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[/media-credit]NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES’ SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 12, 2012
RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS
ON 200TH WIN FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS: “My first thought…I just left the wedding of my best friend, Steve Limentani, my doctor. Congratulations to him. I want to thank all of the drivers, all of the crew chiefs, and you (Jeff Hammond) and Darrell (Waltrip) and Geoff Bodine and everybody else. I can’t believe we won 200 of these things. I can’t believe it took this long after 199. I want to remember all those folks we lost. And everybody that helped this thing happen. Brad Paisley is in his bus on the way here and we’ll have a big party.”
I HAVE NEVER SEEN YOU HAVE MUCH EMOTION ON THE TOP OF THE BOX, BUT I SAW YOU WALKING UP AND DOWN PIT ROAD. WAS THAT TO SHAKE OF THE TENSION? “I had to get away. I just couldn’t…I was just…They said that we were going to make it, but I don’t believe them, you know? (Smiled broadly) Everything has happened backwards for us. We’ve run so good this year, and then had such bad luck. I want to thank the fans for supporting us all these years. I can’t believe…this is a big deal for all of our people. Linda, I just love you baby, I love you. I’m sorry you aren’t here. I am kind of numb, but I am glad it is over. I think we are going to win a few more now. Jimmie, Lowes…all of our sponsors. People who have been with us forever. I know I am taking a long time, I hope that is ok.
IT ALL STARTED IN MARTINSVILLE BACK IN 1984. YOU WEREN’T EVEN AT THAT WIN. AND NOW, YOU’RE AT 200. WHAT’S YOUR REFLECTION ON THAT?
“I didn’t think it was ever going to happen (laughter). I thought we were going to haul those hats around forever! Oh, I’m just so proud of these guys. I want to thank all the fans and all of the drivers over the years (like) Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond and all the guys that made this thing happen. When we got to 199, we got stuck. I was at a wedding for one of my best friends in the western part of North Carolina (this evening). And at eight o’clock we jumped on the helicopter and got here. I’m so proud of the guys and all of the folks from Harry Hyde that helped me get this thing going, to everybody. And it’s just been so special.
YOU HAVE SO MANY MEMORIES OVER THE YEARS. YOU’VE BEEN A BIG HISTORY BUFF OF THIS SPORT. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET THIS 200TH WIN AT TOUGH OLD DARLINGTON THAT STARTED BACK IN 1950?
“I had an old dealership down the road here. And one day my wife and I drove over here in 1976 and pulled up and didn’t buy a ticket and sat in the stands and watched. You know, I wanted to win it in Martinsville because of the crash up there and that was our first race, and we were looking like we had it done. And then we came down here and when you think about the tradition here at Darlington, it couldn’t have happened at a better place. So, I’m glad it’s over (laughs). I’m glad we got 200. Man, I have answered more questions and hauled those hats around and talked about it so much! I just want to thank everybody and those folks that gave it all and gave their lives in ’04, my family and my friends, this is a special night we’re going to remember them.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – WINNER
THIS IS A SPECIAL ONE JIMMIE: “Oh without a doubt. You have got to love that man (Rick Hendrick), he just said 200 is great but let’s go get 250. So that tells you where his head is, I love it. Oh man, what a day. Very fast race car. I want to thank Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for an awesome race car. The Kobalt Tools Chevy was bad fast. We had a little pit thing that went awry earlier in the race, but we still worked our way back up there. Had a great race car and won the race.”
IT’S THE SOUTHERN 500, YOU HAD A HENDRICK CAR WITH TONY STEWART BATTLING YOU FOR THE RESTART, TWO CHAMPIONS, THEN THROW IN THE FUEL MILEAGE. A LOT OF DIFFERENT DRAMA COMING DOWN NEAR THE END: “Yes, it really was a lot drama. In a fuel mileage race, when you see that No. 14, you always second guess yourself because he’s so good at it. I was really concerned. I was just pacing myself in the mirror on what he was doing. Hoped that I had saved enough. I felt like I had saved enough. I felt like I did a good job and certainly did. But, there was a lot of hungry drivers out there. Including Tony and Kyle (Busch); a lot of guys wanted to win this race. It’s very special to me, this race is. So special. So great. Darlington is an awesome race track. Just pumped. Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom, my Wife, my Mother-in-Law, all the Mothers out there. Tomorrow is going to be a nice day to chill out and savor this great victory.”
SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT WITH THIS 200TH WIN. MR. HENDRICK WAS THE FIRST TO GREET YOU WHEN YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR, WHAT DID HE SAY TO YOU?
“He was obviously really happy that we won the race. I thanked him for giving me a job and giving me a chance (laughs). I wouldn’t have won a bunch of these now if it wasn’t for his vision and Lowe’s coming on board to believe in me in the beginning. I wouldn’t be here today to contribute to these great wins. But in typical Rick Hendrick fashion he said, ‘We got 200, now let’s go get 250’, so we didn’t even savor it. He’s already put the pressure on us to go win 250 (laughs). But this is a huge moment for all of Hendrick Motorsports. There have been a lot of people over the years, a lot of years that led to these 200 wins. I thank them all. I respect them all. And I’m very proud of my race team today.”
LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE. YOU HAD A STRONG CAR ALL DAY, BUT YOU WEREN’T ALWAYS THE STRONGEST UNTIL THERE TOWARD THE END. WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE RACE CAR TO MAKE IT COME ON SO GOOD?
“You know, I lost some track position on a pit strategy, and when that happened it became so evident to me that clean air was everything. And then I came from 10th in over 180 laps and kind of worked my way back up into the top three and then I was able to get the lead. But we had a great race car. We led a lot and we ran away once we had the clean air. But once we lost it, man, it was tough to make anything happen deep in the pack. And luckily we had a good enough car that I could work my way through there and still got it done.”
YOU ARE EIGHTH ON THE ALL TIME LIST. WITH 56 WINS YOU BROKE A TIE WITH RUSTY WALLACE. WHERE DOES THIS ONE STACK-UP IN ALL THOSE 56 WINS?
“This means a lot. Last year, to finish out the championship in not the No. 48 style, that stung. We’ve been close to a lot of wins through the end of last year and this year and didn’t get it done. 200 wins, there is a lot of things pulling into this making this moment very special. This is very, very high on that list. I remember going to Rick’s 100th win. I wasn’t even driving for him yet. And I thought, I hope someday I can just contribute. And I’ve won 56 of these things and won the 200th for him. So it’s pretty awesome.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – FINISHED SECOND
DID YOU RUN OUT OF FUEL ON THAT LAST RESTART? “Yes, I did. I had hit…the fuel pressure light had went down, or the light was blinking when we got the one to go. So I had to go down to the apron. It caught on the backstretch. But then we got past the center of (turns) three and four and the light was down to 20 pounds again. It laid down all the way down the front stretch and we lost second because of it. Pretty happy to come out of here with a third tonight. Really proud of Rick Hendrick and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They really deserve this 200th.”
WHAT WAS THE ISSUE TONIGHT WITH EITHER THE CLUTCH OR THE TRANSMISSION?
“I broke the clutch with about 85 (laps) to go there. Our guys did an awesome job of getting us out of the pits. It didn’t affect us on restarts; it just affected us on the pit stops. So once we got through with that last stop, we were fine.”
OUTSIDE OF THAT, DESCRIBE THE EVENING AT DARLINGTON
“We just got better as the night went on. We weren’t good enough to win the race, but track position was so important. The biggest thing was just to get the track position when we could and just try to save the tires. I’m really proud of (crew chief) Steve Addington and all these guy on this Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy. They did an awesome job tonight. We kept working on it and kept working on it and you’ve got to be kidding me.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 ROCKWELL TOOLS CHEVROLET – FINISHED EIGHTH
YOU LEAD A LOT OF LAPS TONIGHT HOW WAS YOUR RACE?
“It was really good at times and not so good at times. We need to get our pit stops better. It’s definitely been a part of our struggles this year of getting further. We have been around the top-10, but we need better pit stops if we want to make it into that top-five more often. That’s a big thing then just working on the adjustments on the car, my feedback and trying to figure out how to make that better. There were times when we were really good and there were times when we just weren’t that good. It was too big of a change.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – FINISHED 24TH
ON HIS RACE:
“We struggled this weekend. The Target Chevy just wouldn’t turn. From the time we unloaded till the race tonight we just couldn’t get the handling right. It was just a handful but we hung in there and tried some new things out. We’ll take a top-20 finish and move on to Charlotte next week.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET – FINISHED 31ST
ON HENDRICK 200TH WIN: “I talked to him at Fontana and I was flying out and I saw him coming in. He said ‘I’m here because I’ve got to be there for that 200th win’. So, it finally came for him, so that’s awesome.”
ON TONIGHT’S RACE: “For the GoDaddy crew…you know what…I know I didn’t have a great result. But, I accomplished all the things I wanted to accomplish. Things went good on the Nationwide side. Here on the Cup side, my goals were to be respectable out there. I think I held my own alright. And, the other one was to finish, and both of those things happened. So, overall, good night. I will be much less worried coming back to this place.
“My goals were to run respectable, at times even passing and having decent speed and to finish. We did both of those things, so I think overall it was a really successful weekend at a track that could have been a disaster. This is a step in the right direction. I can finally thank Tony (Stewart) for putting this one of the schedule. Last night’s race helped me for tonight. It was great running out there with those guys. I was just most disappointed that the two times I hit the fence and got the stripes on my car, Jeff Gordon was right behind me. I’m like ‘Really, I look stupid now in front of Jeff Gordon’. But anyway, good night for the whole GoDaddy crew. Appreciate everyone’s support. Especially GoDaddy. We’ll roll on the Charlotte now.”
TALK ABOUT THE EXTRA LAPS: “I think it really helped that there was a heck of long green flag at the beginning because we got over a full Nationwide race distance in before the first yellow even came out. So, the race definitely felt a little longer, but I was busy hanging on to the car, working with hit. Changing things. Then we got some yellows for a little break here and there. It didn’t feel quite as long as I thought. How many hours was it? There you go, like an Indy 500.”
WHAT IS THE TAKE AWAY? “I definitely got a feel for all the elements. Starts, restarts and pitting, obviously I made a mistake there; and all that stuff. Just how to get runs on cars. What to do when the car feels a certain way. Which lines to take, and to accommodate for the car and how it feels. We started out really lose and then we kind of struggled. Then it was really good when Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) fixed it. Then it was kind of tight the rest of the night. Just me working with that. I’d rather be a little tight than lose, especially here at Darlington. I earned my stripes anyway.”
WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH THE DIFFERENT LINES DRIVERS RAN? “Yes. I ran all of them too at different time. I felt like early on, the middle was good for me. I felt a little bit later it was up high then down low. It was definitely moving around. That is part of the challenge of being out here and running this many laps is you have got a lot of different sets of tires going through. A lot of different changes to the car and the track is ever evolving. Adapting to those quickly is the name of the game. Smoke (Tony Stewart) did a good job. So I will have to ask him how he did that.”
IS THIS A GOOD WARM UP FOR THE COCA COLA 600? IT IS EVEN LONGER THAN THIS: “I think you hit on a really good point. It’s really good to do a nice long race at a challenging track where it is about car control and feeling things out because the Coke 600 is going to be a big weekend. Double duty again on obviously a real high profile weekend. It will be nice to have gotten one like this out of the way. Then we just tack on another 100 miles and we are there.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN COME BACK HERE IN CUP AND BE COMPETITIVE? “Yes, I think qualifying plays a big part. When the green flag drops and you are at the back of the field, you are definitely way behind to start it off. That’s definitely a hurdle. We started off really lose and I was just trying to take care of my equipment and get to the end and race the race track. I think there is definitely a chance for that. Am I going to be contending for a top-10, I don’t know about that. But, I think that running up there where I’ve got people on my lap and running for position, that is the hope for the next time we come back. That is why we came this time.”
WAS IT A SUCCESSFUL WEEKEND FOR YOU? “Yes I think that is a solid word. Things went generally well all weekend. That first Cup practice was a little dismal, but we didn’t do any qualifying runs either. I think that overall, I and we as teams accomplished all the things we wanted to.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/ALLSTATE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 34TH
ON HIS RACE:
The No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevy started off pretty loose. We made adjustments, but I noticed the car get tighter after I made slight contact with the wall about halfway through the race. Our pit strategy helped us gain our lap back until the contact with the 22 and that sent us to the garage for repairs. I hate that our night ended this way. We were on the lead lap and just wanted to have a solid finish.”
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