NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS MEDIA DAY
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed the confidence a Cup win gives a driver, attending Daytona 500 races as a kid, not racing in the Budweiser Shootout and much more. Full transcript.
WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU? “Not too much. Just finishing up getting ready to start the season. I watched a big football game the other day that’s really the only other new thing. Same stuff every team is doing. Just getting ready to start the year and try to finish up all those little loose ends knowing that the chaos is getting ready to begin. I call it chaos, but its organized chaos. The season is here and we’re all pumped up about that.”
LOOKING AT THE 500 AS THE FIRST RACE, IS THAT ANY MORE DIFFICULT TO WIN? “I don’t think it’s necessarily because so much is made of it. We all know whether there is a big deal made about it or not, the guys have done all this work that are fans of it or have followed it which is pretty much everybody in this garage area, we know the importance of the 500. I think we make a big deal of it ourselves and amongst ourselves. I know for me in my head, I think about coming to Daytona this race here is a game changer. It’s the Daytona 500. I used to come down here and sit in between turns one and two and I can still point at my seats down there, the place has changed a lot since back then but I know right where I used to sit and I’d watch those guys race. I watched the 150’s and we would come to the Nationwide race or whatever it was back then the Busch race, we’d come to the Cup race and I’d watch that and I’d see that and I would just think man how cool is that. For me that was the first realization that number one I wanted to be a race car driver but number two how big this sport and how big this race is. It’s a tough race to win period; it’s a plate race which they are tough to win any way. There’s a lot that goes into winning them. Then you throw in the fact that everybody is a little more amped up for Daytona and maybe taking a little bit more risks than what they would at Phoenix the following week or something like that. I personally treat this race as a separate season. Come down here and whatever happens, happens. You forget about it when you leave here and you focus on Phoenix when you get to Phoenix and the rest of the season, the other 25 races that lead up to the Chase. But this one here, if you have an opportunity and it comes down to the white flag and you can see the front of the field or think you have a shot at winning it, you either do one of two things, you either win it or you bring it home in a box and that’s all there is to it. I think a lot of guys have that mentality at this race.”
HOW MANY TIMES HAD YOU COME TO THE 500 WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? “It was annual for a while and as I got older things got busier. Maybe our racing season started sooner and things like that. I can remember coming to five or six 500’s at least from the time I was seven to about 13 or 14. Then from the time I was 13 or 14 what happened was we would be getting ready for a race and we stopped coming because we had to get cars ready. We couldn’t come down here and take that time. My racing was more important at that point than what was going on here and we watched it on TV but I came to quite a few of them.”
ANY MEMORABLE ONES? “I remember seeing I think it was Rusty (Wallace) flipping down the backstretch one year. Might have been ’92 when he did that, I can’t remember. Don’t quote me on the date. That was pretty memorable. For me personally the most memorable was the year that Davey (Allison) won it because I was a Davey fan. That was the first guy that made me want to be a race car driver was Davey Allison. That was really special to see that happen. I won a bunch of money one year as a little kid in a little pool that was pretty memorable because back then 20 bucks was a big deal or however much it was that I won and I was pretty happy about that too.”
WHAT’S YOUR THOUGH ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUR APPROACH TO SOCIAL MEDIA, WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK THAT PLAYS IN THE SPORT TODAY? “I think social media is great. It gives us an opportunity to connect with fans and connect with other people, other driver’s fans, other folks in the sport and the media whatever it might be in a way that we’ve never been able to before and in a way that’s instant. Hey I just went down the street and stopped at Furniture Row to go shopping. You can put that out there and people see that. If they choose to follow you they get to see that and I think that’s cool. Not only social media, just in general. The way technology is changing and the way things are going I don’t know what the next level is going to be because it’s getting pretty invasive now as it is. Yeah, I think it’s a good thing, I embrace it.”
DO YOU THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU POST A TWEET? “That depends. I thought twice last year before I posted tweets because I heard they were giving fines but now I’ve heard there’s not going to be fines so I might not think twice any more this year.”
AS FAR AS WINNING GOES, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GROUNDED AND HUMBLE AND THEN YOU WIN AND GET BRAGGING RIGHTS, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GO FROM THIS HIGH LEVEL TO BEING HUMBLE, CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW YOU DO THAT? “Wow, I don’t know. I can’t tell you because I don’t know if I am humble or not but I like to think I’m a pretty humble person. There is a certain level you have to realize this isn’t owed to you. You don’t have to be here. You don’t have to be driving race cars for a living. This is a privilege. We’re lucky to be doing what we do. For me I always try to not forget that. I’ve got a good group of people around me that don’t let me forget that, that keep me pretty much grounded most of the time or at least I hope they do. If not, hopefully they are going to tell me differently and then I will get back to being grounded. I grew up watching this and I really appreciate and respect this sport and just want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of it but I also want to be good at it. I don’t know.”
DO YOU THINK YOUR ABILITY TO ADJUST AS NASCAR DRIVERS IN GENERAL IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST SILLS YOU HAVE? “You guys can answer that question better than I can. I know there’s some stories about guys that maybe don’t adjust very good and that can be not pleasant to be around at times and that’s a whole other end of the spectrum. I think as a whole, our sport, we’re tied a lot closer to the fans and people we work with in the sport than other sports. The only thing I have to go off on that is other media members who cover other sports tell me outside of that I don’t know.”
ARE YOU FOLLOWING THE JEREMY LIN THING? “You know I’ve been paying attention to it. I don’t a lot about it. I will openly say that I don’t know basketball at all. I’ll watch college ball just because I’m a Syracuse fan but when it comes to pro basketball I’ve just never got into it for whatever reason but I have seen it on TV. I don’t think you can miss it because it’s been on every news channel. It’s been like Tim Tebow or Danica Patrick or whatever you want to call it, it’s been the story this week ultimately.”
WHAT’S IT SAY ABOUT THE STORY LINE OF JUST A GUY GETTING A CHANCE A MAKING THE MOST OF IT AND CAN YOU RELATE TO THAT? “I think everybody in America can relate to that. Everybody just wants an opportunity and that’s probably why he is such a big story. Here’s a guy that got thrown out from one team, he played in the developmental league and here he gets his opportunity and he’s lighting it up. People like stories like that, I like stories like that. I can openly tell you I know almost nothing about basketball and I watch Jeremy Lin and see him on TV. If I flip through and there’s a Knicks game I might actually stop now and say let’s see how he’s doing.”
YOU TALKED ON THE MEDIA TOUR ABOUT HOW YOU FELT AFTER WINNING DARLINGTON, ABOUT HOW PEOPLE WERE GIVING YOU MORE RESPECT ON THE RACE TRACK, WAS THERE A POINT WHERE YOU FIRST REALIZED MAYBE I’M GETTING TREATED A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE I HAVE A RACE WIN NOW? “I don’t know if it was necessarily they were giving me more respect on the race track, I think for me it was more I felt like I belonged and I felt like if a certain car comes up behind you sometimes you have t yield position to them at times and now I don’t feel like I have to do that anymore. I feel like I deserve to be here just as much as you do so if you want the spot come take it from me and if you can’t get it then you can get as mad as you want after the race but that’s how it’s going to be. So I think it just changed maybe my perception of how I belong a little bit differently.”
WAS THAT INSTANTANEOUS? “No, the next weekend you’re still on cloud nine from the win. You’re not feeling much of anything at that point. I would say it wasn’t necessarily instantaneous it was just more of a mentality and more of you kind of grow into feeling that way. The next weekend was really cool because all of the competitors are still coming up congratulating you and talking to you about it and saying different things. It was the weekend that followed that.”
WHAT ELSE DOES THAT FIRST WIN DO FOR YOU WITH CONFIDENCE THAT YOU CAN TAKE INTO THIS YEAR? “It does a lot. I think from a confidence and mental standpoint, number one I’ve got the confidence I can win a race. From a mental standpoint you understand what it takes to win a race, you know how good it feels to win that race. As you are in the lower levels you win all the time, you get up to these upper levels and it’s tougher to win and you don’t win as much. It had been a little while since I’d won something and you get that feeling back in you and it puts that driver back in your gut again. This is a bad comparison but it’s kind of like someone who is on drugs, you get that feel of how good it is to win and you just want it more and it makes you work harder to keep wanting to get more wins.”
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING YOUR LIFE’S TWO GREATEST MILESTONES HAPPEN 30 MILES APART AND LIKE THREE MONTHS APART? YOU GOT MARRIED LESS THAN THREE MONTHS AGO? “November 26th.”
THE DAYTONA 500 IS ON THE 26TH. “Wow, its exactly three months to the day.”
HAVE YOU LET YOURSELF CONSIDER THAT? “Well I didn’t until now. Thanks for putting more pressure on me. I appreciate that. I haven’t thought about it but it is a good point. We got married not far from here and this is obviously a huge deal, huge event. Life-changing event if you win this race. If you don’t believe that just ask Trevor Bayne. It’s definitely been a life-changer for him. I haven’t thought about it yet but I will now.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHANCES ARE? “I think our chances are good. We had a strong car here last year up until five to go. I legitimately thought we were going to be one of those cars that came to the stripe and battle for it and we had the incident with five to go. Still we were able to go from 20th to seventh in two laps which is just how strong my race car was and had good partners to work with too in the process of that. I think this year we’ve got better cars. I feel better about where our speedway program is right now than I did maybe last year at this point. We tested last year and we weren’t that quick. Coming into media day here I was I don’t know how good we’re going to be and then it turned out our car was really good pushing other cars and it kind of changed the whole event for us. I was fortunate that Kurt (Busch) took the time to teach me the type of drafting we were doing last year and it obviously worked out good for us. But this year I feel even more confident about where our car is. There’s going to be some new stuff to learn. The race is going to have a different feel than last year. It’s going to have a different feel than two years ago but with that being said I think we have a great shot.”
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR RACES? “I’m very routine if you want to call it that. So if I do one thing that works I stick with that routine constantly. I go with that routine from start to stop. So let’s say I eat something and it worked for me that day and I felt good in the car then I stick with that until it doesn’t work and if it doesn’t work then I’ll change it up and try something different. My routine is the same thing. I go to bed pretty much the same time the night before races. I get up and eat the same thing in the morning, I eat the same thing before I go to bed for dinner the night before and race and I try to eat the same stuff the day of the race just to keep things simple and keep it within elements that I know. That takes one thing out of the pie. We’ve got a lot that we don’t know when we start the race and I don’t want other stuff that I don’t know out there.”
WHAT SORT OF THINGS DO YOU EAT? “Simple stuff like cereal, turkey sandwiches, just really simple stuff that is not going to upset my stomach I don’t want to have that happen when I get out on the race track. That would be bad.”
HOW IS THE SHOOTOUT GOING TO HELP YOU SET UP FOR THE DAYTONA 500? “It’s not going to help me at all because I don’t get to race it this year.”
YOU’RE NOT IN IT? “I’ve gotten asked that a lot. I think everybody else is in it but us and Bobby Labonte just about. I’m still going to take as much as I can out of it whether it’s going up on the roof to watch the race or watch it with the scanner on listening to all the other guys. There’s still something to be learned. When that race is over we’re all going to understand how the race is going to play out on Thursday when we get to the 150’s. Until then we are kind of a little bit of an unknown there.”
IS IT A DISADVANTAGE NOT BEING IN IT? “This year I don’t think it’s a much of a disadvantage. The only reason I say that is if I had to pick this year or last year to be in it I would have picked last year. Reason being is we were doing the two-car tandem stuff and we didn’t know much about it at that point. It was new and we just started doing it at testing the first time. We didn’t understand what we could do with the cars and what our capabilities were. Now we know how to two-car tandem, we understand it. Now it’s just going to be a matter of seeing how the race plays out differently.”
DO YOU ALLOW YOURSELF TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THE EXPERIENCE WOULD BE LIKE TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Absolutely.”
WHEN YOU THINK OF IT HOW DOES IT PLAY OUT IN YOUR MIND? “Well the parts I think about is getting to be in Victory Lane and holding the trophy over your head. Getting to be a part of that and having your name stamped on it. I see McMurray walking through right now and I remember hearing some of his stories when he won it and seeing some of the things that were posted on the internet and it was such a special day and such a special moment. That’s the stuff I think about. The stuff that comes after that is the stuff that comes after that. It is what it is but certainly just being able to win at this place. To me a win at Daytona is huge no matter what, but in the 500 is even bigger.”
HAVING BEEN A WINNER LAST YEAR, DO YOU THINK IT’S TIME TO INCLUDE RACE WINNERS INTO THE SHOOTOUT FIELD? “I’ve got a different opinion on the Shootout. I really enjoyed it when it was pole winners and I know there are some changes that have kept that from being what they do as the criteria to get in. With that being said I wouldn’t be in it anyway because we didn’t get a pole last year but I guess the only part that I was a little surprised about with us having a win last year and not being included in it is that there were so many cars that were in it and a lot of cars that are behind us in points that are included in it. You look at that and it’s almost like a penalty sort of. It felt pretty weird that we weren’t included in it but at the same time I’m a little more of a purest. I liked it when it was more of a 15 or 16 car race and you had to do something to get into that race, something special. That’s a tough question to answer because I see both sides of it.”
YOU WERE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR LAST YEAR, BUT YOU WON SOMETHING. “Yeah.”
I THINK THEY SHOULD MAYBE GRANDFATHER THAT IN. IF THEY MOVE FORWARD WOULDN’T IT BE RIGHT? “Well they need to decide if it’s going to be a race that we’re going to let pretty much open entry to get in because a lot of cars still wouldn’t come. I think we saw some of the guys that were entered into it that just opted to not come. It’s not one of our highest paying races. It’s more or less a test session is what it’s turned into. But with that being said it’s a special event too. It’s a test session that guys are going to try to win. If it’s going to be one way it should be one way. If it’s going to be the other way it should be the other way but don’t exclude one or two cars and let everybody else in. That feels a little bit weird to me.”
IS IT A MISS NUMBER TO THINK OF IT AS A PRIMER TO THE 500 BECAUSE I THINK OF THE DUELS AS MORE OF A PRIMER? “I think the duels are more of a primer. I think we see more of what is going to happen in the 500 in the duels just because guys have a little different attitude in the shootout. It’s usually their third or fourth car. They’re not as worried about tearing it up. They might take chances they won’t take in the duels. The duels you are going to see guys racing they’re cars that they’re going to be racing on Sunday. If you have a guy that is strong in the duels he’s probably going to be strong on Sunday. Whereas if you have a guys that is strong in the shootout he might not be that strong come duel time.”
TALKED ABOUT BEING IN THE LEAD WITH FIVE LAPS TO GO, HOW TIGHT DID YOU GRIP THE WHEEL AT THAT POINT? “I didn’t grip it any tighter until I saw the run they had coming up behind me and I said oh this isn’t going to work, and then I gripped it pretty tight at that point. There wasn’t anything I could do to make it go faster at that point, it was what it was. It was certainly cross that stripe. I’ll be honest I think about that constantly. Ok such a big race, five laps to go and you’re in the lead you might not ever be in a position like that again with five laps to go. I think I saw a stat the other day where Jimmie Johnson hasn’t had a top-five since the last time he won it. I think he won it in ’06. That just shows you how hit or miss this race can be and how tough this race can be to win. I think you have to cease every opportunity you have when it comes down to it.”
YOU’VE HAD A GREAT RECORD HERE IN TERMS OF THIS RACE AND OTHER RACES, IS THERE SOME TOTAL OF THOSE EXPERIENCES THAT YOU BRING TO THIS RACE? “Yes and no just because this race plays out so differently. It’s such a long race. For whatever reason it does seem like one of the longer races of the year to me. What you can bring is the mentality of okay I’ve got to be calm, cool and collective at this point. I’ve got to really go at this point. You can bring some of that with you. It’s its own different beast down here.”
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