NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA 400
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Dover International Speedway and discussed Chase Elliott’s success this season, the nuances of the Dover track and many other topics. Full Transcript:
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT BEING HERE THIS WEEKEND, YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE CHASE AND HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND HERE:
“We are kind of right in the middle there and got a pretty decent cushion back to 13th. But you just have to keep racing, put your head down and work on the car today and tomorrow and give myself and Steve (Letarte) and the engineer and everybody all the opportunity to try to improve the car over the next couple of days. That is what we will just focus on, just working together and spending time around each other and being available and having conversations about what is going on today and tomorrow and the information we have from our teammates. And the stuff that we have from races past and just trying to find out how to make the car as competitive as possible so we can make the job as easy as possible Sunday.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CONTRACT YOU SIGNED FOR MR. HENDRICK ON A NAPKIN?
“We have told this story a million times, but basically I was with Kenny Schrader for a week while he was racing out in the Midwest and there was a race in Topeka, Kansas, ARCA race on Sunday that we would eventually end up at. Dad (Dale Earnhardt, Sr.), was going to be there, (Kenny) Schrader was there, Rick (Hendrick) was driving, Darrell (Waltrip) was driving. So I had been with Schrader all week and when we got there on race day I was hanging out at Schrader’s rented motor coach or whatever we had been driving all over the country all week. Rick (Hendrick) asked me if I would sign a lifetime contract before my Dad got there so we were just joking around. He wrote one out on a napkin and I signed it. We don’t have the napkin. Rick doesn’t have the napkin and Dad wasn’t really thrilled about it. He didn’t see the joke. Especially after he found out what me and Schrader had been into all week he was pretty upset.”
YOU AND RICK HAVE A REAL CONNECTION TOO BECAUSE OF THE TRAGEDIES IN BOTH OF YOUR LIVES. HOW HAVE YOU RELATED TO WHAT YOU EACH HAVE GONE THROUGH?
“I think that when somebody loses somebody you just have an understanding of what that person is going through. We don’t talk about it. We don’t sit down and lean on each other too much, but you just know what that person went through and the trouble that it puts your heart through. You just kind of – I don’t know you know. Once you go through that you kind of get compassion in your heart when you see someone else going through the same process.”
TALK ABOUT CHASE ELLIOTT HAS HE EXCEEDED YOUR EXPECTATIONS?
“Well we knew he was pretty good. The car is awesome. The car is giving him every opportunity to learn on a quicker scale. He is just doing a good job with the car and the car is really good. I think it’s the best car in the garage. They are the best prepared group and they cover the details. They have a great crew chief with Greg (Ives). He is given a great opportunity and cars that he can excel in and excel in quicker because the car really is an easy tool for him. He is able to hone his skills and understand what he is looking for. When he goes to all these race tracks for the first time this year he wasn’t sure exactly what a fast car was supposed to feel like around there. When they are able to deliver that to him without him really having to search for that it just makes his job a whole lot easier, so the next time he goes back to these tracks he understands what he is looking for. He can talk to Greg (Ives, crew chief) and communicate with Greg about what he had the past time and how good that was and what he expects out of the car and needs the car to do at that certain track. Both of those the car and the driver I think complement each other really well.”
TALK ABOUT WHAT SORT OF ENERGY YOU GOT FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS YESTERDAY AND THEN DESCRIBE FOR US HOW UNFORGIVING THIS TRACK IS:
“It’s a lot of fun. The National Guard has been sending me to these high schools for about two or three years now. It’s super nerve racking because kids are the toughest critics, but to get up in front of the whole school and sit there and have a conversation, do a Q&A, I enjoy it. We take it as an opportunity to help kids of that age understand the opportunities that the Guard can provide and also just kind of talk about racing. There are a lot of kids at that age that are wearing t-shirts and racing shirts and jackets and they are fans. They want to know and they get an opportunity to ask some questions. It’s a lot of fun for me and I always got away super happy about it. It’s a great experience so far. Every time we have gone and they have gotten easier since we started doing them.
“This race track here the concrete is probably the toughest characteristic. There are some bumps going into turn three it’s kind of like driving over a railroad track. The car just kind of hops across the surface like a rock skipping on the water going into the corner so you are really chasing the back of the car around. That gets worse and worse as the weekend goes and the track gets rubber on it. I am real jealous of the guys that got to race on this thing when it was asphalt in the ‘80’s. It looked like a lot of fun. It’s been concrete for a while and we have had some good runs here. I do enjoy the challenges that the concrete provides. Jimmie (Johnson) has been the guy that has pretty much had a lock on this place the last several years for as long as I can remember. I think this was one of the first race tracks where I noticed I think in his rookie season how good he could be. He is really the guy to beat I think every time you come here. He might not really show that throughout the practices there will be some other guys will good speed, but once the race starts he separates himself from the field. We had a chance to run with him last year during the Chase here and ended up running second. We are getting better here.”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A NIGHT RACE HERE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT WOULD LOOK LIKE?
“Well I think it would be a new element to a track that certainly could benefit from that. Looking at the grandstand the last five or six years here we have seen a pretty steady decline in people and an increase in sponsorship tarps. I don’t know if a night race would make a big difference. In my personal opinion it would be a gain in the short term. It’s nothing that is going to create a steady increase in sales year after year after year. The neatness will wear off and you just get back to being a race track, but night races are fun. I think everybody understands that the best racing is the racing where the track gets wide and the track gets wider when the track is hotter, the surface is warmer. You want to run in the warmest part of the day. You want to race when the conditions can produce the best style of racing and that is when the track temperature is up. So you definitely hope for a warm Sunday afternoon when it is 85/90 degrees where the track is real slick and guys are really looking around the race track for grip. The cooler the track is the more it really funnels everybody to the bottom groove. We see that at Charlotte a lot of places that run night races where it sort of turns into a single groove race track the cooler it gets.”
WITH TONY STEWART BEING CLEARED BY THE GRAND JURY DO YOU AND THE OTHER DRIVERS HAVE ANY SENSE OF RELIEF FOR HIM AND MAYBE EVEN FOR THE SPORT AS A WHOLE?
“I don’t know if relief is what I had. I didn’t really pay super close attention to what was going on. More or less just letting the process play out and I feel sadness in my heart for the Ward family. But at the same time you get something in the pit of your stomach that is sort of this frightfulness or this fear for Tony and what he is having to deal with. Just having known him for all these years you can imagine that he is going through something super emotional and overwhelming by a huge measure. There is sort of a sickness or something in the pit of your stomach for what Tony is going through, but at the same time you never really forget that somebody was killed. There is a family with a hole in their heart and they have got to figure out a way to live out the rest of their lives with this always on their mind. It will have a huge effect on both sides for so many years. It’s just super-duper unfortunate.”
HOW IS YOUR BEEF JERKY EXPERIMENTATION GOING AND DO YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN GOING TO THE AMERICAN ROYAL NEXT WEEK IN KANSAS SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GETTING INTO BARBEQUE MORE?
“We have been working so damn much I ain’t got a chance to barbeque much. We have been working like crazy this year. I thought the older I get the more leverage I would get and the less I would have to do. It’s actually not working for me too much (laughs). We are working really hard. I’m enjoying what we have going on. This is the part of the year where not only are we trying to get through the Chase, but all of our sponsors are coming to us for 2015 stuff trying to get all their commercials shot and all their photos taken and all the new uniforms and cars and all that stuff. If I get a Monday off I’m lucky looking at my calendar all the way to Homestead.
“But do enjoy cooking barbeque. It’s real similar to preparing an old late model for a race. It’s a lot of maintenance and you are always kind of tinkering and playing and tweaking on the set-up. You take it to the track and tweak on it a little bit here, tweak on it a little bit there, you don’t get too far out of your comfort zone. It’s real similar to that and you get your buddies around just like in the late model days everybody is a volunteer. I’m going to get me a dehydrator. I’ve got to read up though. I’m not going to jump in like I did with the barbeque. I’ve got to read up and make sure I get the right stuff first because I’ve got like three smokers now because I went in too quick and bought and just kind of got in over my head not getting the right stuff. Meyer Mixing says you’ve got to be able to smoke on everything no matter what it is.”
NORMALLY WE THINK ABOUT THE ULTIMATE STRESS TRYING TO GET INTO THE CHASE AT RICHMOND, BUT WITH THIS FORMAT YOU GUYS FACE THAT MULTIPLE TIMES THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF THE CHASE. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE IN THE PRESSURE AND THE PRESSURE YOU GUYS ARE DEALING WITH EACH RACE BECAUSE OF THIS NEW FORMAT?
“This has been really intense. We are not used to racing for our season in little chunks two and three and one race spans like we are going to do in this Chase. The Chase itself as 10 race schedule was a wild idea when it first came out. This is definitely making things really intense. You feel it all week long. It’s unescapable as far as trying to get it off your mind or trying to take a break from it. You can’t help but feel these nerves of having to deliver on every lap in practice, every qualifying lap, everything matters to the 10th degree when compared to the last format we had last year. The races feel wilder, more intense. I think the drivers themselves drive with much greater sense of urgency and everybody is just really super on edge. That is what I sense anyways. I think that will continue for whoever stays alive and probably get worse. We are all going to be drinking the Mylanta before it’s over with. If we don’t all have holes in our guts by the end of this thing I will be surprised.”
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