NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 27, 2015
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed what he’s learned about Martinsville over the years, safety barriers, the West Coast Swing, Kevin Harvick’s success, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
YOU WON YOUR FIRST RACE HERE IN THE FALL. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT WORKS WITH YOUR DRIVING STYLE?
“I do enjoy racing the short tracks. I think that in general, I’ve done better on the short tracks than any other tracks. The first time I came here, I hit everything, even the pace car. It looked like, at that time, after my first race here, that it was going to be quite a challenge to sort it out and understand what I needed to do. And then, me and Tony Jr. and Tony (Eury) Sr., came up here and tested in 2001 or 2003 or sometime around there. And we hit on some stuff and was really good for a long time. We just ran a lot of good races and finished in the Top 5 quite a few times. It’s been one of my favorite tracks ever since. I love the action and I love the short track mentality.
“The secret really is to have a good car; a car that has good drive off, rolls through the center real nice. You’ve got to take care of the tires, which I learned quite a bit about here trying to keep the rear tires on it up off the corner is real important for the long run. And it took several races really to kind of understand it and what you needed to do here to be good.”
WHEN A DRIVER DOES REALLY GOOD AT A PARTICULAR TRACK, LIKE JIMMIE JOHNSON AND JEFF GORDON HAVE DONE HERE, AND KEVIN HARVICK AT PHOENIX, IS THAT GENERALLY MORE ABOUT THE DRIVER ADAPTING TO THAT TRACK, OR IS IT MORE ABOUT THE CARS DOING WELL?
“A little bit of both, I think. I think that Jeff’s ran good here with several different crew chiefs, so that probably says a lot about him as a driver for this particular track. Jimmie seems to have a knack for understanding what he needs out of his car to be fast. So, I give him a lot of credit for his success here. Harvick has been quick everywhere. I think he’s a better driver than we ever imagined when he was with RCR and I think now that he’s with one of the better crew chiefs in the garage, he’s able to really show his true potential and his true ability; and he’s good everywhere. He’s won here. He’s won at a lot of different tracks and he’s starting to rack them up, here, now that he’s got his team really peaked-out.
“I think that when a driver is successful at one track, specifically, it probably is a lot of confidence, the driver’s understanding of the track and the tire wear and what he’s looking for in his balance during practice and how the track changes. Everything about the track maybe fits his style or he feels real confident and comfortable with. And that shows with certain drivers, specifically.”
DO YOU LIKE THE WEST COAST SWING AFTER DAYTONA? AND DO YOU THINK IT WAS A BETTER INDICATION THAT MAYBE IN THE PAST OF WHO THE REAL CONTENDERS ARE GOING TO BE?
“I think it’s a little early to tell who is who. We seem to start pretty strong over the last couple of years, but you never know who is going to be peaking at the right time when the Chase comes around. And it’s hardly the same group of guys that are running well at the start of the year. And fortunately, last year we were one of those guys. We took off and started really well, and we didn’t finish well. So, it just depends on what you learn through the summer stretch and how you apply that to your car and whether you can learn enough and be competitive enough when it counts. I did enjoy the West Coast Swing and think that the schedule has been pretty fun so far with the little changes that they’ve made. It’s been pretty nice.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEW TIRE BARRIERS RIGHT IN FRONT OF PIT ROAD? ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THERE ARE STILL SPOTS IN SOME TRACKS WHERE THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT CONCRETE IN PLACES WHERE DRIVERS COULD POTENTIALLY END UP?
“I think that the changes that were made in the last 10 to 15 years to help safety have been great. We put barriers where we felt like were common places the cars hit. But as we found out over the last couple of years, specifically, we’ll find all the empty spots where there aren’t any barriers. And I think that NASCAR is taking some steps to make it right. The tracks are taking some steps to move it along. You never can be safe enough. You never can do enough to be safe and keep the competitors safe and keep the fans safe. You never can do enough. So you shouldn’t ever stop trying. But unfortunately, it takes an accident like that to wake everybody up and make things happen. I know that NASCAR was very disappointed that there wasn’t a SAFER barrier on the wall at Daytona and that Kyle (Busch) was injured. And it’s real unfortunate to have to go through that whole process to really fire this thing kind of back up and get people moving on it.
“But, at the same time, I appreciate the things that they’re doing. And I know that the tire stuff is temporary. The tires are better than the concrete wall, but at the same time those tires can be a problem when you get into those. There’s no telling what direction that car is going to go when it hits a tire barrier. It’s better than the wall, for sure, but nothing’s better at this point than a SAFER barrier. So I guess their intent, over time, is to get SAFER barriers where they feel like they need it. And until then, we’ll have these tires in those areas. I’m happy with the things the tracks are doing. You look back at the cockpit of these cars when I first started driving them, and look at the advances we’ve made inside the cars and outside the cars, and when I was racing in 1998 and ’99 and 2000; and when I was racing Late Models without headrests and neck restraints, I never once was worried about anything ever happening to me. You get complacent, I think.
“You look back at how stripped down safety was inside the cars years ago, and we didn’t worry about it then. And I think over time, you kind of get a little complacent. You do a lot to get better and get safer and then maybe you get complacent and you think you have enough. And there’s just never enough, you know? You just always keep trying. It’s evident, unfortunately, when someone is injured. But we’ve done a ton of stuff over the last several years that we need to be proud of and thankful for and appreciative of. But it’s weird how just looking back over time and I never got into a car worried about my safety. And we’ve come a long, long way. We’ve got headrests wrapped around us, and harnesses and six, seven, nine-point harnesses. We’ve got straps going everywhere. We can hardly be comfortable in the cars with so many damn straps down there. But you’ve just got to keep trying, I guess, is the message that we are all learning. We’ve got to keep trying to improve all the time and never really let it plane out; and always keep trying to improve.”
CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT COLE WHITT AND CHASE ELLIOTT BOTH COMING HERE THIS WEEKEND? HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SEASON WHEN YOU FELT LIKE EVERYTHING CLICKED LIKE KEVIN HARVICK HAS, SHORT OF WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP?
“Not really. I don’t think many people have had a season or 16 months like Harvick has. They should have won so many races last year. They had the same speed that they have this year. They just had these little gremlins and bugs that were biting on them and costing them a lot of victories. They should have won so many races last year that they didn’t win. They are completing these races now and it’s obvious to everyone how good they are. They’ll be that way all year, I expect. And Kevin, he’s a good guy. He’s great for the sport. He’s a great representative of the sport. I enjoy a guy like that doing well because I think it helps the sport and it’s healthy for the sport. He has a great mind inside the car and outside the car. He’s very sharp about the direction the sport is going. As a business, safety-wise, he’s got a lot of great ideas and he’s just a great ambassador for us drivers and for the sport.
“For Chase, I hope he can get his opportunity to get his car in the race today. I know he’s excited about the opportunity to race. He probably isn’t very nervous at all. Every opportunity he can, he goes and races something like Late Model or what have you. So, he probably looks at this as just a trip to the Snowball Derby or something like that when he’s not running his Xfinity car. So, I think he’s probably pretty relaxed and just hoping that he gets an opportunity to run some laps today.”
YOU HAVE SEEN A LOT OF DRIVERS COME INTO THE SERIES AT A YOUNG AGE. SOME HAVE SUCCEEDED, SOME HAVE NOT. WHAT GIVES YOU CONFIDENCE THAT CHASE’S (ELLIOTT’S) JOURNEY INTO THE CUP SERIES AT A YOUNG AGE WILL BE A SUCCESSFUL ONE?
“I think it will be successful because he has been good in several types of cars driving several styles, different horsepower to weight ratios, different tires and track surfaces. He has been an observer of the sport for a really long time as a kid going to these races so I think he understands a lot about the sport. He is not running into a lot of things that are surprises to him. He knows exactly what is coming around every corner, outside the car as much as inside the car. I think that is why he really doesn’t get shook up all that well. He kind of sees all this stuff coming. I don’t know he is just a good little driver. He puts great corners together and does a good job behind the wheel.
“I anticipate him getting into basically a turnkey operation that is a top five team and he is not going to have to wonder whether the car is good enough. He is going to get in cars that are going to drive good and that is going to really excel his learning curve because he will be in stuff that is doing what it is supposed to be doing. He is not going to have to wonder what he is looking for as far as the feel and balance of the car. It’s going to be pretty close and that is going to help and assist him to get himself up to speed and understand how to drive the cars. He has also drove Cup cars before in testing for us. It’s not like it’s going to be a new animal to him. I expect him to have fun. He is going to be a handful. He is going to be up there running with us and racing for positions and I expect him to be a great teammate and a lot of fun to work with.”
NOW THAT YOU HAVE HAD TIME TO SINK IN WHERE DOES THE VICTORY AT MARTINSVILLE LAST YEAR RANK EVEN WITH THE DAYTONA 500’s? SECONDLY, YOU HAVE SAID IN THE PAST YOU WOULD LIKE TO RUN LATE MODELS WHEN YOUR NASCAR CAREER IS OVER. HOW MUCH WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN THE ONE HERE IN OCTOBER?
“The late model race?”
YES:
“I don’t even know if I’m going to bring my cars back because of that caution with 10 laps to go. Man, we just can’t afford to tear our shit up every time we come down here. I mean my drivers love it. It’s a prestigious race, but it’s killing us to come in here and run every year. Otherwise without that caution it is pretty awesome (laughs). It’s just a tough deal for us. We know that if we even get that far we have a high chance of tearing our car up.
“Anyhow it’s hard to rank your wins. It’s hard to rank a Daytona win against a Martinsville win. You want them both pretty bad. You want the next one of the list that you haven’t got. I had never won at Martinsville before last year. I had ran some great races here and came kind of close. When we ran second or third or fourth or fifth, we got out ran pretty good that day by someone else. To have so many good runs here and do so well at this track and not have a win that was pretty frustrating. I think we ran 30 races here before we won finally. I was getting pretty frustrated because I wanted one of those clocks pretty bad. It’s hard to rank them against the Daytona races. I had the same elation and same satisfaction and enjoyment out of it as the Daytona race, as any victory really. I had as much fun winning here. There is something about the race track obviously it has so much history. The style or racing that you do and it takes some driver to win here. I don’t often take a lot of credit for everything we do good out there, but I will say that at Martinsville it does take a little bit of driver to do well here. I feel like when you win at certain tracks like Martinsville you can feel good about it that you were part of that puzzle and part of making that happen.
“Whereas when you win at Daytona you are relying a lot on that race car to do a lot of the work and get you out of some sticky situations. We had a great car and we had some great strategy and I felt like I drove a good race and it just worked out. Jeff (Gordon) was a lot faster than us, but it just worked out for us on those last few restarts where we got around those guys quicker than he did.
“It is a real historic race track. It was one of the race tracks that I always could come to even when we were in school it being such a short trip from home. We always did get to go to this race. So it is one of the few tracks that I always got to go to even as a young kid. You could get right up on the action man, right against the fence down there in the corner and see the guys coming through there in practice. And you could see the balance of the cars and what they were dealing with. It is just a fun place to be at even as a kid. I don’t know man, just been coming here a long time and I always wanted to win. That clock makes it even more special and more desirable I guess because of the uniqueness of that trophy.”
YOU TALK ABOUT COMING HERE A LONG TIME OBVIOUSLY THE BIG NEWS OF THE WEEKEND IS THE HOT DOGS. HAVE YOU HAD ONE OF THE NEW HOT DOGS AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
“I was wondering why this room was so full. I figured it was the hot dogs. Everybody is here covering the hot dogs. I’m going to have one. I guess (Jeff) Gluck (USA Today reporter) said on Twitter that they are the same. Well, I’m fine with that. I kind of liked them to begin with and if they are anywhere close that will be fine with me. I will probably be having two for lunch and I’m going to call it a day.”
YOU TALKED ABOUT THE SAFETY INNOVATIONS THE SPORT HAS MADE. DO WE GET TO A POINT WHERE WE ARE LOOKING FOR OTHER INNOVATIONS? IS THERE AN END POINT TO THE SAFETY CONVERSATION?
“Not at all. We don’t know this today, but we probably are only one foot in a 100 yard race on how good these head rests and head restraints can get. It looks great and it’s doing a good job now, but there is so much more to understand and learn and improve on these things. There is a lot to be understood and improved on. How does a driver know what is the safest belt helmet? There are all kinds of things that we can improve on as far as the protocol and the steps we take to understand as drivers and understand with NASCAR what the best scenario is for us as drivers. Everybody wears something different and everybody likes a different harness. Everybody has their head rest cut and shaved differently and in a different position left to right and height wise. Everybody does it to their own comfort.
“NASCAR does a good job of bringing us in at Daytona every year. Showing us what they have studied and what they have learned and why we are doing this, why they are asking us to change to something else and why they are bringing in something new. So, they do a good job of giving us that information and trying to help us understand it. But we have only just scratched the surface on how safe the head rests can be and where we are with harnesses. We keep improving and adding and changing that.
“This stuff could look completely foreign to us 20 years from now what we have now. I don’t think any of it is going to stay the same. I mean it shouldn’t. I think we should always try to improve it, like I said. One day we will look back at what we have now and go ‘man that is crazy! Do you believe we raced with that?’ Because it will be so much better 20 years from now, so much more improved, so much more understood about it. We just got what we have in there now because it’s the best option until we get something else. Until we learn more, understand more, study and something else comes out. Then we will be doing that. Then this old stuff will go in the junk.”
WHAT IS THE LINE BETWEEN AGGRESSION AND PATIENCE HERE AS A MARTINSVILLE WINNER?
“Ah, it’s case by case you know. It’s whatever is happening at that moment and whether you can reign in your temper and control your emotions. There have been races where we have gotten about 100 laps in and had to dial it way back because we weren’t going to have enough race car left after 100 laps we had done tore the sides off of it. You get mad at guys, but you have to understand that if you want to run over a guy 100 laps into the race he is going to have 400 opportunities to get you back.
“So, you have to know what you are asking for when you start to go pushing guys around. You better have a damn good reason I guess to go pushing guys around. A lot of guys when they do something if they do something out of line they got to know it is coming. Sometimes you just kind of take it. If you put a guy in a bad position or run over a guy accidently running a little too hard or something you just have to know you are going to get it back. You just sometimes got to take it and go on and let that be the end of it. So you can get on with your race. That is what makes this fun. I think as drivers we enjoy getting scrappy out there and rubbing on each other and moving each other around.
“You don’t want to ruin somebody’s race to put them in the fence. Last year I think I cut Jamie (McMurray’s) tire down. He tried to get under me in the middle of the corner. He left a big enough hole for me to get there and then he came back down to shut the door and I blowed his left-rear tire out. He ended up hitting the fence. You don’t want to do that to somebody because you wouldn’t want that done to you. But I think we enjoy getting to be a little rough for a change because we can’t do that on some of the bigger tracks. To a point you kind of look forward to it, you look forward to putting some doughnuts down the sides of these things.”
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