Brickyard 400 - Ford Friday Quotes

Two-time Brickyard 400 champion Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 88 UPS Taurus, began his day with a four-hole golf outing in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that included a phone call from Master's champion Phil Mickelson. He continued the day with a Q&A session for members of the media prior to a two-hour practice session for Sunday's Brickyard 400.

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus - WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEW POINT SYSTEM? From our standpoint the point system hasn't changed at this point in time. The only thing that's changed is that instead of everybody battling right now to be the guy in front, you're trying to solidify yourself in that top 10. Everything will change after we get through with 26 races, but, again, if I was sitting in 14th in years past all I would be thinking about is trying to get in the top 10 at some point by the end of the year. Now it's trying to get into the top 10 to give ourselves a second chance basically at winning a championship." IF YOU'RE IN THE TOP 10 DO YOU PRETTY MUCH JUST RIDE UNTIL THE 26 ARE OVER? "I think there are only a few guys that could even consider riding right now. I think everybody from sixth on back - from sixth to 15th at least - those positions can change in these last six races, so I don't think anybody right there can ride. You've got to race hard." DOES MOMENTUM PLAY A FACTOR? "Momentum is a good thing to have on your side - that and confidence. If you're doing things well, that carries over from week to week. I think once you establish something that gives you that confidence, then you carry that and you look at it as momentum." ARE YOU CLOSE TO WHERE YOU WERE FROM A HORSEPOWER STANDPOINT A COUPLE YEARS AGO TO BE A FAVORITE AGAIN? "It's given us a chance to compete again, where we were pretty far behind. That's why you don't see many Fords in the laps led category. I think right now our people have done really good job in helping us get back. Hendrick's deal has everyone covered right now. There's no doubt that those cars have the total package right now. Engine-wise, they're on top, but our guys are working extremely hard to make that a comparison we can work with on the race track. Then we're much closer and it gives us the opportunity to compete, but as far as having an edge, we don't have that. As a matter of fact, we've been at a deficit for the last 18 months, but we are getting to the point again where we have enough horsepower that we can compete at every race track." IF THIS WASN'T INDIANAPOLIS, WOULD THIS RACE BE THAT BIG OF A DEAL? "I think certainly that's what makes this place what it is. The race itself, that's what we look at is the history that you have surrounding it and the amount of people that come here. Could there be a better racing facility that is better and more conducive to our type of race cars? Yeah, there could be. But I think that we've had some pretty entertaining races. I guess we've had 10 to this point and maybe they all haven't come down to that last lap battle, but I've been in a number of battles over the years so it can lend itself to good racing. Yeah, the history is what really makes this but you can say that about a lot of places." WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE FEUDING AND FIGHTING THAT HAPPENS IN RACING? "It's competition. You go to watch the sports shows or ESPN and that's all you've seen lately are the rivalries, whether it's the Yankees and the Red Sox or the rivalries that go on within our sport. Anytime you have competition you're gonna have that to a certain extent. With this, maybe we go through a little bit of a time when there's a changing of the guard so to speak, but it doesn't take long for rivalries to start existing when you get a couple of people or a couple of teams, or more than that, that start racing each other on a regular basis you're gonna have that. From that point, you're gonna have tempers that flare at times and arguments - possibly even fights occasionally. That's just part of anywhere that you have any competition." ARE YOU FEARFUL AT ALL THAT IT COULD LEAD TO TRAGEDY? "No, not really. I think that we're all smart enough that you only take it to a certain extent. It's not like you're going out on these high-speed race tracks that you're wrecking people and all that. No, I think we're all smart enough to keep it to what it is. It's that competitive spirit that makes us good at what we do and that's what fuels those rivalries, too. But as far as anything happening any further than that, no." HOW HAS MONEY CHANGED THE RIVALRIES OVER THE YEARS? "I don't think that's really affected things. I think competition affects it. I don't think money really factors into the equation." THIS RACE IS ALWAYS AN INDICATOR OF WHO MIGHT WIN THE TITLE. WHY? "I think that you find the teams that are poised to win the championship doing well here and, yeah, I think it's a pretty good indication. It has been over the years. If your team is doing well enough to race well here, then you've got to probably be doing well at most different type of race tracks. So I think this is a good indication as to who we can really look at. It's not necessarily who wins it, although certainly you can make a case there, but the teams that run in the top 10 here are teams you can look for to be a part of the championship, I think." IS POCONO STILL AN INDICATOR OF WHO WILL DO WELL HERE? "Yeah, but probably not quite as much as we used to see, but if you've got a team and car that does well there, I think you could bring it here and expect to at least compete. But there are some changes that you have to make between the two places now because of how important aerodynamics are." IS THIS PLACE STILL KIND OF A FISH OUT OF WATER PLACE FOR STOCK CARS? "With the lack of banking that we have, as you carry speed and make more speed through the corner, which we do and which we've done with aerodynamics and getting the cars as soft as they are in the front, you're traveling faster down the straightaway so it's gonna be harder to keep the car with the flat surface in the corner to keep it on the bottom. As we've gotten to a different type of tire here that's a little bit of a softer compound but more the softness of the sidewall and flexibility of it, I think that's when we see as the cars get probably 15-20 laps on them, you're gonna start to see the car slide around a lot in the corners. But that's what makes this place what it is. You have to get that balance. You have to decide if you're gonna go fast for 10 or 15 laps or you're gonna try to go at a good, hard pace for the 35 laps or so that you can run on fuel." SO IT'S STILL A ONE-BY-ONE KIND OF TRACK BY NECESSITY? "Yeah, pretty much. It's difficult for us to race side-by-side very long here." WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO RUN WELL OR NOT TO RUN WELL HERE? "I think to run well here, you obviously have to have a very good chassis combination. You've found something that not only works here but works at other race tracks. If you're on to that and can run well here, you can take that knowledge to a lot of other race tracks. If you don't have that, you're gonna be struggling at the other places. You may get it every once in a while, but not on a regular basis." IS THERE TIME TO RECOVER IF YOU STRUGGLE HERE? "Oh, there's still time, especially for people that have some testing left, but, yeah, you can still make things happen." HOW WILL BRISTOL CHANGE THINGS? "It doesn't change anything. It's just Bristol. It's the same thing. It's a crapshoot. You go there and try to stay out of trouble and run as good as you possibly can. If you have a good race car, then usually you can have a pretty good weekend because you're not having to drive every single lap crazy back in the middle of the pack. But it's always an entertaining race and will be interesting and entertaining again." DOES THE UNKNOWN THERE PUT ANY MORE PRESSURE ON OTHER RACES HEADING INTO THAT? "Not really. Every race has those hidden unknowns. If you ever get involved in a championship, you realize just what could happen at each and every race track and they're all kind of the same. Bristol, yeah, it's a little more so because somebody else's mistake can catch you and make for a long day for you, but you can say that about any track. So it doesn't put any more pressure. There's pressure everywhere we go." IS TIP-TOEING AT BRISTOL IMPOSSIBLE EVEN IF YOU WANT TO DO IT? "It's totally impossible. If you want to tip-toe, you're gonna find yourself getting lapped before long because the leaders can come in such a hurry. There are certain situations that you may find yourself able to be a little bit more cautious, but, for the most part, it's going hard every single lap." YOU STARTED YOUR DAY ON THE GOLF COURSE. HOW DID YOUR ROUND GO TODAY? "Yeah, it's a good place to start the day. You can't beat that - play golf in the morning and get on the race track in the afternoon so we need more places like this. It was fun. I got to play with Eddie Cheever and couple of media people and it was fun. We hit some good shots, but we should have played more than four holes that's the only thing, but the fans were great." YOU GOT A CALL FROM PHIL MICKELSON AS WELL? "Yeah, I got a call from Phil Mickelson early this morning. I assume he was at home. I didn't ask him where he was, but he was up bright and early to give me a call. He wanted to know if I was working on my game for when we get the opportunity to play next year at the Doral in early March. My game's not very good, but I told him I'd work hard on it." WHAT'S THE REACTION TO THE SPONSOR WE'VE HAD RECENTLY? "It's like it's always been. I understand that there are going to be competing products and sponsors. We came really close to winning the race at Michigan that was sponsored by a competing company of UPS, but we wouldn't have gone in there and torn everything down. That's just the way it's always been. I'm a Coca-Cola guy and we've won races at Daytona in July when it was another soda sponsor, so you go in there and you can maneuver your way around without covering stuff up. People are paying money to be a part of this and it takes all of that to make all of this happen. Everybody has different ways of going about it, but I think we all need to look and respect and appreciate what we have here and that's a lot of different companies. They can compete on their own in different ways with different things, but whenever somebody has paid for the rights to be there in victory lane, then maneuver yourself around. You don't have to be a part of that and nobody is asking you to drink that product or anything, but there are other ways to go about it." DO YOU THINK IT STARTED BY COMPANIES THAT WANT THEIR DRIVERS TO KNOCK THE BOTTLES OFF? "I think they were being told to do that, yeah. That's unfortunate that they felt they had to do that, instead of just stepping aside and having the interview somewhere else. First off, they shouldn't be being told what to do and then, second, when it comes to something like that, I think you can go find a solution without it being that noticeable. NASCAR gave them fair warning, so you can't blame them for that."

Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Keep It Genuine Taurus, won the Brickyard 400 in 1997 - the only time that an owner/driver has won the prestigious event. He later won the pole while driving for Robert Yates Racing (in 2000). Rudd met with the media this afternoon as part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Champion Chat.

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Keep It Genuine Taurus - HAS YOUR APPRECIATION FOR YOUR VICTORY HERE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? "I would say it's probably grown a little bit. When you win it is a big deal, don't get me wrong, but then you don't gate a chance to enjoy it, I think we were testing the next day somewhere else, so you don't get a chance to let it soak in and enjoy it. As time goes on, I think the win is always going to mean a lot to me as a driver, but another thing I never really considered is there's not a whole lot of owners in this garage area that has won this race before, so that's something I'm probably, as time goes on, I'm even more proud of." WHERE DO YOU HAVE THE BRICK? "Where's the brick? I'm not sure where the brick is. I know where the trophy is. We had a flood in our basement the other week and our trophy is pretty much destroyed right now, so I'm going to have to get it re-built." AND THE CHECK IS LONG GONE? "The check has been spent. The check bought the house that destroyed the trophy." AS YOUR CAREER WINDS DOWN, IS THE VICTORY HERE SOMETHING YOU CAN HANG YOUR HAT ON? "Like I say, my career's definitely on the winding down process, and when you do retire and you look back and you see tat some races are going to carry more importance than others. I would say this race definitely carries a lot of importance. It's one of the biggest races I ever won. But, it's weird the way it works. In my mind, in 1971 I won the national championship go-kart race down the street. That rates up there pretty close to this. Again, obviously there wasn't a check that day, there was just a trophy, but my early career in go-kart racing was to try and win the big one and we were able to do that. The biggest race, obviously, in Cup racing that I've won to this point has been the Brickyard, and that will always mean something special in that way." HOW ABOUT AS THE SPORT CHANGES? YOU'RE LOSING THE SOUTHERN 500, WHICH WAS ALWAYS A BIG ONE. THERE SEEMS TO BE FEWER OPPORTUNITIES. "This race, people rate it differently as far as importance. It was important to me because, my background, I thought I was going to go Indy Car racing, and it ended up not going that direction., so to come here to the Speedway and race stock cars and then eventually win here, it means a little more importance to me than maybe it would be a guy that grew up racing circle tracks all his life." THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT RACE AND TRACK POSITION IS SO IPORTANT, BUT THE QUALIFYING SITUATION IS SO MUCH THE LUCK OF THE DRAW, AND WEATHER. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THAT QUALIFYING PROCESS HERE CHANGED SOMEHOW? "It definitely is not fair for everybody. The perfect condition would be the temperature doesn't change, it stays overcast and everybody has an even chance. But, moving it to 10 o'clock in the morning, I'm not sure exactly how many years ago they did that. We won a pole, but I'm not sure if it was at the 10 o'clock starting point or not. This race pays very little to win the pole. There's not very much importance on winning the pole other than the prestige side of it. But, there's some guys that will go home that won't qualify that had they gotten a draw earlier in the day they might've had a chance to make it - they're right there on the fence. The only way to make it fair is to run qualifying from 6 to 8 or run it from 8 to 10. That's about the only fair way you could ever do it here. I'm sure that not able to work it out for all the radio broadcasts and stuff, but the time that they start it is probably about the fairest that they can do." SOMETHING LIKE SEVEN OF THE LAST 10 HAVE WON FROM INSIDE THE 10TH STARTING POSITION... "I'm not really sure of the stats - you guys are probably good at researching that. We came here one time and qualified on the pole with the Yates car and another time we qualified fifth. We had a bad draw, we should've had a shot at the pole, but we didn't get it, we qualified fifth, and we went on to run good that day. But, the luck of the draw can make you or break you here." AS YOU LOOK BACK AT YOUR CAREER, YOU HAD THE WIN AT THE BRICKYARD, YOU HAD A WIN A YEAR FOR MANY, MANY YEARS. HOW DOES THIS WIN RATE? "Sixteen years, but who's really keeping track of that? The Brickyard win is definitely the biggest - other than your first win at a Cup circuit many years ago at Riverside, California. I remember that because we struggled for a long time to get that first victory. But the win at the Brickyard, it's a big event. It's just a real big event. The pay is awfully good, but the paycheck, that thought process didn't even enter into it until Monday or Tuesday. It was all about prestige and history of this place - which means a lot." YOU SAID EARLIER THAT YOU HAD A FLOOD IN YOUR BASEMENT. HOW MUCH GOT DESTROYED? "I lost some stuff that's hard to replace - some old photos, trophies and the Brickyard trophy. I'm sure it can be re-built, but it's pretty sorry looking now. It's kind of crumbled in a few pieces, so hopefully we need to get a replacement, or get that one rebuilt." THERE HAD TO BE A LOT OF MEMORIES. YOU PROBABLY WALKED DOWN THERE AND WENT, 'OH, MAN.' "Well, it shouldn't have been in the basement in the closet to begin with. It should've been out on display someplace. That's where it was until we got a chance to figure what we were going to do with it. This life we live is so fast-paced, it sat there while we going to find a place for it where we'd really like for it to sit, and we never did." WHEN YOU STARTED IN THIS SPORT, THE OWNERS, REALLY THE WOOD BROTHERS ARE THE ONLY ONES LEFT. WHY HAVE THEY BEEN ABLE TO SURVIVE OVER THE YEARS WHILE OTHERS HAVE FALLEN BY THE WAYSIDE? "They're awfully smart people. Leonard was an engineer in this business before engineers really showed up. They're very smart, first of all. They're good business people. And, they're learned to adapt. The partnership with Roush that they've built up over the years has helped keep them stable. They've been able to adapt with the teams, where maybe some of the car owners in the past maybe were a little not as able to adapt to the change in times that these guys were. They've been flexible. You know, moving from Stuart, Virginia, was a tough decision, but it was the right business decision for them to do, so they let all their feelings aside and they made the right business decision for the team. And that's it's all about survival and these guys have done a good job of being survivors in a tough sport." DO YOU FEEL LIKE THEY'RE CLOSE TO RETURNING TO VICTORY LANE WITH YOU IN THE CAR. "We haven't had a very good year, for sure. It hasn't been as competitive as we had liked to. They haven't given up - you wouldn't know that from track results, but we saw some encouragement last week at Pocono, which is a good tune-up before you come to Indy. We finished 12th, which normally you would hang your head and say, 'That was a bad run,' but we saw progress. We could've very easily finished fifth to 15th - we were in a group of cars that was running together. So, a 12th-place finish with some stuff that they had been doing differently to the cars had showed up with some good progress at Pocono. Hopefully, we'll build on that for Indy." WHAT IS IT SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE AURA OF THIS TRACK? "I think it's different for everybody. To me, it's real special because I came here as a kid racing go-karts down the street at Raceway Park and our registration was right here at the Brickyard Crossing Hotel. We got a chance to tour the race track at that time. When I first started racing at Indy, the national championships - I was 11 years old and finally won the national championship when I was 13 years old - but going to the Brickyard Crossing Hotel, and looking over and seeing the big speedway. I had never seen anything like this. I never was exposed to the Daytona facility, but this was the biggest race track I had ever seen in my life, and thinking the way we race go-karts that generally led yu down the path to race at Indy someday. I knew at that time I wanted to come back and race here. I didn't really make the career choice, it just sort of worked out that stock cars was the right thing for me to do, and no regrets, but I never would've had a chance to race here. So, the reason is special for me because I came here as a young child, saw the facility, saw the museum, saw the history and I wanted to be a part of someday." WHAT, BESIDES THE SIZE, IMPRESSED YOU MOST ABOUT THIS TRACK WHEN YOU WERE A KID? "At that time we came in there were old garages, they looked like horse stables. And taking the tour through here and seeing, 'Hey, there's where A.J. Foyt's car, that's where they parked the last race,' and over there was, gosh, all the famous guys that have raced here over the years and seeing their garage stalls with their names on the wall and stuff. That was pretty cool. And I've never seen a race track this big. I'm not sure if the bricks were there or not, but just to see a race rack that was, to me, was like a modern facility. I had been used to seeing sort of rundown race tracks as a kid, and seeing a facility kept up this nice, the grass looking perfect. It was just a neat-looking race track." WHAT WAS IT LIKE DRIVING INTO TURN ONE IN '94, WITH FANS ON BOTH SIDES? "That's what's unique about Indy - coming down the front straightaway and having fans on both sides, that's pretty unique, and I think that's what makes it special here, to see the crownds on both sides. But, you know, we were one of only four or five of us came here, must've been late '80s or early '90s and they called it a Goodyear tire test, it was more or less an experiment to see if the Cup cars could adapt to this race track. To me, the novelty of it, we experienced it earlier than a lot of competitors did, by being one of those selected four or five and being able to come in a test it. I remember going through some of those emotions the first time sailing off down in those corners. At that time it seemed like, I think we ran a lap time of somewhere around 55 seconds. Now were running in the 49-, 48-second bracket, but even at 55 seconds I remember going down into the corner and thinking we're 190, 195 miles an hour down the straightaway, 'These corners look awfully sharp.' They looked pretty intimidating. When we first got here." WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF DRIVING AT THIS RACE TRACK? "I think adjusting to the temperature changes, the flat corners. Even when you're handling good, the cars tend to slip and slide here quite a bit. Just trying to find a set-up here, it's really difficult to try and find a set-up that works good and works good for an entire gas run. It's not easy to do. You find a set-up that'll work good for a couple of laps and then it seems like your car falls off more than the guy who is the guy to beat that day. So, you got to work on longevity and it's not an easy thing to accomplish here."