NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOODY’S HEADACHE RELIEF SHOT
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 1, 2015
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AARP MEMBER ADVANTAGES CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
WE’VE NEVER SEEN YOU CELEBRATE LIKE THAT!
“We’re going to Homestead!”
IS THIS THE MOST MEANINGFUL WIN OF YOUR CAREER?
“It was a joke. I’m coming back next year!” (Teasing)
YOU’RE NOT GOING TO RETIRE NOW?
“No way, man. (Teasing, again). This is the sweetest, most amazing feeling. I am so proud of this team. You want to talk about holding back emotions; right now man, wow, we’re going to Homestead! I can’t believe it. What an incredible battle that was. We just stuck with it all day long and I was just trying to protect those rear tires and then that incident with the No. 22 (Joey Logano) and those other guys….
“Those last couple of laps, I give a lot of credit to Jamie McMurray. He raced me hard and clean there. Oh, man, I’ll tell you it’s just never over. What a battle. What a team. People don’t give this team enough credit and we seized an opportunity right there. I don’t think this opportunity would present itself the next couple of weeks. We’re going to take advantage of this one and I don’t have to worry about that.”
YOU SAID AT TIMES THIS TEAM WAS AT EACH OTHER’S THROATS WHEN THINGS WEREN’T GOING WELL. DID YOU REALLY BELIEVE THIS COULD HAPPEN?
“Well, I believe when we went through those moments and we came through it and we were still talking to each other and still smiling and communicating and trying to be better, I knew that if we could just get in this position, we could do something special. And man, this has turned into a fairytale year. I cannot believe it. Homestead is going to be an unreal weekend and we’re going to completely focus now. We talked about this in our meeting before the race and if we could make it through today and win, all our focus is on the Homestead car.
“I don’t know who to thank first. Obviously I need to thank AARP Member Advantages and oh my gosh, Pepsi, Axalta, Chevrolet, Panasonic, Valvoline; oh gosh, I’m missing somebody. But I’m just overwhelmed right now. But thanks to this team. Rick (Hendrick), thank you, buddy, for believing in me and letting me make this my last year. And now we’re going to Homestead. Wow!”
WHEN THE KIDS WALKED UP, DOES THIS MAKE IT MORE MEANINGFUL THAT YOU CAN CELEBRATE A WIN WITH THEM IN YOUR FINAL YEAR?
“Oh, gosh….yes! It’s so nice to have them here. There’s nothing sweeter than going to work, I kind of call it work, to have them and Ingrid here to experience these moments. This is what life is all about and that’s where I realize after being in the series for 23 years that it’s these moments that you’re sharing it with the people that work hard and the people that you care about the most. There is no greater feeling than that.”
ON BATTLING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP AT HOMESTEAD
“It’s just like we did today. We’ll grind it out. We’re going to give it something to think about. First, we’re going to improve our race car a little bit for Homestead. Don’t count us out. We’ve proved that during this entire Chase and we certainly proved that today. This team is fired up; we’ve got some momentum now!”
TALK ABOUT THIS WIN:
“Oh my gosh I didn’t think they could get any better, but to win here at Martinsville in front of this crowd that stuck around. I tell you there nothing better than crossing the finish line and have that kind of reaction from the crowd. That reaction from my team and to have my family come up this is unbelievable. I feel like I’m dreaming right now. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and this is not going to be true. We were just trying to do our best throughout the whole day… trying not to burn the rear tires off of it, needing some long runs. Of course a lot of things unfolded that were unfortunate, but sometimes you have to be there and take advantage of those opportunities. This team did that today. I’m so proud of them. So proud of Alan, this whole team, they have been working so hard and we wanted this moment so bad and here it is. It happened.”
TAKE US THROUGH THE LAST RESTART:
“I got a pretty good start and he can drive so deep in the corners. I knew I couldn’t let him get too far ahead of me getting into the corners, so I raced him hard and clean just like he raced me. I really appreciate that. We had a lot on the line and I squeezed him a little bit, he squeezed me, but at the end of the day we were able to get out front. I felt pretty good coming off Turn 2. It’s so dark out there I could hardly see. I think I overdrove it into Turn 3 a little bit and I slid up the race track. I kept hearing my spotter, 3, 2, 1 and then I got in the gas and got the corner and knew we had it at that moment. I am sorry I didn’t do a burnout. I was going to, but I got so excited that I just got out of the car. I just wanted to waive to everybody and say thank you.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE GOING TO MIAMI AS A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER?
“Even today I don’t think people thought as good as we are at Martinsville that our competition was just too tough and that we wouldn’t prevail. I love it that we have been under the radar. We have been just working on all of our team, work ethic and determination and just execution. Today we showed what we are really truly capable of.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
TALK ABOUT THE DARKNESS JUST HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO SEE?
“Well I had not a dark visor on, but a light smoke and with the visor up it was pretty dark and when I put it down for the restart it was really hard to see. I was fortunate that I was on the front row. Great battle with Jeff. I have looked up to Jeff Gordon since I was a little kid. What a fun way on his last year to get to battle him like that. I wish we could have won. Had a great car just the inside was kind of the preferred line on those restarts.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
DESCRIBE YOUR MARTINSVILLE AFTERNOON AND EVENING:
“We started off not handling good at all. I don’t know why the car wasn’t good because it was awesome yesterday. We worked all night really to work on it and get it better. That last 100 laps was good. The car was fast. It’s hard to pass. Everybody up front was kind of equal.”
HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO RACE AT THIS RACE TRACK? HOW MUCH FUN IS IT TO COME TO MARTINSVILLE AND RACE?
“I love Martinsville. But if we are going to run at night we need to put some damn lights up here.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
WHAT HAPPENED OVER THOSE LAST 45 LAPS?
“Well, we had a couple of good restarts. I think we got to third there, or something. Our car was just really fast on short runs and really terrible on long runs, all day. We really fought it all day long. We just couldn’t keep the tires on it on long runs. It was frustrating at times, but we battled hard and did what we had to do today. We probably would have finished fourth or fifth without that last caution. We just, gosh, I didn’t want to see it there, but all-in-all, it was what we needed to do here. It’s definitely my worst track in this round. Hopefully we can take this No. 78 to Texas and have something for the win and see if we can’t get one there.”
IT’S PRETTY DARK OUT THERE. WHAT WAS IT LIKE BEHIND THE WHEEL IN THOSE CLOSING LAPS?
“It was dark! It was getting borderline where we had to quit, but I’m glad the fans got to see a good ending and I’ve got to say congratulations to Jeff (Gordon, winner). It’s an awesome career he’s had and it was fun racing with him today. There was a time today after that last restart; I almost got a run on him to pass him. That would have been possibly the winning move, but he was just really stout on long runs. It’s cool to see him win in his last time here.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
“This Outback, Jimmy John’s, Budweiser Chevy ran really well today. We got run into there, coming out of the pits and I couldn’t really tell how bad it was. But Rodney (Childers, crew chief), I could tell the panic in his voice. And luckily, the caution came out because I saw the smoke coming out of the left front tire. But, it was a good call to come back in. We were able to get a couple of good restarts there; and then with the front smashed-in, and everything happening, it was just way too tight back there in traffic. But all in all, it was a good day with a lot of chaotic things doing on, on the race track, So, we just needed to finish that one where we were running; not having a chance to win, we just needed to capitalize on some other peoples’ bad day.”
WAS THAT A DIRECT RESULT OF CHICAGOLAND? IT SEEMED LIKE RODNEY CHILDERS WAS PLAYING IT SAFE TODAY
“You’ll have to ask him.”
OKAY, AND THE CHAOS WAS NOT INVOLVING YOU, TODAY. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED ON THE TRACK TODAY?
“I haven’t seen it. It’s just that time of year where everything has really raised the intensity level up and it’s three weeks to go. You never know what happens around here at Martinsville.”
HOW HAPPY ARE YOU WITH THE POINTS SCORED TODAY?
“Well, we didn’t score many points here last year. We were in a big hole leaving Martinsville. It’s very easy to get in a hole leaving here. I feel like Texas has been a very good race track for us as we’ve gone through the past couple of years at Stewart-Haas; and we all know how Phoenix has gone. So, we just need to have two more solid weeks and hopefully position ourselves well to have a chance to get to Homestead.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON FINISHING TOP 10 IN A BACK-UP CAR:
“Kasey (Kahne) and I both did. That was what was really cool; seeing two Team Chevy drivers come from the back like that. He and I both worked pretty good going through the pack there. I’m happy with it. Getting hung on the outside is just the kiss of death here. We have struggled here the last three races that we have run here. We did something in happy hour with this second car that, to be honest, it was actually something I had a little input on. I’m not very smart and it wasn’t because of me for sure, but it was Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and I everybody working together and trying to find a solution that might fix our problem. We kind of made the change and stuck with it and knew that we weren’t exactly where we wanted to be in happy hour, but felt like in the race it was going to be better and it was.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 34TH
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED THERE IN THAT CRASH ON THE RESTART:
“I got clipped by everybody and it was just collateral damage off turn two. Our Monster Energy Chevrolet SS was where we needed to be. We were running third with a set of fresh tires, and 70 laps to go. And who knew that restart was going to get that crazy. When you are an innocent victim of collateral damage it’s tough. We put in a solid year and this is a fantastic team, this 41 team. We were debuting a new sponsor in Monster Energy today. Thanks to Gene Haas, Haas Automation and everybody at Stewart-Haas. We are down but we’re not out. We can go to Texas and win, we can win at Phoenix, and we want to get an invite to Homestead. You know, Jeff Gordon hasn’t won all year and I knew he had Martinsville circled on his schedule, and he won today. Congratulations to Jeff.”
ON WHAT HAPPENED LATE IN THE RACE:
“We just got caught up and we were a victim. We were somebody else’s collateral damage. It’s a product of how everybody has to race in this Chase. For us there is so much more to our story. It’s been a fantastic season. I’m really proud to debut a new sponsor in the Sprint Cup series with Monster Energy. They were here today. We led laps today we were up front. Restarting third with a set of fresh tires and 70 laps to go I mean we were in perfect position. We did our job we just didn’t have luck on our side. Thanks to Gene Haas, Haas Automation and everybody that works back at that shop. We have great sponsors, a lot of blue sky above this program right now. Real happy with the No. 41 and Chevrolet and everybody that is part of this team. We will go win Texas, go win Phoenix and get our invite.”
YOU WERE REALLY CALM AFTER THE INCIDENT TALK ABOUT THIS TEAM:
“We live together as a team and die together. We didn’t want to die today. We gave it our best. We have had no DNF’s this year and I hope we can make a strong run in the final two races. Really proud of Monster Energy coming on board in the Sprint Cup Series it’s going to be an exciting year next year with them as the primary.”
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