TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Notes & Quotes – Denny Hamlin, David Reutimann & Brian Vickers Daytona Media Day – February 10, 2011
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What does it mean to you to be wearing the Jordan brand? “I think it’s a big deal for myself and really NASCAR. The Jordan brand has never been in NASCAR before. It was a dream come true for me. I mean, for me the Jordan brand represents excellence in sports and really it’s good to have that partnership. It’s a personal deal for myself to have a Jordan branded fire suit, obviously it will be on the gloves and we’re working on shoes and things of that nature. I’d love to see it personally from my standpoint, to have an apparel line with those guys in the future so hopefully we’ll get that done in the future to where some of the fans can have it as well.”
How did your partnership with the Jordan brand come about? “Its funny how those things work up. Obviously, everyone knows me and Michael (Jordan) had a relationship through the Bobcats, have had some golf tournaments and stuff together. Michael is a bigger motorsports fan than what people give him credit for. He always used to talk to me last year about how the race went because he watched the races and he wanted to know questions of why did this happen? Why did that happen? I never really knew he kept track of racing that much until I looked and dug a little deeper and found that he’s had his motorcycle race team since 2004. He’s always been an avid motorsports fan, just never knew the right situation to get into NASCAR and he felt like I was the right representative for him.”
Do you think the Jordan brand will get NASCAR out to a wider audience? “I personally think it’s going to relate a lot to a lot of these sports athletes that come to these races each and every week they don’t always recognize and understand with us. I feel like they’re going to see that and recognize the brand. There’s guys on the Yankees that are Jordan branded athletes. Obviously, I’m their first race car driver. For me, this is a huge stepping point and hopefully something that turns into something very big within our sport.”
What do you think the chances are of all three Joe Gibbs Racing cars making the Chase this year? “I’d say it’s probably 75 percent. Obviously, Joey (Logano) is going to have to get in there for the first time and being that this is his third year it’s probably a good opportunity and a good chance for him to do that. He showed at the end of last year that he’s got the speed and consistency to do it now so it’s just going to be about him believing in himself that he can be part of the top-10.”
Is momentum from last season harder to retrieve than it is to achieve? “It’s tough. It’s tough to get going. Trust me, we talk about it every beginning of the year and I’m sure we’ll all be talking about it five to six races in that our cars were starting slow. We always do every single year and I really don’t know why that is. I’m not trying to be middle of the pack, but it just seems to work that way. We just ease into a season. I don’t know what it is with our race team, but we can’t fake momentum. We can’t go into Daytona and just fake the momentum like we had. Even in 2009 when we ended on such a high note and won Homestead, it took us a while to get going in 2010. So, hopefully the same works out for this year but I see our summer and fall months being different.”
Has your relationship with Mike Ford changed after what happened at the end of last season? “It’s no different. Our relationship really is the same as it was going into last year even though we had the fuel issues that we did at Phoenix, we still had the wreck that happened at Homestead. There were a lot of things that kept us from winning a championship, but I have no hard feelings towards him or him towards me either way for that. We gave ourselves a heck of a championship run and even though the last two weeks of the season didn’t go the way we wanted it to we still had 34 weeks of a lot of celebrating to talk about. For us, it was a career year and for me I just take the things and the mistakes that I’ve made and move forward with it.”
Do you feel more calm going into this season then in year’s past? “I think this year, I’m more anxious than I was in any of the years in the past, but I’m more calm about it. Its two different things. I just have an understanding for how things work now. I understand that you can’t panic in the first three or four races. You’ve got to just work your way into the season, and even though this is the first day of school for everyone and its new and everyone has the same goals and optimism at this point. We know when we leave Daytona reality sets in, and that’s when you see what all of the hard work that you’ve done over these last two months whether the results were good or not.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) Why do you think you are calmer going into this season? “I think it just happened as I got older. I think it’s just you see it in all sports. Any veteran is obviously a lot more calm than the rookies and a little bit less intense than what the rookies are. I carried that same intensity and passion out on the race track, don’t get me wrong, but how I get to that point and the way that I prepare myself is a little bit different.”
Were you concerned with what Mike Ford said at Texas about your team being better than the 48 team? “Looking back at it, he (Mike Ford) was just showing a lot of confidence in our race team. He felt like our race team was better. And, in what instance was our race team not better? We had the same group of guys at Homestead that we had all year long. Those other couple teams switched people around and had to move people around to get a better race team. For us, we stuck with our guys no matter what, through thick and thin and at that point we had the best race team. We were on top of the standings. So, why not stick your chest out and have a little bit of confidence.”
Does Mike Ford remind you of Rex Ryan? “I think he’s the absolute, total 100 percent opposite of Rex Ryan. He never says anything, and talking with Mike (Ford, crew chief) in the offseason he said, ‘Now I know why I never said anything before that particular point.’ That’s because anything that you say kind of gets blown up and I know first hand that it definitely can be so you’ve got to be careful.”
How frustrating was it for you to see the 48 team win the championship yet again? “It was very frustrating especially being that I felt like we outperformed those guys. Flat out, I feel like we performed better we just didn’t execute as good if that makes any sense at all. I felt like the 29 (Kevin Harvick) had the best season as a whole. They put the whole season together. The 48 (Jimmie Johnson) performed good obviously and executed and capitalized on us and the 29s mistakes. As far as the speed and winning and all of that I felt like we outperformed everyone.”
Is there something you can specifically point to that justifies your optimism this year? “One is coming off a career year you’re going to feel like — for me, since my rookie season and going into 2007 I’ve never taken a step back. It’s always been, we had a great 2006, rookie season and had a chance to win a championship. 2007 the driver just tried to make up too much, and then since then these last four years we have steadily marched — more wins, higher in the points every single year and obviously there’s only one more place to go. I don’t consider myself stepping back at all and obviously anything less than what we did last year is going to be considered to myself a failure in the sense of that I took a step back. I didn’t accomplish what I did before. Given, there’s a lot of variables. Whether your cars are as good, pit crew is as good and things like that. We’ve never taken a step back with our FedEx team and that’s something I’m proud of.”
Would winning a championship and being the first person to beat the 48 team be double the excitement? “He (Jimmie Johnson) has won the championship ever since I’ve been in the sport in 2006 so for me a change at the top would be good. I felt like we very easily could be talking about me going for three in a row versus him going for six in a row. In 2009, I felt like we outperformed them in the Chase and just blown motors flat took us out. All those things that could’ve, would’ve, should’ve didn’t happen and now it’s on us that we have to execute. Not perform, but execute.”
What did you think and where were you when you found out Dale Earnhardt passed away? “I didn’t believe it personally. I remember watching the race obviously and seeing it and it’s just like everyone else thought, it didn’t look too bad. Then next thing you know you get a phone call and someone says they heard something and next thing you know you log onto the internet and there’s rumors here and there on whether he has or hasn’t passed. Then the next thing that you know it becomes reality when you see his face on TV. For me, I remember that for me as a race fan that was probably the first time I’ve ever cried because of something else outside of my life that has actually happened. It was a big event. Trust me, I’ll say it right here, I wasn’t the biggest Dale Earnhardt fan. I was a big Bill Elliott fan and he was the alpha. But still, everyone had a respect for him and obviously he touched a lot of people even though he might not have been your favorite.”
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing What was racing like before you made it to the upper levels of NASCAR? “It starts with having all volunteer guys on your team and going to races that you really can’t afford to go to and having to rely on running well in order to have enough money to get home. I operated for years — when I had my own stuff — just by going to the race track, buying tires, writing a check that had no money in the bank to cover whatsoever basically. Then winning the race, running home to get to the bank Monday morning when it opened with the money so the checks wouldn’t bounce. That was the way I operated. That’s not the way to operate, but that’s the only way I could because I didn’t have any money. Putting seven guys in one hotel room because you could only afford one. Getting up, driving to a race track and racing all day and then driving 12 hours home after the race because that’s just what you did. That’s racing — that was life. That was my life and I did it every weekend and I really didn’t care because I was racing. When you rely on racing for your income, you don’t race all year, you have an off-season, so you have to run around. I ended up working for UPS a little bit as a jumper for $8 an hour, doing things like that just so I could make it through the off-season. The whole time we’d build my race car stuff and go and do it again. That was just the way I did it. If I hadn’t gotten the opportunity I had, I’d still be doing the same thing. I don’t think I would have changed anything.”
What’s held your team back from making the Chase? “Consistency. We need to be more consistent and that’s what we’ve been struggling at. Struggling, that’s a pretty big word. We haven’t struggled, but we haven’t been as consistent as we need to be so we can be where we need to be when it comes time for the Chase to roll around. We’re going to be more consistent and do a better job in certain areas, myself included. We’re going to continue to refine our product. In the end, I think we’re going to be where we need to be if we focus on being consistent and doing it the right way.”
Will the new points system and who is allowed in the Chase make getting in more difficult? “I think so. It’s plenty tough as it is. They certainly haven’t made it any easier. It’s not supposed to be easy. It’s a championship — it’s supposed to be that way.”
Is making the Chase your goal this year? “If you can’t get in the Chase, then there’s obviously no chance for the championship. It’s one thing to get in the Chase, but you see the guys that do well in the Chase ratcheting their programs up when it matters. It’s funny how Jimmie Johnson may struggle or appears to struggle at various points in the year. Those guys don’t ever get excited, they just know what they have to do, when they need to do it and it seems like they just go along doing the things they need to do with their focus on knowing what they have to do when it comes time to ratchet the intensity up. There are two drastically different approaches. One is getting into the Chase and then when you’re in it, it’s all or nothing at that point.”
Do you feel like Michael Waltrip Racing is ready to be a regular Chase contender? “I think we’re there, I just think we need to do a couple things a little bit better to be where we need to be. Obviously we’re against teams, the teams we’re talking about have spent a lot of time and we’ve not, which that’s no excuse to do what we need to do. In the end, not making any excuses, we’re at the point where we need to be, have good people placed, good partners — we just have to continue to improve our product and be better. Being more consistent for the 00 team. Winning the race one week and running 30th the next is not going to cut it. A bad race, a rotten day for you needs to be about 15th and that was a horrible day. You need to be in the top-10 — 12th actually needs to be a bad day. You look at the guys that are making the Chase, that’s the area they’re running in. A bad day for you needs to be 12th, a good day or decent day needs to be top-10. Obviously top-fives are better. We need to do that consistently in order to get in the Chase and we need to be that kind of team running on a consistent basis.”
Are there any tracks where you need to make big improvements? “Our 1.5-mile program is pretty good. I think our speedway program is decent as well. Obviously the road course deal is what it is. It seems like we need to be better at the flatter type race tracks. I think our 1.5-mile and race tracks that have some bank to them are going pretty well, the flatter type race tracks like Phoenix, Martinsville and Loudon — places like that we need to get better at those race tracks. We’ve run well there, so we know we can run well, we don’t do it consistently. That’s what we need to do.”
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing (continued) Are the flatter tracks better suited to your driving style? “I would have thought they would have, coming from a background of short, flat race tracks — I thought we would have been better there. I don’t feel like I’m better at 1.5-mile tracks, I just feel like our cars are better at those. We have a better product for bigger race tracks and we just need to make our product a little bit better for the flatter type race tracks. We struggle there a little bit. I know Rodney (Childers, crew chief) is working awfully hard to make it so it’s not like that any more.”
What would be your dream season? “I’ve had plenty of nightmare seasons, so you can go back to any of those. A dream season would be getting in the Chase and winning some races, winning some poles and being a factor in the Chase. Obviously, a dream season would be going and winning (the championship). That’s everybody’s dream here. I think it would be great to get in the Chase and not fall off the face like nobody pays attention because you’re out of it right away. Be there to the end. Be one of the guys that people are watching, saying this team can do that. That would be really cool, more than anything, I’d like that.”
How do you spend your time away from the race track? “Off the track, it’s just working on my dirt cars. That’s my golf, that’s my fishing, that’s anything else anybody else does to relax — that’s what I do.”
Does your dirt racing help you with Cup Series driving? “I don’t know if it helps me, but it helps me take my mind off that side of things. If you think about something constantly, chances are you’re going to have a better chance to mess it up. Sometimes you need to get away and do something to hit that reset button. Going to my shop, building cars and doing things like that — that does it for me.”
How will racing under the lights at Texas in April be different than in years past? “We race a lot under the lights. Some races we start during the day and go into the evening, the track changes. What you end up seeing is when the track gets cooler, speeds go up and racing seems to get a little more intense. Texas — that’s a fast race track. It’ll be a really neat event. I love racing under the lights because it makes the cars look different and makes everything look different. People always ask if it’s harder to see when you run under the lights, I think you can see better under the lights because there’s no glare of the sun in your eyes and none of the other things and everything seems to pop out at you. It’s a neat deal and takes you back to the times when you were racing Friday and Saturday nights and you were a short track guy, only on a little bit bigger scale.”
Will the racing at Daytona be different with the new track surface? “You used to worry about your car handling at Daytona. The cars would run 14, 15 laps and start sliding around. Really, basically that’s all gone. It’s going to be like Talladega now where everybody is going to stay in packs. It is probably a narrower version of Talladega. When you take all of us who are trying to run three and four wide, and you put us on a much narrower race track and we’re going to still try to run three and four wide, there’s a lot of opportunity for a lot of different things to happen. I think it’s going to be a great race. I’m really excited about it. They’ve done a phenomenal job. Pit road is great, it’s just beautiful and the race track as well. It’ll be pretty intense, though.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Was there a time where you wondered if you would survive the blood clots? “Anytime you have a blood clot, it can be fatal. The odds are it’s not going to be, but obviously that risk is there. Once you discover it and you have it under control and you’re on blood thinners that risk dramatically goes down. Moving forward, once you’re aware of it and you know the symptoms then the risk goes down even further. To have a spontaneous clot that is instantly fatal with no warning whatsoever is actually not that common. It happens. Blood clots are the second highest killer in America. It’s a highly under-diagnosed issue and it’s a highly under talked about issue and therefore very few people realize that and think about it. Very few people know the symptoms. Most of the time if you know the symptoms, you can get there in time. It doesn’t have to be as bad as it could be. That’s something that actually moving forward I’m going to spend more time talking about and educating people. There’s a couple websites out there — clotconnect.org and stoptheclot.com that will educate you and give you the knowledge you need to be proactive in preventing that. I guess, as far as I’m concerned, once I got to the hospital in time, it was pretty much downhill from there. There was definitely the thought and the possibility that things could happen, but the doctors pretty much had it fairly under control. I don’t want to say 100 percent because it’s the medical field it’s more of an art than a science and anything can happen when it comes to the human body. For me, the real risk at that point was whether or not I was going to be able to race again. The health risk was obviously there, but it was more a focus on how do we address this in such a way that I can get back in a race car.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team (continued) How difficult was it to think that you might not get to race again? “It was difficult. Obviously, you spend your whole life preparing to do something and you’re there and you’re doing it and then all of the sudden it’s taken away. Especially at such a young age. Emotionally it was difficult at times, but in the moment and in the heat of the battle, my focus was just on dealing with the issue and then as some time went by and I had some time to think about it is when emotionally it probably hit me the hardest. Realizing what was going down. That being said, I believe things happen for a reason. I’ve learned a lot from this experience and 100 percent believe that it happened for a reason and I feel like I came out better for it. In the moment it’s difficult and it’s hard to look at it that way. When you’re right there in it. Especially at such a young age I never thought that I would be dealing with blood clots or having heart surgery at 26. It’s just not something you think about. A lot of people go through that. I’m not special, I’m not unique. You go over to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte and talk about a new perspective. When I would go to the hospital for visits or check-ups, I went there one time just to talk to the staff and give them a pep talk and thank them for the service they provided me while I was in the hospital. I walked through the children’s hospital and talked to the kids and 26 is hard enough, imagine doing this at six. It’s unbelievable what some people go through, but it’s amazing to see their spirits. It’s interesting, I’ve always wanted to and tried to stop by when I could hospitals and talk to kids and just try to do something to help them and make them smile, make them laugh, whatever. In a lot of ways I feel a little guilty trying to talk to a kid about you know, ‘Keep your chin up, don’t give up,’ when you haven’t really been there and you don’t really know what it’s like. I think they can see that and they know that. They appreciate it and they still love to see a race car driver come by and give them a die-cast and talk to them. Ultimately it’s not the same. When I went back the first time to talk to the kids and patients at the hospital after being in the hospital myself and going through everything I went through, it definitely gave me a new perspective, but I felt more comfortable there. I felt more comfortable talking to them about, ‘I’ve laid in that bed with IVs in both arms and not knowing what the future holds and not to give up.’ It definitely changed that situation for me.”
How did your time away change your perspective on driving? “Going through this is definitely going to change my perspective. I think what I went through changed me more personally. It changed who I am and I grew a lot as a person. I still have a lot of growing to do and I am sure there are plenty of people that would point that out. I definitely took a big step up the ladder through this experience. I’ve always felt that as a race car driver, as an athlete — I say race car driver, but really anything you do. Who you are as a person is going to show in your writing. Sometimes you may not want it to, but it does. It’s just who we are. Who I am and the person that I desire to be, the emotions I have show up on the race track. And, I have no doubt that going through this experience and how its changed me personally is going to show up on the race track. My opinion is that it’s going to show up in a better way. I think it’s going to be a benefit to how we perform on and off the race track. There may be times when it’s not, but I believe that the perspective and the growth that I’ve had personally is going to be a positive out there on the race track.”
Is there a greater sense of urgency in your career? “I would say there’s no urgency. Not because there necessarily shouldn’t be, if anything there should be. This is something I’ve always asked myself. I’ve always wondered why old people are so patient because I’ve always felt like they have the least amount of time of any of us, shouldn’t they be in a hurry to get somewhere, but they’re not. I guess I bring that up because through this experience I’ve changed a lot and grown a lot as a person. The case could easily be made that because of what I’ve gone through because it could happen again or because of my age — should I be in a hurry? Yeah, the case could easily be made. Do I feel that way at all? Not at all. I look back at everything and what I went through personally and as a person. Before I decided to come back racing, I accepted and I wanted to accept this, I wanted to accept mentally and emotionally with being okay with never racing again. And I got to that point. I was okay with it, I was content, I was happy if I never came back. I wanted to come back, but I was okay with it. That was something hard to do. I think as a competitor and as an athlete you feel like you’re afraid that you’re going to lose your edge. If you lose that sense of urgency or fear, I don’t know how you want to describe it, but the reality is that it actually increased. I feel like my edge increased not decreased. I’m okay if I don’t win a championship. For the first time, I would be content and happy where I’m at in life if I don’t win a championship. That being said, I probably want to win it more than I ever have in my life. I’m not racing because I don’t want to lose, I’m racing because I want to win it. I don’t know if that makes sense. I know it’s a lot, but it makes sense to me.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team (continued) What items are on your bucket list? “There are some mountains I would like to climb — maybe K2. That’s on the bucket list, but I don’t have time to train for it. I don’t have the time to go do it much less train for it. Someone actually proposed a rather interesting idea that sounded pretty awesome — I was going to try to do this in the offseason with a buddy, but scheduling didn’t work out. To go hunt wolves from a helicopter in Russia. That sounded pretty awesome. I love being outdoors, I love nature and all those things and I enjoy hunting. I try to be respectful about it and I don’t just randomly shoot things. Usually 99 percent of the time, if I shoot something I’m going to consume it or eat it or use it in some form or fashion. There are situations where the hunting of the wolves in Russia where they are extremely overpopulated and if you don’t hunt them, they have to do something to maintain a healthy population. A lot of people don’t realize that. You always get the liberal left that says, ‘You hunt them.’ But the whole species will die out if you don’t maintain the population because they don’t have a natural predator. Something like that would be cool. I want to skydive, I want to learn to fly. I love skydiving. I’ve already done that, but there are some other things I would like to do. I would like to try to go through Navy Seal training. A HALO jump would be incredible. I doubt that if I asked them to go do that with the Seals that they would drop me in warm water. One of my best friends that I grew up with ended up becoming a Seal. I think that would be pretty cool to go through the training. Not just the HALO jump, but other stuff as well. I always found that pretty fascinating.”
