YOU HAVE SAID THAT JIMMIE JOHNSON WORKS HARDER THAN ANY DRIVER IN THE GARAGE, IS THERE A WAY FOR YOU TO QUANTIFY THAT?
“I can’t quantify that because you are talking to a guy who doesn’t really know what he is talking about because I am not really, I don’t follow Carl Edwards around. I don’t really really know, I guess what I was saying was that he (Johnson) than anyone that I have seen from studying this sport to making notes after every race. To reviewing notes before (every race). To nutrition. To physical fitness to commitment to the sport has been surprising to me. I was one of those like many others from the outside looking in, looking at Jimmie Johnson making it look easy thinking he was a lucky guy that drove for a great race team. I’m taking that back now. I’ve seen different and one of the guys that is standing up saying ‘Hey, he’s not getting enough credit.’
ABOUT TRANSITIONS AT TMS BEING TIGHT AT TURNS TWO GOING INTO TURN THREE AND WHERE DO YOU FEEL MOST COMFORTABLE AT THIS TRACK?
“Boy I wish I would drive high, but I won’t because if I do, I will hit the wall. So I am most comfortable and 99% of the time expected to be on the white line the whole time although the high grove gets to working and the middle grove can work. And every once in a while I might find myself looking for something up off the bottom, but for me I have spend 35 years working the bottom and I am still better at that, than riding the wall.
YOU SAID YOU WERE NOT DISAPPOINTED OR ASHAMED TO HAVE FINSIHED SECOND TO SOME OF THE GREATEST DRIVERS IN THIS SPORT AND THAT IF YOU FINISH SECOND TO JIMMIE YOU WILL FEEL THE SAME WAY. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT HAS DEVELOPED AS YOUR CAREER HAS MOVED ON?
“You know, actually the 1989 season was overlooked. We were second in points going into the last race in our second year with Roush Racing and the engine blew up and caught on fire and we finished third. And that was as disappointing to me as…………..you know it didn’t disappoint the team I don’t think all that much because they thought they were going for it but for me I wanted to be second and not third. And then the next year we led from May until the next to last race and I thought I could beat Earnhardt………..and as it turned out, I was wrong. And that was the one that I wanted to win and probably the most of all when I was young and when it looked like we were going to. (laughs)
“And since then, I have learned a lot and I have seen a lot and I have come to realize that I’m no Dale Earnhardt. My record don’t stand up to his…………just doesn’t. And when you stand me up against Jeff Gordon……..it just don’t stand up to it man. I understand that. And we have beat them but it was always somebody else that beat us you know? So I think its pretty awesome to hold my own against guys like that in the sport. I gave them something to shoot at in the race from time to time. I gave their fans something to be concerned about and I gave mine something to cheer about. And my record just don’t stand up against theirs. Its just that plain and simple. Tony Stewart’s either. And those are the three guys that I have run second to and most of those guys have finished behind me on any given year. That is where I am at man. I don’t think I am better than all those guys, I am just glad I can get out there and beat them once in a while. If I couldn’t, it might not be as appealing to me.”
YOU HAVE WON HERE BEFORE AND CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS TRACK
“Well just the chance to be able to come to an intermediate race track with Alan and the five team is always exciting and we were ready after Martinsville and Talladega to come here and do this thing and hope that we get the kind of performance we really expect to. Its going to be fun and a blast and this race track is great for Sprint Cup racing and it’s a great venue and great place so I can’t wait to go get in the car here shortly.
WHAT IS TOUGH ABOUT THIS TRACK?
“It poses the same kind of problem than any other one because if you want to win you have to go through the corners faster than anyone else and that is a challenge because these corners are a little bit flat on the exit, a little flat on the entry and good banking in the center and you have to figure out a way to make your car roll through there faster than everybody else.”
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