NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA TEXAS 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 2, 2012
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway and discussed morning practice, Donny Schatz World of Outlaws championship and other topics. Full transcript:
HOW WAS PRACTICE? “It was okay. Nothing spectacular. We’ve got a ways to go.”
TALK ABOUT DONNY SCHATZ CAPTURING HIS WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR TONY STEWART RACING: “I’m proud of those guys, especially Donny. It was a really trying first half of the season for the whole team. They were just struggling to try and find a balance in combination with the engine and chassis package that he was looking for. The second half of the year, those guys really dug in, and got going there, and really dug themselves out of a hole. They definitely earned it the last half of the year.”
ARE YOU GOING BACK FOR THE WOO FINALE IN CHARLOTTE? “No, it is too far. We’ll watch on the internet tonight and tomorrow. Actually, we’ll see it on the Internet tonight, and watch it live on SPEED tomorrow night.”
DANICA SAID SHE WAS A WINE AND FANCY RESTAURANT KIND OF GIRL, AND TONY GIBSON IS AN OLD-SCHOOL RACER. WHY DO THEY GET ALONG? “Why wouldn’t they get along? They aren’t going out to eat dinner together, they are racing together. That’s where they have to be on the same page.”
HOW DO YOU THINK SHE IS GOING TO REACT WHEN SHE GETS CALLED “OLD MAN”? “Probably the same way we all did. Look at him funny, and realize that it doesn’t matter who you are, or how old you are, he (Tony Gibson) calls you “Old Man”. That’s just Gibson.”
HOW DIFFERENT FOR YOU IS IT IN YOUR SITUATION THIS SEASON AT THIS POINT THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR, A SITUATION SIMILAR TO WHAT BRAD KESELOWSKI AND JIMMIE JOHNSON ARE IN? “You don’t always have that situation like we had last year. If you look at the history, we’ve had more years like we are having this year, than we had last year. You’d rather be in the situation they’re in, but it is what it is.”
LAST YEAR, YOU ARE CARL APPEARED TO HAVE VERBAL JABS GOING BACK AND FORTH, ALL IN FUN. HOW USEFUL OF A TOOL IS THAT WHEN YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP? “It worked for us. (CHUCKLES) That’s all I can say is it worked for us.”
HAVE THERE BEEN ANY TALKS ABOUT ELDORA HAVING A NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK RACE? “No.”
JUST A FUN QUESTION, THERE IS A MOCK DEBATE GOING ON FOR NASCAR PRESIDENT BETWEEN MATT CLARK AND JIMMY SPENCER. WHO WOULD YOU SUPPORT? “Out of the sake of the entire nation, I would have to pick Matt Clark. I’m sorry. I love Jimmy Spencer like a brother, but that’s not a brother I would put in the Presidency.” (LAUGHS)
IS JIMMIE (JOHNSON) A BIGGER FAVORITE THAN TWO POINTS WOULD INDICATE? “I don’t know. It’s one week at a time still. It is what it is each week. It doesn’t who’s a favorite. It matters what those points say at the end of the day each week.”
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