TONY, GIVE US YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR FIRST YEAR AS A DRIVER AND OWNER OF STEWART-HAAS RACING:
“I am like a proud father. It has been neat to see over the last 13 months how this has all come together and progressed through the season. From that standpoint, I don’t think I could be any happier. Obviously, we wanted to win the championship this year and after leading the point standings, we felt like we had a good shot. We just couldn’t get that run these last 10 weeks that we wanted. We will do what we can next year to try and pick up on that and improve on it.”
COULD YOU SPEAK THE COMMENTS YOU MADE ON THE RADIO REGARDING DALE EARNHARDT, JR. AFTER THE WRECK LAST WEEKEND AT PHOENIX? HAVE YOU SPOKEN TO HIM?
“I haven’t actually. Everybody knows when we are in the heat of the moment, it doesn’t matter who it was, I would have said the same thing. It was being upset because we are running for all the points we can get right now and we took a hit in the points last week because of that incident. It didn’t matter who it was. That is heat of the moment.”
WHAT GRADE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR ORGANIZATION FIRST YEAR OUT OF THE BOX AND IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT MAKES CHAD (KNAUS) AND JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SO SUCCESSFUL?
“If we knew that, we would be doing it ourselves. As far as our team is concerned, I feel like for a first-year team I have to give us an A. If we could have won the championship, you would give yourself and A+, but for a first-year team an A or an A- is appropriate for what had to come together in such a short amount of time. The changes and trying to get people organized and equipment ready and just so many new people working together for the first time. I think we’ve done fairly well.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE WHEN THERE IS A RACE WINNER’S CELEBRATION HERE AT THE END OF THE RACE BUT YOU AREN’T THE CHAMPION AND THERE IS ALL OF THAT GOING ON?
“We obviously can’t win the championship tomorrow night so our goal is to win the race. So if we can accomplish that, even though Jimmie or Mark are going to have their celebration tomorrow night, if you are that team that can win the race, that is a lot of momentum you carry in to the next season. This is the last chance to build momentum for next year. If you can leave this event tomorrow night winning the race, you carry that win all winter long. You are crowning a season-ending champion but at the same time, there is still an individual race that is being competed for and that is our goal.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE RACE WINNER GETS SLIGHTED AT THIS RACE?
“No, not at all. I watched the truck race last night. The interview with Kevin (Harvick) in victory lane was awesome and I thought it was appropriate and thought they did a good job with the champion’s celebration also.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN MOST ABOUT DARIAN GRUBB THIS YEAR AND WHAT HAS IMPRESSED YOU THE MOST ABOUT HIM?
“He is just a very smart, calculated crew chief. His demeanor is the one thing that I didn’t know much about going in to it but, his demeanor through the whole season has been very calm and collected. He just doesn’t get wound up. He doesn’t get super emotional on the radio and he has a great sense of humor too and that is something that does come out and I think that is where we complement each other. Our personalities are similar from the relaxing standpoint and humor standpoint. I think he has helped me with the calm demeanor on the radio.”
WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO THANKSGIVING WEEK, THE FIRST WEEK OFF BEFORE YOU FACE GETTING READY FOR NEXT SEASON?
“I’m going home. We will have our competition meeting on Monday like we always do every week. Depending on how Monday goes, if I need to be there Tuesday and Wednesday, I will stay. Most likely when we get done with our meeting, I am hoping to be able to go home as soon as possible. But, being a car owner, if I need to be there until Thursday morning, which is what I will do. A lot of it will be dictated on how our meeting goes on Monday.”
PURELY ON DRIVING ABILITY OUT ON THE TRACK, WHERE DO YOU RATE JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND WHAT ARE HIS STRENGTHS VERSUS THE OTHER GUYS?
“It doesn’t matter, like you said, you have to have the package, it doesn’t matter how good of a car, crew chief and crew you have, if you aren’t a good driver, you aren’t going to make that package work. Jimmie does a great job behind the wheel. He proves it in the Cup Series. When he goes back and runs a Nationwide car, he runs well there. You don’t get to this level by not having talent. He has an extremely high amount of talent. He knows what he wants out of his race cars. He knows that feel that he wants. There are guys that are good qualifiers and fall off a little in the race and there are guys that are vice versa. Jimmie is one of those guys who excels at qualifying and the race. I think he is one of the more rounded drivers we have.”
AS A CAR OWNER AND DRIVER WHO RENOVATED A TEAM AND TOOK IT TO THE CHASE, YOU HAVE VERY GOOD PERSPECTIVE ON THE RED BULL TEAM AND BRIAN VICKERS. HOW DO YOU VIEW THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS YEAR?
“They’ve done a great job. They’ve also brought a rookie driver in that’s starting on the front row tomorrow. That’s proof that their organization is doing a good job. Some of their resources have helped them with that and that’s important in our series. I mean that’s how you get to that level that they’ve gotten to is by having good resources and good people and there’s not an organization out there that makes the Chase that isn’t doing a good job. So they’ve obviously in a short amount of time done a great job of making adjustments. Their constantly changing personnel and upgrading their people and that’s what you have to do.”
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