NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS RACE FOR HEROES 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 7, 2014
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed last weekend’s incident at Texas Motor Speedway between Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski, his outlook for this weekend at Phoenix and many other topics. Full Transcript:
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS ON COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND’S RACE:
“Excited to be here, especially after our performance at Texas and then even back a few days our test session that we had in Miami. We did test here. It didn’t go exactly how we wanted, but the last 10 days we have learned a lot about our race cars. I’m feeling very optimistic about how our Lowe’s Chevy is going to run here this weekend. The No. 24 had an incredible test and I really expect him to be fast and clearly something that he and that team need to have for this weekend. I had a great week. Spent some time out here in this direction I should say. I was on the West Coast. I went to the SEMA show for Chevrolet and unveiled a really cool Stingray Corvette, ’71 Corvette and then had a photo shoot for a sponsor and stuff. It’s been nice to be out west and I’m ready to go racing.”
DO YOU THINK DRIVERS WHO HAVE NOT TYPICALLY AGGRESSIVE IN THE PAST WILL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE NOW?
“I think that everybody has gotten more aggressive. The Mark Martin days of pointing someone by and I will worry about passing you later and I expect you to point me by too, those days are long gone. I think as a group we have been migrating in the more aggressive manner. I doesn’t matter age, team you drive for, individual themselves it has all been going more aggressive for sure.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE LITTLE THINGS GUYS ARE GOING TO DO TO TRY TO HOLD EACH OTHER UP SHORT OF WRECKING THEM TO GET TO HOMESTEAD? WILL RIVALS PICK PIT STALLS NEXT TO EACH OTHER? WILL THEY MAKE IT TOUGH TO PASS? WHAT SHOULD WE LOOK FOR?
“The pit stall game I don’t know much about. I have always had the opinion you want to qualify as good as you can, if you don’t you want to try to pick around slower cars so you have a better in and out. Yes, you can try to play that game. It’s just not been in our wheel house. Being aggressive on restarts is going to be key and then the short run is very important here to get your track position and maintain it. I think that is going to be the top priority for people. I don’t think you are going to see anyone cutting each other slack for five or 10 laps until we kind of settle in and go at that point. One thing that I do have to point out, it got me in ’12 and it got Matt (Kenseth) last year, if we have long green flag runs here you can run the right-front (tire) off the car. It happened to me, it happened to Matt, two championship teams in the thick of things. This track had a big impact. Just on handling, so getting handling right here is not easy to do either.”
WHY IS EVERYBODY SO MAD AT (BRAD) KESELOWSKI? WHAT IS HE DOING THAT IS MAKING EVERYONE SO MAD?
“I’m not really sure and it seems to have gone on for quite some time. You go back to I think it was Carl (Edwards) and Brad (Keselowski) had their dust up a while ago. This has been building. I can promise you it is not jealously. I know that has been thrown out there. I think it is more about the stuff that happens on the track and off. A style, an attitude, a variety of things like that which all play into it, truthfully it pisses people off more than others. Like, I don’t really care about what happens outside of the car and what people say. Some people really get affected by that and really get wound up about it and caught up in it. I don’t care. I’ve got other stuff to worry about. I don’t care about that. It’s going to affect some drivers more than others. It’s been building in that front. When you look at Matt Kenseth being as upset as he was that is pretty rare. Jeff (Gordon), I want to say that it’s pretty rare, but I think we are at like the third or fourth time he has let his aggression come up and he has gone after somebody. I think it’s pretty new to having an assist with (Kevin) Harvick kind of pushing him over into Gordon. That is a first. I don’t have a clear vision as to what it is, but it is evident that it has been building and it’s kind of at a high.”
DO YOU THINK BRAD’S (KESELOWSKI) PASS ON JEFF (GORDON) WAS CLEAN AND LEGITIMATE? SECOND DO YOU THINK JEFF’S (GORDON) REACTION WAS JUSTIFIED AFTER THE RACE?
“We are in a world and an environment where you have got to go. If they make contact and Jeff (Gordon) doesn’t get a flat I don’t think there is a fight. Jeff got a flat and there was a fight. Again, when you are in the moment and helmets are on and everything is on the line everybody has their own reason they are fighting this hard for the championship and what it means to them. You can go through Jeff and where he is and what this means to him, Brad, everybody involved with these heated moments. It’s hard to, I wasn’t in the car, I wasn’t in the scruff with those guys, but they… oh God I guess I’m getting lost in my own thought. I’m trying to say something really profound and I am just not capable of doing that. What was your question again?”
WAS JEFF’S REACTION JUSTIFIED?
“Okay back to the point (laughs). You are going to have to ask him that. I don’t know.”
WHEN DO YOU THINK IT WAS THAT THE GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT WENT BY THE BOARDS?
“I don’t know if we can pick a hard point in time, but man I’m guessing five, eight years somewhere in there. Truthfully, the guy on the track today that still races like that era of time is Tony Stewart. The relationship I have with him, I will be four or five car lengths from him, not really even pressuring him yet. And he knows that I’m faster and it almost shocks me and I’m surprised that he pulls over and lets me go. Sometimes I almost run into the back of him because I don’t know if his car broke or what is going on. He still remembers and was raised in that environment and races that way. It’s a dying art for sure and it’s been some time now. I think each year it just keeps getting more intense. Then again, by design, NASCAR when they put this format in place this is what they were hoping for. They wanted guys trying to shoot the gap on a green-white-checkered restart. If there is a scrum afterwards on pit road then that is part of the deal. It’s all by design and I guess it is working.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT NOBODY HAS LOST POINTS AT EITHER CHARLOTTE OR TEXAS?
“Yeah, the Charlotte thing surprised me with the contact on pit road and Matt (Kenseth) had his belts off. I think that I expected a little bit bigger of a fine there. And then seeing some video of what went on in the garage area after. In my opinion something more needed to happen there. I don’t know if a driver landed a punch, I know some crew members did. I think the fine fits the crime there. But some of the other very unsafe situations I think deserve more.”
IN THIS LOST ART, YOU TALKED ABOUT THE MARK MARTIN WAY OF POINTING A FINGER BY AND YOU CAN PASS THEM BACK LATER, DO YOU THINK THERE ARE SOME DRIVERS WHO HAVE GROWN SO ACCUSTOM TO THE WAY THAT HAS KIND OF DOMINATED THE SPORT FOR AWHILE THAT THEY DON’T REALLY LIKE HAVING TO GO THE OTHER DIRECTION? LIKE THEY UNDERSTAND IT’S CHANGING LIKE YOU TALKED ABOUT, BUT THEY REALLY DON’T LIKE HAVING TO RACE THAT WAY?
“Yeah, and I think speaking on my own experience, there are times that I’m not happy with how I’m racing someone. And I get a little flashback in my mind of years ago where it probably wasn’t the cool thing to do, unless there is 50 (laps) to go or a pit stop left in the race. But with track position being as important as it is, I think that is the root cause of the aggressive driving. If we could pass at will and start 30th and work your way to the front because you had a fast race car you wouldn’t have this taking place as often. But track position is the driving force in all of this aggressiveness and then guys are getting fed up with being used up time and time again and it is carrying over to pit road.”
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