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[/media-credit]NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 18, 2012
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed competing in the tomorrow night’s All-Star Race and other topics. Full Transcript:
HOW FAR ARE YOU WILLING TO PUSH IT TO GET THE MILLION DOLLARS TOMORROW NIGHT?
“Let’s get to the last 10 laps and I will let you know.”
LET’S SAY YOUR ARE IN THE FRONT TWO ROWS FOR THE LAST 10 LAP SHOOTOUT?
“I’m willing to do the same thing that I have done for the last 13 years that I have been here for this race.”
SO YOU ARE GOING TO RACE IT THE EXACT SAME WAY?
“Exactly, you still have to finish you can’t just go out and go do a dive bomb deal and if it doesn’t stick you are not going to make it anyway. You still have to race the race. It’s not like you are going to do much different, nobody is going to do much different than what you would normally do to win a race. You are still trying to win a race. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for a small trophy or it’s for a million dollars everybody just wants to win. Especially here in Charlotte.”
THERE HAVE BEEN FANTASTIC FINISHES HERE THROUGHOUT THE LIFE OF THIS ALL-STAR RACE. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY OF THIS EVENT?
“I don’t think you have to go about every two years in history and they are all favorites. There is always something that’s big and something that has happened, whether it has been (Dale) Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Davey Allison or Kyle Petty. There are great races here all you have to do is watch ESPN you get the highlights every day.”
IF SOMEBODY DOES RACE YOU DIFFERENTLY HOW LONG DO HARD FEELINGS FROM A RACE LIKE THIS LAST?
“They don’t. You guys are asking the same questions you ask every year like it’s going to be something different and somehow everybody is going to do something different in the race cars. Everybody races really hard. It’s a logical question but the answer is always going to be the same. Nobody is going to do anything any different than they did a year ago when they tried to win this race. You have to have a car that is good enough to being with, but you are going to do everything that you can do. If you make a mistake and go too far and you crash or you get in a wreck it’s going for it. Nobody is going to do something stupid to try to win the race. If you do they are probably going to remember it for a couple of weeks. You don’t forget those things. Nobody is going to do something stupid and crazy to win the All-Star race.”
HOW WAS PRACTICE FOR YOU?
“I had an hour and 25 minutes and I needed about three hours’ worth of practice. We got a lot better right there at the end. I’m not sure; we took a long time getting there. The last session I thought was pretty productive.
WITH THE CHANGES TO THE CARS AND SKIRTS, HOW MUCH PREP DO YOU USE THIS WEEKEND FOR THE 600 NEXT WEEKEND?
“Everybody is going to use this with the fact there is no points involved, you have to take advantage of this as a test session or practice session. You just have to tune and find out what it likes, what it dislikes and go accordingly.”
I ASSUME YOU HAVE TALKED WITH GREG ZIPADELLI AND TONY GIBSON ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
“I wasn’t really involved in it. On our guys side I think that it was appropriate. It is our responsibility to keep our guys in our pit box and they don’t need to be running down pit road after people after the race is over. I think the message got delivered to our crew guy. I thought that was fine.”
IF SOMEONE GETS FINED IN YOUR COMPANY DO THEY HAVE TO PAY THEIR OWN FINE?
“I think we are helping out with a little bit of it. I’m not going to make a habit of doing that. If they get fined they are going to have to take care of it. The crew guys never helped me pay my fines when I got in trouble; I had to pay them all on my own. It’s a good reminder to these guys that there are reasons that NASCAR has the rules that they have in place. We have to do our part to abide by them.”
ARE YOU AT ALL FAMILIAR WITH THE BILL THAT GOT PAST YESTERDAY THAT IS TRYING TO BAN SPONSORSHIP BY MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS? DO YOU FEEL THAT U.S. ARMY IS GETTING A GOOD VALUE?
“I think you are going to have to ask U.S. Army that. All you have to do is turn around and look in all these garage stalls. There are a lot of Fortune 500 companies that realize the value of this sport and realize the marketing value to it. I think the U.S. Army and the National Guard have seen that value as well. They are not in the habit of spending money to spend money. I think they see the value in it, whether legislature understands that or not, they may not be familiar with all the things and how it benefits those programs. You understand why they are looking at it. Anybody that is a good business person had to look at it. You have to look at the numbers, but I think you have to do your homework and they also have to look and see the value that they are getting for that. You look in the garage it doesn’t take long to realize there is something to this that makes all these Fortune 500 companies want to be a part of it.”
DO YOU TAKE ON A DIFFERENT APPROACH NOW WHEN YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR SPONSORSHIP NEXT YEAR WITH THE POSSIBILITY THAT PIECE MIGHT NOT BE THERE?
“We are going to go business is usual right now. I don’t think you can plan for something that may or may not happen. As far as I’m concerned we have had a great relationship with the U.S. Army and had a great friendship with them. We are not going to approach anything any different right now. We want them to be here as long as Stewart-Haas Racing is in business.”
About Chevrolet
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