THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by crew chief Greg Zipadelli and J. D. Gibbs from Joe Gibbs Racing.
Greg, talk about your thoughts and emotions about winning here again today.
Greg Zipadelli: It’s just awesome, like one step better than Loudon, but I can’t wait to go back to Loudon anyway (laughter).
This place is just so special. To be part of our second victory, to know what it means to Tony growing up here, racing here in the past, open wheel cars and things, it was just awesome.
My team did a good job today. Pit stops were good. The car was good. And Tony did a phenomenal job.
THE MODERATOR: J.D., your thoughts? Has to be a big weekend for y’all.
J. D. GIBBS: Yeah, no. I think for us, when you went through it a couple years ago, when Tony won the first time, you kind of realize how many people are here, how many fans he has here, what this means to him personally. I think that was a big deal for our guys. I know it was the first time, and it was this time around. Last time was nerve wracking, but you forget because this time it was nerve wracking, waiting those last few laps.
I think Zippy did a great job. It’s rare that you have a really good car all weekend long, be able to capitalize and good smoothly. From what I can tell, the guys did a great job, Zippy and Tony. It ended the way it started, good the whole time through, and wound up with a victory. A big credit to those guys, as much work as they put into it.
THE MODERATOR: As I mentioned, this is their second consecutive win in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, seventh time this race team has posted back to back wins, a strong testament to the strength of this race team.
Q. Zippy, you said something in the radio interview after the race that this is the smartest race you’ve ever seen Tony run. Given his history here, where he’s been very high and very low, how do you see the change in Tony?
GREG ZIPADELLI: I’m proud of him. The way the pit stops go, track position here is so much. We’ve had good race cars here. We didn’t do a good job of controlling track position in the past. It’s something that we’ve done a better job over the past couple years, I think. We talked about it before we started the race today. He was patient when people stayed out or people took two and we felt, you know, like we needed four. If we did get a caution late, I wanted to be able to put two on. We had two on the stop before.
It’s just the cycle. But, you know, we did a good job. Kept the fenders on the car. Our pit stops were good. The whole team did a great job today.
