Micah Roberts Top 10 Driver Ratings
Budweiser Shootout
Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, February 18, 2012 - 5:10 pm (PDT)
Rating Driver Odds Practice 1 Practice 2 Start Pos. 2011 Shootout*
1. Kevin Harvick 8/1 12th DNP 22nd 7th
Two-time Shootout winner (2009, 2010), using winning car from 2010 Daytona Firecracker.
2. Tony Stewart 12/1 9th DNP 15th 11th
Three-time Shootout winner, the last coming 2007, and 16 wins overall at Daytona.
3. Jamie McMurray 15/1 4th 1st 4th 2nd
Shootout Runner-up in 2009 and 2011, third in 2010; using same chassis from 2011 and 2010.
4. Jeff Gordon 10/1 21st DNP 14th 6th
Two-time Shootout winner (1994, 1997); finished sixth or better in last four starts.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr 10/1 24th 12th 8th 19th
Two-time Shootout winner (2003, 2008); hasn’t finished better than 11th in last three starts.
6. Clint Bowyer 25/1 10th DNP 17th 9th
Best finish of ninth last year; had fastest time in one of the Daytona pre-season test sessions.
7. Jeff Burton 20/1 2nd DNP 12th 8th
Best finish was fifth in 2001; using chassis from Harvick that ran in three 2011 plates races.
8. Kurt Busch 20/1 15th DNP 6th 1st
Won Shootout last season (new team this year); fastest overall in Daytona pre-season testing.
9. Juan Montoya 30/1 23rd 2nd 25th 20th
Best finish of 10th in 2010; tandem racing with McMurray. Using 2011 sixth-place Daytona 500 car.
10. Kasey Kahne 12/1 17th 4th 19th 24th
Runner-up in 2010; teamed with Gordon in Daytona pre-season testing and worked very well.
Note: The Budweiser Shootout is a 75-lap non-points race consisting of drivers that finished in the top-25 final standings last season, won a past Budweiser shootout or a past points paying Daytona race.
* Results from last season’s Budweiser Shootout.
Odds courtesy of the LVH Super Book.
Bud Shootout Plays
Even though Kurt Busch was involved in an accident during Friday’s practice, I still think he’s got a great shot of winning this race. He took the least punishment of the five cars involved and won’t have to go to a back-up like the others have to. I also like Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray and Jeff Burton to have a great showing in this race and they all have excellent odds.
The match-up I would go after is Jeff Burton at pick ’em against Brad Keselowski, and not just because Keselowski is using a back-up car -- likely the Daytona 500 back-up car, but more so because I think Burton has a great shot at winning and running up front for most of the race. Of all the match-ups on the board, this one stands out the most.
As with any plate race, the best advice is to look at playing almost all of the match-ups that are showing plus-money. These type of races -- especially a non-points plate race -- are too much of a crap shoot to have anyone favored too much.
Match-up of the week:
JEFF BURTON -110 vs. Brad Keselowski
Odds to win Selections:
Kurt Busch 20/1, Clint Bowyer 25/1, Jeff Burton 20/1 and Jamie McMurray 18/1
Micah Roberts, a former sports book director, has been setting NASCAR lines in Las Vegas since 1995. For more Roberts insights and post-practice analysis on the race, go to VegasInsider.com, TheLinemakers.com or follow MicahRoberts7 on Twitter.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Kenseth Fastest in First Budweiser Shootout Practice
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| Five car wreck in the first Budweiser Shootout practice on Friday (Getty) |
Those answers weren't clearly discovered, but we did learn that the a few changes did help create the five-car crash towards the end of practice. Non-teammate drivers weren't allowed to communicate with each other like last year and the constant movement behind a driver's bumper to cool off their smaller radiators helped cause the wreck. Perhaps NASCAR wanted it that way so the drivers understand the repercussions of staying too close and hope they'll be cautious and police it themselves.
Either way, it should make for an exciting race Saturday night.
The second Bud Shootout practice only got a few minutes in before rain with Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya freight-training themselves to the top slot.
First Bud Shootout Practice:
#17-Kenseth 201.762
#31-Burton 201.739
#34-Ragan 200.151
#1-McMurray 199.858
#39-Newman 199.592
Slowest: #48-Johnson 190.706 & #88-Earnhardt Jr. 196.416
Notes: 45 minutes into the practice, #14-Stewart pushed the #51-Busch, #51 went sideways, collecting the #14 along with #2-Keselowski, #18-Busch and #22-Allmendinger. Looks like #2, #14, #18 and #22 will go to backup cars.
#88-Earnhardt Jr. stayed off track for about 20 minutes at the start, then got on the track and teamed up with #48-Johnson.
Jayski.com
Bud Shootout Practice Speeds
KURT BUSCH AND TONY STEWART DISCUSS TODAY'S INCIDENT
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET, was involved in a multi-car accident during the first practice that damaged primary car, and the team is making repairs to the car:
WHAT HAPPENED? “I was pushing the ‘51’ car and he had to move a little bit, but I’m still the one pushing him so I’m responsible for it.”
NOW WHAT? WHAT’S THE CAR LOOK LIKE AND ARE YOU GOING TO GET OUT IN THE SECOND PRACTICE? “I don’t think we’re going to get out in the second session. They say they can get it fixed. I feel really confident in our fab shop and we have a lot of really good guys from the shop here at Stewart-Haas. We’ll get this Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevy back together.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 TAG HEUER AVANT-GARDE CHEVROLET, was involved in a multi-car crash during the first practice session, and will go to a back-up car.
WHAT HAPPENED? “It was just a deal where Tony (Stewart) was trying to help. And we were just trying to learn the draft and a couple of slow cars were emerging in front of us and I slid up to go around them and I thought it was smooth but I got turned around. So now we’ll just bring out the back-up. These guys have worked really hard to try to prepare as many cars as we can just to prepare for circumstances like this. There is just a lot of hard work and with the limited number of cars that we have, we just don’t need to have wrecked cars. But, thanks to Tag Heuer for jumping into the (Budweiser) Shootout. We’ll have our Tag Heuer car ready for tomorrow.”
LVMS Offering Daytona 500 Viewing Parties at 9 Las Vegas Locations
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| Nothing more fun than watching a NASCAR race with hundreds of fans |
Guests can win LVMS NASCAR Weekend tickets and Kobalt Tools tool kits and enjoy special prices on Budweiser beer and mixed drinks at all locations. All guests must be at least 21 years of age.
“This is an excellent opportunity for race fans to join others who are passionate about the sport in celebrating the opening of the 2012 season,” said LVMS President Chris Powell. “In addition, fans will have a chance to win some really nice prizes. We invite our local fans to kick off the season at one of the parties, and then join us for NASCAR Weekend two weeks later.”
Party locations include:
Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall – Roxy’s Saloon
5111 Boulder Highway
Orleans Hotel & Casino
4500 W. Tropicana Ave.
Suncoast Hotel & Casino
9090 Alta Drive
South Point Hotel & Casino
9777 Las Vegas Blvd South
Stratosphere Casino Hotel & Tower – Images Lounge
2000 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Cannery Hotel & Casino
2121 E. Craig Road, North Las Vegas
Arizona Charlie’s Decatur
740 S. Decatur Boulevard
PBR Rock Bar & Grill
3663 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Aquarius Casino Resort
1900 S. Casino Dr. in Laughlin
LVMS’s 2012 NASCAR Weekend will take place on March 9-11. NASCAR racing activity starts on Friday, March 9 with Stratosphere Pole Day. The NASCAR Nationwide Series takes center stage on Saturday, March 10 with the annual Sam’s Town 300 at 2 p.m. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 is scheduled to start at noon on Sunday, March 11.
LVMS has added an exciting new feature to this year’s NASCAR Weekend: fan access to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers’ meeting on Sunday morning. Weather permitting, the pre-race drivers’ meeting will be held in the Neon Garage, adjacent to the main stage and fans holding a weekend or Sunday Neon Garage pass are invited to attend.
The race weekend kicks off Wednesday, March 7 with IMCA Modified and West Coast Late Model racing at the recently-resurfaced half-mile Dirt Track. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Series will take center stage at the Dirt Track on Thursday, March 8 and will be joined by the 360 Sprint Car Series.
Tickets for the NASCAR Weekend are on sale at www.lvms.com or by calling (800) 644-4444. Neon Garage passes, Lucky 7 preferred parking and driver introduction passes also are available. Follow LVMS on Facebook and Twitter.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Driver Quotes from Thurday's Daytona Media Day
DALE EARNHARDT JR
SO ARE YOU GOING TO WIN THE 500? “Man we are going to try.”
IS IT TO THE POINT NOW WHERE’S IT’S A LEGITIMATE ONE IN 43 SHOT FOR EVERYBODY? “Oh yeah. Everybody I think. At least 35 have a good shot at it.”
AFTER TREVOR (BAYNE) WON IT DID THAT CHANGE THE THOUGHT PROCESS THAT IT REALLY WAS AN OPEN FIELD? “No, I kind of knew it was a lottery for a while. Take nothing against Trevor I mean he did what he had to do to win the race. He made some great moves and won that race on his own. He was very smart about how he drove his car. You just don’t know who is going to come off of turn four battling for this thing anymore like before. When Dale Jarrett was in the No. 88, you knew they were going to be strong. You can guess this that and the other and make some predictions that would always come true but now not so much.”
YOU WERE PRETTY FRUSTRATED WHEN YOU LEFT HERE IN JULY WITH THE RACING, ARE YOU ENCOURAGED WITH THE THOUGHT IT COULD BE LESS TANDEM? “I’m encouraged with the work we tried. I don’t mind failing but I was happy that we tried and made a lot of changes to try to fix it and try to change it and try to get some things back in the driver’s hands.”
DO YOU THINK IT WILL WORK THOUGH? “Well I won’t know until this weekend is over with or I won’t know until the Daytona 500 is over with if we worked hard enough.”
WILL IT BE A BIGGER WIN FOR YOU IN THE 500 OR DANICA? “Me, me! She don’t driver for me in the 500 so it wouldn’t matter to me if she won it. If I win it, it would be a big deal for me! As far as what everybody else thinks, everybody is going to have a different opinion about that.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THAT SHE ACTUALLY BRINGS TO THIS RACE BEYOND THE MARKETING THING? “I don’t know.”
THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR HER AS DRIVER AS OPPOSED TO LETTING HER HERE BECAUSE IT’S A GREAT MARKETING BONANZA FOR THE SPORT. “I think she does great driving. I’ve watched her in the Nationwide Series and thinks she does a great job. People may need to watch more Nationwide races. People comment without having any knowledge. They can make ignorant statement just based on what they want to believe. What they want to accept and not accept. I’ve watched her race and I think she does great and I’ve enjoyed watching her race. She made my team better and I didn’t even think about that. We’ve been asking the question for so many months of what she would do for this sport and what has she done for the sport but one of the things I didn’t anticipate was how she made my team better. As a person she’s good to be around. She’s engaging and fun for Tony (Eury) Jr. and the team to be around. They enjoy going to the track with her and working with her. So my company improved working with her. We didn’t take a step back. As the year went on our company progressed. So that was great. I was real happy about that because I own the thing.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT HER BEHIND THE SCENES THAT OTHER PEOPLE MIGHT NOT KNOW OR THAT YOU FIND PERHAPS SURPRISING? “I don’t have anything. She goes to the race track and races. I don’t really dig into her personal life. Nothing about her was an ‘oh shit’ moment for me, it was just she’s seems normal, she works hard, she shows up to race, there’s nothing about her that’s quirky or weird, different or surprising to me. I kind of knew her a little bit before and its basically what I imagined it was as far as being around her more often once I got to be around her a little more and what was she really like as a driver and how dedicated and focused she was. She’s pretty intense.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING INTO THIS SEASON? “I feel pretty good. I’m frustrated that we didn’t win last year, we came close. I’m ready to get back to that. I’m ready to get chances again. I want to win a race pretty bad but I can’t do that without racing and we haven’t been doing any so it’s been a little frustrating. Daytona, this is probably the worst odds for me all year because of the way the racing is here. This is going to be a fun experience but I’m looking forward to getting to Phoenix and the rest of the tracks to start really getting control of my destiny and trying to make some things happen for me and win some races.”
ANY CHANCES THIS CAN BE A SINGLE-FILE RACE? “No.” WHY NOT? “Because everybody is going to be on top of each other. It just won’t happen. The track, it just won’t happen no way. I will be so, so, so surprised if that is what ends up happening.”
DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “No, I don’t know. I don’t know if tandem is going to work or not. I know we tested; tandem’s was hard to do. It was doable but it was hard to do and you run hot. Guys went home and studied. I’m sure people did their homework and some people figured some things out. So some people will probably get the tandem to work again and it will be lights out and they will be gone.”
KURT BUSCH
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500?: “It’s really the race that can define a driver’s career. It is a big priority, the prestigious value of winning at Daytona what it does for a driver’s career long term, what it can do for the immediate impact. This race is our spectacle. It is the most important stock car race of the year.”
DOES IT BOTHER YOU EVER THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE BUT HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO COLLECT A WIN?: “A little bit. I have finished second three times. I’ve pushed a teammate to win, Ryan Newman back in 2008. I remember back in 2005, when I had a move to make on Jeff Gordon on the outside going into turn three and I looked in the mirror and saw everybody cutting to the inside to go by me in the draft. I’m like man I just got to block to the inside and take this second-place finish. It kind of eats at me a little bit that I should have taken that risk to go to the high side and see what could have happened off turn-four.”
YOU SAID THREE SECONDS, THEN A KID LIKE BAYNE COMES OUT AND WINS IN HIS FIRST RACE EVER. IS THAT JUST THE WAY RACING IS?: “That’s the Daytona 500 you have to be there at the end and every year you have to build the best car that you can. As an experienced driver you have to block out the past as far as finishes, but you have to use your experience to get to that last part of the race to be in position to win.
DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE ON THE FORBES LIST OF DISLIKED ATHELES? DID YOU SEE IT? DO YOU CARE ABOUT IT?: “ Yeah I actually went from third to tenth so I actually think I improved. I made the top ten list of something. Two years in a row finishing 11th in points, then standing there trying to do an interview with Dr. Punch, having learned that my part went through Tony Stewarts grill and took away his championship hopes, that is what I was so upset about and of course it gets caught on You Tube, then they submit it to Forbes.com and then you are on a top ten list. It is what it is. Do you guys believe it?”
OBVIOUSLY ITS VERY HARD AT THIS LEVEL, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DANICA’S CHANCES AT BEING RESPECTABLE?: “She brings a lot to our sport. Just the sex appeal, the talent in the open wheel side, the ability to drive a car at this level competitively as a female it’s awesome. We will see how she does with everything. There is a lot of pressure she has to adapt to when you get into stock cars.”
DO YOU HAVE ANYONE THAT YOU HAVE PICKED TO WORK WITH IF YOU CAN?: “Anybody and everybody, but my primary guy is Regan Smith. I worked with Mark Martin during testing. A buddy of mine from 2008, Ryan Newman, he knows that we want to work together and there is the Hendrick crowd. They have four cars, I would be the fifth, but then there are the two Stewart-Haas cars and then they have Danica. There are plenty of opportunities to get out there with a Chevrolet.”
CARL EDWARDS
WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF A DRIVER DOESN’T WIN THE DAYTONA 500? A LOT OF GREAT DRIVERS HAVE NOT. “I don’t know. I feel that Daytona is one of those races you go to and you do everything you can. You can one shot at it a year and, for me personally, last year was really close. I learned a lot. I feel like I’m getting better at these restrictor plate races and understanding how to maximize my chances of winning because at the end of the day these races still have a lot of chance involved. I think that’s what makes this a special race because you only have one shot at it a year. It’s a race that anything can happen. Look at David Ragan last year. You just never know what’s gonna happen.”
TONY HASN’T WON OR MARK MARTIN. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU LOOK AT GUYS LIKE THAT WHO HAVEN’T WON A 500? “I think Mark Martin is a champion of the sport, whether he’s got the trophy or not. He gives his best every week and that’s all you can do. The fun part about this sport is just going out and doing the very best you can. If you win, it’s a great feeling. I was close enough to know to at least get a taste of how great this race would feel to win and be able to be right there and have a shot at it and then get to talk to Trevor a lot about it, it would be an amazing race to win.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH WILL BE A BIG PACK RACE AND THEN THE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “Unless they make a rule that says you cannot touch another car, the race will be won by somebody who utilizes the two-car tandem. That’s it. Two cars are that much faster, but I gave up on trying to figure out a strategy here because I have no clue what the rules are gonna be. I don’t think anyone is gonna know until the driver’s meeting.”
THEY WANT TO GET THE ENGINES TO OVERHEAT SO THE GUYS WILL UNLOCK. “I don’t even know what the rules are right now. In testing we went through all those things, so I don’t know what specific package we’re gonna end up with and I don’t want to head down a path thinking of how I’m gonna do this until I know that. NASCAR is in a tough spot. They’re trying to keep this type of racing as safe as they can, keep it entertaining and keep it fair and I don’t know how you do all that at this place.”
JEFF GORDON
IN THE DAYTONA 500, HOW MUCH OF IT IS SKILL AND HOW MUCH OF IT IS LUCK? “You know every year is different. Every year I’ve been here grip level, cars, track conditions; it varies so there are some years where I feel like luck plays a bigger role other years where skill plays out. I don’t think there is a single Daytona 500 that I’ve won here that I didn’t have some help getting there. Maybe I got myself in position but when I made a move to try to win a race somebody was there. Whether it was for their own benefit or mine whatever it was without somebody pushing me, you can say that’s luck or whatever you want to call it; it took that to win the race. So I think that’s always going to continue to take that but I think there is a lot of skill that’s involved with being patient and putting yourself in that position. Certainly a lot of the skill on the team is having a fast race car. I think that this year is an unknown. Different rules and package than we had here last year and I think the Shootout is going to tell us a lot about how strategy, patience, aggressiveness all that’s going to work together in order to get you the victory.”
YOU’VE WON DAYTONA’S, YOU’VE WON BRICKYARDS, YOU’VE WON CHAMPIONSHIPS, THERE ARE SOME BIG NAME DRIVERS THAT HAVEN’T WONT HE DAYTONA 500, HOW MUCH IS A NASCAR CAREER NOT NECESSARILY COMPLETE WITHOUT A VICTORY IN THE DAYTONA 500? “I think for drivers that really feel like they’re one of the top drivers from a talent standpoint they’re not going to look at a restrictor-plate race and a victory there the same because they’re going to say it’s harder to win at Martinsville, it’s harder to win at Bristol, it’s harder to win at Kansas or something like that and they’re going to say I rather have victories at those places and maybe a Brickyard. But I think there isn’t anybody that doesn’t want to win the Daytona 500. I think that’s the difference. It doesn’t matter whether its restrictor-plate race or not or how much skill or luck goes into it, you want to win it. The longer you go without winning it the more challenging it becomes and the harder you think it is and when you do accomplish it, I think there is that much more meaning behind it not to mention just the fact that this race means the world to a race car driver.”
WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT PEOPLE NOT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 DO YOU THINK MAYBE TONY STEWART HAS GOTTEN MORE IN THE DALE SR MODE OF WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Yeah, I would definitely say that. When you look at talent level, accomplishments, then you look at the stats and his accomplishments on restrictor-plate tracks, he’s won quite a few of them too, and to me he’s starting to get in that category. He’s got a few more years and I know Tony hopes he doesn’t get all the way into that category but Dale went for a long time without getting that victory and Tony is building on that. But yeah I think he’s definitely I would put in a category like that if you look at guys who haven’t won the 500.”
WILL YOU SEE PACKS AGAIN OR LINES? “Well, that’s what’s undetermined. That’s what we won’t know until the Bud Shootout. I think you are going to see some packs and then we’re going to see if we can race three wide in packs lap after lap. Cars have less down force and a little more power. At night it might be okay but during the day time for the 150’s and the 500 might be a little different. To me I’m looking at whatever strategies is going to get me to Victory Lane and if that’s get up front and you can stay there then I’m all for that. If that means you’ve got to kind of ride and be patient, we’ll play the strategy that works best but none of want to do that. We want to get up there and race hard the entire race. But one thing I know you are taking more risks now doing the two-car draft than we ever have before from an engine standpoint and throwing in the lack of radio communication. It’s making it more risky to do and I think unless it’s the final lap of the race, I don’t know if it’s worth it.”
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU FEEL DANICA BRINGS TO THIS RACE BEYOND THE MARKETING ASPECT. “I think she’s a competitive driver. I think that her lack of experience in the Cup cars and for anybody it doesn’t matter who it is, is still there. But I think as far as her talent she’s raced her whole life and she earned her way to Indy Cars and she’s earned her way to here. The marketability certainly has helped and I think that she’s done a great job utilizing that as well as NASCAR. It’s great for the sport. Who doesn’t want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable? It’s great for the sport. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to take some time. She might do really well with Daytona being a restrictor-plate track but we all come into this series and have to go through the learning curve. It’s not going to be any different for her.”
TONY STEWART
JIMMIE JOHNSON SAID OVER THE OFF SEASON HE HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE AN ENTIRE MONTH OFF AND REFELCT. IN THAT TIME HE SAID HE FELT LIKE OVER HIS FIVE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASONS HE HAD GOTTEN COMPLACENT. DO YOU THINK THERE WILL EVER BE THAT FEELING OF COMPLACENCY WITH YOU? “I don’t think so. My deal is a little different than all these other guys. A lot of them are married; most of them are married and have families and children. I have a dog and two cats so they don’t care if I go race seven days a week as long as they get fed they are happy. That is just my deal that is just where my lifestyle is a little different. I looked for every race that I could run through the off season. That is what I wanted to do. It sounds like you would wear yourself out doing it but that is my workout plan. I don’t go to the gym. I go to the race track and race. I’m just much happier when I can be racing.”
WHERE ON THE TONY STEWART BUCKET LIST IS WINNING THE DAYTONA 500?: “Very high on it. Especially these next two weeks, it is the highest thing on it.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DYNAMICS OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH DANICA? “We haven’t had a chance to work a lot with each other at the race track yet, just at Daytona so far. The great thing is that in the short amount of time that we did get to work with her here, she processes information so fast, it’s much quicker than any other rookie that I have seen. Her feedback is really good and detailed. You can’t teach that, that is a talent that you have to have. Nobody can teach you to have that amount of feedback and feel for a car. There is no doubt in my mind that she is going to be good in these, it is just a matter of how long is it going to take for her to really get super comfortable in these cars.”
WHAT ABOUT THE PERSONALITIES BETWEEN YOU AND HER?: “Perfect, her and Ryan and I together, it’s comical if you get the three of us to where we know that there is no cameras and reporters going on it’s a pretty funny conversation. She is pretty sarcastic like Ryan and I both.”
ARE YOU GOING TO DRINK SOME WINE MAYBE?: “I have never drank wine in my life. Somebody tell this man what I drink.”
CAN SHE WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Did anybody think Trevor Bayne could win the race last year on this day? Anything can happen here it is anybody’s ballgame. She did a really good job in July last year in the Nationwide race when I ran with her. I was really impressed at how smooth she was and how good a job she did in the two car deal. Talent, there is no doubt in my mind she has the talent to do it.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP RUN WAS OVER LAST YEAR? “The Charlotte crash really started the thought process. Then Talladega, it was evident that window was closing and that I needed a lot of things to happen to the No. 14 and No. 99. Then we left Phoenix and I still had that fire and hope that I wouldn’t be out of it that there might be a mistake and I wanted to be ready for it. But when I left Phoenix it was crazy just feeling the pressure kind of leave. I didn’t realize what was on me and the high standard I had hoped for myself or the pressure I was carrying and when it left it was kind of like, ok there it goes, now it’s time to enjoy Homestead. I went down there and had a really great time, I think we had a really fast car, but it was a wild experience to feel the pressure leave from Phoenix until I saw all the tweets about the champion’s lunch taking place on the Wednesday. Then that championship mind set hit me again and I became really disappointed that I wasn’t there at that luncheon and apart of all of it.”
WHAT SPECIFICALLY DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER LOOKING BACK AT LAST SEASON?: “ I didn’t realize that over the five years or six years that we didn’t change as much maybe as we needed to and evolve. It’s tough to leave a successful road map and Chad and the team and I have been good at reinventing ourselves each year. But until the streak was broken looking back at this off season what we have been through and trying to rebuild the team and make sure we are looking at everything we can, we have a different depth. I’m focusing on my interaction with the team, how I provide information with the team, what information I’m looking at, there are a lot of things I haven’t done in the past and I felt like I was one of the most in depth drivers out there. I’m trying to even take that steps further now, so because of the loss we have been able to dig deeper and get away from the road map we’ve built and challenge ourselves more. At the same time the garage area has been extremely focused on everything the No. 48 car has done over the last six years, so maybe years three or four a lot of guys came out direction and really paid attention to what we were doing and they caught us and we got beat. We have to reinvent ourselves in some ways this year and we are ready for it.”
YOU’VE HAD TO DEAL WITH THE PHENOMENA THAT IS DALE JR., NOW DANICA IS COMING OVER, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER PERSONALLY? HAVE YOU SPENT TIME WITH HER? HOW DO YOU THINK SHE WILL AFFECT THE SPORT IN GENERAL? “I think she is great for our sport. We need people tuned in and watching and certainly new fans are important to all of us. I think she brings in a lot of new fans, she has a big following. She is been able to get our sport onto a different platform, with mainstream media and things that she is involved with outside of racing. I’m excited for it. I think it is going to be great. I’ve gotten to know her a little bit over the last year or so. She is very committed to the sport, very committed to being a racer, which is great to see and shows with what she has been able to accomplish on track. The thing she is going to have to fight through this year is with that big spotlight burning on her, some she has created because she has a brand she is promoting and building, and a very successful brand, there is an intense spotlight on her, every move she makes is going to be criticized good and bad. Her performance, there is a big hurdle there for her to accomplish on track and it’s going to be a challenge for her.
“She has my support. I know she has our sports support, she is with Tony and Ryan and they will be able to help her out tremendously. Obviously on the Nationwide side she has a lot of good people to pull from there as well. If she is patient with her development and her fan base is, I think she is going to be here for a long time and be very successful.”
TREVOR BAYNE
CAN YOU REPEAT? “That’s the plan. We wouldn’t have come if we didn’t think we could win. There’s a little bit more pressure this year. We’re not exactly flying under the radar, but I think we can go for it, that’s for sure.
JOEY LOGANO
Do you think you started competing in the Sprint Cup Series too early? “Looking at it now — probably yeah. There’s a lot more to it than I thought. I was 18 years old, I had the opportunity to jump in the Home Depot car and I probably would do it again. Who wouldn’t? It was definitely the right thing to do, but once you get in there and realize how much more stuff actually comes along with that. It’s the off the track stuff and dealing with people and how to deal with certain situations — how to keep a team motivated and be a leader. It was all stuff that when you’re 18 years old — you don’t really know how to do that. You just go out there and race all the time. Some of that came really easy to me — even Nationwide came really quick. It was a lot bigger jump than I thought just because of all the off track stuff.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI
DO YOU LET YOURSELF DAYDREAM ABOUT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500? “Yes. Absolutely.” WHAT WOULD THAT BE LIKE? “I think about a moment. To me, when I look at a win, I always think of a moment that created the win. Do you allow yourself to win the 500? Yes. I think about the pass for the win or whatever moment it takes to get the win. That’s the moment that I think about. The wins that I have been fortunate to have, the memories that I have from them are those moments; the moment that you take the lead. Those are the moments that I dream of.”
DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE ON YOU THIS YEAR TO BE THE TEAM LEADER? “I’m sure there will be more media pressure. I feel like I’m my own worse critic. I think that you guys can write some really mean stuff about me that wouldn’t be in comparison to what I’d say about myself. I’m happy to have the role. I think pressure is good. I think pressure keeps you honest. I think that it’s the next step for me to accomplish the goal that I have of winning a Sprint Cup championship and I think that you have to be a leader to do that. I’m now in a position to do that and I’m very proud of that. I’m ready for that pressure.”
CAN YOU REFLECT ON THE DEPARTURE OF KURT (BUSCH) AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM AS A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR YOURSELF? “When I look at Kurt, I think about a guy who was an excellent teammate to me. He didn’t get a lot of credit for that. The events of the last few months have not been easy for him or anyone else. I have a lot of respect for him and his talent and his commitment of being a good teammate to me. It’s with those thoughts that I feel like I would be a real jerk if I kicked him when he was down. I don’t want to be that guy. I think there is always something to be learned, whether in success or failure. As to what that is for Kurt, we won’t know for a few more years. It could have been the break that he needed. Who knows? It just depends on what outlook he has and where it goes from here.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
THERE ARE CONSIDERABLE CHANGES THIS YEAR AT EGR. ARE YOU CHARGED UP? IS THIS GOING TO BE THE BEST YEAR EVER?
“Well there have been a lot of changes; it has been a very interesting off season for us. I think the road crew changed like 90% of, engineering, back in the shop changed, there are a lot of really good changes. I don’t want to go out and say “Oh” but they have done a great job with the car. The car seems to be pretty fast, pace has been ok. I don’t know, have to wait and see. I think Daytona will not tell us much, it never does. We have done a good amount of testing, I think we have prepared ourselves the best we could and see what happens. We go to Phoenix and start seeing how good and how much we have evolved over the winter, I know we have made some numbers and things. We have evolved a lot and I think we are going to be way more competitive, but we will wait and see, we need to be.”
DURING MUCH OF YOUR CAREER YOU HAVE NOT STRUGGLED. YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FIVE YEARS AND PROBABLY HAVE NOT HAD THE SUCCESS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR:
“No, I think in the first three years I did expect not to be that great at it because it was going to be so different, the three years actually came out really good, the third year we made the Chase, fought for the title and everything was good. The year after it was an average year, we took a win and a lot of poles and things, but it was not a great year for us and last year should have been a really good year for us and we really struggled. You look at Jamie (McMurray) the year before won four races and last year, I mean it was a struggle.”
DO YOU GET BOTHERED BY PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT YOU STILL HAVE NOT WON AN OVAL RACE?
“I don’t care. Do I want to win on an oval? Yea I want to win on an oval. Do I want to win championships? Yea I want to win championships; we are here to get a job done. It doesn’t really matter where it is one thing or the other; you just really want to try to get the job done.”
WHAT IS REALISTIC FOR DANICA PATRICK? AND HOW HARD IS THIS GOING TO BE FOR HER?
“That is a good question, I don’t know. She is in a really good car, I think that, in a way should help her but in a way it will put a lot more pressure on her. If you think about it, you are in a Stewart-Haas car, a car that just won the championship; you are going to be expected to run well. Weather she was there or on the smallest team, everyone wants to see what happens. I think she might surprise some people.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT FROM THE OPEN WHEEL CARS TO STOCK CARS THAT DANICA PATRICK IS GOING TO EXPERIENCE?
“She has been doing Nationwide for a year, and she has been getting better at it. I think this year she is going to get it. I think the question this year is how she transforms from Nationwide to the Cup car. The nationwide, you do not brake, they hardly ever lift, and it is very different. In the Cup cars we have to brake and there is a lot more power so you will be sliding around more, it is going to be interesting.”
DANICA PATRICK
TREVOR BAYNE PROVED LAST YEAR THAT A NEWCOMER CAN WIN THIS RACE. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO WIN THIS RACE? “Luck. I have a fast car so I think that’s taken care of but I think it’s going to take some good breaks and a patient race, staying out of trouble. You know it would be nice to kind of keep toward the front. I’ve found that when you are up near the front away from the thick of things you’re much less likely to be caught in an accident that smoke is filled the air to and you can’t miss or you can’t see. But I think luck is going to play a big factor.”
AND ITS GOING TO BE MORE OF A PACK RACE THAN A TANDUM RACE SO HOW MUCH OF THAT IS GOING TO COME INTO PLAY FOR YOU? “I don’t pack racing. You’re going to have to make sure you stay in touch with the pack. If you lose the pack you are in trouble. But then I think you’re still going to be able to do some tandem to catch back up if that’s the case and at the end of the day I believe what is going to win the race is something tandem. The accidents might be bigger again just because everybody is closer but hopefully it’s exciting for the fans. I know they have asked for pack racing back and I know it looks visually much more interesting and it’s fine. We did some pack racing in testing a few weeks ago and I think everybody enjoyed it.”
WILL TONY (STEWART) BE YOUR TANDUM PARTNER, HAVE YOU FIGURED THAT OUT YET? “I don’t know you should ask Tony that. I think partly it just depends on where you are at on the track and are you near each other to make that tandem happen. I would love to run with Tony I know that much. I have no problem running with Ryan (Newman) either but Tony and I ran really well in the summer race. I’m sure that given all situations I could learn a lot from him.”
BUT THEY’RE NOT YOUR TEAMMATES. “They’re essentially not my teammates but they are my teammates for the big picture and that’s the reason why they are kind of not my teammates right now is for the big picture.”
DOES EVERYBODY HAVE AN IDEA YET OF WHAT THE PERCENTAGE MIGHT BE, PACK-RACING VERSES TANDEM? “I don’t know what changes they’ve made since the test we did a few weeks ago but there was a lot of tandem running being done so I don’t know. I think you will find a lot of drivers and especially you’ll find a lot of veterans that want to do pack racing and they are going to hang out like that and there will probably be a lot of running like that. But you will also find some people and you might even find a couple of groups of people that hook up and get away and then do their own pack running for a while just to make the group smaller. I think that it just depends on who is where, yellow flags and things like that or long green-flag runs. I think there is probably going to be more than two percent tandem racing but we’ll see.”
- from team press releases
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| Dale Jr is 10/1 to win the Bud Shootout (Getty) |
IS IT TO THE POINT NOW WHERE’S IT’S A LEGITIMATE ONE IN 43 SHOT FOR EVERYBODY? “Oh yeah. Everybody I think. At least 35 have a good shot at it.”
AFTER TREVOR (BAYNE) WON IT DID THAT CHANGE THE THOUGHT PROCESS THAT IT REALLY WAS AN OPEN FIELD? “No, I kind of knew it was a lottery for a while. Take nothing against Trevor I mean he did what he had to do to win the race. He made some great moves and won that race on his own. He was very smart about how he drove his car. You just don’t know who is going to come off of turn four battling for this thing anymore like before. When Dale Jarrett was in the No. 88, you knew they were going to be strong. You can guess this that and the other and make some predictions that would always come true but now not so much.”
YOU WERE PRETTY FRUSTRATED WHEN YOU LEFT HERE IN JULY WITH THE RACING, ARE YOU ENCOURAGED WITH THE THOUGHT IT COULD BE LESS TANDEM? “I’m encouraged with the work we tried. I don’t mind failing but I was happy that we tried and made a lot of changes to try to fix it and try to change it and try to get some things back in the driver’s hands.”
DO YOU THINK IT WILL WORK THOUGH? “Well I won’t know until this weekend is over with or I won’t know until the Daytona 500 is over with if we worked hard enough.”
WILL IT BE A BIGGER WIN FOR YOU IN THE 500 OR DANICA? “Me, me! She don’t driver for me in the 500 so it wouldn’t matter to me if she won it. If I win it, it would be a big deal for me! As far as what everybody else thinks, everybody is going to have a different opinion about that.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THAT SHE ACTUALLY BRINGS TO THIS RACE BEYOND THE MARKETING THING? “I don’t know.”
THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR HER AS DRIVER AS OPPOSED TO LETTING HER HERE BECAUSE IT’S A GREAT MARKETING BONANZA FOR THE SPORT. “I think she does great driving. I’ve watched her in the Nationwide Series and thinks she does a great job. People may need to watch more Nationwide races. People comment without having any knowledge. They can make ignorant statement just based on what they want to believe. What they want to accept and not accept. I’ve watched her race and I think she does great and I’ve enjoyed watching her race. She made my team better and I didn’t even think about that. We’ve been asking the question for so many months of what she would do for this sport and what has she done for the sport but one of the things I didn’t anticipate was how she made my team better. As a person she’s good to be around. She’s engaging and fun for Tony (Eury) Jr. and the team to be around. They enjoy going to the track with her and working with her. So my company improved working with her. We didn’t take a step back. As the year went on our company progressed. So that was great. I was real happy about that because I own the thing.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT HER BEHIND THE SCENES THAT OTHER PEOPLE MIGHT NOT KNOW OR THAT YOU FIND PERHAPS SURPRISING? “I don’t have anything. She goes to the race track and races. I don’t really dig into her personal life. Nothing about her was an ‘oh shit’ moment for me, it was just she’s seems normal, she works hard, she shows up to race, there’s nothing about her that’s quirky or weird, different or surprising to me. I kind of knew her a little bit before and its basically what I imagined it was as far as being around her more often once I got to be around her a little more and what was she really like as a driver and how dedicated and focused she was. She’s pretty intense.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING INTO THIS SEASON? “I feel pretty good. I’m frustrated that we didn’t win last year, we came close. I’m ready to get back to that. I’m ready to get chances again. I want to win a race pretty bad but I can’t do that without racing and we haven’t been doing any so it’s been a little frustrating. Daytona, this is probably the worst odds for me all year because of the way the racing is here. This is going to be a fun experience but I’m looking forward to getting to Phoenix and the rest of the tracks to start really getting control of my destiny and trying to make some things happen for me and win some races.”
ANY CHANCES THIS CAN BE A SINGLE-FILE RACE? “No.” WHY NOT? “Because everybody is going to be on top of each other. It just won’t happen. The track, it just won’t happen no way. I will be so, so, so surprised if that is what ends up happening.”
DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “No, I don’t know. I don’t know if tandem is going to work or not. I know we tested; tandem’s was hard to do. It was doable but it was hard to do and you run hot. Guys went home and studied. I’m sure people did their homework and some people figured some things out. So some people will probably get the tandem to work again and it will be lights out and they will be gone.”
KURT BUSCH
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| Kurt Busch is 25/1 to win the Bud Shootout (Getty) |
DOES IT BOTHER YOU EVER THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE BUT HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO COLLECT A WIN?: “A little bit. I have finished second three times. I’ve pushed a teammate to win, Ryan Newman back in 2008. I remember back in 2005, when I had a move to make on Jeff Gordon on the outside going into turn three and I looked in the mirror and saw everybody cutting to the inside to go by me in the draft. I’m like man I just got to block to the inside and take this second-place finish. It kind of eats at me a little bit that I should have taken that risk to go to the high side and see what could have happened off turn-four.”
YOU SAID THREE SECONDS, THEN A KID LIKE BAYNE COMES OUT AND WINS IN HIS FIRST RACE EVER. IS THAT JUST THE WAY RACING IS?: “That’s the Daytona 500 you have to be there at the end and every year you have to build the best car that you can. As an experienced driver you have to block out the past as far as finishes, but you have to use your experience to get to that last part of the race to be in position to win.
DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE ON THE FORBES LIST OF DISLIKED ATHELES? DID YOU SEE IT? DO YOU CARE ABOUT IT?: “ Yeah I actually went from third to tenth so I actually think I improved. I made the top ten list of something. Two years in a row finishing 11th in points, then standing there trying to do an interview with Dr. Punch, having learned that my part went through Tony Stewarts grill and took away his championship hopes, that is what I was so upset about and of course it gets caught on You Tube, then they submit it to Forbes.com and then you are on a top ten list. It is what it is. Do you guys believe it?”
OBVIOUSLY ITS VERY HARD AT THIS LEVEL, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DANICA’S CHANCES AT BEING RESPECTABLE?: “She brings a lot to our sport. Just the sex appeal, the talent in the open wheel side, the ability to drive a car at this level competitively as a female it’s awesome. We will see how she does with everything. There is a lot of pressure she has to adapt to when you get into stock cars.”
DO YOU HAVE ANYONE THAT YOU HAVE PICKED TO WORK WITH IF YOU CAN?: “Anybody and everybody, but my primary guy is Regan Smith. I worked with Mark Martin during testing. A buddy of mine from 2008, Ryan Newman, he knows that we want to work together and there is the Hendrick crowd. They have four cars, I would be the fifth, but then there are the two Stewart-Haas cars and then they have Danica. There are plenty of opportunities to get out there with a Chevrolet.”
CARL EDWARDS
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| Carl Edwards is 12/1 to win Bud Shootout and 5/1 to win 2012 Title (Getty) |
TONY HASN’T WON OR MARK MARTIN. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU LOOK AT GUYS LIKE THAT WHO HAVEN’T WON A 500? “I think Mark Martin is a champion of the sport, whether he’s got the trophy or not. He gives his best every week and that’s all you can do. The fun part about this sport is just going out and doing the very best you can. If you win, it’s a great feeling. I was close enough to know to at least get a taste of how great this race would feel to win and be able to be right there and have a shot at it and then get to talk to Trevor a lot about it, it would be an amazing race to win.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH WILL BE A BIG PACK RACE AND THEN THE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “Unless they make a rule that says you cannot touch another car, the race will be won by somebody who utilizes the two-car tandem. That’s it. Two cars are that much faster, but I gave up on trying to figure out a strategy here because I have no clue what the rules are gonna be. I don’t think anyone is gonna know until the driver’s meeting.”
THEY WANT TO GET THE ENGINES TO OVERHEAT SO THE GUYS WILL UNLOCK. “I don’t even know what the rules are right now. In testing we went through all those things, so I don’t know what specific package we’re gonna end up with and I don’t want to head down a path thinking of how I’m gonna do this until I know that. NASCAR is in a tough spot. They’re trying to keep this type of racing as safe as they can, keep it entertaining and keep it fair and I don’t know how you do all that at this place.”
JEFF GORDON
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| New Draft Partners: Kahne is 12/1 t win Bud Shootout and Gordon is 10/1 |
YOU’VE WON DAYTONA’S, YOU’VE WON BRICKYARDS, YOU’VE WON CHAMPIONSHIPS, THERE ARE SOME BIG NAME DRIVERS THAT HAVEN’T WONT HE DAYTONA 500, HOW MUCH IS A NASCAR CAREER NOT NECESSARILY COMPLETE WITHOUT A VICTORY IN THE DAYTONA 500? “I think for drivers that really feel like they’re one of the top drivers from a talent standpoint they’re not going to look at a restrictor-plate race and a victory there the same because they’re going to say it’s harder to win at Martinsville, it’s harder to win at Bristol, it’s harder to win at Kansas or something like that and they’re going to say I rather have victories at those places and maybe a Brickyard. But I think there isn’t anybody that doesn’t want to win the Daytona 500. I think that’s the difference. It doesn’t matter whether its restrictor-plate race or not or how much skill or luck goes into it, you want to win it. The longer you go without winning it the more challenging it becomes and the harder you think it is and when you do accomplish it, I think there is that much more meaning behind it not to mention just the fact that this race means the world to a race car driver.”
WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT PEOPLE NOT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 DO YOU THINK MAYBE TONY STEWART HAS GOTTEN MORE IN THE DALE SR MODE OF WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Yeah, I would definitely say that. When you look at talent level, accomplishments, then you look at the stats and his accomplishments on restrictor-plate tracks, he’s won quite a few of them too, and to me he’s starting to get in that category. He’s got a few more years and I know Tony hopes he doesn’t get all the way into that category but Dale went for a long time without getting that victory and Tony is building on that. But yeah I think he’s definitely I would put in a category like that if you look at guys who haven’t won the 500.”
WILL YOU SEE PACKS AGAIN OR LINES? “Well, that’s what’s undetermined. That’s what we won’t know until the Bud Shootout. I think you are going to see some packs and then we’re going to see if we can race three wide in packs lap after lap. Cars have less down force and a little more power. At night it might be okay but during the day time for the 150’s and the 500 might be a little different. To me I’m looking at whatever strategies is going to get me to Victory Lane and if that’s get up front and you can stay there then I’m all for that. If that means you’ve got to kind of ride and be patient, we’ll play the strategy that works best but none of want to do that. We want to get up there and race hard the entire race. But one thing I know you are taking more risks now doing the two-car draft than we ever have before from an engine standpoint and throwing in the lack of radio communication. It’s making it more risky to do and I think unless it’s the final lap of the race, I don’t know if it’s worth it.”
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU FEEL DANICA BRINGS TO THIS RACE BEYOND THE MARKETING ASPECT. “I think she’s a competitive driver. I think that her lack of experience in the Cup cars and for anybody it doesn’t matter who it is, is still there. But I think as far as her talent she’s raced her whole life and she earned her way to Indy Cars and she’s earned her way to here. The marketability certainly has helped and I think that she’s done a great job utilizing that as well as NASCAR. It’s great for the sport. Who doesn’t want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable? It’s great for the sport. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to take some time. She might do really well with Daytona being a restrictor-plate track but we all come into this series and have to go through the learning curve. It’s not going to be any different for her.”
TONY STEWART
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| Tony Stewart is 12/1 to win Bud Shootout (Getty) |
WHERE ON THE TONY STEWART BUCKET LIST IS WINNING THE DAYTONA 500?: “Very high on it. Especially these next two weeks, it is the highest thing on it.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DYNAMICS OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH DANICA? “We haven’t had a chance to work a lot with each other at the race track yet, just at Daytona so far. The great thing is that in the short amount of time that we did get to work with her here, she processes information so fast, it’s much quicker than any other rookie that I have seen. Her feedback is really good and detailed. You can’t teach that, that is a talent that you have to have. Nobody can teach you to have that amount of feedback and feel for a car. There is no doubt in my mind that she is going to be good in these, it is just a matter of how long is it going to take for her to really get super comfortable in these cars.”
WHAT ABOUT THE PERSONALITIES BETWEEN YOU AND HER?: “Perfect, her and Ryan and I together, it’s comical if you get the three of us to where we know that there is no cameras and reporters going on it’s a pretty funny conversation. She is pretty sarcastic like Ryan and I both.”
ARE YOU GOING TO DRINK SOME WINE MAYBE?: “I have never drank wine in my life. Somebody tell this man what I drink.”
CAN SHE WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Did anybody think Trevor Bayne could win the race last year on this day? Anything can happen here it is anybody’s ballgame. She did a really good job in July last year in the Nationwide race when I ran with her. I was really impressed at how smooth she was and how good a job she did in the two car deal. Talent, there is no doubt in my mind she has the talent to do it.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON
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| Johnson is 9/2 favorite to win 2012 title |
WHAT SPECIFICALLY DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER LOOKING BACK AT LAST SEASON?: “ I didn’t realize that over the five years or six years that we didn’t change as much maybe as we needed to and evolve. It’s tough to leave a successful road map and Chad and the team and I have been good at reinventing ourselves each year. But until the streak was broken looking back at this off season what we have been through and trying to rebuild the team and make sure we are looking at everything we can, we have a different depth. I’m focusing on my interaction with the team, how I provide information with the team, what information I’m looking at, there are a lot of things I haven’t done in the past and I felt like I was one of the most in depth drivers out there. I’m trying to even take that steps further now, so because of the loss we have been able to dig deeper and get away from the road map we’ve built and challenge ourselves more. At the same time the garage area has been extremely focused on everything the No. 48 car has done over the last six years, so maybe years three or four a lot of guys came out direction and really paid attention to what we were doing and they caught us and we got beat. We have to reinvent ourselves in some ways this year and we are ready for it.”
YOU’VE HAD TO DEAL WITH THE PHENOMENA THAT IS DALE JR., NOW DANICA IS COMING OVER, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER PERSONALLY? HAVE YOU SPENT TIME WITH HER? HOW DO YOU THINK SHE WILL AFFECT THE SPORT IN GENERAL? “I think she is great for our sport. We need people tuned in and watching and certainly new fans are important to all of us. I think she brings in a lot of new fans, she has a big following. She is been able to get our sport onto a different platform, with mainstream media and things that she is involved with outside of racing. I’m excited for it. I think it is going to be great. I’ve gotten to know her a little bit over the last year or so. She is very committed to the sport, very committed to being a racer, which is great to see and shows with what she has been able to accomplish on track. The thing she is going to have to fight through this year is with that big spotlight burning on her, some she has created because she has a brand she is promoting and building, and a very successful brand, there is an intense spotlight on her, every move she makes is going to be criticized good and bad. Her performance, there is a big hurdle there for her to accomplish on track and it’s going to be a challenge for her.
“She has my support. I know she has our sports support, she is with Tony and Ryan and they will be able to help her out tremendously. Obviously on the Nationwide side she has a lot of good people to pull from there as well. If she is patient with her development and her fan base is, I think she is going to be here for a long time and be very successful.”
TREVOR BAYNE
CAN YOU REPEAT? “That’s the plan. We wouldn’t have come if we didn’t think we could win. There’s a little bit more pressure this year. We’re not exactly flying under the radar, but I think we can go for it, that’s for sure.
JOEY LOGANO
Do you think you started competing in the Sprint Cup Series too early? “Looking at it now — probably yeah. There’s a lot more to it than I thought. I was 18 years old, I had the opportunity to jump in the Home Depot car and I probably would do it again. Who wouldn’t? It was definitely the right thing to do, but once you get in there and realize how much more stuff actually comes along with that. It’s the off the track stuff and dealing with people and how to deal with certain situations — how to keep a team motivated and be a leader. It was all stuff that when you’re 18 years old — you don’t really know how to do that. You just go out there and race all the time. Some of that came really easy to me — even Nationwide came really quick. It was a lot bigger jump than I thought just because of all the off track stuff.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI
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| Keselowski is 20/1 to win 2012 NASCAR Championship |
DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE ON YOU THIS YEAR TO BE THE TEAM LEADER? “I’m sure there will be more media pressure. I feel like I’m my own worse critic. I think that you guys can write some really mean stuff about me that wouldn’t be in comparison to what I’d say about myself. I’m happy to have the role. I think pressure is good. I think pressure keeps you honest. I think that it’s the next step for me to accomplish the goal that I have of winning a Sprint Cup championship and I think that you have to be a leader to do that. I’m now in a position to do that and I’m very proud of that. I’m ready for that pressure.”
CAN YOU REFLECT ON THE DEPARTURE OF KURT (BUSCH) AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM AS A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR YOURSELF? “When I look at Kurt, I think about a guy who was an excellent teammate to me. He didn’t get a lot of credit for that. The events of the last few months have not been easy for him or anyone else. I have a lot of respect for him and his talent and his commitment of being a good teammate to me. It’s with those thoughts that I feel like I would be a real jerk if I kicked him when he was down. I don’t want to be that guy. I think there is always something to be learned, whether in success or failure. As to what that is for Kurt, we won’t know for a few more years. It could have been the break that he needed. Who knows? It just depends on what outlook he has and where it goes from here.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
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| Montoya is 30/1 to win Daytona 500 (Getty) |
“Well there have been a lot of changes; it has been a very interesting off season for us. I think the road crew changed like 90% of, engineering, back in the shop changed, there are a lot of really good changes. I don’t want to go out and say “Oh” but they have done a great job with the car. The car seems to be pretty fast, pace has been ok. I don’t know, have to wait and see. I think Daytona will not tell us much, it never does. We have done a good amount of testing, I think we have prepared ourselves the best we could and see what happens. We go to Phoenix and start seeing how good and how much we have evolved over the winter, I know we have made some numbers and things. We have evolved a lot and I think we are going to be way more competitive, but we will wait and see, we need to be.”
DURING MUCH OF YOUR CAREER YOU HAVE NOT STRUGGLED. YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FIVE YEARS AND PROBABLY HAVE NOT HAD THE SUCCESS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR:
“No, I think in the first three years I did expect not to be that great at it because it was going to be so different, the three years actually came out really good, the third year we made the Chase, fought for the title and everything was good. The year after it was an average year, we took a win and a lot of poles and things, but it was not a great year for us and last year should have been a really good year for us and we really struggled. You look at Jamie (McMurray) the year before won four races and last year, I mean it was a struggle.”
DO YOU GET BOTHERED BY PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT YOU STILL HAVE NOT WON AN OVAL RACE?
“I don’t care. Do I want to win on an oval? Yea I want to win on an oval. Do I want to win championships? Yea I want to win championships; we are here to get a job done. It doesn’t really matter where it is one thing or the other; you just really want to try to get the job done.”
WHAT IS REALISTIC FOR DANICA PATRICK? AND HOW HARD IS THIS GOING TO BE FOR HER?
“That is a good question, I don’t know. She is in a really good car, I think that, in a way should help her but in a way it will put a lot more pressure on her. If you think about it, you are in a Stewart-Haas car, a car that just won the championship; you are going to be expected to run well. Weather she was there or on the smallest team, everyone wants to see what happens. I think she might surprise some people.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT FROM THE OPEN WHEEL CARS TO STOCK CARS THAT DANICA PATRICK IS GOING TO EXPERIENCE?
“She has been doing Nationwide for a year, and she has been getting better at it. I think this year she is going to get it. I think the question this year is how she transforms from Nationwide to the Cup car. The nationwide, you do not brake, they hardly ever lift, and it is very different. In the Cup cars we have to brake and there is a lot more power so you will be sliding around more, it is going to be interesting.”
DANICA PATRICK
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| Danica Patrick is 50/1 to win Daytona 500 (Getty) |
AND ITS GOING TO BE MORE OF A PACK RACE THAN A TANDUM RACE SO HOW MUCH OF THAT IS GOING TO COME INTO PLAY FOR YOU? “I don’t pack racing. You’re going to have to make sure you stay in touch with the pack. If you lose the pack you are in trouble. But then I think you’re still going to be able to do some tandem to catch back up if that’s the case and at the end of the day I believe what is going to win the race is something tandem. The accidents might be bigger again just because everybody is closer but hopefully it’s exciting for the fans. I know they have asked for pack racing back and I know it looks visually much more interesting and it’s fine. We did some pack racing in testing a few weeks ago and I think everybody enjoyed it.”
WILL TONY (STEWART) BE YOUR TANDUM PARTNER, HAVE YOU FIGURED THAT OUT YET? “I don’t know you should ask Tony that. I think partly it just depends on where you are at on the track and are you near each other to make that tandem happen. I would love to run with Tony I know that much. I have no problem running with Ryan (Newman) either but Tony and I ran really well in the summer race. I’m sure that given all situations I could learn a lot from him.”
BUT THEY’RE NOT YOUR TEAMMATES. “They’re essentially not my teammates but they are my teammates for the big picture and that’s the reason why they are kind of not my teammates right now is for the big picture.”
DOES EVERYBODY HAVE AN IDEA YET OF WHAT THE PERCENTAGE MIGHT BE, PACK-RACING VERSES TANDEM? “I don’t know what changes they’ve made since the test we did a few weeks ago but there was a lot of tandem running being done so I don’t know. I think you will find a lot of drivers and especially you’ll find a lot of veterans that want to do pack racing and they are going to hang out like that and there will probably be a lot of running like that. But you will also find some people and you might even find a couple of groups of people that hook up and get away and then do their own pack running for a while just to make the group smaller. I think that it just depends on who is where, yellow flags and things like that or long green-flag runs. I think there is probably going to be more than two percent tandem racing but we’ll see.”
- from team press releases
Clint Bowyer Budweiser Shootout Preview
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| Clint Bowyer is 25/1 to win Budweiser Shootout (Getty) |
QUOTES
ON MICHAEL WALTRIP RACING: “Starting 2012 with Michael Waltrip Racing is a fresh start, a new beginning — a new way to prove myself all over again. The challenge is there and it’s fun. It’s nerve-wracking all over again, I’m nervous all over again and worried about things. I performed my best in the early stages of my career when I didn’t know what I was doing and I was nervous about it. Usually, somehow, some way I got some of the best results I’ve ever had. I see a lot of good things, a lot of positive things and a good direction that they are headed at Michael Waltrip Racing and TRD (Toyota Racing Development). There’s a lot of good things here and I think they’re all coming together at the right time. Timing in anything you do in life is so important. This is a new opportunity to go out and to make things happen for myself again.”
ON CREW CHIEF BRIAN PATTIE: “I’ve learned a lot about Brian (Pattie, crew chief). I’m super excited about working with Brian. I think that’s my best opportunity that I’ve ever had to work with a guy that I really, really can truly fit in with and get the most out of each other. Now it’s up to us to go out and make that happen, but from the very first time that I started talking to Brian, I just felt comfortable. I felt like the relationship was there right off the bat and can build so much more than I’ve ever had. I love Shane Wilson (RCR crew chief) to death and we’re very close, but we had a lot of differences. We just weren’t really the same person and didn’t share the same — he liked asphalt racing and I like dirt racing. Brian likes dirt racing — he speaks my language and we get along.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST
* · Budweiser Shootout: Bowyer has two career starts in the Budweiser Shootout. He made his first appearance in 2008 when he started 14th and finished 21st. In 2011, he started seventh and finished ninth and led four laps.
* · Testing, Testing: Bowyer kicked off his tenure with Michael Waltrip Racing at a three-day test at Walt Disney World Speedway in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. on Dec. 13-15, 2011. Bowyer also tested at New Smyrna, Fla. on Jan. 10. and participated in NASCAR’s Preseason Thunder test at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 12-14. The No. 15 team participated in the Goodyear tire test at Texas Motor Speedway on Feb. 7-8.
* · Lights, Camera, Action!: Bowyer filmed several new commercials that will debut during the first few races of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. 5-hour ENERGY will debut it’s first commercial featuring Bowyer during the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26. Other commercials featuring Bowyer will include Sprint, AAA and NASCAR.com.
* · Grand Opening: Bowyer attended the grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway on Feb. 3.
* · Super Bowl: Bowyer attended the Super Bowl as a guest of NASCAR on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.
- Michael Waltrip Racing
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500 Qualifying Storylines
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| Budweiser Shootout is Saturday night on Fox (Getty) |
No points are at stake; in its place, the glory of victory leading up to the Feb. 26 Daytona 500.
This year’s 34th Shootout field is comprised of drivers finishing among the top 25 in final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings as well as active past winners of the Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400 and Shootout at Daytona. Three-time champion Tony Stewart has won the Shootout three times, most by a 2012 participant. Other Shootout winners entered include Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch.
On Sunday, competitors climb into their Daytona 500 cars for Coors Light Pole qualifying and run qualifying laps to determine the front row positions for The Great American Race and positions in the Feb. 23 Gatorade Duel at Daytona – a pair of 60-lap, 150-mile races that will set the remainder of the 500 field.
NASCAR Media Day gets Speedweeks 2012 started on Thursday during which more than 50 of NASCAR’s stars from all three national series will lay out their 2012 plans before an expected turnout of 300 print, broadcast and online reporters.
Season Starts In Shootout Style
Before the points-paying season gets under way with the Daytona 500, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX, fans will get to see many of their NASCAR Sprint Cup Series favorites in the 34th annual Shootout at Daytona.
The race distance will again be 75 laps (187.5 miles), consisting of two segments – 25 and 50 laps. Both green-flag laps and yellow-flag laps will count. Between segments there will be a 10-minute pit stop allowing teams to pit to change tires, add fuel and make normal chassis adjustments.
Finishing last in the 2011 edition of this race, Kasey Kahne hopes to follow Denny Hamlin (2006) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2008) and get a Shootout win in his first race for a new team, Hendrick Motorsports. Defending race winner Kurt Busch will attempt to do the same thing as he moves to Phoenix Racing. Kevin Harvick will go for his third victory in four years in this race, extending Richard Childress' record for Shootout wins to eight.
FOX will televise the Shootout live beginning at 8 p.m. ET. MRN and NASCAR Sirius Radio also will provide coverage.
Must Be In The Front Row
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| Gordon and Junior sat on the front row in 2011 (Getty) |
The pole-winner appears to be due for a victory in The Great American Race. The record for seasons between pole-sitters winning the Daytona 500 is 12 from Cale Yarborough in 1968 to Buddy Baker in 1980 and Bill Elliott in 1987 to Jeff Gordon in 1999. Dale Jarrett is the last pole-sitter to win the 500 in 2000. Will someone step up and win to tie the record or will a new record be set?
Danica Patrick will attempt to become the fourth rookie to win the Daytona 500 pole, following Loy Allen (1994), Mike Skinner (1997) and Jimmie Johnson (2002). If she does so, she'll also become the first woman to win a pole in NASCAR's top series.
Bayne Comes Of Age
Trevor Bayne begins his attempt to become the ninth driver in Daytona 500 history to win more than one 500 and the fourth driver to win back-to-back Great American Races, following Richard Petty (1973-74), Cale Yarborough (1983-84) and Sterling Marlin (1994-95).
Bayne, who turns 21 on Coors Light Pole Day on Sunday, will attempt to drive the No. 21 to its sixth Daytona 500 victory, one shy of the record held by the No. 43 and Richard Petty's seven wins.
Just the Facts And More During Media Day 2012
Hundreds of print, broadcast and online journalists will begin descending on Central Florida later this week with many making their first stop at the annual NASCAR Media Day taking place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday outside Daytona International Speedway. More than 50 drivers from NASCAR’s three national series will be available to media. NASCAR’s broadcast partners will provide coverage during the event with audio transcripts, photography and video available online at nascarmedia.com. Off-site media also can follow via Twitter at #DAYTONA500.
Speedweeks Begin Early For Nationwide Title Contenders
Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Elliott Sadler and Kenny Wallace figure to be among the favorites to win the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship. Stenhouse could become the first repeat champion since Martin Truex Jr. in 2004-05. While the majority of the NASCAR Nationwide Series contingent won’t be on track until next week, Bayne, Stenhouse, Sadler and Wallace get a head start as they battle for Daytona 500 front row and Gatorade Duel at Daytona starting positions in Sunday’s Sprint Cup qualifying. Each will be looking for a NASCAR Nationwide/Daytona 500 sweep last accomplished by Kevin Harvick (2007). Others who have won the “double” are Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2004), Darrell Waltrip (1989) and Bobby Allison (1988). The DRIVE4COPD300 will be run on Feb. 25 and will air live on ESPN at 1:15 p.m. ET.
Daytona Jewel Missing From Two NASCAR Camping World Truck Crowns
Neither four-time NASCAR Camping World Truck champion Ron Hornaday Jr. nor inaugural titleholder Mike Skinner has won at Daytona International Speedway. Each attempts to remedy that oversight on Feb. 24 when the 2012 season opens with running of the NextEra Energy Resources 250. Hornaday joins Joe Denette’s second-year team in search of a fifth series championship. Skinner will compete in the Daytona opener for Eddie Sharp Racing. They’ll join two-time series champion and Daytona winner Todd Bodine in what’s expected to be a large field. The race will be broadcast live by SPEED at 7:30 p.m. ET. Several NCWTS competitors have entered Saturday’s ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 including Max Gresham, Cale Gale, Joey Coulter and Paulie Harraka.
- NASCAR Media Services
Tony Stewart Looking for 17th Daytona win and First Daytona 500 Win
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| Stewart 8/1 to win the 2012 title, 3rd choice behind Edwards and Johnson |
Stewart went winless during the first 26 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ regular season, but then batted .500 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup by winning five of the year’s final 10 races. In doing so, the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing captured his third Sprint Cup championship.
And even though the Sprint Cup season was finished, Stewart wasn’t finished winning.
He won the inaugural Karting Classic at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Dec. 11, where he was one of six NASCAR drivers in a race with six IZOD IndyCar Series drivers. A few days later on Dec. 31, Stewart won again, this time at the Rumble in Fort Wayne (Ind.) USAC Midget feature on the 1/10-mile track inside the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. And as 2011 turned to 2012, Stewart kept on winning, with his most recent triumph being an All-Star Circuit of Champions 410 Winged Sprint Car feature on Feb. 11 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga.
Now, Stewart kicks off his 2012 NASCAR season as the reigning Sprint Cup champion. That the 36-race marathon that is the Sprint Cup schedule begins at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway means Stewart could very well extend his winning streak, for the Columbus, Ind., native owns 16 total victories at Daytona.
A glaring omission from that impressive win tally, however, is a victory in the Daytona 500. In 13 attempts, Stewart is winless in the Great American Race. In fact, of the nine drivers who have won at least three Sprint Cup titles – Richard Petty (seven), Dale Earnhardt (seven), Jimmie Johnson (five), Jeff Gordon (four), David Pearson (three), Darrell Waltrip (three), Cale Yarborough (three), Lee Petty (three) and Stewart (three) – all but Stewart has won the Daytona 500.
Could 2012 be the year? Some numbers bode well for Stewart.
It’s his 14th year in Sprint Cup and his car number is 14, which Stewart chose in homage to his racing hero, A.J. Foyt. Foyt won the 1972 Daytona 500, and 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of that victory. The 40-year-old Stewart still vies with Foyt for bragging rights, and while Stewart has the upper hand on stock-car titles, Foyt still holds his Harley J. Earl trophy over Stewart’s head and continues to utter his trademark phrase, “Check the record books, big boy.”
With a third Sprint Cup championship earned during an epic stock-car run and a winning streak that has continued in a go-kart, a USAC Midget and a 410 Winged Sprint Car, Stewart is as primed as he’s ever been to notch that elusive victory on NASCAR’s grandest stage – the Daytona 500.
TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Coming off your third championship season, particularly with the way you performed during the 10-race Chase, would you consider yourself the favorite to do it again this season?
“Honestly, I wouldn’t even worry about it at the beginning of the year. I think our season last year was proof that you’re throwing darts on a dart board right now if you’re trying to predict who’s going to win the championship this early. With technology changing as fast as it does, and the way our season went last year, 11 races from the end of the year I was like, ‘We’re wasting our time here.’ Then, all of a sudden, we got on a roll. So, I don’t think you can predict anybody right now. Every year it seems there are more teams and more drivers who are capable, and there are new guys during the year who pop up that are guys you would write off and wouldn’t look at as contenders. But there are more guys who get added to that category every year. So it just keeps getting bigger and better.”
With the kind of intensity you and the team displayed in winning the championship, do you think it’s possible to pick up where you left off after having had some time off?
“Honestly, I think it’s easy to keep that intensity up. The difference is, there are some variables that have changed. So you realize it’s a different focus than necessarily what we had at the end of the season last year. There is always something when you get three or four races from the end of the year, and you know you’ve got a shot at it, that there is a redirected energy. It’s like nothing else matters. Now, everybody’s hit the reset button. We’re all starting at zero again. You go down to Daytona and start at day one just like everybody else. You realize that intensity’s still there, but you realize there is a learning process that’s going to go on with learning a new crew chief. It’s just part of the process, but you still keep that focus as high as you can.”
Did you have much of a chance to get away and enjoy your offseason?
“I didn’t really do anything like that. There’s been a lot of work that’s gone on in the organization and I’ve pretty much stuck around just for moral support. When you hire a new crew chief and competition director, you don’t want to hire them and say, ‘I’m going on vacation. You guys can work. I’m going on vacation.’ So I felt like I needed to be at the shop a little more. I didn’t do anything other than just be there for moral support for them. I think that meant a lot to those guys and to the team, that we were there a lot.”
You didn’t get a chance to go off on vacation, but do you at least feel refreshed in any way, given all that is asked of a series champion at season’s end?
“NASCAR is pretty efficient now with the driver’s time. There are a lot of things that we have to do, but you do it whether you’re the champion or not. There aren’t extra responsibilities or obligations because you’re the champion. But NASCAR does a really good job every year of making things more efficient for us as drivers, too, and understanding the time that the sponsors and the teams need from us. I didn’t do a lot in the offseason. I didn’t take much time for myself, but I guess I felt so good about what we did at the end of the year that you want to spend that time with the team and do what you can to get ready for next year. Hopefully, it gives us the opportunity to do it again.”
Can you talk about what you like about Steve Addington and the decision to bring him on board as your crew chief?
“When we saw him at Joe Gibbs Racing and worked with him and Kyle (Busch) together, Steve’s one of those guys who has a lot of practical knowledge, having been in the sport a long time. But he’s one of those guys who I think is really easy to work with. I mean, in team meetings with him, he was easy to talk to. That communication was really easy. It wasn’t always easy to talk to some of the other crew chiefs we had. So, having him on board, I think that’s part of why we made that decision, because I felt like he’s a guy I could work with really easily. He’ll be my third crew chief, now. The first two guys I had were easy to work with. So I think we’ve been really lucky from that standpoint, to have guys we communicate well with and get along with. Steve just kind of is one of those guys who is a lot like Darian (Grubb, former crew chief). I think he may not have all the engineering background that Darian has, but I think he’s got the practical knowledge and is a better fit for me.”
Can you tell if it’ll be a relatively quick process in getting you and Addington up to speed and working well with each other?
“I don’t think you can tell until you get to the track. But, personality-wise, Steve and I get along really well, and it’s similar to where Darian (Grubb) and I started out. When I say it’s a little loose, it’s a question of what a little loose means to him. And Steve’s worked with different drivers, so he knows how to go through that process, too. So, it’s literally trying to figure out what that combination’s going to be like.”
Addington has joked that he feels like he has to win 10 races. Do you feel you need to temper his expectations?
“If we win 10 races, I think that ties us for the most in the modern era with Jeff Gordon in a single season, so it’s pretty ambitious to hope for. I like his attitude. I want him to sign a contract that guarantees that, now. But, that’s what we want to do. You want to go out and win races. I don’t think you have to temper anything. He’s not a rookie in this sport, and it’s not the first time he’s worked with a new driver. So we know what’s realistic out there.”
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| Stewart & Patrick during Daytona pre-season testing (Getty) |
“Not after last year. After a rookie won it last year, why would you count yourself out? She’s a talented driver. Our cars were really fast at Daytona, so why not have that confidence? Even before I knew her, you could see the confidence she’s had from day one. Just watching what she did in IndyCar, and listening to her speak in her interviews, she knows she can drive a racecar. It’s a matter of how long it’s going to take to learn the Cup side of it and learn how to handle a heavier racecar. She was more confident being in the two‑car pack pushing each other than I was. I’ve been doing it since we’ve had to do it. But she’s very confident. She is very good at analyzing what goes on on the racetrack and communicating that to her crew chief. So it should be fun to watch.”
Just how big would it be for Patrick to win the Daytona 500?
“It would be big for everybody. It would be big for her. It would be big for NASCAR. I mean, we haven’t had something that significant happen in quite some time. Obviously, having Trevor (Bayne) win last year was a significant moment for the sport. But I think we all know what it would mean if she won.”
It seems like a no-brainer bringing somebody like Danica into your system. But was it that easy of a decision?
“No, it was not. We went through the same process that we’ve looked at with other drivers. Obviously, she’s great at the marketing side, but she’s got talent behind the steering wheel. We would not have hired her if we didn’t think she could do a good job driving the racecars. That was first and foremost on my mind. Having a partner like Go Daddy that came with her is a luxury. I don’t care how good the sponsorship is, if the driver can’t drive, we’re not interested. We felt like the decision to add her to the program was made based on her driving ability, first.”
If there is such a thing as an “inner circle” among NASCAR drivers, do you feel Patrick is there, yet?
“I think the effort she’s put forth has shown everybody that this is where she wants to be. We haven’t seen that dedication from some of the other guys who have come in and ran a little bit and then left the series. I think the drivers respect that, and I think she’s come in with a great attitude. She’s very humble about realizing it’s going to be a lot of work and a lot of effort. It’s not going to be a scenario where you’re going to go out there and win right away. We hope she does, obviously, but the reality is it’s tough to run well right off the bat. It’s a big transition that she’s going to be going through. So I think she’s been very humble with that side of it, and I think that’s what the drivers and teams and crews respect.”
From a team owner’s perspective, what has it been like to watch this team grow as quickly as it has and achieve what it has?
“It’s amazing to me over the last three years to see where the organization went from on day one to where it’s at today. I’m really, really proud. But it’s guys like Matt Borland (vice president of competition). Matt has probably been one of the biggest keys to this team’s success. He’s been with the team from day one, and was there before it became Stewart‑Haas. He’s probably made the transition much easier than I anticipated it being. He’s very good at assembling good people. We had Bobby Hutchens (former director of competition), who was great at doing that, also. And I think Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, current director of competition) is the same type of guy. A lot of people have respect for Greg and what we’re doing. A lot of people build on that success, and are bringing better people to us, and that’s how you make an organization better.”
Now that you’ve had some time to look back and think about your third championship, what kind of feelings does that bring?
“I’m very appreciative. I guess the question was, ‘How did it change my life?’ My life hasn’t changed. I’m still the guy who the day after was trying to figure out how to get ready for upcoming races, and to get ready for the next season. But to be part of something from a car ownership side and knowing we were able to be part of helping that organization grow and getting in this position, it’s a different feeling than you have from the driver’s side of winning a championship. It’s fun. I mean, winning never gets old. You never say, ‘I’ve won enough.’ All winning does is make you want to win more because you want that same feeling again. When you sit back and look at the category and look at the record books and look at the group that we’re in now, it’s a pretty humble feeling to know that we’re in pretty good company like that.”
With so much focus on your championship and Danica’s arrival in NASCAR, your teammate Ryan Newman, has sort of been flying below the radar. What are your thoughts about him?
“You know, if a couple of different circumstances didn’t happen at the end of the season, he easily could have won the championship just like we did. You look at his performance right before the Chase started and he was running really strong. He just had a couple of hiccups at the beginning of the Chase that got him behind. It just took the wind out of the guy’s sails. It’s easy for that to happen. You work all year to get in that position, and you feel like you’re at the top of your game and you feel like you have a couple things out of your control happen, and it’s easy to lose that momentum. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Ryan’s a guy we’ve got to look at to beat for the championship. If we get beat by Ryan, that would not be any shame to me.”
- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing
Allmendinger Now Has Great Opportunity to Take Giant Leap in NASCAR
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| Allmendinger is 20/1 to win Shootout |
“It’ll be a huge moment in my career when I take the green flag there on Saturday night as a driver for Roger Penske,” said Allmendinger, the 30-year-old Los Gatos, Calif., native. “We’ve been looking forward to this occasion for several months now and it’ll be great to finally get the 2012 season under way.
“We were out at Shell and Pennzoil’s headquarters in Houston last week and our sponsors were quick to let me know that their car has won the Shootout three out of the last five years. So there’s absolutely no pressure at all going into Saturday’s race,” chuckled “Dinger,” as he’s come to affectionately be known by the media and fans alike. “Seriously, they all know what racing on the restrictor-plate tracks involves, so there’s not really any additional pressure on us.
“Sure, we’d love to be able to kick the season off with a win in the Shootout there on Saturday night and we’ll be trying our best to do that,” Dinger said, “But, our Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Team already has the big picture in mind even before Daytona Speed Weeks begin. We definitely hope to start the schedule off with a lot of success, but everyone knows how much luck comes into play at Daytona and Talladega.
“I’ve had so many media guys ask me if I thought this would be the best shot I ever had of winning at Daytona. Like I’ve told them, I don’t necessarily feel like this will definitely be my best opportunity at Daytona, but I know it will be my absolute best shot at winning races at all the tracks.”
Allmendinger will be racing in only his second career Shootout on Saturday night. He started 18th and drove to a fifth-place finish in the 2009 edition of the special event.
“In all the seasons before, it was a race where the past year’s pole winners were in the field,” said Dinger. “We had won the pole for the spring race at Phoenix in 2008, but that didn’t have any bearing at all. Instead, it was a situation where the top six teams from each manufacturer were invited.
“I had moved over to drive the No. 44 car for Petty and they were with Dodge,” Dinger explained. “Ganassi had switched from Dodge to Chevrolet when they merged with DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.), so there was quite a bit of jockeying around to see who made the field and who didn’t that year. We were able to get into the race as the final Dodge – their wild card for the race – and had to go last in the draw for our starting spot. We drew 18th.
“In the race, the car had been really fast and right before the break, we were battling for the lead with Jimmie (Johnson),” Dinger recalled. “I felt pretty confident, but at the end there were a lot of accidents. I remember coming through (Turns) 3 and 4, there was a big wreck and I made it through, but got shuffled back to finish fifth.”
Once again, Saturday night’s Shootout’s distance will again be 75 laps (187.5 miles), which will consist of two segments, 25 and 50 laps. Both green-flag laps and yellow-flag laps will count. In between segments, there will be a 10-minute pit stop allowing drivers to pit to change tires, add fuel and make normal chassis adjustments. Crews will be permitted to work on cars and be allowed to perform functions they would do on a normal pit stop in a regular NASCAR Sprint Cup event. All work must be performed on pit road or in the garage with the changing of springs, shock absorbers or rear-ends not permitted.
“The format doesn’t really bother me,” Dinger offered. “I think maybe the second segment should be shorter to make it more exciting. I think everybody is just going to try and play it cool until the last 10 or so laps and then just go all out.”
Allmendinger and his Todd Gordon-led No. 22 Penske Racing Team will be utilizing their “PRS-641” Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger in this weekend’s action at the World Center of Racing. It will mark the first race for this chassis.
Daytona Speed Weeks 2012 action gets under way this Friday with Budweiser Shootout practice scheduled from 5:00 p.m. till 5:45 p.m. The final “happy hour” practice for the Shootout is set from 6:30 p.m. till 7:30 p.m. SPEED-TV will cover the practice sessions live as well as the “draw” for starting positions (delayed broadcast starting at 8:30 p.m.) Saturday’s action includes Daytona 500 practices from 11:00 a.m. till 1:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. till 3:45 p.m. Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout, a 75-lap battle consisting of a 25-lap segment and a 50-lap segment with a 10-minute break in between, features live coverage by FOX-TV, MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Channel 90 and is set to begin at 8:10 p.m. ET.
Qualifying for the front row (Coors Light Pole Award and outside pole) for the 54th annual Daytona 500 is set for Sunday at 1:05 p.m. FOX-TV will provide live coverage.
The first of Thursday’s (Feb. 23) “Gatorade Duels” 150-mile qualifying races gets the green flag at 2:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage of all the action will be provided by SPEED-TV and MRN Radio. The Sunday, Feb. 26 Daytona 500 has a scheduled 1:00 p.m. ET starting time here at Daytona International Speedway. FOX-TV, MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Channel 90 will provide live coverage of all the action.
About Walldinger Racing, Inc.: Walldinger Racing was formed in 2006 to support AJ Allmendinger’s motorsports career by developing commercial opportunities and partnership programs.
- Walldinger Racing, Inc.
Kurt Busch Begins New Path in NASCAR for 2012
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| Kurt Busch was fastest in Daytona pre-season testing in January (Getty) |
Busch begins his 12th full Sprint Cup season driving the No. 51 Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing, a team unlike any other he has driven for in the Sprint Cup Series.
While most NASCAR teams are based within 10 or 20 miles of the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C., Phoenix Racing is located in Spartanburg, S.C., about 80 miles to the southwest. They aren’t a big team and have a smaller shop and fewer employees than most full-time organizations. But, they do more with less, and that’s just fine with Busch, who has never been afraid to roll up his sleeves and gets his hands dirty.
Since joining Phoenix Racing in late December 2011, Busch has made the 80-minute drive from his home in Mooresville, N.C., to the Phoenix Racing shop two or three times a week. And during those drives, Busch has discovered that going simple has brought more fun.
He’s as relaxed and loose as ever before and has quickly endeared himself to the tight-knit group at Phoenix Racing that was thrilled to hear that a Sprint Cup champion and 24-race winner wanted to race for them.
Busch has not only spent his time at the shop getting to know his new teammates, he’s helped them prepare the cars – specifically the No. 51 TAG Heuer Avant-Garde Eyewear Chevrolet Impala Busch will pilot in the non-points Budweiser Shootout Saturday at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and the No. 51 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Impala he will use in the 54th Daytona 500 on Feb. 26 at Daytona.
He’s even helping the team assemble the No. 51 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Impala he will drive in the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Feb. 25 at Daytona.
While Busch is having fun, he knows that racing can be a lot of fun when winning is involved. And he and Phoenix Racing should be contenders at Daytona. Phoenix Racing’s lone Sprint Cup victory came at Daytona’s sister track, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, in April 2009 with Brad Keselowski driving, while Busch has 12 top-10 finishes in 22 point-paying starts at Daytona, including runner-up finishes in the Daytona 500 in 2003, 2005 and 2008. Last year, he won the Budweiser Shootout and the first of the two 150-mile Gatorade Duel qualifying races.
It’s a new year with an old-school look for Busch, but he’s chasing a new prize that exudes the old-school lore of Daytona – the Harley J. Earl Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Daytona 500.
KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 51 TAG Heuer Avant-Garde Eyewear/HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Impala for Phoenix Racing:
Is this old-school racing for you?
“Yeah, this is old-school racing the way James Finch (owner, Phoenix Racing) does it. He has a lot of fun, but he’s serious about it. Because we have Hendrick motors and chassis, the bodies are subbed out to a group that builds them off the recipe from Hendrick engineers. So there is a great deal of support but, also, there is that laid-back attitude of, ‘Let’s go to the track and have some fun.’”
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| Kurt Busch won the Bud Shootout last season (Getty) |
“Well, it’s a fast racecar. It was 206 mph down there in Daytona, and that’s with that Hendrick power. To have that under the hood, to have the years of experience that I have, plus James Finch, he’s full-tilt when it comes to Daytona and Talladega. So that is our best opportunity to win races this year. Then you get to places like Bristol, where it’s not an aerodynamic track. It’s more of an even playing field, plus it’s one of my favorite racetracks. I look at those opportunities to try to crack into victory lane.”
What are your expectations for the season?
“Expectations for us are going to be one week at a time. There are going to be little victories we take in, whether it’s finishing 15th and putting a car back in the hauler without a scratch on it, or contending for the win at Daytona. We have two really good bullets right now – our superspeedway car for Daytona, and we have a car that came from Hendrick that has a ton of R&D stuff on it. So I need to protect that car when we take it to (Las) Vegas. At Vegas, you want that car again in a couple weeks at California. So we’ve got to take care of that baby right now and, hopefully, we’ll get a few more built like that.”
Will that affect your driving style?
“It’s just racing smart, racing old-school. It’s like my dad’s race team, where we had one Legends car and, if we wrecked it, we couldn’t race it the next week unless we had enough parts. And, if you wreck it too much, it costs you too much to get to the racetrack. So, it’s going to be that balance of understanding how to get the best out of the car for that day, whether it’s 15th or, if we have a shot at a top-10, make sure I still protect that car because we need to bring it back in a few weeks to race it again.”
Talk about working with Phoenix Racing.
“It’s a really neat group of guys. Everybody works so hard because we have so little compared to the big teams, but we have what we need to compete with the big teams. Finch puts in a great effort. Right now, it’s just a one‑year deal, a handshake deal. Don’t even have a contract. It’s just all verbal. We trust each other. And this has taught me a lot about how deals used to be done in the past. Even going to lunch with him. We end up over at the Peach Blossom and we’re hanging out and there’s Bud Moore, there’s Cotton Owens. This is the old-school fun of hanging out with the South Carolina boys.”
What ultimately led you to decide to drive for Phoenix Racing?
“I think it’s just the overall perception of his program. There is the fun built into it but, at the same time, it’s serious. When you have Hendrick equipment, it gives you that motivation to do well while having the fun.”
Felix Sabates and other owners offered you some advice in the offseason. Talk about that.
“Yeah, I leaned on quite a few car owners for advice, for help, as well. If there are any leads on sponsor dollars. We were trying to talk with other guys. Even having a sit-down with King Richard (Petty) in Level Cross, N.C. I was just in awe going into his office, having the wood-paneled walls and how old-school that was. Talking with a bunch of different owners and key people in the sport. It was a lot of fun dealing with some of the tough deals behind the scenes. Felix Sabates stuck his neck out with me to try to help with Finch, and I owe a lot to Felix for helping make this deal happen. Even Rick Hendrick, who had to give the blessing, because this is his equipment and these are his cars, more or less, that Finch buys from him. But they’re all connected together.”
Talk about your chances for victory in the Daytona 500.
“I mean, anybody can win. Last year with the repave job, it took all the handling away from Daytona. It just went to raw speed. Trevor Bayne showed that. He put himself in position to win and he got the deal done. Danica Patrick, it can happen to her. It can happen to anybody. We just have to get to the end of the race. We have to protect our car and be in position for what I would anticipate with the green-white-checkered (finish). So that’s whether we get the car separated as far as the draft or, if they’re together, we’re going to have that green-white-checkered and it’s going to be pushed like crazy with the guy in front of you no matter what.”
Later this season, you will team up with your brother Kyle to drive Nationwide Series races for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM). Talk about that.
“It’s going to be incredible. To have Monster Energy Drink in there supporting me, it’s great to see their fraternity of athletes. The extreme game guys are always edgy. That’s what Kyle and I are. So, it’s a perfect fit on the sponsor front. We have the responsibility of trying to run for an owner title, so the two of us are really going to draw attention.”
What are you plans as far as a schedule for the Nationwide Series this year?
“We’re trying to iron out all the details. Kyle’s going to start the season off with four, maybe five races. I hope to jump in at Texas. That’s where I made my debut in the Nationwide Series. Hopefully, we’ll get it all ironed out and have some fun with it. Then I’ll probably take the bulk of the schedule later in the year.”
Can you talk about your relationship with Roger Penske since you left his team?
“It was a great departure the way we handled it. I e-mailed Roger the other day on when we’re going to get together for dinner down at Daytona. I have no regrets and I can’t thank him enough for the time we spent together.”
What has your offseason been like?
“It’s been a busy offseason with early morning, 6 a.m., all the way until late evenings, sometimes past 10 p.m., just week‑in and week‑out of making calls, talking with sponsors. Of course, trying to find a place to go and race. Just with the way everything has come together, it’s been an amazing offseason. I’m just stoked to get to the track, have the fun with Finch, work hard with it, as well as support my little brother and get KBM on the map as far as what he wants to do in Nationwide.”
You’ve been to every Major League Baseball stadium. Are you planning on going to the new Miami Marlins Ballpark this year?
“I have to get to the new Marlins Ballpark, and both New York stadiums are new since I’ve been on my little tour. This is going to be a busy year. I was telling the fans at the Sprint fan event we did a few weeks ago that I’m running 38 Cup races. We have yet to decide on the full Nationwide schedule. But it’s going to be close to 20 Nationwide races. That’s almost 60 races in one year. So that’s going to keep me busy. That’s going to be a good workload to have. Might not be visiting as many baseball parks this is year.”
- True Speed Communication for Phoenix Racing
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