Brickyard 400 - Rookie Friday Quotes

BILL DAVIS, CAR OWNER, #22 CATERPILLAR DODGE (Note: Davis is also a car owner in the NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series): WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE BUSCH SERIES RACING IN MEXICO CITY IN 2005? "To me, being a car owner in a struggling series is expensive and hard to go do. And do we have a lot of sponsors right now that are international and that are going to benefit? But that said it is an opportunity to maybe appeal to a new demographic, a new group of fans that may embrace our sport and embrace our sponsor's products. If that's the case and if that's the end result, then we've done a good thing." IS THIS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD GETTING A CUP RACE THERE? "Obviously, I'm not the one that has that answer or even a good guess but that could probably be a pretty good assumption made and again it's probably not a bad thing." COULD WE SEE A CUP TEAM ENTER A CAR IN THE RACE? "If there are some sponsors that are interested. Caterpillar is a great example of an international company that has a lot of presence in Mexico, offices in Mexico City and a lot of employees there. Could someone like that, and I'm not saying they would, but could someone like that have some interest? Sure, it could happen. It could generate some one-off sponsors to go down there." IS THE RACE A LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE? "Without doing the research, I don't know. I don't know how big of deal that is. But anything is do-able, and certainly there are other series that go back and forth there so there's a blueprint in place to figure all that out. There's a little bit more work and it will be, I imagine, relatively expensive. It is quite a ways down there from the Charlotte area but again; it may prove to be very beneficial to our sport in the long run. It might generate some new sponsorship interest from some companies down there and if so that's certainly what we need to do."

RAY EVERNHAM, CAR OWNER, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE: "A lot of it depends on if the sponsors want to go in those markets or if that can help bring more money in and more viewers. I don't know what the television packages are in Mexico but certainly there are a lot of fans down there and the Hispanic side of our sport can certainly grow. But it will cost a lot of money to go there. If you look at the Busch schedule for next year, those guys are going to be at California, Mexico, and Vegas so they are going to be out on the West Coast a long time. I hope that it's a good way of generating new fans and some income to be able to pay for that kind of stuff." DO YOU THINK WE WILL HAVE A CUP RACE THERE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? "I don't know. You never know. We ran some in Japan and everything and we never had a Cup race there. I guess a lot of it will be determined, again, on how much the sponsors want to support it and how good television does and really what the fan reaction is to it."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, #77 JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE (Note: Gaughan has extensive experience in off-road racing events in Mexico). "I think it's awesome. The best way to grow the sport is to get those markets that we're not in. Canada and Mexico are international markets that are close, very easy to get to. You can get to it on a weekend. Japan was an awesome deal but it took too much effort to get there. Mexico has race fans like you've never seen. I've raced in Mexico most of my life and the fans in Mexico are bigger fanatics than NASCAR fans in America. I think it's going to be a great opportunity for NASCAR to grow. The road course there is fantastic. I love the road races so I can't wait for the day that we get a Cup race there. I've got a lot of old fans from Mexico so I'm hoping that being one of the few drivers that can speak Spanish may work in my favor." WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN RACING THERE NEXT YEAR IF YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY? "Absolutely, if Mr. Penske will let me and they put something together. I'd have a great time doing it. I'd call a bunch of old friends and have some good tacos down there, man. I'd be ready to go." WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK? "I've watched the CART race that was down there. It's a beautiful facility. They've done a nice job. Anytime they build something of that caliber, especially when it comes to racing, which they love, it's going to be nice. They spent a lot of money doing it and it's a big, nice, facility. They actually have like a stadium that you drive into and drive underneath so you go right underneath the fans, underneath the bridge. It's a pretty awesome deal. It's going to be fun."

RICKY HENDRICK, OWNER, #25 GMAC CHEVROLET (Note: Hendrick also owns the #5 Lowe's Chevrolet piloted by Raybestos Rookie Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Busch Series): "I think when you originally bring it up some people immediately think of the old Japan deal. I think that's a little far fetched because they look at that as there's a lot more transportation involved in that whole trip and it wasn't a points race and they are looking at making this a points race. I think it's going to be neat. It's close to home. It shows you where NASCAR is going. You hear rumors about New York City and I think it's neat for the sport. You look at the sport 10 years ago and you look where it is now and you try to imagine what it's going to be like in another 10 years and there's really no telling what NASCAR can do with this thing. It's going to be interesting to see how it goes, but I think it's going to be fun. It's going to be neat for the drivers and neat for the sponsors and kind of give everybody a broader horizon and something to shoot for." IS IT ASKING A LOT FROM THE BUSCH TEAMS TO MAKE THAT KIND OF A TRIP? "It's tough. It is tough. It's kind of a double-edged sword there but I do understand where NASCAR is coming from and they're saying 'Hey, let's feel this thing out before we jump head first in it with the Cup Series.' I think it's going to be neat. I think it's going to give us an experience to go down there and see what it's like. That's going to be one of those races where it's going to be neat to say 'Hey, I won the first one in Mexico City.'" WILL THAT RACE SERVE AS A DRAWING CARD TO GET MORE SPONSORS INTERESTED IN THE SPORT? "I think we'll have to see how it goes. It's going to be neat. If they do it the way that everybody is imagining they are going to do it, it's going to be a huge, huge event. It's going to be one of our biggest races." DO YOU THINK THE CUP SERIES IS GOING TO RACE THERE IN A FEW YEARS? "I'm just going off the way NASCAR does things. I think they will feel it out with probably the truck series and the Busch Series and if everything goes well, they'll probably move the Cup Series to it." DO YOU THINK WE COULD POSSIBLY SEE A POINTS RACE IN EUROPE? "I would say that there is always a possibility but I'd say that you're looking somewhere around 2010, 2015. I really don't know that; trying to read their mind is like playing chess. I really can't go that far. I think it's neat, somewhere that's still close to home. You've got to have a passport to get there but it's still close to home and you can still get there with your 18-wheeler." AS A CAR OWNER, DO YOU HAVE LOGISTICAL CONCERNS ABOUT THE TRIP? "It's going to be tough. It makes me want to go take Spanish lessons. I took German in high school so I need to go take Spanish lessons. It's going to be fun. You look at the United States as a whole. The Spanish heritage is growing so fast in the United States, it goes to show where America is going and it goes to show where NASCAR is going."