NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 24, 2013
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 26th
“We just had a tough Friday and Saturday and we regrouped for Sunday and put a new set-up on the car and stayed optimistic. The car started off a little bit loose but once we dialed that in, it was decent. At the end of the race I really thought it was pretty good. So I felt better at the end of the race than I did in qualifying. So we made big improvements. We all want better than 26th and that’s what we had today and it will be better next time.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2nd
THAT WAS A WILD FINISH AT THE END THERE, WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“Yeah, that was pretty wild. We had a good car and came real close to winning there but then everybody started taking tires and tires were really big at the end because the place is really slick and worn out. We were lucky there at the end and came in and got some fresh tires and that sort of fixed our mistakes and helped us to get a good finis. We had a good car and had some wheel issues, but was real happy about how we finished and made it up. We had a good enough car to run there, and were happy to get the finish.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/SERTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5th
TALK ABOUT YOUR 3RD PLACE RUN AND WHAT IT TOOK TO GET IT THERE
“We worked on it and in the end I could have followed Kyle and just wanted to apologize to him for putting it three and four wide on the restart because I am hungry and going for the win and it’s not normally a move you would make if you are pushing a brother. I could have pushed him out to the lead earlier and maybe he could have held off the 22 and the 11 but I messed him up on the restart and I told him, I am going for the win with this Furniture Row Chevrolet SS and I am not going for anything less.”
DESCRIBE WHAT THE TRANSITION IS LIKE WITH THIS RACE TEAM WHICH IS BASED IN DENVER, COLORADO WHICH IS NON-TRADITIONAL IN TODAY’S MODERN NASCAR STANDARDS
“We are doing it and we are a bona fide real team and like the fourth car from Richard Childress Racing but Barney Visser gives us everything we need and its an awesome feeling to do it the way we are doing it.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – FINISHED 22nd
WHAT DID YOU TAKE ISSUE WITH AT THE END OF THE RACE?
“Well, Joey (Logano) spun the tires on the restart. Everybody had trouble with that so, but it’s not my fault that he spun the tires. For a guy that has been complaining about how everybody else is driving here and then (for) him to do that it’s a double standard. He makes the choice. He makes the decision to run us down there and when you run a driver down there then you take responsibility for what happens after that. He is a tough guy on pit road as soon as one of his crew guys gets in the middle of it. Until then he’s a scared little kid. Then he wants to sit there and throw a water bottle at me. He is going to learn a lesson. He can run his mouth on Twitter and stuff all he wants tonight. I’ve got plenty of people that are going to watch for that. It’s time he learns a lesson. He’s run his mouth long enough. He has sat there and done this double standard and he’s nothing but a little rich kid that has never had to work in his life. He’s going to learn with us working guys that had to work our way up how it works.”
BEFORE THAT, YOU CAME STORMING UP THROUGH THE FIELD. TELL US ABOUT THAT
“We came in that one stop and got two tires that got us an awesome restart on the outside that got us to third. I was proud of the restart and really proud of the team. They did an awesome job and had awesome pit stops and made great changes all day. I don’t know what happened at the end. I think we had a tire going down. If not, we had something else that actually happened. But it started right before the caution and was really bad afterwards. It’s still no excuse for Joey to do what he did. I’m just tired of watching these kids whine and then they sit there and act tough when their crew guys get in the middle of it. If NASCAR wants us to let the guys have at it, it shouldn’t be any different than hockey. Let the guys have at it and then when one guy goes to the ground, then it’s over.
INAUDIBLE QUESTION REGARDING JOEY LOGANO AND BLOCKING
“He still takes the responsibility on himself. He has that right. He has the choice to do that. He’s in control of his car. But if he ever turns down across in front of me again, I don’t care what lap it is, he won’t make it through the other end of it. If I didn’t hit the chip, he wouldn’t have made it through Turn 1 to begin with. I’m tired of these guys doing that stuff; especially out of a kid that’s been griping about everybody else, and then he does that the next week. I mean he’s sent Denny (Hamlin) to the hospital and screwed our day up. He’s talked the talk, but he hasn’t walked the walk yet. He’s always got his crew guys walking the walk for him.”
HE SAYS HE WANTS TO CALL YOU THIS WEEK. WILL YOU ACCEPT HIS CALL?
“Hell no. If he wants to talk about it, we’ll talk about it. After he threw the water bottle at me like a little girl, we’ll go at it now.”
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