HOW ARE THE SMALLER PLATES GOING TO AFFECT THE RACING AT TALLADEGA?
“I’m curious to see. I think what will happen is that we’ll get out there and practice and everybody will really be trying to lock-up like we did before and see how hard it is to do that. We’ve been seeing it get more intense and so more and more people will work on that in practice to actually try to figure out how to do that. I really don’t think it’s going to make that much of a difference. I think we’re still going to be able to do that because most of it is aero. But we did have a good amount of power to be able to get in to that pocket and stay there. It’s not a huge jump in horsepower; it’s not a huge change down but we’ll see if it makes a difference.”
WILL IT BE SAFER AT ALL OR BE ABOUT THE SAME?
“It’s Talladega, I mean. The cars are safe. The track is safe. The conditions that we’re racing in necessarily aren’t but we know that; it’s been this way for a long time. Every time it evolves because the drivers continue to push what the car is capable of and what the drivers are capable of. We’ve seen that the last couple of races where you can get a two-car draft and that’s something that’s new with this new car; we’ve never really seen that before. Now that we can push one another through the corners and that’s what I don’t understand. I thought there were no-bump zones or something like that, but the reason why that’s working and happening is because NASCAR is allowing the cars to push one another through the corners.
“So until they crack down on that I think you’re going to see it come down to two guys locking up together like that, pushing one another, and then trying to figure out how to decide it among themselves. It doesn’t have to mean that there’s going to be a crash. It doesn’t have to be that way. The leader has to make a decision of whether he’s just going to finish second or whether he can figure out a way to not allow that car to even get inside or outside of him.”
BECAUSE OF HOW THE LAST TWO PLATE RACES HAVE FINISHED WITH CRASHES, WILL THAT MAKE YOU CHANGE THE WAY YOU RACE ON THE LAST LAP?
“Definitely if I was in that lead position it’s going to make me change how I would race. But other than that, no. I think that as the leader, you’ve got to do everything you can to get to the checkered flag first, but you’ve got to finish. You can’t put yourself in a position to where you’re giving all the control to the guy right behind you and try to take it away from him hundreds of feet away from the start/finish line. If they get that kind of position, that kind of control on you, then you’ve got to figure out how to take that control away from him before you ever get to the start/finish line, or you’ve got to give it up and say okay, today’s my day to finish second and not to win.”
YOU SAID THE CARS ARE SAFE AND THE TRACK IS SAFE, ETC. IS IT AS SAFE AS IT CAN BE?
“Well, is it ever? Is it ever as safe as it can be? It’s as safe as it’s ever been in my opinion. But at the same time, we’ve found out ways how to draft with this car to put ourselves in position for the situation to happen like it did the last time. So I think the cars are as safe as they’ve ever been, for sure. And the track, I feel like they really analyzed what went on there with the fence and everything and I feel like it’s as safe as it’s ever been (with) safer barriers and all those things. But the rules themselves and the cars themselves on this track, you know what it is going into it and its madness; but its exciting madness. If you’re on the outside looking in, it’s pretty exciting. From inside, it’s intense and you’ve got to try to be smart. But when the closing laps come down, that kind of goes out the window and you have to do whatever it takes to get yourself hopefully to victory lane.”
DURING THE CHASE, DO YOU HAVE TO JUST NOT THINK ABOUT WHAT AN EARLY WRECK COULD DO TO THE STANDINGS AND KEEP THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND?
“I can’t focus on that. I’ve got to focus on keeping myself out of a wreck and doing what we can do to put ourselves in position to capitalize; if that were to happen and we could make it through it. I think our goal is really to just look at the situation we’re in based on qualifying and running position at the time and our strategy is not set right now. We have no set strategy. That strategy is going to be constantly changing as the race goes on.”
IS TALLADEGA A LESS OF A CRAP-SHOOT FOR THE No. 48 JIMMIE JOHNSON THAN IT NORMALLY WOULD BE BECAUSE OF THE POINT SITUATION?
“They’ve played it just the way they wanted to play it. They wanted to get themselves in position to have a big enough lead to where this race doesn’t necessarily determine the outcome. And they know they’ve got three solid races left after this. And so, the thing you don’t want to do is break the momentum. You don’t want to come in here and get caught up in something, take a hit in the points, and then go next week and have a problem or get caught up in something there and then all of a sudden you’re like, whoa, wait a minute. You know again, I can’t get into their heads and into their situation. We only can control our own situation and our own destiny.”
YOU DON’T WISH THE NO. 48 ANY BAD LUCK, BUT IN THIS CASE, HE (JIMMIE JOHNSON) GETS IN THE BIG ONE AND YOU DON’T, CORRECT?
“Yeah, you can’t wish anybody that. The championship is going to play out the way it’s going to play out. Whatever is meant to happen is going to happen. All you can do is go out and work really hard and what I’m doing as a driver and everybody else on my team is doing the same thing and we just go out there and try to put ourselves in the best position and in the best finishing position and hopefully that’s a win. We’re not counting ourselves out of this thing by all means, but obviously some things have to happen in order to get us back in it. And those are things that are not in our control. All we can do is control our own race team and do the best we can there.”
NORMALLY HERE YOU WANT TO HELP YOUR TEAMMATES UNTIL 10 TO GO, OR 20 TO GO, HAS THAT CHANGED AT ALL GIVEN THE POINTS DYNAMIC?
“A little. I mean I think that you get to this point in the season and the Chase and you start to separate yourself when you’re battling them for the championship. We’ll go to our debriefs and we’ll share information and do all those things, but when it comes to what’s going to happen on the race track, I don’t see the NO. 48 having a lot of friends out there. I might not either, I don’t know. I think that we’re all in the situation. We’re more of in a ‘must win’ situation and they’re not. And I know Jimmie is going to be driving like he always does. And if I see it being a position that’s going to help us get to the front, then absolutely. But I can’t say that’s a whole lot different than any other time we’ve been here at Talladega. We work together to better ourselves. It’s hard for people to understand that, you know? You are teammates, but there is no pecking order. There’s no, this is the guy that we all have to help. If I were in ninth in points right now, I’d be out there to do whatever I could to help, no doubt about it. But until we’re mathematically not in this thing, then we’re still out there trying to beat those guys and the No. 5 (Mark Martin) and the No. 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) and the No. 14 (Tony Stewart) and we’re treated the same way.”
WHAT’S THE BEST HALLOWEEN COSTUME YOU EVER HAD?
“I was a one-night stand (laughter). That one was pretty good. My pirate last year was pretty good. But you guys would have gotten a kick out of seeing me running around our house this week in my Superman outfit because that’s what (daughter) Ella wanted me to be. I didn’t leave the house in that uniform (laughter), but she certainly enjoyed it a lot more than I did. Ingrid was trying to talk me into taking it to her little class. She had like Halloween class pre-school thing and Ingrid wanted me to wear that and I said, ‘No. Not happening. I’ll wear it all day long around the house (but not outside).”
ON THESE FIVE TOPICS, COULD YOU PLEASE ANSWER “AWESOME” OR “AWFUL”?
ON MARK MARTIN BEING THE NEW YOUNG GUN
“Awesome.”
ON JIMMIE JOHNSON GOING FOR HIS FOURTH CHAMPIONSHIP
“Awful for me. Awesome for him.”
ON FUEL MILEAGE RACES
“I think all races are great, but I guess awful.”
ON UNIFORM START TIMES FOR THE RACES IN 2010
“Awesome.”
ON DANICA PATRICK MAYBE COMING TO NASCAR
“Awesome.”
