NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500 PHOENIX INTERNATIOINAL RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
February 25, 2011 JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed racing at Phoenix, being done with Daytona and moving on and more. Full transcript:
BACK TO WORK NOW, PHOENIX OFF OF THE BIG TRACK AND HERE WE GO ON RACE NO. 2. “Yeah, it’s exciting to be here. It’s a really good start to the season. We had a lot of good breaks last week that led to a good finish. Here, it would be exciting and I think the new nose is intriguing to everybody. We’ve got a lot of new ideas how we are going to run the cars and things. We’ve been working on the car and I think if they work as it’s supposed to I think we’ll be looking pretty good.”
ON THE 5 MILLION DOLLAR CHALLENGE TO RUN THE INDY CAR FINAL IN LAS VEGAS. “Let’s not even talk about if I would like to do it or not, it’s just impossible logistic wise. If you really were going to go to try to win the 5 million bucks, you would have to get all the practices down and do it right. And I think we are racing that weekend aren’t we. Initially I would say no. It’s intriguing and I think it’s intriguing for a lot of people. I think a lot of people are going ohhhh, but being realistic it’s impossible. Are you going to show up on Sunday and race without practice and hope for the best? Who the heck is going to win that?”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT YOUR PROGRAM HEADED INTO THIS RACE HERE AT PHOENIX THIS WEEKEND, AND NOW THAT WE’RE DONE WITH DAYTONA ARE YOU PRETTY CRANKED UP TO BE OUT OF THERE AND INTO THE SEASON NOW? “Yeah, I ran the 24 hours as well so I was in Daytona… yes see if you guys were there for a while I was there for a little bit longer. Yeah, it was about time to get out of there. It was fun. All the weeks were good. As I said before I think we were so well prepared for this. I think our new cars have been improved a lot over the off season. It should be a fun weekend. We normally run pretty good here. Last time here we struggled a little bit, but even with a pretty average car we run pretty decent.”
YOU FORGET THE FACT THAT THE GUY WHO OWNS LAS VEGAS OWNS CHARLOTTE WHICH IS WHERE YOU ARE RUNNING THAT WEEKEND AND HE’S THE SAME GUY WHO PUT UP 20 MILLION DOLLARS IF YOU COULD RUN INDY… “What happened to that proposal?”
IT’S PROBABLY STILL ON THE TABLE, I DON’T KNOW. “Has anybody taken it?” I THINK BRUTON (SMITH) WOULD PROBABLY GET YOU A JET TO FLY BACK AND FORTH. I’M THINKING THAT THE GUY THAT RUNS BOTH TRACKS … “Okay, let’s try to even analyze it. I haven’t even gone that deep. It’s a three-hour difference and it’s about a four to five-hour flight. Is it feasible at all? So let’s say you practice Saturday morning in Vegas, you’ve got to be done practicing at what time because it’s going to be a five-hour flight to Charlotte plus a three-hour time difference, its eight hours. What time does the Charlotte race start?”
HELICOPTER COMES IN…. “Yeah, but I’m trying to think. So it means I would have to start in the back of the field at Charlotte even if I made it to the race. Because if you think about eight hours, if the race is at 6:00 I need to be in the plane at 10:00 in the morning. Ain’t going to happen. It means I will have to leave the track at 9:00 or 9:15 if we go in a helicopter. It’s true. The proposal is pretty freaking cool. Who is going to say no to 5 million bucks that easy?”
ARE THERE ANY OTHER NAMES THAT COME TO MIND THAT YOU THINK ARE WELL SUITED FOR THIS CHALLENGE? “Being realistic I think (Sam) Hornish would be a guy that could do it. He’s still involved with Penske and he runs Nationwide, so he would have Saturday and Sunday to be there. He would run Friday night. I don’t even know if he has a full schedule in Nationwide. Him or Robby Gordon would be the two names you would throw out there on the table that actually have time to do it and not the commitment here. I think Formula One are probably racing that weekend, I think they are in Korea or something, very close. Short flight as well (laughter).”
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