going to be awesome. I hope that answers your question. It certainly doesn’t break my heart; it was a rub at Talladega. I would rather go down fighting than flipping.”
HAVE YOU TRIED TO DISSECT AND FORM A THEORY AS TO WHY THE CARS ARE FLIPPING?
“My car turned over so fast, it makes me wonder if the nose of the No. 1 car didn’t go under the rear frame rail behind the rear tire and tip my car over. I know they do tend to turn over when they go sideways that way because they are heavy left side. They tend to go over; all cars always have a little bit.
“But this thing went so fast and it didn’t feel like it just kind of went up. It felt like it was shot over so I’m not sure why it went over like it. Newman’s crash was not atypical of the past 15 years as far as his car going up. I don’t know if there is any phenomenon whatsoever about a wing with a car backwards or not. But, I went up like that and just didn’t quite have the ride that he had in the early 90s’ back there. Way back at the exit of (turn) two, not the entry of three. I really feel like from reading everything and listening to everyone, I feel like what happened there in some ways was sensationalized and just blown way out of proportion. It was a horrible wreck that Ryan (Newman) had to go through and it was a horrible thing, we need to try and fix that. But that was not different than what we have seen for a good solid 15 years if not more. It is really hard to stop the cars from doing that when they get around like that. I think that we need to work on it, but we did keep the cars out of the grandstands.
“I don’t believe that was a boring race. I didn’t like it but I certainly think it has been blown completely out of proportion that the cars got single-file for a while in the race. When I finished 15 years ago, it was me, (Dale, Sr.) Earnhardt, Ernie (Irvan) and one other car was in the lead draft. That was all. No one complained that was a boring race, it was just Talladega. No one said anything. Now we have 40 (cars) nose to tail and that is a problem? For me, I am just a little confused about everything that I have read and listened to this week. I just don’t know what to say.”
IT HAS BEEN 20 RACES SINCE THE DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS STARTED, WHAT HAS IT CHANGED OR TRANSFORMED THINGS AND HAS IT HAD AS BIG OF AN IMPACT AS THEY THOUGHT IT MIGHT?
“It has not as big of impact as I expected. I dreaded it with a passion. It has worked for me in the car on the race track, it has worked ok. I’ve had some real winner restarts and a few real loser restarts but for the most part, it has been gained one, lose one, back and forth. I think it is ok. I am surprised. I really didn’t think I was going to like it very much. I am not saying I love it, but I am certainly fine with it.”
