Dover 200 - Martin Truex Jr. & Clint Bowyer Friday Quotes

OPENING COMMENTS
TRUEX JR: Obviously it’s [Dover] close to home and a place I enjoy coming to and feel comfortable with. I made my first start here back a few years ago. I’ve had a lot of success and always enjoy coming here. It seems every time I know we’re heading this way or pull into the racetrack I get really excited about racing here, and look forward to the challenges. It’s a really tough racetrack, but we seem to as a team just jump on it and always have good race cars here. So I always look forward to being here in Dover.

BOWYER: It’s a tough racetrack. It’s my second time being here. We didn’t fare too good in the spring. For some reason we just couldn’t get the bug out of the car. It was a tough weekend all weekend long. We’ve reacted pretty good and we’ve bounced back, and I think the car’s really good this weekend.

ON THE POINTS BATTLE
BOWYER: Consistency is still going to play out in the end. We need to win a few more races. We’ve only won one race, and my goal is to win three this year. I need to win a couple more to be satisfied. We need to fare this weekend. This is a track that is obviously in Martin’s back yard. It’s somewhere he’s won before and he runs really good here. If we can maintain through this weekend and stay close to him, I’ll be happy. I know our big track program has been really good in the past this year, so I’m looking forward to getting to Kansas, Texas, racetracks like that, because I think we’ll definitely have something for him then. If we can get through this weekend I think we’ll be good.

TRUEX JR: I think the biggest thing for us is just trying to maintain and be consistent. We’ve done a really good job of running up front a lot of times this year and getting a lot of points, and we’ve done a really bad job of running like crap sometimes. It’s been kind of hit or miss for us. We seem to either finish in the top 5 or get wrecked and run 20th. We need to watch out for that. We can’t have any bad luck and we can’t get run into the wall like we did at Richmond. We just need to be smart, we need to run 10th if we have a 10th place car. That’s what got us here and that’s what we need to keep doing.

ON EMOTIONS AND HOW THEY PLAY A ROLE IN THE CAR
TRUEX JR: It’s no different than you driving down the road and getting in traffic, you get mad, someone cuts you off and you get mad, someone runs into you and you get mad. Imagine that times 20. It’s just human emotion, and you can’t take it away or put it in. If you get mad, you get mad. We’re not robots, we’re out there trying to win races and doing what we all love to do and are so passionate about. If someone rubs you the wrong way you’re gonna get mad. NASCAR can give fines and take points and do what they do, but you can’t take emotion out of it. That’s a part of the sport that people love, and that’s part of the reason that people love it, is because that stuff all comes out. It’s always going to be there no matter how many points they take or how much money they fine you. Somebody’s always going to do the wrong thing. I think it’s a good thing.

ON THE RICHMOND INCIDENT
TRUEX JR: I haven’t [had a chance to speak with Mike Wallace.] As far as I’m concerned, that was two weeks ago and it’s a dead horse. I don’t’ even want to think about it anymore. It’s behind us, it happened. There’s nothing I can do about it now. We need to worry about tomorrow and the next six races or seven races, however many is left. We just need to go do our thing. I don’t think there will be any future problems between me and Mike. If there is, I’m sure I’ll go about it a different way.

ON HOW HE’D FEEL IF HE LOST BY FEWER THAN 25 POINTS
TRUEX JR: If I did, what am I going to do about it? There’s plenty of opportunities in the past where we’ve lost 25 points. It doesn’t matter if it’s something I did or said or something on the racetrack from three months ago. We’ve lost a lot of points this year by being stupid, and we don’t plan on doing it again. If we do it one more time we’ll probably lose the championship, but we’ll be stronger as a team by doing it.

ON BOWYER BEING RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING’S ONE SHOT FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP
BOWYER: It’s no secret that RCR’s been struggling. Our Cup cars have struggled all year long. It gives them a breath of fresh air, anyway. There’s a lot of people that pull hard for all those cars. Anytime they can at least be in contention for a championship, they’re all going to give that extra effort. There’s a lot of hype in RCR about the Busch car. The Busch program has been good all year. Both cars have run good, sat on poles and won races. So it’s been a success down at the Busch shop. We just want to work really hard as a corporation trying to get everyone on the same page and find out why our Busch cars are better than our Cup cars. That’s the main focus right now.

ON BOWYER BEING CLOSE TO TRUEX JR. IN THE STANDINGS
BOWYER: I think we just keep getting better and better as a team. Sitting back and going into this year, we knew we were going to be behind the eight ball with Martin and the team they’ve built. It’s been strong since they started, but they keep building and building. That’s why they’re going to be a good Cup team. DEI’s done a good job, and I’m trying to do the same thing they’re doing. They’ve built a team together, they’ve been together for two years, and when they move on to the Cup series I feel like they’re going to be good and ready to go. I think we’re trying to do that same thing. I think we’re doing better and better, but there are places where lack of experience has put us behind a little bit. It feels good to be this close. We’ve had some bad luck too. Looking back at Michigan, if it wasn’t for Michigan we would be in the points lead right now. That was a huge difference. There’s almost 100 points right there that we took a lick right there in one race. We had a chance of winning but instead we ended up 30th. If there’s ever races or something you could bring back, that would be one of them. But you can’t, so we’re just going to try to make the best of it.

ON COMPARING THE PURSUIT OF THIS YEAR’S CHAMPIONSHIP RACE TO LAST YEAR’S
TRUEX JR: Obviously this year’s been a lot tougher. It’s been a lot more trying for all of us as a team. Last year was kind of smooth sailing – we seemed to run decent every week and it seemed like we could always pull a top ten finish out of nowhere. If we were running 15th, some days we’d finish sixth or seventh. This year it’s been a little tougher. If we don’t run good we don’t finish good, and sometimes we run good and we still don’t finish good. It’s been tough for us. It’s made all of us a lot stronger and a lot smarter. It’s made us really appreciate what we had and what we’ve been able to accomplish. It’s just going to be a battle all the way to the end. Clint’s team has been doing a really good job, especially here in the second part of the season. They’ve been running strong every week, especially at the bigger tracks, and they’ve kept us digging and kept us working at trying to get our cars better. It’s going to be tough and going to be a good race for both of us.

ON YOUNGER GUYS WHO HAVE BEEN IMPRESSIVE
TRUEX JR: Reed’s [Sorenson] done a really good job. He’s had some bad luck, but he’s run really well. My teammate Paul Menard has been one of the ones who have really impressed me the most. Paul last year didn’t really show that flash or spark he needed to to go out and win races every week and really be competitive in the series. Starting this year he was like a whole new person, a whole new racecar driver. He’s gotten really smart behind the wheel, he runs races really well and is really fast every week. He’s probably been the one who’s impressed me the most, not because he’s my teammate or because he’s been running good – just the way he’s improved since I’ve been racing with him is pretty incredible.

BOWYER: I’d agree with Reed. The kid’s what, 19 years old, and he’s running with all of us. I know I’m 26 and I’ve got a few years on him. I’d say him, and there’s a couple others. As a driver you’re just a part of it. This is a team sport, and the more I’ve run in this series the more I realize that too.

ON HOW MANY TESTS ARE LEFT
TRUEX JR: I have no clue. I know we’re testing in Kansas. We’ve only tested I think four times all year. I think Kansas, I’m not sure, maybe Homestead. It’s not that big of a deal really, I don’t think. I know Clint’s been doing a lot of testing. He kind of has that rookie deal figured out.

BOWYER: It’s a rule NASCAR’s put in that if you have a rookie on your team, you can go and help out. I think some of the DEI guys have overreacted and think we’re out there getting a test out of it. I know they did here. I think I ran about ten laps total and I think we had about every team calling in on us.

ON THE WEEK OFF
TRUEX JR: It came at a perfect time for me. Any week off is pretty good for me, but after Richmond it was definitely one I needed, sit back and think about what’s going on and get back on track and figure out what direction we need to head and put all that stuff that happened there behind us. A lot of the things that happened at New Hampshire kind of put the deal I did in the back of people’s heads. Most people forgot about it after New Hampshire, so it was kind of good for me.

ON HAVING A CHASE FORMAT FOR THE NASCAR BUSCH SERIES
TRUEX JR: I think it would be fun. It would obviously tighten things up and make it a little bit tougher. With where we’re sitting right now, we’d probably both hate to see it. I think in the end still the best team would win it. The Cup series will be the same way – the best team for the last half of the season is going to win the championship. It’d bring a lot of attention to our series, I think. It’d be fun, it’d be tough, but it’d be exciting.