CHEVY NSCS AT ATLANTA: Post Race Press Conf. Transcripts

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 28, 2016

THIRD CONSECUTIVE WIN FOR CHEVROLET AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Jimmie Johnson Earns 76^th NASCAR Sprint Cup Career Victory

Jimmie Johnson earned Chevrolet’s third race in a row at Atlanta Motor Speedway and 40^th total at the 1.5-mile track
Johnson’s victory ties him with Dale Earnhardt, Sr. for 7^th on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win list
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was second, giving Team Chevy its first 1-2 finish of 2016

HAMPTON, Ga. (Feb. 28, 2016) – Jimmie Johnson earned the 40th overall victory and third consecutive win for Chevrolet at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) after capturing the victory in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. The driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet SS earned yet another career milestone by recording his 76th career win, tying him with Dale Earnhardt, Sr. for seventh on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win list. Johnson now leads all active drivers with five wins on the track that boasts the second oldest surface on the circuit.

The key to victory was a pit call gamble by crew chief Chad Knaus. Johnson was called to pit road as soon as the race reached the team’s final fuel window. He held off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick, behind the wheel of the No. 4 Chevrolet SS, in the waning laps, only to see the caution flag wave with two laps remaining. A quick stop by his pit crew for four fresh tires and a flawless restart led the Chevrolet powered team to victory.

‘Yeah, definitely a gutsy call,” Johnson said in Victory Lane. “It was just a great team effort. The No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) car was awfully tough and it was going to take some strategy to get by him. When he told me to whip it as hard as I could there, I just felt like I was going to take too much life out of the tires. But, it worked. And I got rolling around the top and got to where I got this Lowe’s Chevy in Victory Lane. I’m so happy for Hendrick Motorsports and for everybody at Chevrolet.”

On the final restart Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was able to launch his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS from fifth to second, giving both Hendrick Motorsports and Team Chevy a 1-2 finish at the 1.5-mile track. This was Earnhardt, Jr.’s 14^th top-10 finish at AMS.

Pole sitter Kurt Busch, driving the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevy SS, gave Chevrolet three of the top five finishing positions as he took the checkered flag in fourth place.

Harvick, who led nine times for a race-high 131 laps, was forced to settle for a sixth place finish after getting shuffled on the final restart.

Rookie of the Year contender, Chase Elliott earned his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series top 10 finish at his home race track, ending the day in eighth.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) finished third and Carl Edwards (Toyota) finished fifth to round out the top five.

The series starts the West Coast Swing next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the KOBALT 400 is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Live coverage will be available on FOX, PRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.

POST RACE DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, AND RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER – Race Winner:

THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue on with our post‑race availability. We are now joined by today’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 winner, Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Jimmie, obviously with this win here today, you have tied Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all‑time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins list. Talk about your trip to victory lane today.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, special for sure. Gosh, it’s hard to ‑‑ I entered the sport just hoping I could win a race and keep a job for a few years, and to have 76 and tie Dale Earnhardt Sr is something I’m very, very proud of. I didn’t have a chance to race against him, unfortunately, but today ‑‑ there’s been a big void in my mind about not having that chance to race against him, and it was literally a handful of months away from having that opportunity. So to tie him today, for myself personally, it gives me a little something ‑‑ it’s a little bit of attachment to the great Dale Earnhardt and something I’m very proud of.

Did you ever watch Earnhardt and say, I wish ‑‑ I want to be able to do that? And then also, the fact that Dale Jr. is very complimentary of you, Kelley Earnhardt Miller tweeted congratulations and everything, does that mean something? Is it comforting to know that the Earnhardt family is kind of supportive and congratulatory of you at this moment?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, without a doubt. It made me smile more to hear that Kelley sent out that tweet.

You know, I talked to Dale six months ago or a while ago, last year at some point about it, and I also talked to Jeff. I was shocked that he had a little bit of backlash when he flew the 3 flag in Phoenix, and I was like, really, why? So I just made sure that I spoke to Junior a little bit, and he shared with me that he really feels like his dad would have had a ton of respect for me and would have enjoyed racing against me, and we would have had a great friendship. Kind of covering that base with Dale a while ago helped me, and with the confusion of how overtime works, I kind of forgot that that win was 76 and then it hit me after I had taken the checkered flag and was doing my victory lap, so I had to come back around and certainly wanted to pay respect to Dale.

What was the first part of your question?

Did you ever watch anything that Dale did and thought, I want to do that?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, as a spectator watching him, I was in shock at Bristol when he got Terry and Terry still won, I thought, wow, that was cool to win that way, and the next time he got Terry, and he won, and I was like, ooh, and I couldn’t believe that the entire place booed him.

My younger brother Jarit was a big Earnhardt fan, and I ended up being a Gordon fan, and the banter we had back and forth through all of it was just fun. It reminds me ‑‑ I guess it’s just what all of our fans do day in and day out and they pick their driver and have their rivalries internally in their own house.

A lot of fun memories of picking on my brother, but he won a lot, so it was tough to always have the upper hand.

Did you know when you were told you weren’t doing a burnout, were you sad about that fact and did you understand why you were told you couldn’t do a burnout?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: No, I still did kind of a small one. I wasn’t told why, but I wasn’t sure why. Is there a reason?

Chad was worried about what happened to the 18 on Friday.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Oh, okay.

So you weren’t too upset about it?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I still kind of did one. You just get used to doing one. It’s so much fun to do it, burn the tires off the car.

Atlanta has been a really special place for you. You won the first race here after the plane crash. You had that moment when you went 13th to 2nd in I think 2008. You’ve got this today. Is there something about this place that’s more special than other places? Do you think about tracks that way at all?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I do. I mean, I don’t know why some tracks work that way, but we had some real magic here for a long time, and then we kind of lost it. So until our win last year, I was like, where did it go? I wished it would come back. And then we figured it out last year, and then again, had a not‑so‑good qualifying effort which had me a little worried, and then race practice started and we were right where we needed to be and then had a great race today. I guess more than anything I’m starting to build the confidence back about this racetrack, but I’ve had some massive moments here, and as you mentioned them, they were all really late‑race moments, and then sure enough here again, the way this one finished out, it was in that same vein, so it’s amazing that way.

It’s no secret that you’re one of the drivers in top physical condition. Given that, how tough is it for someone like yourself to do 210 laps caution‑free with ill‑handling race cars on a track like Atlanta?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: It’s so much fun, you don’t even think about it. This racetrack is so fun to drive, you’ve got to be so disciplined with your inputs. Too much brake creates a variety of problems. Letting off the gas too hard does the same thing. If you miss the painted line by a couple inches, the car drives terrible and is bouncing all over the place, and then that’s just getting into the turn. Then you’ve got to deal with the center of the corner and the bumps and getting off the turn. Those laps did go by pretty quick.

I did find that I was really thirsty, and finally maybe the second or third green‑flag stop, I grabbed my drink bottle and got a drink of Gatorade. But outside of that, it was a nice cool day so I don’t think it was too hard physically. I make sure that I cover that base and make sure my conditioning is where it needs to be, but this track is so fun to drive, those laps went by pretty fast.

How comfortable were you with the call that Chad made there at the end to pit when you did? And do you ever say, no, that’s not it, we can’t ‑‑ it’s not going to work if we do that?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Well, we’ve talked a lot that we want to be aggressive, so I knew when he pulled me to pit lane that we were going to be on the early side, and then I made lap after lap after lap and no one else was on pit road, and I was like, are we going to two‑stop it from here? What’s going on? I didn’t realize how aggressive he was willing to be.

I really felt like that was going to hurt us, and late in the run I assumed Kevin would just run me back down, and we were able to manage that five‑second gap. I got comfortable‑ish with 10 to go and felt like I could manage five seconds at that point, but up until then, being the hunted, it’s just a weird position to be in. You just know he’s coming. You’re staring in the mirror and wondering where he’s at, and then also wondering if Chad was telling me the truth about lap times and the gap back to him, and it all worked out.

Did you ever overrule him?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: No, he’s got a much better vantage point of what’s going on, and the way I looked at his call, the first maybe three or four laps before I freaked out and thought, wow, we pitted way early, we’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve run third all day long. I think I ran third or fourth when I had to pit early because I thought I had a tire going down, so I felt like if we just sat there and ran the same race, we were going to be third. If the gamble didn’t work out, we’d still be third.

I didn’t think there was much downside to it and a lot of upside.

If I remember correctly, when Gordon tied Earnhardt, the fan reception was not too friendly. It seemed like, unless I missed something, it was quite a bit warmer for you today. What did you see and hear when you were going along the stands there and looking out and holding the 3 out?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I saw a lot of 3s coming back. I haven’t had a chance to look at social media and see what’s going on there, but I felt like there was a warm reception, and regardless of the reception, I know what it means to me, and I know what it means to our sport and everyone in it working, as well. I’ll be good with all of that. If there’s some fans that have other opinions, then it is what it is.

I’ve got two for you. First, 76 wins, I know you’ve said a couple of times already, it’s a big deal. You’ve won the Daytona 500 twice, won the Southern 500, won the 600 three or four times, but this win today at this track, where do you put this one on the list of accomplishments over the course of your career?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Well, I think the gamble that Chad made puts it in a special category in the fact that we were able to hold on and get there. And then obviously the fact that it’s my 76th and tying Dale, I don’t know if it’s bigger than my first win, but it’s right there with it. This is a very, very special and meaningful day.

And as far as the course of this whole race with the new package and you guys basically having to manhandle the cars the way you did for so long today, do you feel like this puts the cars even more back in your wheelhouse than it seems like they’ve been over the last six or eight years knowing how good you’ve been since 2006 when the run started?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I think that ’14 and ’15 the rules package didn’t suit my style as much. We still found ways to win, but I think I had a hard time sensing the grip level of the car and knowing how to get that last tenth or two out of it. My background in racing on the dirt, I think really lends to this package, and certainly at a track like Atlanta today and how much tire wear we have lends to my background.

For me directionally I love the direction things are going in and would love to see more.

Most likely with this win you’re going to lock yourself into the Chase. You guys have always won early and kind of used the time between now and the final 10 races to really build on your playoff program, but in the last couple years with the new format you and Chad just don’t seem to have the magic or haven’t quite figured out the format. What have you guys talked about in the off‑season to combat the miscues that you’ve experienced in the last two Chase playoffs?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, it’s hard to put our fingers on just one thing. I feel that it’s tough to maintain the pace or the expectations that we have for ourselves on the Lowe’s team, and I think managing that is something that we haven’t done as well as we could, and starting the seasons hot and being strong and winning and doing all those things is very important, but it’s tough to carry that through the entire year.

I think we’ve kind of recognized that over the off‑season, and hopefully we cannot overwork ourselves and have peace of mind and patience and not be on a razor’s edge through the summer months and carry the right momentum into the fall. And with all that said, I know that we didn’t have a great summer last year. I felt like we started the Chase and was very strong and had a weird mechanical get us.

That’s where it’s so hard to put our finger on ‑‑ it’s not just one thing, but I feel like managing the pace and the effort that we put in through the year up until the Chase is something that we’re going to address and should do a much better job with this year.

You talk about how you’re such a good driver when it comes to the Chase. I know it’s been a couple seasons since that championship, but you’re trying to tie Dale Sr. for seven titles. You’ve got obviously that 76th tying win today, but the elation that you had today with this victory, how would it feel to tie Senior in championships? It’s on a whole ‘nother level, but how would that really feel to do that?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I wouldn’t even know how to go there. It would be massive. The six that I have, I know how special and meaningful they are, and if I have that chance to win a seventh and tie Petty and Earnhardt would be just monumental.

Today’s win in tying Earnhardt for the race wins, I mean, it’s really deep and a lot of pride, and I feel amazing from it, so I can only imagine what a championship would do.

You were talking earlier about all the things that you had to do in this race, how your team was tested, green‑flag pit stops, getting on and off pit road. I was wondering what your thoughts on how Chase’s day went today? It seemed like in a way he was thrown into the fire as far as what you could possibly expect, and the first real race of the non‑restrictor plate race of the season and ran in the top 10 the whole day.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I would see his number up on the pylon going by and I was real happy to see him having a good day. It reminded me of my rookie season run here. I think we raced twice here back then. And the confidence that I had in myself after running in the ‑‑ I think I finished fifth or sixth or something, but to see the leaders all day long, to stay on the lead lap, there was a lot of green‑flag runs, at that point in time, I still look back and say that Atlanta race let me know that I could win, let me know that I could race with the best guys in the business, and Chase came to congratulate me in victory lane, and I was thinking all of those things when I heard where he ended up finishing. I knew he had a good day, but I’m not sure how the results turned out, but I can’t wait to share that with him because I feel like I had a similar moment, and I want him to be able to build on that and let ‑‑ he’s a very humble guy. I want him to build the confidence that he can do this.

He had a tough role to come in and fill Jeff Gordon’s role in that 24 car, and to win the pole at Daytona and to come here and have such a great run, he’s off to a great start.

THE MODERATOR: Jimmie, thanks for joining us, and again, congratulations.

THE MODERATOR: Hard‑fought win, a lot of strategy. Obviously a big call there on that pit stop, but talk about just the fact that the 48 car has won 76 times now in the Sprint Cup Series. That’s almost mindboggling. But just talk about this win here today and the significance of it.

CHAD KNAUS: Wow, I mean, on so many levels it’s pretty amazing. I never ‑‑ when we started this thing back in 2002, I never would have thought that we’d be here today with 76 victories as a team. It’s pretty impressive, and it’s an honor to have been able to do it. We’ve done it with a lot of great people, obviously, with various team members, some still with us, some not. Obviously an amazing owner and a great group at Hendrick Motorsports, but probably one of the biggest ones is Lowe’s hanging with us and contributing to our efforts year in and year out.

God, it’s amazing. Jimmie is pretty awesome, isn’t he? Let’s be honest, he’s just a heck of a race car driver. He’s a lot of fun for me to work with.

Today was great. We were able to get out there and race and race our way to the top four or five I think it was, and just kind of manage that position all day long, waiting until the end. I don’t think we necessarily had anything for the 4 and the 78. We were a little bit better than the 78 in one corner and a little bit better than the 4 in another corner, but we weren’t better than either of them in both corners, so we were really just kind of stuck in third, so we needed to try to figure out a way to get to the front and get the lead, obviously, through those pit cycles, through the middle portion of the race we were really monitoring what everybody was doing, our tire wear, what everybody else’s tire wear was, and what people were thinking about doing, and you could just see it. Around 40 laps, everybody wanted to pit and everybody was getting nervous about their tires. As we were going through the race ours was getting better, so we were like, shoot, let’s go ahead and throw it out there and see what happens.

It gave everybody an opportunity to come down pit road with us at that point. It would have been kind of a moot point, but they were nervous I think, obviously, and didn’t want to get tires on that early, and it worked out.

After the pit cycle I think we had a 10‑second lead, maybe an 11‑second lead and we just needed to try and manage that throughout the rest of the race. Unfortunately that dang caution came out, but the guys had a great pit stop, we got out there and Jimmie get a heck of a restart and was able to bring it home.

Chad, you told Jimmie no burnout. What was the reason for that?

CHAD KNAUS: Man, did you see what happened to the 18 on Friday? I’m not taking any chances right now. I don’t want anything bent or broken or anything to warrant any type of problem right there. So until we understand exactly what’s going on with all the post‑race measuring, which it’s a pretty big deal, we don’t know how all this ‑‑ we don’t know what these cars do during a race, especially at a racetrack like this where there’s a bunch of bouncing and moving and so on and so forth, that pit stops, there’s a lot of wear and tear on these race cars throughout the course of an event and I just didn’t want to take a chance on him tearing something up doing a burnout and not passing post‑race LIS. Yeah, that’s why.

Rick, I know you told us before the race that everybody is being gentlemen about the news this week with Stewart‑Haas and everybody understands the dynamics, but you outwitted a Stewart‑Haas car today for the victory. Does that mean anything more?

RICK HENDRICK: Want to beat them every week, not just since they made the announcement. You know, I still like to see our stuff run well for the rest of this year, and I think, what did we have, four or five in the top six with our motors and chassis? I like to beat them every week.

But we’ve been buddies for a long time, and like I told you earlier, life goes on, and we’ll focus on our stuff, and we still have a relationship with them with equipment, so they’re still a sponsor, and I’ll pull for them until they put that oval on the hood.

Rick, obviously a big day with the 76 wins for Jimmie, tying Dale Sr. When did you think that 76 wins would be possible for Jimmie Johnson?

RICK HENDRICK: You know, I never thought when I got in the sport I’d win 76 wins with anybody altogether, and to have Jeff do it and now Jimmie tie him, I really wasn’t aware of that today until the end of the race, and I think when you look at Jimmie’s career and you look at how quick he’s gotten to 76 and he’s got six championships, I think you’ve got to say that he’s one of the best that’s ever been in the sport.

You know, it means a lot to him and a lot to all of us. We’re all big Earnhardt fans, but it’s going to be interesting to see how many races and championships Jimmie and Chad can win.

Rick, we’re all familiar with the story of you seeing Jeff Gordon for the first time or taking notice of him for the first time here in Atlanta hanging the car out in the Busch Series race. Do you remember your first impression, the first time you saw Jimmie Johnson race and what your first impression was?

RICK HENDRICK: The first time I saw Jimmie ways was in the stadium trucks, and Herb Fishel told me about Jimmie when he was 15 and then I helped him get in a late model car when he was 16 and then watched him ‑‑ I think the most impressive thing about Jimmie, a lot like what I saw Chase do at Darlington, my son was racing at Darlington and Jimmie was top of the board in the then Busch Series, so Jeff Gordon and I walked over to Jimmie and said, can Ricky come over here and talk to you, and Jimmie said, this is the first time I’ve ever been here. So he was very impressive when I saw him in that situation, and I’ve known him so long, it was just his character, the kind of guy he was, watching him drive stuff out of control.

You know, I think just watching him at Darlington that day really impressed me. I happened to be there for the practice.

And Chase impressed me today about as much as I’ve ever seen a young driver drive in a race with a low downforce car that he’s never been able to experience in a race before when he’s having to race Kyle Busch and the guys he was racing, Brad, all day long, never make a mistake, just as cool on the radio as any seasoned driver, getting great feedback. I am really excited about that young man in the future.

Rick, you were not always an Earnhardt fan, particularly during the Bodine years. Did your impressions of what he was doing for the sport change over time?

RICK HENDRICK: He used to use me for a raise every time his contract was coming up. He would come talk to me and Childress would give him more money. I always told him to pay me a part of the increase.

We were really good friends, but man, I told Bodine one day, I told him, if you see a snake on the ground, you either step on his head, you don’t pick him up and shake him and turn him loose because the movie Days of Thunder was a real deal. Richard and I were in that deal with Bill France, because they wrecked each other about every week and I always got the short end of the stick.

No, back in those days it was a fierce battle, but after that we ‑‑ before and after, it was good.

Chad, when we hit 100 laps with no caution and then 200 laps with no caution, what was going through your mind and did that play any effect strategy‑wise or cause y’all any issues?

CHAD KNAUS: You know, this is the type of racetrack honestly that you see a lot of long green‑flag runs because the tire wear is so high that the drivers, they’re just trying to stay away from everybody and just stay in control. I wasn’t really shocked that we came out of the gate with a couple long green‑flag runs at that point.

I was a little surprised how quickly people were willing to short pit and not wait for a failure. That showed a lot of maturity, I think, throughout the whole garage area. Nobody wanted to take a risk and have a situation where they created a big caution or had a tire come apart, which is different than what we’ve seen in the past. Typically people go and go and go until they do have a tire failure and then it just becomes habitual after that, right?

It wasn’t unexpected by any stretch.

Chad, you talked about making the choice to pit. Were you pretty confident of the win at that point? Are you like, I’ve got Jimmie Johnson and he’s going to wheel it and win this thing and take care of the tires, or did you feel it was a pretty big gamble?

CHAD KNAUS: It was a gamble for sure. We hadn’t gone that far yet on a set of tires. We wanted to ‑‑ we were trying to figure out what to do. We were chatting about it, myself and my engineers, who do a great job, and we could have easily just hung out and finished third, but we weren’t going to pass those guys, so we had to do something. So it was just a matter of how early to pit because if we didn’t pit early enough, if we only pitted just a couple laps earlier than everybody else, it would have pulled the rest of them down with us, so we had to make it to where we did it to where it would make them uncomfortable and not willing maybe to take that risk.

Yeah, we felt confident that once we got out there and once the No. 4 started to get into some traffic and we were monitoring his lap times that we kind of had it at that point, if it went green, which it didn’t.

Rick, this is for you. A lot of young race fans nowadays don’t understand the challenges of a race like this and how exciting it truly is. What would you say to a fan who said, what was it that was exciting about that race all day long?

RICK HENDRICK: Think the real fans that understand strategy and guys short pitting and guys getting new tires and running to the front and then falling off, I think if we’d had some cautions, the fans would have gotten a heck of a show. But we didn’t get a lot of cautions. You could see at the restarts, you can run three abreast here, three wide, and if we’d had our normal caution deal, I think it would have been more exciting, but still, I love this type of racing because it’s kind of putting it back in the hands of the drivers. You know, guys have got to manage their tires. They’ve got to be smart. Crew chief has got to make the right call. I think it’s going to be ‑‑ I think this will be the best racing we’ve seen in a long time.

Chad, how soon before you guys made the call to come down with 49 to go, how soon did you know that you were going to short pit and make the call you did to try to win the race?

CHAD KNAUS: About a lap before that, honestly. Yeah, really. We were chatting about it, one of my engineers said, I think it was Julian Pena, I think he said, if we’re going to go for the win we need to try to do it now. I looked down at the monitors, saw where they were at, saw the lap counts, saw that we had 49 laps to go, knew that everybody was pitting at 40 laps and I was like, well, we’re going to see how crazy these guys are and if they’re comfortable making this type of call. And they weren’t, so it worked out.

But yeah, it happens that quick, man. It happens really, really quick. Like I say, we were right there behind those guys, but we weren’t going to pass them, so I think we saw that it was just difficult to pass those guys. They were super fast.

Rick, you got to see Dale Sr. race and you’ve gotten to see the last 13, 14 years Jimmie Johnson become the driver he is. What similarities or how do you compare the way the two of them drove in the Cup Series over the course of their careers?

RICK HENDRICK: You know, I think Dale was more aggressive. He got that ‑‑ he didn’t get that Intimidator title by being nice to everybody. If he got to you, he’d move you, and that was ‑‑ and I think he intimidated a lot of people, and he was a heck of a race car driver. He could do things that I didn’t see a lot of people do.

The one thing about Jimmie Johnson, he doesn’t put a fender on anybody. He does it clean, and he races ‑‑ he gives people ‑‑ they’re fast or he lets them go, and he treats everybody with a lot of respect.

They’re two different style drivers, but both of them were awesome. Dale won seven championships, so that speaks for itself. But I think Jimmie does it in a very ‑‑ I’d say very professional way ‑‑ not professional maybe, that’s not the right word. He’s not as aggressive, and he will race you extremely clean. I’m not saying that Dale didn’t do ‑‑ if he got to you and it was for the win, he was going to move you, and that’s his job. I think that’s the difference in the two.

THE MODERATOR: Rick, Chad, congratulations on this win today, and guys, thanks for helping put on a great race out here today for the fans.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLT SS – Finished 2^nd

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 8^th

POST RACE DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: Let’s roll right into our post‑race for today’s 57th‑annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here at Atlanta Motor Speedway. We’re pleased to be joined by our top‑finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, and that’s Chase Elliott, and he drives the No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Fine eighth‑place finish here today for Chase, grew up nearby in Dawsonville, Georgia. This is his home track. Talk about what you learned out there today and how you enjoyed the race out there today.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just really proud of our effort, and most importantly finishing this week. Last week was a bummer for sure, and I think a big goal today was just try to run 500 miles and try to stay on the lead lap, and really proud that once the green flag dropped we were able to move forward and gain some ground. Friday night didn’t go as well as we were hoping, so kind of had us in a hole there to start and didn’t give us the best pit road selection. I messed up there on Friday. So I was proud that we could move forward. Pit stops were solid, and it wasn’t a perfect day, but it was a day we can build on and try to get better.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen you happy with a seventh‑ or eight‑place finish, but for your first time out in a Cup car here at AMS, how do you rate the day? What are some of the other emotions you are feeling?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Other emotions are I need to get better and build on that. Like I said, it was a good day. I was happy we could move forward. Most of all, happy with how we finished versus last week. I made a lot of dumb mistakes these past two weeks, and I was just happy that we could finish. But like I said, a lot of room for improvement. I need to do a better job, lost a lot of time in a lot of different aspects today, so you’ve got to look at that stuff and see where you can get better and look as it as a day to try to improve on.

First, you had speed with the pole at Daytona, but how do you grade that speed where it’s so much a team effort compared to today where the pack had just completely different and it’s a whole different kind of trying to wheel it?

CHASE ELLIOTT: It’s hard to compare the two. Daytona is such a different animal than Atlanta. It’s really not even two comparable racetracks, so I don’t really ‑‑ other than that, I don’t really know how to answer your question.

As far as today’s run goes, I know it’s big for you to get a top 10 and put Daytona behind you. How big of a motivator is it to do it at your home track heading into Las Vegas?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, it’s definitely special to be here at Atlanta and have a strong run. I’m very happy about that, and definitely a very special feeling to walk out before the race and to see the support in the stands of a lot of people that are close to ‑‑ this is close to home for me and a lot of people around here supporting our race team, so that was really cool. We’re excited to try to get on to Vegas and most of all just take what we had today and try to improve on it. I think we’re working hard, and hopefully we can get in the right direction.

Chase, after running 210 laps caution‑free with as loose of race cars as you guys have had, what was that like?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Just the longest green‑flag run I’ve ever been a part of for sure, so I’m definitely wore out, and I will be going to bed early. (Laughter.)

Chase, kind of a similar question, rate this race as far as the challenges that you faced versus anything else you’ve done in your career.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, like I said, it was the longest green‑flag run I’ve ever been a part of, so that being said, this is a slick racetrack and a lot of things going on. It’s very important to hit your marks correctly, so I’d definitely say it’s up there on one of the tougher races I’ve ever been a part of for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Chase, nice job out there today. We’ll see you in Las Vegas.

Next up, we have our race runner‑up, and that was Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Dale drives the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Dale with a fine second‑place showing today, was up front just about the entire day, started 16th. I know you had a tough pit stop at one time, lost some track position, but just talk about your race out there here today.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, we had a great car. I could see that most of the top 5 there in front of me all day, just never ‑‑ you had to take it easy on your tires, man, because you could wear them out. I wore mine out on the first run, drove to the top and drove all the way up to fifth or whatever, and then they were wore out, so I started falling back. So I learned then it was kind of like old school racing, man. You had to take care of your tires and be smart about how you drove the car and driving the car straight, not really swinging the car around or getting sideways, and when you get around another car or a lap car you had to be careful to drive the car straight when you got around them.

Then on old tires if you got lucky to race somebody, it was a blast. Me and the 18 and the 2 had a real good time a couple laps there and a bunch of other guys we got to race with. It was fun. You know, everybody just wasn’t hooked up and hauling tail. You had to drive the cars. The cars were a real challenge, and I had a great time today inside of the car and enjoyed driving it. It reminded me a lot of the 80s and 90s, the good ol’ days. But I never drove in those days, but it sure looked fun.

You know, we didn’t know how good our car was. It’s so hard in practice to tell where you are, so I didn’t know what to expect going into the day, whether we was going to run 30th or win the race. But we set a pace each run that was comfortable with the tires, and I could run the top but I was worried about wearing the right rear out doing that. I saw the 2 go up there hard for a while and then get loose and fall back, so that was awesome, had guys that could haul butt and then guys that would fall off, comers and goers, man. So it was fun for the drivers, fun for me anyways, and looking forward to the rest of the year with this stuff. We’re just going to keep learning and trying to improve our setups and what works with this package, but should see some great racing on in the rest of the year.

Obviously Jimmie tied your dad on the career wins list. Is it kind of a given that he’s the best of this generation? We didn’t have to have this win to know that today?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I thought that when he won five championships in a row. He’s pretty good. I don’t have a problem calling him the best of this generation even as a competitor of his and having to go out there and race against him. Obviously he will credit his crew chief and his team. That all has been real consistent throughout his career, and they do deserve some credit, but Jimmie is just a phenomenal talent.

One of the things about Jimmie that I think he doesn’t get enough credit for is that he’s the same Jimmie that I knew when he drove the 59 Charcoal car at St. Louis as he is today, even after all this success. He’s a guy that you can walk up to, he’s approachable, he’s real easy‑going. All the success didn’t change him much. He just has a little bit more money in his pocket now than he did then, but he certainly doesn’t act any different. He doesn’t get enough credit for that, because I don’t know if I won five in a row, that would probably change me a little bit or anybody else. But it’s amazing, he’s really down to earth, so you like to see him do well. Obviously he’s my teammate, love seeing him do well. When he does well, we learn, we get better. It’s been awesome being in his shop and sharing a shop with Chad because I think that’s helped my career. So I definitely enjoy working with Jimmie, and very proud of him.

It was awesome, I didn’t even ‑‑ we talked about it. I told him on a couple occasions that when he tied daddy, he’d better say something cool, and he’d better tell them that it’s awesome for him to tie him, because I know Jeff had the flag and all that, so that was awesome when your competitors and peers recognize your father like that.

I knew this day was coming, but I didn’t know it until we got out of the car. I’m glad if he’s going to win and tie that record, I’m certainly glad that I got to run second today.

Jimmie has often said that if he had one wish, he wished he could have raced against your dad in Cup. What do you think your dad would have thought of him as a racer, and what would it have been like seeing them go head to head?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: You know, I think dad would have liked Jimmie as a person, but he certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed competing against him. I don’t think any of us really ‑‑ I mean, I love when we race door to door, but when he goes out there and spanks you it’s not a lot of fun.

You know, knowing dad and knowing Jimmie’s character, they would have gotten along tremendously and dad would have thought the world of him. He said he felt the same way about Jeff when Jeff came in. He had nothing but awesome things to say about Jeff when Jeff was a rookie and they ended up becoming great friends and working together in businesses away from the racetrack and doing things together, so they definitely trusted each other, but they’re definitely tough competitors on the track. But Jimmie, how can you not like Jimmie? He’s just a good guy that never stepped over the line with anything he’s ever said or anything he’s ever did, so I think it’s awesome to praise him.

On the same subject, how would you compare their driving styles, even though they came from different eras and different cars? I’m sure there’s some similarities by both of them getting to 76.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I don’t know, dad was real rough and pushing people around. Jimmie is ‑‑ every time I see Jimmie race, I just think about them dirt trucks, and he just hangs it out. I remember the ‑‑ one of the first times I saw Jimmie, the Jimmie Johnson on the track that we know today, was in the All‑Star Race. He went three wide in the middle of 3 and 4 and he turned sideways and never lifted and just kind of banged ‑‑ he drove the quarter panel on the guy on the outside and had the fender laid on the door of the guy on the inside and beat them both off the corner. I thought, man, it’s amazing the car control he has. He drives very hard and with ‑‑ he drives that style that you see them guys run them trucks out west, and that reminds me of Jimmie. I think about, man, no wonder he’s got such good car control and ability to drive the cars as loose and fast. He just ‑‑ you don’t ever see ‑‑ you never hear Jimmie complaining about his car not turning. They always have that thing loose, and he just hangs on and makes it work.

Obviously an eventful week for Hendrick Motorsports with the news about Stewart‑Haas on Wednesday, and I know Friday it seemed like it was a little bit of a struggle in qualifying for you guys. What’s this week been like for the team? Does it feel good for it to end with you having three cars in the top eight?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I feel like for me personally it was great because of how we did last week in Daytona. It was critical for us to rebound. Two terrible finishes in a row would put us in such a deep hole points‑wise, and what if we could struggle through the year and come close but not win any races, and we don’t need to cut it close on points. I know we really don’t worry about points racing anymore, but when you start the year with two bad runs, you start counting points.

But to get to your question, I feel good about our future and our ability to learn and adapt each weekend and the information that we have going back and forth from team to team is very open and fluid and all that stuff has always been that way. So I think that we’ll ‑‑ we won’t really miss that engineering relationship, but I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve always enjoyed working with those drivers and those crew chiefs. I’ve got to become closer with several of those guys through that relationship that we had, but I’m looking forward to the rest of the year and the future at HMS seems very healthy and very strong, and Chevrolet is very committed.

I’m glad we’re doing what we’re doing. Looking forward to next week.

Dale, were you surprised that we went over 200 laps caution‑free, depending on how the cars were handling?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I was surprised. I saw the 31 have the tire issue. I was surprised we didn’t see that in the first run. I thought I was going to tear my tires up because I went out there and ran too hard, and I thought I was definitely going to shred a right rear or something early in the race. I was surprised that nobody had any tire issues, but you saw us all start to short pit very soon. None of us run to the fuel run. I think that’s great for the sport that we have the tires that are falling off and the cars that are challenging to drive. You don’t want cars that are easy to drive. You don’t want to look at the guy beside you and think, he ain’t got the talent I’ve got but he’s got the same opportunity because the cars are so easy. Everybody thinks they’re the best driver out there, so you want to make the cars as challenging as possible so you take that out of the equation, and it just comes down to talent.

You’ve got to still have a pretty good race car and we had a good car today, but I love that the cars are harder to drive. I think all the drivers wanted that and I think all the drivers will get out of it after today, even the ones that didn’t run good, and say this is the right direction to go. This is a unique racetrack, and we run from the apron to the wall, so you’re not going to have debris laying around on the track for NASCAR to find and for cautions to develop as often as you will at other racetracks because we keep that track pretty clean by running on it and using every inch of it. So I love it. The race played out naturally. If it’s going to go green, that throws ‑‑ that’s a different style of race, and maybe it suits one guy and doesn’t suit the other as far as the viewer, but for me, I had a blast.

You’re getting tired in there running 200 straight laps. I’m sure other guys were probably hanging onto the seat more than I was, and again, on old tires the cars were so hard to drive, it was awesome. I’m glad they’re not ‑‑ in the past couple years they’ve really been stuck like glue and you just hammer down, and it was very frustrating because you couldn’t catch a guy, he was punching too big a hole in the air.

Today it seemed like you could move around and pass guys a whole lot easier, and you wouldn’t getter terribly tight behind them. Actually a couple times I drove up to guys in the corner. I ain’t done that in three years, four years, be able to drive to a guy’s bumper in the corner. You just couldn’t do that before.

How do you feel about Vegas next weekend?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Vegas? Yeah, I mean, that track has got some crazy bumps getting into Turn 1, and with this low downforce and the slower ‑‑ hopefully should be a lot slower corner speeds, I think it lends itself to running the high side, which I really love, so hopefully we can get up on that top and make some time up there and have a lot of fun in 1 and 2. That really works well because the billboards shade that corner just like they do here and you can get in that shade in that cooler temperature surface and find some speed and grip without beating your tires up. Three and 4 doesn’t really have a sure‑fire top groove but it has worked well there in the past. I’m looking forward to going there. That place is getting wore out and that makes it more fun. We should be hanging on. These things are quite a handful. Last year’s cars were a handful at Vegas, so getting down into Turn 3 real loose, real hard to get down into the bottom. I’m looking forward to that challenge. It’s a whole new ballgame now.

What do you think about Chase’s run, and any advice that you gave to him today after Daytona to get ready for this?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: No, you know, I think I just need to ‑‑ you’ve got to watch his schedule. He’s traveling a lot. He’s going. He doesn’t have the luxury that all the other drivers do with travel as far as his own personal airplane yet, so that really does cut into the time of day he has to travel, sometimes 12 to 24 hours ahead of schedule, and he’s doing tons of appearances, so he’s only home or off or has a chance to unwind roughly about 20 to 36 hours a week, and you need ‑‑ he just needs to kind of go into that gradually. They don’t need to work him too much outside of the racetrack. Let him drive these cars, work with his crew chief, do all the things he needs to do to get acclimated with the cars and then start to ask of him those responsibilities away from the track later on in the year. I remember my first year we came in with guns blazing, we were running everywhere trying to do everything all week long, and by the time we got to Daytona, I was ready for the year to be over with, and the results showed, too, the rest of the season.

I was real proud of him today. I was not surprised by his run, and he’s going to just get better. They’ve got a great team. Alan is an amazing crew chief and they’re going to work together really well. Alan is super excited about it, so you see that energy and that’s going to be great for them. They’ll just be careful not to wear him out outside the track during the week. Give him a couple days and give him a few breaks on the schedule the first half of the season at least.

On the restart you’re fifth on the inside, right, so are you thinking you have a shot because the inside lane is so much better or if Jimmie is out front he’s going to be hard to beat?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, any guy leading on the inside is hard to beat. Definitely going to be hard to get around Jimmie. I was surprised we got around the 18. He sort of took a gamble on what he did in 3 and 4 to try to get to Jimmie, and it didn’t work out, and we got around him before the caution come out.

Bud I was thinking, you know, being in fifth, the restart before that I was fifth and I went down in the corner and we slammed the racetrack and bounced up the track and pushed and didn’t get a great restart, lost a few spots, but we were lucky this time around. Greg made some adjustments to the car to get that clearance I needed on the restart. Man, that thing flew through 1 and 2 just glued to the track real comfortable. Real happy with that. The guys on the outside got bottled up and had some issues, got into each other. That definitely helped us gain a spot or two. So we got lucky. I’ve had more of those restarts late in the race go the other way, and that’s very, very frustrating, so it was nice to be on the good end for a change.

You and Jimmie finished one‑two today, and with this new package, is this indicative of you guys having speed across the intermediates or because Atlanta is so much different with tire wear and everything else that’s going on, is this kind of a wild card and you’ve got to wait until you get through the Western Swing before you really know how good you guys are going to be as an organization with this package?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think it’s a bit of a wild card being as rough as the track is. A lot of times you’ll see teams that run really good at the rough places like Kentucky and here, obviously Kentucky is getting a repave, but when you ‑‑ there’s some guys that make that ‑‑ find that spring combination that works to be able to get around these rough places, a lot of the mile‑and‑a‑halfs aren’t quite as challenging on the ride quality of the car, so I don’t know that it really says, man, this is how we’re going to run the rest of the year.

But I feel like we are competitive at the mile‑and‑a‑halfs but that’s also an area where we need to get better, the 88 needs to get better. If we’re going to try and get in there and run with them in the Chase, should we be fortunate enough to make the Chase, we need to be better at the mile‑and‑a‑halfs. We ran third here, I think, last year, so it’s hard to tell that you can’t expect to take a lot that you learn here and take anywhere else because you have to set the car up so crazy to get the thing through the bumps, and it’s so wore out and slick, too.

We really don’t change the rear stuff too much at all these tracks, it’s more about everything firewall forward when you’re going to a smoother place.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in and thanks for helping us have a great race here today. Thanks, Dale.

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