We have four of the 12 drivers that have qualified for the Chase, top seeded Mark Martin, second seed Tony Stewart, eighth seed Brian Vickers, ninth seed Carl Edwards all with us today.
Mark, you’re up first. You’ve made the Chase. Now what do you have to do to win the championship?
MARK MARTIN: We got to go out and score every point that we can, take advantage of every opportunity that we have, and really minimize the problems. I think your championship effort is really defined by the bad days, not so much the good days. I think everybody in the Chase are going to run well, really strong. We’ll have to keep an eye on recovering if we have any problems on the racetrack.
Tony, you’re next. Tell us what you have to do to win this thing.
TONY STEWART: I think we got to do what got us to this point, that’s like Mark said, you got to get more points than everybody else. You have to outrun the other 11 guys. Consistency is what got us to the points lead before the Chase started. That’s what it’s going to take to win a championship.
I think Jimmie Johnson has laid the blueprint out of what it takes to win a championship over the last three years. You have to run up front and be consistent doing it. You can’t cruise and just expect to get top 10s and do that consistently and win. You got to be in the top five pretty regular to have a shot at it.
Brian Vickers.
BRIAN VICKERS: I think the same thing these guys said, I’ll have to reiterate it. You have to push, you have to run hard. Jimmie has obviously been the gold standard the past three years with close to an average of fifth to win the championship. I don’t necessarily believe it’s going to take that to win that this year. I think the competition is stronger. I don’t think Hendrick has the dominance it has the past couple years. Maybe it’s going to be a little more than that.
Like Tony said, you’re not going to be able to cruise to a bunch of top 10s or 10th-place finishes and be able to win the championship. You’re still going to have to push, but you can’t make mistakes.
You know, reiterating what Mark said, I think a championship is defined by your bad races, not your good ones.
Carl, you can wrap-up these openers, can you do it?
CARL EDWARDS: These guys have covered it. For myself and my Aflac team to win this championship, we have to really step up our performance, to take advantage of the Chase format, which I’m really enjoying. I closed 400 something points on Tony, which is a huge thanks for Brian France for coming up with this. We just have to go out here and perform over these last 10 races.
Q. Brian, having made the Chase for the first time, looking at what Tony accomplished this year by leading the points for so long, and Mark accomplished by winning the most races up to this point, how do you feel like your accomplishment of making the Chase for the first time compares to what those guys have been able to do?
BRIAN VICKERS: That’s a great question. I think it’s all relative. Obviously it would have been nice to lead the points the entire year, it would have been nice to have the most wins. For us, for such a young, new team, two and a half years ago we didn’t even have a car in the race shop, now we sat on six poles this year, won a race, are in the Chase. By all rights I think that’s a very successful year already for a team without the depth and the experience that our competitors do.
I think we’re all very excited about it at Red Bull and Toyota, a new manufacturer as well. Moving forward, obviously we’d like to win the championship. That’s our ultimate goal. But for where we’re at as a program, you’d be hard-pressed no matter what happens moving forward to not consider this I think a successful year.
Q. Is the order of the next 10 tracks important? Would you rather see one track over another to start out with or do you look at it one race at a time?
TONY STEWART: I think you got to look at it one race at a time. It’s a situation where they all count for the same amount of points. But for us, Louden is a track that we enjoy. Obviously that being the first one, it’s a great place for us to start. The importance is on all 10 weeks. You can’t put more emphasis on one track versus the other. You got to be spot on for 10 straight weeks now.
Q. Mark Martin, if you would win the championship, would this fulfill all of your NASCAR aspirations or are there still other things you’d like to accomplish?
MARK MARTIN: Well, that’s a heck of a question. First of all, I would refuse to think about ‘what ifs’. I’m going to stay focused on racing this team, getting the most out of my car and my team and myself, and scoring all the points that we can. That’s what it takes to win, more than all the rest.
Would it be the crown jewel of my career? Of course, it would. But I also really believe that the trophy doesn’t make the man. It’s their actions, what you do that really defines who you are. You know, at the end of 10 races, if I do everything that I can to score every point I can, to get the most out of myself, my car and my race team, then it will be a success no matter what.
Q. Mark, you’re certainly known for being physically fit. But there’s two parts to your job out there on the track. You definitely have to be mentally fit. What does mental toughness and fitness mean to you?
MARK MARTIN: It’s been tested. I said in February before we got started that I was, you know, mentally the toughest I’d ever been. That was certainly tested through the summer when we were in, we were out, we were in, we were out, we’d win a race, then we’d go finish 43rd. So, you know, I had to reflect on that some of those Sunday nights when I went home after a bad day.
But it is really important. Everyone says you can’t beat yourself. And everyone has different ways that they deal with successes and disappointments. I have my own way. You know, that works for me. I feel really good about where I am right now because I don’t feel desperate. I feel lucky to have this tremendous opportunity to drive, an incredible team with incredible sponsors, an awesome crew chief and a great car and great teammates. And to have a chance to race for this thing is a tremendous opportunity for me.
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