APPARENTLY JEFF GORDON WAS AT THE WORLD SERIES THE OTHER NIGHT AND THEY SHOWED HIM AND I HEARD YOU WERE THERE AND THEY DIDN’T SHOW YOU ON TV, I WAS WONDERING WERE YOU THERE AND WHAT’S YOUR THOUGHT ABOUT THEY DIDN’T PICK YOU OUT OF THE CROWD?
“Man I was up there eating peanuts and having a beer. I didn’t want to be on TV. I was there and had a blast and didn’t need to be on TV. We’re on TV enough. It was a great game. Too bad it rained and the Yankees lost but I was just having a good time.”
YOU SEEM A LOT MORE RELAXED NOW AS OPPOSED TO THE LAST SIX WEEKS, ITS OBVIOUS YOU’VE BEEN DREADING THIS PLACE, IS THERE THIS WEIRD DYNAMIC NOW THAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY HERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY NOT WORRY ABOUT WHAT ITS GOING TO BE LIKE?
“Yeah, I think that in some ways I feel organized that I worried about a lot of different situations and there is no more worrying left which is kind of a false statement because there’s plenty to worry about. You know it’s here and I think our conversation yesterday when Chad and I talked, I mean we had calculators out and discussing scenarios and points and what if’s and if this happens and that happens. It just brought a lot of confidence. It changed my attitude, helped my attitude out. I relaxed a little bit more with that conversation because we went through the steps and Chad’s outlook on things, his view on it really helped turn it around for me in some ways and make my outlook more positive. I guess its easy now because I haven’t even been in the car yet but it will ramp back up. The nerves will kick in and the stress will be there because there’s just so much to lose. I end up in this argument in my head that there’s so much to lose and then we have great tracks following that and we’ve been running really well and good tracks for us. Then a smile comes on my face and I’m calm a little bit inside. I’ve calmed down and then I think shoot they are great tracks for the No. 5 and no. 24 so there’s these arguments that just keep going on and on about how to stay calm and right now things are going well.”
WHAT’S CHAD’S OUTLOOK, WHY IS IT COMFORTING?
“You can go through the numbers and work up arguments to be really concerned and then arguments to find some comfort in and in the end it was like we’ve got to go run this race and at the end of the day we’re really worried about the No. 5 and the No. 24. So it’s not this overall spectrum of worrying about us against the field, it’s about two cars and what are those two cars going to do in the race. That’s really where our focus needs to be and our concern needs to be. I guess that may have helped a lot and I didn’t realize until I just now mentioned it instead of worrying about 41 cars and overall points schedule it’s really about two guys and that’s a lot less to focus on and worry about.”
CHAD OBVIOUSLY IS A METICULOUS PLANNER AND YOU OBVIOUSLY PUT A LOT OF THOUGHT INTO THIS TOO, WHEN YOU GUYS SAT DOWN BEFORE THE CHASE DID YOU SAY WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO WIN IT OR LOSE IT AT TALLADEGA?
“We didn’t sit down and talk about it. I think it was kind of one of those unspoken things that we knew about. As we started off good in the Chase and got some wins and things started going in our direction it was like alright this could be a nice cushion to get us through Talladega. We started thinking about it more but that’s about the extent of it I would say. It’s just been that 300-pound gorilla standing in the corner and now we’re in front of it so it’s time to get it done.”
HIS THOUGHTS ON HOW THE RACE ENDED LAST WEEK AND HIS REACTION TO NASCAR’S STATEMENT.
“So far to their credit we haven’t had any issues and I think my reaction is like everyone else’s where we need to cut it that close type thing. We haven’t had a problem and they’ve done a great job calling these things even from the Daytona 500 that played out where it went down to the last possible second and they threw it. I give them credit for doing that. It is a little alarming to come off of turn four in the gas and I see a car and I hear caution is out and it’s like oh okay. Hopefully he doesn’t fire the engine up and I’m kind of surprised and he may have been sitting there the whole time and NASCAR heard on the radio the car won’t start and they know he’s not going to pull out into the traffic. So there are elements to it that I don’t understand and for whatever reason we haven’t had an issue. Let’s just make it a little big sooner, a little bit earlier is all I’m suggesting. I just think it would be better for the overall good of everybody.”
EARLIER THIS WEEK THERE WAS A CREW CHIEF CHANGE OVER AT THE NO. 18, ARE YOU SURPRISED THEY PULLED THE TRIGGER ON THAT?
“Yeah I didn’t see that one coming. I was shocked to hear they had parted ways. I guess maybe there’s a bigger vision internally of how things are going on that maybe we don’t understand or know. Steve (Addington) has done an awesome job and I’m sure a very hot commodity if he’s not in the crew chief role at Gibbs. So definitely shocked. Didn’t expect that, didn’t see it coming and curious to see how everything else shapes up over there as time goes on.”
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