NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
MEDIA DAY
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 12, 2015
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RCR PEAK/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. Full Transcript:
I AM SURE A LOT OF FANS WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOUR JOB IN DRIVING A RACE CAR, TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT:
“Yeah, ever since I was a little kid I enjoyed driving a race car and still do to this day. I wouldn’t say the easiest part is, but the part you enjoy the most is right before the race and getting strapped in the car, firing the engine, doing your pace laps and start to get ready to go racing. That’s fun and that is what we wake up for every day. There is a lot of stress involved in how you prepare and do all these other things but ultimately the end is a lot of fun. It’s very rewarding when you have a good day and very humbling when you have a bad day.”
WHICH ROUTINES DO YOU LIKE THE BEST AND WHICH ROUTINES DO YOU NOT LIKE THE BEST?
“The travelling gets hard because it’s a long season with forty weeks total and thirty-eight weekends. It gets to be a lot and that is the hardest part. But in the end we are so wired to do that when you do have the off-season or an off-weekend and you sit home for a few extra days, you just don’t know what to do. You are accustomed to having that schedule and that routine. You miss out on a lot of things. You miss out on friend’s weddings, and now I have a little daughter and I have missed out on a few steps of her growth. But this off-season was a great time for me to be with her and see her achievements.”
THE DRIVER IS A KEY COMPONENT IN THIS SPORT, BUT WOULDN’T YOU SAY IT’S TRULY A TEAM EFFORT?
“The driver is definitely not the key component, they are the cog but they get the most press and the most out there. There are so many people behind the scenes that make everything happen that get overlooked. Obviously the crew chief’s, the owners, and everybody back at the body shops, fab shops, chassis shops and engine shops. They work just as hard as anybody in this sport and they don’t get the recognition they deserve. Our guys at RCR work very hard, and everybody in this industry does, but they build some beautiful race cars and they are a lot of fun to drive.”
IS IT IMPORTANT THAT EVERYONE GET ALONG ON THE TEAM?
“Yeah, it’s like anything where if you have one goal you want to achieve and you aren’t on board with each other to achieve that goal, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to make it happen. So yeah, it’s very important that everyone gets along but you don’t necessarily have to be hanging out with everybody all the time but you have to have a good working relationship with people.”
IS IT THE JOB OF THE CREW CHIEF TO KEEP EVERYBODY IN LINE?
“The crew chief is in charge of his unit and the bigger picture is for management to keep that in line, but yeah, it kind of falls on everybody’s shoulders to make sure if there is a problem that you try to fix it.”
YOU HAD A GOOD SEASON LAST YEAR, WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THIS SEASON?
“Last year was an okay year and obviously we didn’t make the Chase, but we came really close. This year we have no excuses and we are going to make the Chase and that is our expectation.”
DO YOU LIKE THE CHASE? WOULD YOU HAVE TWEAKED IT IN ANY WAY?
“The thing about last year, and being on the outside and looking in was that we were 13th in points when the Chase happened and the best we could do was to be 17th. I thought what would have been good was if the first few guys that go out of the Chase, 13th thru 16th, they could get mixed back in with the general population. So you go down to Miami and you have the main guys who are 1-4 but everybody else can race for 5th.”
DO YOU THINK THAT IT PRODUCED THE EXCITEMENT THAT NASCAR WANTED?
“I think so. I know from where I sat in Miami and finished fourth, I had a hell of a view for the lead of the race, but also the win of the championship and it was really exciting. If people don’t like that, then I don’t know what they like.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK JEFF GORDON MEANS TO THIS SPORT?
“I mean he is an icon of NASCAR. Obviously with the success he has had and the way he has handled himself, he has set the bar for everyone in the sport currently. I wouldn’t say it’s going to be a huge loss for the sport, because he is still going to be around doing TV and other things. But I am excited for him because he is still a young guy physically and in the prime of his life, so he is able to go out and do some other things while he is still young.”
DO YOU HAVE A JEFF GORDON STORY?
“Not really. The first time I ever saw Jeff Gordon was in 2003 and there was a big test in Watkins Glen, New York and I was with Andy Petree testing up there. We practiced in the morning with about 15 cars there and for lunch the track catered this buffet. So I am standing in line to each fried chicken and watered-down green beans and such and I look behind me and Jeff Gordon is standing behind me waiting in line for the buffet too. Then when we went back for the race he was running like top-five but crashed going into the final turn and I went past him and beat Jeff Gordon in my first race.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT CHASE ELLIOTT AND WHAT HE CAN BRING TO THIS SPORT?
“Yeah, I mean look at what he did in his rookie year. He is pretty phenomenal but transitioning to the 24 car is going to be a big step for him for sure. Going from the Xfinity Series to the Sprint Cup is a huge step. I thought I was prepared for it when I did it in having some success in the Busch Series at the time, but it was an eye-opener on how big of a difference it is. He has a lot of good people around him and he has got a lot of talent and he is going to be successful.”
DO YOU LOOK AT HIM TO SEE HOW HE HANDLES THINGS ON AND OFF THE TRACK?
“I don’t know him that well, but I have raced against him a few times in Nationwide last year. We had a run-in one time at I think New Hampshire where he wheel-hopped and got into me and was very apologetic afterwards. I thought it was very big of him to come up to me afterwards and do that. It is very cool how he handles himself for sure.”
HOW LONG BEFORE THE END OF THE OFF-SEASON BEFORE YOU ARE READY TO GET BACK INTO A CAR?
“Usually around January 2nd. You get done with Miami and there is this big list of things you want to do and you think you have all this time to go and do it. I did some deer hunting and went home back over Christmas and New Year’s. But then about January 2nd or 3rd you kind of want to get back to your routine. You are kind of like, ‘now what do I do?’, that is kind of when the season starts and we do the media tours and such. I think the season kind of starts around the middle of January and that is when you get kind of busy.”
YOU GUYS ARE ALWAYS GOOD AT THESE PLATE TRACKS
“Yeah, we have had a lot of speed at these plate tracks the last few years at RCR and won the pole last year with Austin. It’s going to be unique how the qualifying effort works with a lot of strategy involved. There will be a lot of balls-to-the-walls laps run on Sunday in qualifying and in the Duels. There are a lot of cars here and it’s going to be tough to make the field for a lot of guys.”
IS IT GOING TO BE DIFFERENT FROM TALLADEGA?
“I haven’t really heard any cut-and-dry rules as far as if there are minimum speeds on the race track and if there is, I haven’t heard it. I understand there is going to be a pit road speed maximum, going down pit road. When the track goes green, I don’t know if you can sit in your pit box or if you can sit on the end of pit road. I think I did hear you can sit in your pit box, but you can’t go down to the end of pit road and sit. So it’s going to be a little bit more difficult for guys to group up and form a line or form a pack if they have a pre-determined group they want to go with. It’s going to be a bit more difficult to accomplish that but it’s still going to be pretty much the same. You are going to be in a group of people, trying to look for another group and suck up to them. That is the bottom line.”
ARIC ALMIROLA MADE THE CHASE LAST YEAR. HOW BIG DO YOU THINK THAT WAS FOR A GUY LIKE THAT TO BELIEVE THEY BELONG AND HOW COULD IT AFFECT HIS CAREER?
“You go through your racing career and like when I started in Sprint Cup, there was no Chase and now there is a Chase. You go in steps. The first step is to make the Chase and then you have a shot at the championship. So for a guy like Aric or myself to make the Chase, that is a huge accomplishment. But the next step is to keep transferring in the Chase and get to that final round. It’s what we do as race car drivers. Every year there are some that make the Chase and some that don’t, but we all have the same goal and outlook on life.”
HOW MANY DRIVERS OUT OF THE 43 CAR FIELD COULD WIN THE DAYTONA 500?
“I would say half of them have a legitimate shot for sure. Qualifying is going to be a big factor because I have heard there are 53 cars trying to make the race and that could mean some big guys don’t make it in. We will see how it plays out, but restrictor plates are the big equalizer obviously and you hear that every time that we come to one. The little guys could win a race and it’s a big opportunity for one of them. When you see some guys on smaller teams at Texas, they don’t have a bounce in their step because they are going to race for 20th but they come here and they have a legitimate shot. You see them racing a little bit harder and doing some things that you wouldn’t see them doing on a week-to-week basis and it just opens up the door for a lot of people.”
WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT NASCAR GREEN, IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU DO SPECIFICALLY TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT?
“I try to recycle as much as possible. Our recycling day comes every other week, so when they come we load them up. Outside of that I just try to be mindful of things like how much water you use because everything adds up. I just try and be mindful every day to do what I can do to help the environment.”
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