IS THERE ANY CHANCE WE’LL EVER SEE YOU TAKE YOUR TEAM OR A TEAM OVER TO LUCAS OIL AS SPRINT CAR DIRT SERIES AND RUN 360’S BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE ITS GROWING REALLY BIG?
“I think right now with the TV package we’re pretty happy with the World of Outlaws side. It helps us sell our sponsorships knowing that they’re going to be able to see our Armor All car and Bass Pro Shops cars on TV once a week almost through the summer. We always look at all the other series but it’s hard to maintain a USAC program and a World of Outlaws program. It’s hard enough to do just those two let alone branching out right now.”
IS THERE ANYTHING NEW YOU CAN TELL US ABOUT DANICA PATRICK? WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO NASCAR IN TERMS OF POPULARITY AND MORE ATTENTION?
“You need to ask NASCAR that. You’ve got to remember you guys (media) ask us questions and topics that we’re not really that concerned about. I’m worried about making my car go fast this weekend and trying to figure out how to make my organization good for the rest of the Chase. I’m not worried about what somebody else is doing or I don’t have this much time to sit and think like you do to try to figure out what the impact of it’s going to be. I’m sure it would be huge. She’s the most popular driver in IRL and for her to come here would be huge pat on the back to NASCAR, for sure. But what the true impact of it is, I have no clue (laughs). I don’t know what it would be.”
ENTERING INTO THIS PART OF THE CHASE, HAS ANYTHING SURPRISED YOU OR HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR TEAM REALLY RISE TO THE OCCASION? SPECIFICALLY, GIVE US SOME EXAMPLES.
“I think they’ve got to do that every week. It’s not something that you coast and collect for 26 weeks and then you show up on the first day of the Chase and say okay, now we’re going to work hard and work 100 percent. They’ve been doing that all year. But I did notice something this morning when I got in the garage they were all joking around and smiling and having a good time. And that’s the way we’ve been through the whole practice. So, that sets the tone for the weekend and then running good so far in practice has kind of doubled that. So I think we’re off to a great weekend so far and I’m looking forward to carrying it out the next two days. I think we’re going to have a really good weekend.”
YOU WERE PRETTY EMOTIONAL LAST WEEK AFTER THE INCIDENT WITH JOEY LOGANO. WHEN DID YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO TALK TO JOEY AND GREG ZIPADELLI, AND HOW DID ALL THAT GO?
“It went good. I talked to them both on Monday actually. I talked to Zip to get Joey’s (phone) number. I didn’t have it. That was the first time Joey had gotten upside-down, he told me, so it was definitely a new experience for him. I told him I’ve probably been upside-down more in Sprint cars than he will in his whole career. That was a pretty big wreck. That’s the hard thing about these cars. You can’t see through them to see what’s going on in front. My intention was to follow Joey right in the corner and all of a sudden he had to jab the brakes really hard because of somebody going down in front of him. But it just was a bad spot on the track for that to happen.”
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