Federated Auto Parts 300 - Rookie Friday Quotes

Raybestos Rookies Reed Sorenson, Denny Hamlin, Michel Jourdain Jr., and Jon Wood participated in a press conference Friday afternoon at Nashville.

REED SORENSON, No. 41 DISCOUNT TIRE COMPANY DODGE: COMMENT ON BILL ELLIOTT. “He was the only other Georgia racer. When I was growing up I was more watching Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon type deal.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 20 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION CHEVROLET: COMMENT ON BILL ELLIOTT. “He was one of my biggest heroes. He was who I was rooting for every Sunday. It’s going to be a big thrill to race against him. It’s a pretty big deal for me. I figured if I ever did make it, he’d probably be out of the sport by then.”

MICHEL JOURDAIN, JR., No. 10 ppc RACING FORD: “I’m very happy to be coming back to the tracks for a second time at a track. I hope to feel better in the track and I’ll get up to speed quicker. Kenny [Wallace, his teammate] and I had pretty good cars here and we’ve had very different setups so if I’m not very comfortable with the car hopefully we can use what they learned and with me having more experience in the car we’ll be better so maybe after practice I’ll respond better.”

HAS KENNY BEEN A HELP TO YOU? “Being with Kenny has been a huge help. He describes very well what happens to the car and how to go through a lap on the track. He’s been a big help, as has everybody at ppc racing. My crew chief and Andy Houston, my spotter, and kind of like a coach. They’ve been very, very helpful.”

COMMENT ON RACING A STOCK CAR VERSUS A CHAMP CAR. “Everything, it’s like playing football and baseball. I’m having to learn everything. Even when we go to the same tracks, it’s like a completely different thing. The setups and the feel of the car, the way the car feels, and the way it goes through the traffic, just how you drive the car, how you do the races, when to be patient. There are so many completely different things. I having a hard time but hopefully getting better at it.”

JON WOOD, No. 47 CLOROX/WISK/PIGGLY WIGGLY FORD: ON THE SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS FOR AVAILABLE RIDES. “After reading the Scene this week, it’s been very informative for me, I guess [smiles]. There’s a lot of things that are talked about that you don’t really know. I think there is some speculation that I’m going to take over Mark Martin’s ride and if not maybe Ricky Rudd’s. There is definitely an opportunity there and if certain things work out, I think they’ll work out and it will be in my best interest and Roush Racing’s as well.”

ARE YOU READY TO MOVE UP? “The worst thing you can do is wreck every week [smiles]. I did run three full seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series and I think that’s an added plus. Those trucks are so much like these Busch cars and Cup cars. A lot of people complain about racing with Cup guys every week in the Busch Series and they’re stealing the show and this and that. What better field can you ask for than to race against guys that are already there and at the top. You can learn off what they do and who cares if you finish behind every one of them? You’ve raced against them and you understand and you’re learning more. You’re learning curve is much more advanced.”

SORENSON: ON THE SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS FOR AVAILABLE RIDES. “I think there is a shortage of race drivers in general in the whole NASCAR world. A lot of these guys are retiring and stuff and if you really pay attention there’s not a whole lot of guys. I’d have to agree that there’s not a whole lot of guys that are available to put in these cars to run. These are top teams with top dollar sponsors and it would be interesting to see what goes on and who they put in there.”

HAMLIN: ON THE SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS FOR AVAILABLE RIDES. “I think the Busch Series is seriously under-rated. You see guys like Jimmie Johnson come back to the Busch Series and he struggles. He qualifies well but he doesn’t race that well. It’s not just a pushover series that Cup guys can come here and just dominate. It’s still going to be tough and to race those guys, just for the experience level that they have, not that their that much better drivers, it’s that their with great teams. Biffle is with Brewco and guys like that, it makes it hard on us, but we’re still competing against them every week. I don’t think having 10 or 15 guys in a Busch race is a shoe-in for them.”

ARE YOU READY TO GO RUN CUP NOW? “I think personally, no. I’d like to run a couple races this year but as far as jumping up, I don’t think so. I’m less that 15 races total with this horsepower and on these tires. I still need a little more experience.”

JOURDAIN: HAVE YOU SEEN A SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS TO GO TO CUP? “I think it’s very hard to tell. I’m pretty new to this NASCAR world, but from what I can see from the last 3 or 4 years there has been guys that have jumped into Cup without winning races in the Busch Series and they win races there and are champions there and I think that happens in every form of motorsports. It’s hard to tell how many of the guys in the Busch Series are ready or not. Maybe some guys can win 50 races here and go there never win one. It’s very hard to tell, but I think it’s just a matter of the guys that make the decisions on when they need to get a new driver. I think there are some races that the Cup drivers come and finish the top 10 are all Cup guys and some races, of course they always do good, but they get more competition from the Busch guys. The level in the Busch Series is very, very high. I’m very amazed at the quality of the drivers here. I think there are some drivers here who could do very well. I have never raced in the Cup series but I think from racing with the Busch guys and the Cup guys when they come here I think the Busch guys could do well there.”

HAMLIN: WHAT HAS MADE BILL ELLIOTT SO SUCCESSFUL THROUGH THE YEARS? “I think there for a while he had a pretty bad you-know-what car. In order to make up two or three laps at superspeedways under green like he did, he had a more superior car than a lot of guys for a lot of years. I hated to see Casey take over his ride a couple of years ago but it’s probably the best thing for him. He gets to enjoy things that hopefully I’ll get to enjoy years to come.”

SORENSON: COMMENT ON YOUR DOMINATING WIN HERE IN MARCH. “Probably the last time something like that happened was maybe when I was running like the legend cars. It was a good day. Everything went just perfect. I’m sure it will be a little bit tougher this time. This is a night race, too, instead of a day race so I’m sure that will change things a little bit. We brought the same car back here and didn’t change much on it. I’ve done that before, take a car back somewhere and not touch it and went back and it was totally different. I was telling some people yesterday that we’re in this championship hunt. Everybody expects us to be the car to beat, which is fine, but we’re still just going to go after a top five. That’s our goal when we start the race is going to be a top five finish. We just make minor adjustments the whole day. We didn’t change a bunch. I’m just anxious to see how it is in this first practice. If it feels good in this first practice it should be a good weekend for us. When we first got here last time we were like a 10th-place car and we did some things and got it a lot better. In the middle of the race we were really fast. Hopefully we won’t have to change too much here in practice but we’ll see. We were worried about right front tires a little bit [in March’s race] because everybody had a lot of green flag laps on their tires and a couple of other people had some right fronts go down so we were just trying to take care of that as much as we could and not abuse that. Other than that, we were really close on fuel last time. I think everybody else was too. I was trying to save fuel and save the right front, both at the same time.”

WERE YOU ANXIOUS TO GET YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE AT 16? “I was all the way up to late models then. When I was 16, I was happy to be able to go where I wanted, when I wanted. I didn’t really care so much about the driving part as much as being able to go back and forth to the shop when I wanted to. It was a lot easier and easier for my parents, too, instead of them having to cart me around everywhere.”

ON HIS LEARNING CURVE IN BUSCH. “I think when most of the young guys that start out these days, when they move up to the next series, I’ve always been the youngest guy. Now I’m like a small fish in a big pond and you had to learn with those guys. The first couple of times that you ran they beat you and you had to work a little bit harder to catch up with those guys and eventually you beat them. You had to learn pretty quickly or you were in trouble. I think it’s always that way, though. If a young guy starts real young and he’s moving up, each level he gets into he has to learn a lot quicker than the rest of the people do because he has to meet those expectations and run with them.”

WHY ARE YOU ABLE TO ADAPT SO EASILY? “I don’t think it’s easy. It gets harder and harder as you move up. ASA was a real competitive series that I was running and some of those guys were the best racers in the nation, I think. I think that kind of prepared me for the Busch Series. This series is really, really competitive. You can have a car where you don’t really know how to get it much better and you run fifth or sixth and you’re like ‘How did they beat me? I don’t know where they’re beating me at.’ You have almost a perfect car and you don’t win. It’s really competitive out here and that’s what makes it good.”

YOUR EMOTIONS IN THE WEEKS AFTER THE MARCH RACE HERE. “I was kind of shocked after this race. I didn’t really think too much about it until I went home. We had some bad races there in a row. We got in the wreck at Talladega and got in some situations that were just bad luck. The last two races we got two top fives and gained a bunch on the points and that has given my guys a lot of confidence. These next three races the Busch Series is alone and hopefully these next three races we’ll be able to maybe gain some more points.”

HAMLIN: “Ever since the new crew chief, we’ve ran better but finished worse. It seems like we’re starting to get our bad luck. We’re definitely getting a lot better. We’ve had a top 10 car every single week. It just seems like these short runs that we’re getting in the Busch Series is not playing into our had at all. It seems like every race we go to, after 25 laps, we’re one of the best cars. It seems to always work that way but we just don’t have that immediate speed and it seems like it takes us half the race to get to that point. We’re just not getting the finishes that we want right now. We were going for 10th at Charlotte when we spun and last week at Dover just cut a tire. I’m happy with the way we’re running. The finishes will come. I’m just glad to be competitive. I feel like we had a second place car the last time here until the last pit stop. It’s one of those things that you don’t know what happened. You put gas in it and four tires and it’s seven-tenths slower. It’s just amazing how much the car changed there on that last run. We brought a different car here, different setup, and we’ll see what the outcome is. We got a top 10 here last time so hopefully we can do it again.”