NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS). She discussed last year’s strong showing at AMS, using the in-car track bar adjustment and the benefits of starting a season strong, among other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
THE LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE, YOU WERE VERY STRONG AND FINISHED SIXTH. WHAT’S YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND AT A TRACK WHERE YOU PERFORMED VERY WELL AT LAST FALL?
“It went good last time. It probably sucked before that. That’s just the way racing is. Sometimes you’re good and sometimes you’re not. I was definitely hopeful yesterday working with Daniel (Knost, crew chief) for the first time here at this track and his cars that we were going to be alright. I think we had a pretty good first day. It was a good, steady day. We found some things that were good and some things that weren’t as good. I feel like in a race weekend, if you can find one or two good changes to your race car that don’t hurt it in a negative way anywhere but help it somewhere that you have a shot at a decent weekend and being competitive. I felt like we did that yesterday. Today’s another day and we’re going to look to qualify well. Here at Atlanta, racing is very important. If the car is fast for just one lap but not the rest of them, you’ll go backward very fast here. The race car is definitely the most important thing here.”
DID YOU USE THE TRACK BAR ADJUSTMENT YESTERDAY IN THE TEST AND DID YOU PLAY WITH IT AT ALL? YOU’VE DONE ADJUSTMENTS IN OTHER CARS BEFORE SO HOW DID IT PLAY OUT?
“I didn’t use it at all yesterday. I have used it though when we tested the function at Michigan after the second race there. They gave us the adjustment and I used it all day. I think we were only supposed to use it at one point in time but I used it all day. When you give the driver a feature they’re going to use it. With Atlanta, we weren’t making extremely long runs (Thursday). To test things, you really need to give it the couple laps that you need to give it. To be getting after the track bar and things like that, it would have I think confused me more on what the adjustments did. At the point where we going to try to make a long run before we went into trying a qualifying run, I was going to use it on a long run but I only probably only did six or seven laps and the car wasn’t quite good enough to stay out there. I thought we needed another adjustment so I decided to come in. I’m comfortable using it and I feel like everyone will use it quite a bit at different points like pitting and restarts. There’s a lot to think about there. I’m interested to see how it will work to be honest. If everyone is able to use their car out there, I’d think it will make for less passing. It will be interesting to see how it pans out. It’ll make the drivers happy. Trust me, when you’re really loose or really tight, you really want to fix it. I’m sure it’ll make us more comfortable.”
EVERYBODY WANTS TO GET OFF TO A FAST START, AND YOU’RE AT A PERIOD IN THE SCHEDULE WHERE YOU HAVE SOME TRACKS LINED UP WHERE YOU’VE HAD SUCCESS IN ONE SERIES OR ANOTHER. DO YOU VIEW THIS NEXT SERIES OF RACES AS CRUCIAL OR RATHER OPPORTUNE?
“It’s always nice to start well because it seems like you spend the whole year catching up if you don’t. And it seems like if you have a good start, it’s so much easier to keep it there. It’s like having some really bad tests starting off in school. You spend the rest of the year trying to get your average up. It’s difficult. I try not to get too wrapped up in it but it would be nice to have a bunch of top-20s and top-15s to start the year off just to have a solid foundation and try not to have any DNFs. It affects you a little bit emotionally with where you are in the garage area as a constant reminder of where you’re standing in points. It also affects rolling off the pit lane for the first practice. Those are the fastest laps on the track and generally the first cars out are the fastest cars. Not that they’re there because they’re the fast but it is the best track condition. I’ve definitely spent plenty of my Cup career waiting for a hole on pit lane for the first 20-something cars to get a run in because the track is cold. It saves time to be able to roll off pit lane right away, too. There are a lot of little reasons where it would be nice to start off where we can have a good points standing position for logistical reasons and confidence.”
WHEN YOU CAME IN HERE TO THE TRACK YESTERDAY DID YOU HAVE ANY GOOD FEELING CONSIDERING YOUR LAST RUN HERE? OR HAS SO MUCH OF THE CARS CHANGED AND YOUR TEAM IS DIFFERENT?
“I was just hopeful. There is definitely no doubt that I feel like our first 1.5-mile together at Texas was kind of a disaster. So I was really hoping that we would start off close and be able to work with it and be in a decent position. I feel like we did that. I made sure I thanked all the guys for bringing a car that was easy to drive from the start and making good changes. I thanked the crew for being efficient and fast in the garage area and getting a lot of runs in. I think that so far so good. As what I said in all of our media availabilities before we ever hit the track was that it is our unrealized potential that is exciting to me. It is my fourth year in stock cars and my third year in Cup. It’s Daniel’s sixth year in NASCAR and his second year as a crew chief. We don’t have a ton of experience and you would think that there is only ‘up’ to go. The potential of where we could end up and where we can get to is encouraging.”
IN REGARDS TO THE NEW RULE CHANGES AND BEING ON THE THROTTLE MORE THAN LAST SEASON:
“I don’t know if that makes me a bad driver, but I didn’t feel that much different. I don’t think the pickup off the corner on throttle… there isn’t quite as much lateral load and acceleration but not dramatic. Every time before I go out on the track, other than speedways, I like to look at driver comparison of throttle and brake and steering and everything. I basically did what we did the last time here. It was not getting all the way out of the throttle with very little braking. That was the same thing I did yesterday. I did not find that it was all that much different than the last time we were here. I think that generally having to be smoother and not rolling a lot of speed is something I feel comfortable doing and like doing. I think my style is smooth and not going into the corner and hitting the brake really hard at least on the bigger tracks. So I do think it suits my comfort zone and how I like the car. I think that the car needs a certain platform and attitude to do that well. That is the kind of platform I like. I do think it suits me alright. Hopefully that materializes to a good weekend. I mean run the gamut of running good and bad on all different tracks. I think so far the team has done a good job of giving me a car that feels comfortable. That is the most important thing.”
IN AN INTERVIEW THAT YOU DID WITH YAHOO LAST WEEK, THEY WROTE HOW YOU ADMITTED THAT YOU HAVE PROBLEMS BEING CONFIDENT. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO EXPERIENCE, WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN? IS IT A FEEL? HOW DO YOU COMBAT THAT TO START WORKING ON BUILDING THAT UP?
“I don’t remember that. I don’t know if I necessarily would ever say something so blunt and simple like I have a problem being confident. But I’m sure I said something to the effect of at times we all lack confidence every now and again. I definitely do. I wouldn’t say that I’m not a confident person, just to clarify that. I think that confidence comes from the work that you put in. Confidence comes from trusting your own abilities and that comes from proving it to yourself over time. Then I think when you have those things it contributes to having good results. I think those are the things that need to be done and throughout my career I feel like I’ve done those at times and not at others. It is always a work in progress.”
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