NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA TEXAS 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 6, 2015
MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his approach to the race this weekend at Texas and next weekend at Phoenix, the recent issue with other drivers at Martinsville, racing against Jeff Gordon, and more. Full Transcript:
WITH TWO RACES LEFT BEFORE THE CHASE FIELD IS TRIMMED TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4 AT HOMESTEAD, WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND AT TEXAS?
“The outlook is the same as it’s been. We’ll do our job and try to focus on getting good results. I had a good weekend last weekend and got fortunate with some of the things that happened and had a solid. So, it was a good start to this round for us and the next two tracks should be good for us. We’re looking forward to these and I feel like at this round, Martinsville was probably our biggest challenge and we made it through there pretty good. Texas has been a really good track for me over the years. We weren’t that great in the spring race. We need to get better. The guys are excited about the car they brought and what they’ve got working; so I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ve got and go from there.”
YOU WITNESSED WHAT WENT ON LAST WEEKEND AT MARTINSVILLE AND HAVE LIKELY SEEN MANY REPLAYS. CAN YOU EVER IMAGINE A POINT WHERE IT WOULD GET TO YOU AND YOU WOULD RETALIATE TO THE LEVEL THAT MATT KENSETH DID ON SUNDAY?
“I’m not sure. I haven’t been in that position yet. I guess we all have our breaking point. Obviously he was at his. I have no idea, to be honest. Everything is escalating in the Chase each week. There’s more on the line. Every position means more at each and every one of these races. It’s just, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see I guess (laughs).”
AS A DRIVER, DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE CLARITY IN WHAT CONSTITUTES HARD RACING AND WHAT CROSSES THE LINE AT THIS POINT?
“Yeah, I think so. I don’t really have a whole lot to say about it. I think I know.”
WE HAVE THREE RACES LEFT WITH JEFF GORDON IN THE SPRINT CUP SERIES. DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU RACED AGAINST HIM? WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY OF RACING AGAINST HIM?
“That’s a good question. I don’t remember the first time I actually raced him. I do remember the first time I passed him for position and that was one of those things that was like wow, this is really cool to be racing and to be passing Jeff Gordon. Obviously he has done so much in his career. I was really happy to see him win last week. I thought it was really cool that with three races to go, he’s back in Victory Lane. To think about the fact that he’s retiring still is hard to believe. He’s such a great competitor. In that first year, I believe it was at Atlanta, my first season, where I passed him for the first time and I thought it was pretty awesome.”
WE’VE NEVER SEEN A DRIVER GET SUSPENDED FOR ON-TRACK RETALIATION. WILL THAT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE IN WHAT DRIVERS DO? OR, IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE BEEN WRONGED, ARE YOU STILL GOING TO TRY TO DO SOMETHING TO MAKE UP FOR IT?
“I don’t know. It’s hard to comment. You get kind of caught-up in the moment sometimes. I’ve done things that I regret before, on the race track, and it never got me in a position like what we’ve seen this week. But, I think I guess the implications aren’t really clear on how things work and what kind of trouble you can get yourself into. Racing is racing. Guys have wrecked each other since racing started, okay? That’s not going to change. Guys get mad all the time. I think that people will go about it differently now because of what happened this week, for sure. How far that goes, I’m not real sure. We’ll have to wait and see.”
FOR WHATEVER REASON, YOU’RE FLYING UNDER THE RADAR RIGHT NOW. YOU’RE IN A GREAT POSITION. IS THAT UNDERDOG ROLE SOMETHING YOU EMBRACE, OR DO YOU WISH YOU GOT MORE ATTENTION AND THAT PEOPLE WERE TALKING ABOUT YOU MORE LIKE A TITLE CONTENDER, EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE?
“Well, there’s two sides to it. I really enjoy the underdog role. It’s really cool for a lot of reasons. If you look at our race team, we are an underdog. I’ve never been in a championship battle in this series. I’ve got a rookie crew chief. We’re a single car team in Denver. There’s a lot of reasons why we really do fit the mold of an underdog. But at the same time I get frustrated sometimes because I feel like what we’ve done this season gets overlooked. I think people have short memories. We were second in points in the summer and we’ve had a really good season. There are a lot of times where I’d like my team to get a lot more credit than they have. Sometimes, I’d like to get a little more credit as a driver, but at the end of the day that’s not what really matters. What really matters is us coming out here and doing our jobs. For us, it’s really all about our expectations of ourselves and we’re going to be disappointed if we don’t perform at the level we know we are capable of. We’ve got three to go. We’ll see what happens. We’re having fun with it and hopefully we can get the job done to the best of our abilities.”
YOU ARE IN THE CHASE AND THEN THE TEAM IS MOVING TO TOYOTA NEXT YEAR. HOW IS THE TEAM HANDLING ALL THE DIFFERENT PROJECTS GOING ON WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION?
‘Things are going smooth. The guys are excited about what’s coming up, but obviously are staying focused on what we’re doing. I think it’s important for us to finish out these three races before we get too far down the line of switching things over and even worrying about what we’re doing next year. All the stuff that we have to do in the off-season, I think, all the changes that we’re going to have to make, the wheels are in motion on that, but it’s not really started to progress because of where we’re at in this situation. Right now, it’s all laying on this year, focused 100 percent; we’ve got a brand new car here that they built. They’re really putting every effort they can into getting the best out of these last three races and then we’ll go from there.”
YOU HAVE AN AVERAGE FINISH OF 9TH THROUGHOUT THE CHASE RACES. IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH TO GET TO HOMESTEAD, OR DO YOU GUYS NEED TO IMPROVE OR SCORE A WIN TO GET IN THAT FINAL FOUR?
“I don’t think that’s good enough. I think we’ll need to improve for sure, unless we have some crazy stuff happen again in the next two weeks, which is highly likely. I think for us, I don’t think nine will be good enough. I also think almost every race in the Chase, besides Martinsville and Talladega, we’ve run better than we’ve finished. We need to change that. If we can finish the way we’ve been running, I think we’ll be in good shape. Like I said, Texas and Phoenix are two good tracks for us. We tested out in Phoenix a month or so ago, and we were really fast. So, we’re looking forward to that one. We’ll definitely have to step it up and it’s just a matter of really not making mistakes and getting everything we can get out of the day.”
ON THE SUBJECT OF JEFF GORDON, HE’S THE SENTIMENTAL FAVORITE. DRIVERS LIKE YOURSELF HAS EXPRESSED ADMIRATION FOR WHAT HE’S DONE. BUT AT SOME POINT, DO YOU HAVE TO TURN THE SWITCH OFF AND REMEMBER IT’S YOUR JOB TO BEAT HIM AND EVERYBODY ELSE AND DON’T CUT HIM ANY BREAKS AND DON’T PULL BACK JUST TO LET HIM HAVE THAT KIND OF FINISH?
“Oh, absolutely. That comes without saying. We all want to beat him. It’s so nice to see him win, but he got his and now it’s time to turn it up and shut him down. He’s had an awesome career like I said, and it was really neat to see him win last week. But when you’re on the race track, it doesn’t matter who you’re racing. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done, you want to beat them; so, it’s just second nature on the race track.”
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