RICK, AFTER THIS RACE WE HEAR ABOUT RACING CLEAN, ETC. BUT THIS IS BRISTOL, WHICH IS NOT KNOWN FOR THAT. IS THIS A NEW ERA OF RACING?
“Well, I don’t know. I guess we’re going to have to wait until the next Bristol race. I think these guys have a lot of respect for each other, especially when you are teammates and you’re working together. I was in Martinsville running one and two and took both of them out and it’s hard to work in these shops together. I think everybody would like to race and have the best car win and finish the race. I think if it would have been two or three more laps it might have been different with the old tires. I think these guys work so hard and the field is so tight and I think I heard Jeff Burton say it in his last interview, if you’ve got a guy who races you clean you’re going to race him clean. If you’ve got a guy who’s always nudging you. I think you’ve seen a couple paybacks already this year and that doesn’t help anybody. It knocks people out of points. Everybody wants to win the championship and you can make friends out here out here at Bristol or you can make a lot of enemies and then your payback might come in the last 10 races of the Chase. We’ve got to figure out a way to race two abreast and let the good car pass the other car without having to wreck people and I think everybody feels better about that when they go home. I hope that’s the way it’s going to be. “
RICK, WHAT WAS THE COST OF THIS CAR, TO MAKE A WINNER OUT OF IT?
“I think that everybody is in the same boat. We’re building intermediate cars and we’ve got to build these cars. When you’re running parallel programs and you’re working on different chassis and waiting for the chassis to be approved, it’s a chore. We’ll run a couple races and we’ll go back to our intermediate cars. If we had a wreck, if somebody had a car that wasn’t as good as it should be in Atlanta, we’re getting a lot of work done to go to Texas. So it’s hard to run these different cars but its just part of the program. When the decision’s been made that we’re going to bring this car along, I think everybody’s trying to work to make sure we do the best we can. I think definitely it was the right thing to do to bring it to the short tracks first because we’re going to probably have some rule changes and some things are going to happen as we get to intermediates and probably to speedways too. It’s going to be something that’s going to develop over time and it’s never easy when you’ve got. Nobody would like to have to come out with a whole new fleet either so I think NASCAR did the best they could after the decision was made to race it to bring it to short tracks first. But these teams are working harder than they’ve ever worked. If we could come test more it would probably be a bit different. Having to go to places that you’re not going to race to try to learn doesn’t give you much time to really tune the car up. “
ON THE COMEBACK OF THE NO. 24 TEAM (JEFF GORDON) TODAY AND WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR DRIVERS WHEN THEY ARE RUNNING ONE-TWO?
RICK HENDRICK: “I’m really proud of Stevie (Letarte, crew chief) and Jeff because at one point, Jeff was probably the worst car on the track and really struggling. You see a guy that’s so good here have that problem; you know there is some kind of problem. You know there is something wrong. But they didn’t give up. I was really proud of their effort. Anymore when you have multi-car team, you have a lot of information. I was proud all three drivers came to victory lane today. If Kyle and Jeff had had a problem at the end of the race and crashed, it would be a real problem for Stevie and Alan to work together next week. We want to beat the other 40 cars that are out there. It’s hard. You’ve got smart guys that work together. I’ve been in a situation where my two teams are fighting on pit road and trying to drive back to the airport in a van and trying to keep from getting hit in the middle. I don’t enjoy that. But I don’t expect the guys not to race, either. There is a way to race them clean. I mentioned to Kyle and to Jeff on the radio to think about the big picture and they did and there wasn’t any problem. “
IF NASCAR CAN TURN THE NEW CAR INTO ONE THAT CAN RUN ON EVERY STYLE OF TRACK ON THE CIRCUIT, WHAT FINANCIAL RELIEF WILL THAT PROVIDE?
“We’ll see how that turns out. I know NASCAR is concerned. They want a good show. The fans want a good show. They want people to race. We’ve been doing this a long time and we’ve adapted. We added rear windows to Monte Carlos when they didn’t have downforce. NASCAR would come up with rules changes to make the cars more competitive. And they work with the crew chiefs to try to find the fix for things. So I’m confident that NASCAR is not going to let the car be a problem with the show. There are a lot of smart people with all these teams. NASCAR is going to keep working with these guys. Once you say you’re going to run it, now we’ve got to fix it. We’ve got to make it what it needs to be. You’re not going to do that the first race out of the box. They’re going to try to stick to the plan to keep the costs down and the car safe. It’s also got to be competitive. Everybody will work together. We’re all in this together and we’ve got a lot of work to do. But I think we’ll get it done. ”
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