TELL US WHAT YOU EXPECT THIS WEEKEND.
“I have no idea. I really don’t. I’ve told you before we haven’t even been on the track. Last time we run here we didn’t run as bad as we normally run here. It’s okay. We ran really good at the end and lost the balance a little. It should be pretty interesting. We’ve got a good car here. Like every other week.”
YOU’RE INTERESTED IN CLIMBING THE STANDINGS AREN’T YOU?
“We’ve been third so far. We closed the gap a little. It’s still far away. I don’t like to get excited about it. I can’t. We’ve been having good finishes and everything and we’ve just got to keep doing that. Hopefully we can stay away from trouble and have good race cars. That’s all we can hope for. The pit crew is doing an amazing job. We’re bringing good race cars and I think everybody is doing their part. If we keep doing that we should be okay.”
WHEN YOU ARE OUT ON THE RACE TRACK AND YOU KNOW THESE GUYS AREN’T YOUR FRIENDS, DOES IT HELP YOU BATTLE THEM MORE?
“I think I have a pretty good relationship with most of the drivers so I’m good with that. I think everybody knows once you’re on the race track it’s not about friendship, it’s about getting the job done. Isn’t it at the end of the day? It’s pretty interesting to see how guys in the Chase, they race you one way before the Chase started and now people are not really giving too much even early in the races. It’s kind of surprising. People that give you’ll give and people who don’t you won’t. You just play the same game as they are playing.”
IS THERE ANY MOTIVATION TO BE THE FIRST FOREIGN-BORN CHAMPION IN NASCAR?
“No.”
NOT AT ALL?
“You know in a way Formula One is very European. There was a couple of Brazilian drivers but for me I felt like I was a foreigner there. When I came to Indy Cars it was the same thing. It’s the nature of the sport. It doesn’t really matter where you are from. I think it matters whether you perform or not. Getting the job done. At the end of the day for us right now is to drive the Target Chevy as fast as we can and deliver or try to deliver as much as we can. Some weeks you do and some weeks you don’t.”
THEY LET US LISTEN TO YOU AND BRIAN ON THE RADIO AND SOMETIMES YOU GET INTO IT WITH HIM, DO YOU HAVE A SAFE WORD BEFORE IT’S ALL OVER?
“Most of the time it’s pretty good. There’s times when the car is bad and he needs to know how bad it is. I try to explain it as good as I can (laughing) and verbally as I can and it is what is it you know. I hear all kinds of comments of people saying oh you shouldn’t be saying that on the radio. It’s a private channel. You can listen to it but it’s a private channel. We say what needs to be said. When I make a mistake I’ll say I made a mistake. At the end of the day you probably only listen to half of the things that are said. Brian says I wish every time I talked I pressed the button and it’s not the case actually. It gets worse.”
YOU SAID THE CHASE GUYS RACE YOU DIFFERENTLY NOW THAN THEY DID EARLIER IN THE SEASON, WHAT ABOUT THE NON-CHASE GUYS? “They’ve been very good. Most of the people that are non-Chase drivers are very good. They give you a lot of room and you’ve got to respond the same way. There’s not much more you can do. Everybody is still racing. By you being in the Chase you’ve got to be aware as well that you’re vulnerable. People can run over you pretty easy. I think you help yourself by giving them the space because they don’t have much to lose compared to us.”
DID YOU CHANGE THE WAY YOU RACED DURING THE CHASE IN PREVIOUS YEARS?
“We were not fast enough to race against them. The end of last year we had a decent car actually. If they give you room, you’ll give them room. If they don’t give you an inch you ain’t going to give them an inch. It’s that simple. There’s not a rule about it but I think everybody that drives a Cup car knows how it works.”
WHEN YOU’RE TALKING WITH BRIAN IN REGARDS TO WHAT TO DO WITH THE CAR ON THE NEXT PIT STOP, HOW MUCH ARE YOU MAKING THE DECISION, HOW MUCH ARE YOU RELYING ON HIM TO MAKE THE DECISION?
“I try to explain as good as I can what the car is doing but at the end of the day the guy making the decision is him. I let him make the decisions. Sometimes I question decisions. Sometimes I give him an idea and he will question the idea. I think it’s very open but if I’m not specific of what I want, and it’s about 99 percent of the time, I just tell him exactly what is the problem and he’ll find a way to make it better. We know what not to do and we have learned what not to do and just deal with it.”
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