NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 6, 2012
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed his qualifying lap, overheating issues in this weekend’s race and other topics. Full Transcript:
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? “I don’t think it’s going to be a top-10 or top-15, but we knew coming in here that we weren’t going to take the risk needed to get the pole. We are trying to preserve the engine, preserve the water capacity inside the engine, a lot of different things. We are more focused on the race and I really hope to run more laps in this race than I have at all the other plate races this year. I’ve been the first one going home each week and I haven’t liked that.”
IS THE OVER HEATING PROBLEM FIXED? “No and it’s not fixed by design. NASCAR doesn’t want us to push and I understand that. We will have to see how things go with the elevated temps. They gave us some more room with the pop-off valve. That will be helpful, but in order to break up the tandem they had to do something and the ability to overheat the cars is the area they went to work in. It has made for some interesting racing, you have to be patient in the car and really manage your temps all day long which is a different type of racing than we are all used to.”
ARE THERE ANY OTHER CHANGES THAT NEED TO BE MADE BEFORE TOMORROW NIGHT? “The rules are so tight; all the cars are virtually the same. That has been very care free for myself. I know the team they go through a lot here from when the garage opens to when it closes just to get all the small details set. From a chassis set-up stand point or a driver’s stand point it’s pretty basic. It’s a pretty casual weekend for me to be honest.
HOW MUCH IS FEBRUARY’S FINISH STILL SITTING WITH YOU? “It’s there I mean I have fun talking about it more than anything. I came down here for however many days and made 2.6 miles or something and crashed. I’ve had more fun with it than anything, but it’s racing it happens.”
DO YOU HAVE A PLAN GOING INTO THE RACE? “With the overheating issues like we have now track position is everything. Even to avoid the big wreck track position is everything. The track is so much narrower than Talladega you can’t ride in the back. I think Daytona requires us all to race harder for position. The rules create a need for us to race harder for position. We will have a very competitive race. I’m not sure mid-pack how easy it is going to be to manage your temps so you might see a few different groups of cars just due to overheating issues. If I can I want to start up-front, which I’m not sure is going to happen, but stay up-front, race up-front all night long.”
BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO GO BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE THE LAST TIME, YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN AN AREA YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE? “Yeah, I mean you’ve got to keep your car cool and then the track is so narrow with 30 to go, 20 to go you can’t just march up through the field and get to the front. The road is going to be full other race cars.”
12 DIFFERENT DRIVERS HAVE WON OUT OF 17 RACES DOES THAT PLAY IN YOUR MIND AT ALL YOU ARE A WINNER ALSO AS FAR AS THIS YEAR GOES? “It’s just so competitive that any team can win. We talk about it all the time how competitive the garage area is. We look at the rules and how tightly regulated everything is now. It doesn’t allow the big teams to find a decent advantage to separate themselves. We are right on top of each other with lap times and type of race cars and the performance we have put out. It seems like there is bigger gaps of time found on pit road or in strategy on fuel or two tires than there really is out on the race track right now because it is so competitive out there.”
NEXT WEEK WE GO TO LOUDON AND POINTS ARE AT SUCH A PREMIUM AND YOU HAVE TWO WINS WHEN YOU GO TO LOUDON ARE YOU STILL ABLE TO TRY SOME STUFF FOR THE CHASE RACE LATER IN THE YEAR? “Usually don’t get too far away from our normal routine. At the end if we are near a fuel window we may gamble and go for it. It may lead us to a two tire stop instead of four at the end of a race, but really you can gamble some but you don’t want to make stupid, foolish, careless decisions that prevent the team from having a good finish. Oddly enough the momentum of a top-five streak or a top-three streak really does a lot of good things for a race team. You don’t want to lose that trying to throw some crazy Hail Mary.”
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP HAS A FUN QUESTION FOR YOU ABOUT THE TWEET THE SUBWAY PICTURE ABOUT CARL EDWARDS BEING IN FRANCE WITH YOU TOO WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “(Laughs) I took my family over, my wife, daughter and mother and father in-law were over in France. We’ve rented a place for a month to just kind of hang out, let my family hang out. I will go back once we finish racing in Loudon for our off week then we will all come home. I was over had a short two or three days there to kind of look around and oddly enough some other friends were in town. A buddy of mine saw that Subway character out on the street and from there it went. I’m glad other people are paying attention to it.”
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