Aaron’s 499 - John Andretti Notes

John Andretti Notes, Quotes: Aaron’s 499

‘Racing at Talladega keeps you on your toes!’

Looking to dethrone Dale Earnhardt Incorporated’s stranglehold at restrictor plate tracks, this weekend John Andretti and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. DEI cars have won the last three straight restrictor plate races with Dale Earnhardt Jr. sweeping last year’s event at Talladega, and Michael Waltrip winning this year’s rain-shortened Daytona 500.

Andretti, however, has the experience to snap DEI’s streak. A past winner at Daytona, Andretti is always a strong contender at both Daytona and Talladega. In 1997 Andretti not only won the Pepsi 400 in Daytona but finished third and fourth and won a pole at Talladega.

Andretti is in his sixth consecutive season with Petty Enterprises with over half of his NASCAR Winston Cup starts coming for the legendary organization. Andretti’s vast racing experience ranks him as one of the most versatile and talented drivers on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. He is one of only two drivers to win in two different major racing series and also win two or more major NASCAR Winston Cup oval races. Winner of the 1991 Gold Coast Grand Prix in Australia, one of CART’s premier events, Andretti was also a winning driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1989 in the series then known as IMSA.

The thoughts of Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge driver John Andretti heading into Talladega:

“Nothing will excite you more going into Talladega than knowing that you had good runs at Daytona. All the guys at Petty Enterprises had good runs a few weeks ago at Daytona. I always knew we had it in these teams. Our superspeedway program had struggled a little bit the past couple of years, but we went down to Daytona and had a really strong program. Our program was a competitive one.

“There was a class of cars at Daytona that only had a couple of cars in it. Then there was the next class of cars right behind them, and I felt like we were certainly in that group. That’s a pretty strong class to be in. There are two cars out there in their own class, and the gap is big enough, but it’s not so big that we can’t see them. We can race with them.

“I am excited to see where our program has come from and where it is. I think it gave a lot of confidence to the employees at Petty Enterprises. Look at what we can do, and look and see what we are capable of doing. That was great for us, and it leads us to believe that we can take our downforce program, too, and lead it to where our other programs are.

“To catch some of these other teams at restrictor plate tracks you have to look at every detail. When I was driving for Cale Yarborough we were the plate car to beat and we just focused on that. We asked ourselves, ‘What is our best chance at winning?’ and we said it was a plate race, so we focused all of our attention on that. We ran well in every one of them, and if guys were going to catch us, they were going to have to work as hard and with as much detail as we were.

“DEI didn’t get to where they are from last year to this year. They have been building this momentum for the last three years. It’s not something where you are going to knock them off that pedestal in one night. You are going to have to get just as focused as they are on it. That takes a lot of man power.

“When friends or family ask about passes to races, it’s usually Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, and Indianapolis. I don’t know what makes plate racing so exciting for fans, but I guess on the outside when you see 43 cars go flying by in a blanket you know something exciting may happen. It keeps you on your toes. You don’t have to look very far to see the action because everyone is together. It’s kind of like Bristol; you can’t miss anything that happens. If you miss something at Talladega it must have meant that you were in the bathroom.

“I think the smaller fuel cell works better at Talladega than it does at Daytona. Daytona is such a handling track that you’re going to break up the pack with handling over pit stops. The pit road is narrower at Daytona, and it’s a little bit harder to get to and creates more havoc. I think anything that you do at one plate track you have to think about doing just the opposite at the other. What works at Daytona seems to never work at Talladega and vice versa. It’s like saying, ‘Well it worked at Martinsville - lets do it at Bristol.’ They are almost that dissimilar.

“We had a good car in Daytona and I am just looking forward to having another strong Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge this weekend.“

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