NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BANK OF AMERICA 500
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 9, 2014
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 PEPSI CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed his chances this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his thoughts on Danica Patrick’s progress this season and many other topics. Full Transcript:
TALK ABOUT YOUR ANNUAL 5K THAT IS THIS WEEKEND:
“10:00 AM Sunday morning we are doing the fifth annual 5K. Excited about it, it has grown each year. Last year was a great turn out with not just fans and people supporting the foundation, but also drivers and crew members here at the track showed up Sunday morning as well. It’s pretty neat you can come and enjoy yourself and have some fun. I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully it will grow a little bit from last year or even be the same that would be really nice. It was a neat event last year. Had fun and looking forward to it again on Sunday.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR STRATEGY ON HOW TO GET BACK TO VICTORY LANE HERE AT CHARLOTTE:
“Just enjoy racing Charlotte. We haven’t won the Bank of America 500 in a while and would really like to. It would obviously help. There are a lot of people that want to win this one. Just doing all we can. We learned a little bit in practice today and then tomorrow will mean a lot more as far as getting the car prepared and ready for Saturday night. This is a neat track, it’s fun to race at, and it changes a lot. Strategy plays a big part late in the races here. It would be great to get a win.”
IS THERE ANOTHER TRACK GIVEN YOUR SITUATION IN THE POINTS RIGHT NOW YOU WOULD RATHER ADDRESS THIS WEEKEND THAN RIGHT HERE?
“I don’t think so. I think would be the track if I had to choose. A place where I feel the most confident on kind of understanding and knowing what I need in the car to win Saturday night or at least come close, put it there and have a shot. I think the last, as long as I can remember, we have been top two or three in this race throughout a lot of it and late in the race as well. I can’t remember that at too many other tracks. I would say this is the place to make up as much ground as possible. It should be good Saturday night.”
HOW DIFFERENT IS THE 600 AND THE 500?
“Well the thing about the 600 is to me the weather is a bit hotter at that time of the season. So the track from the All-Star race to the 600 changes a lot each year. It’s usually not the same or even close. You come here this weekend and it’s even different than that. For whatever reason I usually at night in this race it seems like you get looser, you slide around more and the speeds slow down a little bit more from what they do in the 600. You just have to kind of be prepared for that. I think overall some of the characteristics are always there. How you run the bottom, the middle or the top and what your car is doing in order to run in those spots on the race track.”
WHAT IS YOUR ASSESSMENT OF DANICA PATRICK’S IMPROVEMENTS THIS YEAR?
“I would say to me she just has more speed, especially in qualifying and even in the race. You will see her there are times, I think it was Atlanta and I feel like we lapped her maybe the first run or two. And then they worked on her car, she had speed and drove back the rest of the race, made her way back to the front and ended up fifth or sixth. I don’t remember her ever doing that in the past, so I would say she has definitely improved figuring our cars out, figuring out the feel that she needs in order to go fast. She has great teammates to look at what they are doing. (Kevin) Harvick is one of the fastest guys each week. Kurt (Busch) could be the fastest at any given time and so could Tony (Stewart). She can pull a lot off of those guys.”
NEXT WEEK AT TALLADEGA HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A REALLY BIG RACE FOR A LOT OF CHASE TEAMS DEPENDING ON HOW THIS WEEKEND GOES. HOW ARE YOU PERSONALLY PREPARING FOR THAT RACE?
“I don’t think we really know how exactly to do it yet. I feel like Saturday night hopefully there will be one more person, one more team racing its way into the next round. That will leave 10 to race for those eight spots. I don’t know if I did that right. No, six to race for the eight spots, yeah, I think we will know a lot more after Saturday night. Either way I don’t see why you wouldn’t go to Talladega and try to win. No matter where you are at in the points. Just maybe a difference of when do I need to go to the front, when do I need to lay back? But late in the race I think everybody has to go for it and just hope that you are not in the big wreck.”
IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT JEFF GORDON THIS YEAR THAT YOU CAN POINT TO? DO YOU SEE DIFFERENCES IN HIM?
“Not really the way that I work with him. I feel like he’s pretty much the same. He definitely knows he’s fast he knows that he is going to be fast each week. He goes into a race weekend after final debrief you can always kind of read it in his face when he’s not exactly thrilled with his car. In final practice he knows that it will be right for the race. I think their communication with Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and his team and the way they are going about things is pretty strong right now. Definitely stronger than the last two years that I have been at Hendrick Motorsports. Other than that I think he’s pretty normal to me. The way we talk about things and go on with days and stuff. He is really normal and I feel like he probably has a little more confidence. He knows he has a shot each week.”
WHEN DID YOU START THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU WOULD DO IN THE CHASE AND DO YOU REALLY LOOK AT MORE THAN JUST ONE RACE AT A TIME?
“Actually I really feel like the best thing for myself is just to look at the upcoming race. That is kind of how I’ve done it all season. It hasn’t necessarily worked throughout the rest of the year. In the last month I think it has worked pretty well. We have shown up at each track and been really competitive. In these races we have been fast each week since the Chase started. I feel that is all you can do, because depending on how you run this week is how you look at next week. There is a lot too that. There is some testing that we have done at some different tracks, so you have to obviously look at them and remember back to last season or to the previous race that you are at that track and try to figure it all out. Then just log it away until we get back to that track. I think myself I was really looking at Kansas; we got out of there and instantly straight to Charlotte. We will look at here and we will have to go to Talladega.”
IF YOU DON’T WIN HERE THIS WEEKEND AND YOU STAY SORT OF MARGINAL IN POINTS CAN YOU RACE DIFFERENTLY AT TALLADEGA?
“I think the only thing just trying to think quickly I would say you could kind of wait. Wait towards the back and do it like that for a lot of the race get some cars together who don’t need to be in any wrecks early on and wait until the end. But my best luck that I’ve had at restrictor plate tracks is just racing and racing all day. Sometimes I will get in a wreck and sometimes I won’t. But that is how I feel like we have had our best performances at those tracks. Not trying to wait in the back. I’ve waited in the back before and never made it back to the front. There are just so many things that go on, get in a wreck in the back or in the middle of the pack trying to get back to the front. The best I’ve done on average is race hard and then I get my best results. I don’t know if we will be able to do that or not. I don’t think I’m going to be making these decisions for next week. It will be more of a team/company type deal that we look at and just try to see what is best for all of us.”
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