NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
June 22, 2012
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Sonoma Raceway and discussed racing at Sonoma, his Chase chances and other topics. Full Transcript:
YOU VISITED FARMERS INSURANCE IN LOS ANGELES YESTERDAY FOR THEIR ‘BE A HERO FOR BABIES DAY’ FUNDRAISER BENEFITING THE MARCH OF DIMES TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR VISIT AND HOW MUCH FARMERS INSURANCE RAISED: “It was neat to go to that and to learn more about premature babies and what Farmers Insurance and their people have done to get behind that and help out. They raised 2.5 million dollars this year in 2012 for the March of Dimes and for the babies. It was neat to be part of that check presentation and get to meet some of the kids that are doing so well now and stuff. I was happy to be there.”
COMING INTO SONOMA THIS WEEKEND WE ARE ALMOST HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON OBVIOUSLY THE FIRST ROAD COURSE TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT GETTING READY TO GO OUT HERE SHORTLY, BEING WHERE YOU ARE SO FAR THIS SEASON AND COMING INTO THE WEEKEND: “I like racing at Sonoma and just trying to figure it out and not make mistakes, not get off track and wheel hop and do things that are pretty easy to do at this place. I just try to work up to it. At times in practice we were pretty good. I felt like in race trim we were decent. Qualifying we didn’t make the lap that I would have liked, but I feel like we should be able to pick up a good bit here in qualifying and hopefully get a solid qualifying effort. We usually qualify pretty well here. If we can do that then work more on the car tomorrow and be prepared for Sunday. It’s a cool place to be and a lot of fun to race out here.”
HOW DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE POINTS LEADING UP TO THE CHASE NOW? YOU ARE CURRENTLY 16TH BUT YOU DO HAVE A WIN, YOU ARE RIGHT IN THE MIX. WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET AT THIS POINT? “I really thought we would be able to race our way into the top 10. With these last two weekends, Pocono we had a great car and Michigan we had a really good car at times. Restarts I really struggled for the first three or four laps, but once the race got going for a while we were one of the better cars. I thought I would race into the top 10 and not even have to worry about that stuff. We have been in those two wrecks and we are 16th so the way I look at it is we just need to win. We have to win at least one more race and maybe two to have a real strong shot at making the Chase this year. I think it’s going to go off of wins.”
WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET BACK TO VICTORY LANE HERE? DO YOU REFERENCE BACK TO THE YEAR YOU WON THIS RACE? WHAT ARE SOME OF THE POINTS YOU HAVE COME UP WITH? “Some of the things I learned that year or some of the corners that I was good. Usually you’re not going to be good at every corner here. There are certain ones you want to really work on so you can protest and take advantage and things like that. I just always worked off of what I learned that year and where my car was fast and why it was better than Tony Stewart there at the end. We were able to hold him off and we were like that the whole race. Just trying to get that feeling back which is tough, but that is what we will work on tomorrow in practice and then you just have to have the right strategy and be on the same page as your crew chief and how you are going to work that strategy throughout the race. Everybody goes into a race with a certain strategy and then depending on your car you may change it to another one. If you want an extra pit stops to do some things or maybe you are good with a two stop strategy when that is when you pit.”
A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO IS WAS 105 DEGREES ON RACE DAY TODAY IT IS COLD EVEN RAINING AT TIMES WHAT HAPPENS BASED ON WHAT YOU DID TO THE CAR TODAY IF THE TEMPERATURES REALLY CRANK UP BETWEEN NOW AND SUNDAY? HOW MUCH IS THAT OF TALK IN THE GARAGE RIGHT NOW HOPING CONDITIONS DO NOT CHANGE MUCH? “Well I don’t know I didn’t really think of that. I thought of when it’s hot the tires are a little bit slippery; the track is more slippery than what it is now. For as cool as it was today I think the tires were as slippery as they have been here in a while from what I can remember. I’m pretty happy with it either way. I think you need it to be slippery here in order to pass cars because some of the guys get… you will have more traction and find ways to get around and other guys won’t. To me it makes it a better race the hotter it is here. I think the tires look slicker this year so that could be a part of it also. I don’t know hopefully it’s hot. I like it when it’s hot here. I think that creates the toughest race conditions and you can get some passing through the field and you don’t have to rely strictly on strategy.”
A LOT OF THE MAYHEM AT THIS TRACK TENDS TO HAPPEN IN TURN 11. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE KEYS TO TAKING ADVANTAGES OF OPPORTUNITIES THERE BUT ALSO DEFENDING YOURSELF AGAINST GETTING WRECKED OUT? “Just being able to get through turn 10 and carry speed there. (Turn) 10 is tricky to get into and brake for. There is a big curve there on the inside that if you touch sometimes it will affect your car to make you looser and other times it will help you turn. It seems like there is plenty of racing room over there but it’s tight in turn 10 and you usually use up the whole track. So, how you get through there depending on what your car is, is how you either take advantage or have to really go into defense mode getting into turn 11. People they will gnaw on me all day long down there if there is a shot at it. Just trying to figure that out is key to blocking that corner off.”
THE SO CALLED ROAD COURSE RINGERS THAT WERE KIND OF ALL THE RAGE A FEW YEARS AGO NOW THERE IS NOT AS MANY OF THEM. THEY NEVER KIND OF LIVED UP TO THE HYPE, IT ALWAYS SEEMS LIKE THE CUP REGULARS ARE THE ONES WHO END UP WINNING THESE THINGS WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? “I think the Cup guys just got to where they are just really good on road courses for one. Also, really understand the cars. To me once the car turned to the car basically that we are running now that we have had for, I don’t know, five years now or four years, whatever it has been. I just feel like there is a feeling in that car that you can get on an oval and carry some of that stuff to these types of tracks. So our Tony Stewart’s and Jeff Gordon’s and there is plenty more, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch those guys have really stepped up on this type of a track. They just make it hard for any road course guy or anybody who wants to come in just to straight up beat them those guys are good.”
I KNOW YOU ARE PRETTY ACTIVE IN SPEAKING OUT ABOUT TEXTING WHILE DRIVING; YOU DID A PSA FOR FARMERS INSURANCE ON THE TOPIC. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED ABOUT THE DANGERS OF TEXTING WHILE DRIVING?
“I think the big thing to me is because teenagers and I know when you try to text you just lose your train of thought on exactly what you are doing. There have been a lot of deaths. A lot of teenagers have died because of texting and trying to drive at the same time. That is the biggest thing to me is just pay attention to what you are doing and when you get there call your friend or text your friend or whatever you need to do. Driving is hard enough and things happen so quickly that if you are texting and not paying attention you have no shot of trying to avoid a wreck or anything. We saw a wreck on the way here this morning. It was a head-on collision. Just a car on this little road right outside the track, a car crossed the center line and hit the other car head-on. That stuff can happen so easily you need to at least focus on driving and the whole texting thing is not good.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT HAS BEEN LIKE AFTER DALE (EARNHARDT) JR’S WIN? HAVE PEOPLE COME UP FANS COME UP SAYING CONGRATS TO JR? WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE? “Yeah, he’s probably had a lot of fans congratulating him. It’s good. I congratulated him I thought it was awesome to see him win and be part of that. I didn’t realize, I’ve always been friends with Dale but just at a real small level here and there. Now that I’m his teammate I’ve been able to work with him this year. He is just a solid guy. He’s a great guy and you can see that just listening to him talk about his car each week in our debriefs and things that we have every Tuesday and you know that he’s close. They have been as good as anyone all season long. The consistency has been there so for them to dominate Michigan like they did I was pretty excited. I had a torn up car by that point of the race when he lapped me. I didn’t realize he was even leading. He lapped me and I thought ‘man next time he laps me I will see how close Smoke (Tony Stewart) is’ because Tony was pretty close to him at that time. The next time they came by I couldn’t even see Tony so I knew he was on his way to his first win of the year. It was exciting I was happy for him.”
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