[media-credit name=”darlingtonraceway.com” align=”alignright” width=”199″]
[/media-credit]NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES’ SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 11, 2012
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET met with media and discussed the challenges of racing at Darlington, his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, his season to date, his pit crew, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
ON RACING AT DARLINGTON
“It is a very tough track and I really believe every driver looks forward to coming to this race track, including myself. Team members and everybody seem to have a little added excitement to come to Darlington. Since the repave, the race has changed quite a bit. I’m hopeful that the grip has gone away some and that when we get on the track a little bit later that tire wear and kind of the patience of a driver and even the setup will come more into play. The last few times here, or since the repave, it’s been a lot of speed and really, strategy has been more important than really a good-handling car or a smart driver. And I’m looking forward to the track getting back to where it was before and hopefully it’s there now. We’ll just have to see as the weekend develops.”
WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THIS WHOLE FOUR-CAR (HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS) TEAM, ALL THE WAY BACK TO OCTOBER 2011, SEEKING THAT ELUSIVE 200TH WIN; DOES IT WEIGH ON THIS TEAM? DO YOU ASK WHAT’S WRONG HERE?
“Yeah, it certainly ‘weighs’ on the team. Toward the end of last year we did, as a group, lack some speed; and I think that led into the end of the season. The reason I wasn’t a part of the Chase at the end was the crash at Charlotte and Talladega. Looking at how we performed over those final five races, I don’t know if we had the pace. I don’t think we had the pace to race with the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) or the No. 14 (Tony Stewart). But so looking at those five races, we knew that we needed to get to work. And with Kenny Francis coming in, I feel like he’s brought some new ideas. Our guys work real hard in some other areas. Put that all together, we’ve had some very competitive cars and you look at the lack of luck that I’ve had, that (Jeff) Gordon has had, that Kasey’s (Kahne) had; (Dale Earnhardt) Junior has been very consistent and very close to a win. He’s been kind of carrying the flag for us right now. I’m not frustrated yet. I don’t want to see opportunities slip away. I certainly want to get the 200th (win) behind us, as does everyone at Hendrick Motorsports because we’re tired of it kind of lingering around (laughs). But I think there’s some frustration related to luck with the No. 5 (Kasey Kahne) and the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon). And then we’ve had a couple kind of get away from us. We’ve got to clean that up and not let that happen.”
GIVE YOUR RECORD HERE, ALONG WITH JEFF GORDON’S AND EVEN KASEY KAHNE’S, IS THIS A LITTLE BETTER PLACE TO DO IT THAN TALLADEGA WAS LAST WEEK? DO YOU FEEL MORE ENCOURAGED ABOUT DARLINGTON?
“At Talladega, really, anybody has a chance to win; so I’m not sure we were really in that mindset of racing for the 200th win. It’s kind of a wait-and-see what happens over the last two or three laps; and if you’re in position, you’ll take the trophy and go home. Other than that, you’re just out there trying to survive. But here, we’re back to racing and I’ve been excited about the way our team has raced. I feel like it’s a great track for a lot of the Hendrick drivers and I’d love for it to happen. I really wish it happened at Martinsville with the history of Rick (Hendrick) and his first win taking place there, but I don’t want to wait until the fall Martinsville of it to happen for him (laughs).”
KASEY KAHNE HAD SUCH A ROUGH START TO THE SEASON AND ALMOST FELL OUT OF THE TOP 35 AT ONE POINT. DID YOU TALK TO HIM MUCH DURING THAT SPAN ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON? HE NOW HAS FOUR STRAIGHT TOP-10’S AND TWO STRAIGHT TOP-FIVES. WAS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT THE PERFORMANCE WE SEE NOW IS MORE AKIN TO WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING?
“I did talk to him through it all and he was bummed-out. Nobody wants to start a new relationship with the type of luck that he had with that stretch of bad runs. I kept reinforcing the good things that were happening with the team and the speed that he had. He was winning poles. The luck would come. I know he was concerned about Farmers and the sponsors that had come on board. You know, you work hard to court these folks. You open up the first however-many races and they had nothing but bad luck. I know that it was a little difficult. But Kasey has been racing so long and understands what goes on, that I didn’t feel like I had to say a lot. But I certainly wanted him and (crew chief) Kenny (Francis) to feel part of the Hendrick family. Kasey and I have had a great friendship over the years, too. Just as a friend, I wanted to give him my two cents and say hey, you know you’re a great driver and you know this is a great team; luck will come.”
INAUDIBLE
“Yeah, it’s definitely what I expected to see and I expect to see that No. 5 car in victory lane, as well as all the Hendrick cars. We have a lot of great things going on. We’ve showed a lot of speed at different points. We just need to be strong in that last segment of a race to the checkered flag.”
HOW MUCH DOES YOUR PIT CREW REALLY CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR SUCCESS ON THE TRACK? DO YOU WORK-OUT WITH THEM AND TRAIN WITH THEM? ARE THEY READY FOR THE PIT CREW CHALLENGE? DO THEY STAND A CHANCE AT BEATING THE NO. 11 (DENNY HAMLIN) TEAM?
“Oh, yeah; they’ll be ready. And those guys train. That’s a system we adopted last year, where our over-the-wall guys, that’s really their only responsibility. We want our team to be athletes and to do the job at a top level each and every stop. At different times through the year, I do train with them. I cycle with at least one of them regularly. And last year I spent a lot of time doing heat training with them in the middle of the day, on hot summer days, just trying to build team camaraderie and just be around them some because there were a lot of new faces. But they’re ready. They’re full-blown athletes and ready for the job.”
YOU MENTIONED THE GRIP LEVEL HERE. OBVIOUSLY THERE WAS ENOUGH LAST YEAR FOR REGAN SMITH TO STAY OUT AND WIN. ARE YOU SEEING ENOUGH OF A DETERIORATION YEAR TO YEAR HERE TO MAKE YOU THINK THE TRACK IS ERODING A LITTLE FASTER THAN MAYBE EVERYBODY THOUGHT IT WOULD?
“I think it’s been a little slower in losing grip than what I thought would happen here. With such hot summers and the sun just cooking this track and what it did over the previous years with the old surface, we’d come back and see it lose big chunks year-to-year. So once it starts, hopefully it’ll take a big step and come back to the way it was. Unfortunately the grip is so high and the track is so narrow, we can’t really pass like you would want to. It depends on how your car is handling, but you’ve got to be a lot faster to pass somebody right now. And with the old surface, it would be easy to lose half a second a lap, or two-tenths a lap, depending on the part of the run you’re in; and you could really create passing opportunities there and put on a good show. With us all running very close in speed, and in my opinion really, one good chance to pass a lap, it just limits your opportunities to pass and puts it more in the hands of strategy than it does a fast race car.”
DANICA PATRICK HAS NOT DRIVEN A CUP CAR OTHER THAN A RESTRICTOR-PLATE CAR. HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR THIS TRACK TO BE HER FIRST NON-RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACK? WHAT ARE HER CHALLENGES?
“I didn’t realize. Did she test on a short track or anything, with the additional power? Does anybody know?”
SHE TESTED AT NASHVILLE
“When you get to about half-throttle in the Cup car, that’s what a Nationwide car feels like (laughs). There’s a lot left from that point down in a Cup car. As far as tracks go, this track in my opinion has the highest sensation of speed over any other track we go to. And it’s due to it being so narrow. But it will be an eye-opening experience. Fortunately she’s been real fast in other cars so hopefully it doesn’t affect her too much. But we’ve all looked at this race on her schedule and know it’s going to be tough for her. And it certainly will. This is not an easy race track to get around but she’s going to do it and we’ll see how it goes.”
IF YOU THROW OUT THE TWO RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES SO FAR, YOUR AVERAGE FINISH IN THE OTHER RACES IS 6.0. IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE PRETTY FAR AHEAD OF WHERE YOU WERE MAYBE AT THE START LAST YEAR. HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT WHERE THE TEAM IS NOW AS WE HEAD MORE TOWARD THE CHASE?
“I feel really good about where are team is right now. I feel, I guess my memory is a little short, but especially back to last year, I feel much more competitive now than I did last year. I feel that in our set-ups, we have more areas to develop still. Where, last year we were kind of at the edge of our package in trying to find new speed. Right now we have a fast car and a lot of great ideas still to come, if that makes any sense. So I feel we’re a lot stronger this year than we were last. I don’t know how to compare it to other years, but things are really good right now.”
WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR. BEING WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF THE POINTS LEAD, HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IT IS TO MAYBE HAVE HIM (A), WIN A RACE, AND/OR (B), GET INTO THE POINTS LEAD TO HELP DRIVE VIEWERSHIP AND FANS TO THE TRACK?
“Man, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking of Junior winning a race for those reasons. I want him to win a race because he’s a teammate. And he’s working really hard to win races and win championships. As part of Hendrick Motorsports and his sponsors, I just look at it differently. I know a lot of people are concerned about the fans and maybe driving different thoughts in ticket sales or merchandise sales; whatever it might be; viewership. But for me, it’s really about the racing. When you’re in the garage area like we are each week, and living the sport as we do, we want success maybe for different reasons. I just want his victory to come and more to come because of the hard work that goes into it and what it does for Hendrick Motorsports.”
YOU MENTIONED TALKING TO KASEY KAHNE WHEN HE WAS HAVING A ROUGH STRETCH. THE GUY WHO IS ON THE BOTTOM RUNG NOW IS JEFF GORDON. DID YOU EVER HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH HIM SIMILAR TO THAT? IS THERE A PEP TALK INVOLVED?
“No, I haven’t. Just hearing his voice in our debriefs and things that we’re around, I can see his wisdom and experience in knowing that yes, the results suck (laughs), but the performance has been really good. So, and I know how strong he is as an individual and as a competitor. I haven’t had that need. Maybe I should. Maybe I should reach out to him, but I’m around him a lot and he seems very good about things. He certainly hates the results. But maybe I’ll be a buddy and reach out (laughs).”
REGARDING NEW DRIVERS GETTING RESPECT IN NASCAR
“In any sport, you’ve got to come in and earn the respect. Regardless of lower divisions; if you look at the NFL and regardless of your draft pick or whatever it is, you don’t show up to the pro leagues and have respect. You’ve done a lot of great things to get you there; but it’s always a different pace, a different level of effort in either. There’s just a lot of change when you get to the top level of any division, of any sport. And you have to go out and earn that respect. And that’s something that I took a lot of pride in coming up through the ranks. I took a couple of licks before I passed one out. And there are people that come into any sport and I’ve seen it in ours, where they expect to have the respect out of the gate. And they act in a certain way. And it makes life tough for them. But, you just have to go out there and earn it. It’s just the way it works.”
JIM HUNTER IS GOING TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE SOUTH CAROLINA ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME THIS MONDAY NIGHT DOWN IN COLUMBIA AND I KNOW YOU TWO WERE VERY CLOSE. TALK ABOUT JIM AND WHAT HE MEANT TO THE SPORT AND WHAT HE MEANT TO YOU PERSONALLY.
“Wow, that is amazing news. I couldn’t help but think of Hunter on the way down here; driving down this morning. He mean the world to me, personally and professionally. I had a lot of great times golfing with him. And I’ve never been heckled so much in my life on a golf course before until I played with him. The guy would wish my ball into the water and the sand traps; they usually go there anyway, but he was a lot of fun. And then when he came to the track, his experience, his expertise, the vision he had, and how to handle things and how things would work, the flow of the track and the season and all of it, he is very deserving to be in the Hall and I’m sure the family is very proud of that. And I’m proud as well. He was a great man.”
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
