Jimmie Johnson
#48 Lowe's Chevrolet
Winner
This was an amazing run and we had to start from the back. We had a flat tire at one point. We had an alternator and battery issue. We had to change batteries under a pit stop. We just overcame a lot of stuff. The guys did an incredible job of keeping their cool in the pits and changing out what we needed. Chad made a lot of great adjustments. We were burning up the right rear tire and he worked some stuff around to take the load off the tire. It was just a great night of teamwork. I can't thank these guys enough. I had a great race car. There was no doubt. And there were times I felt I couldn't really lean on him because I'd abuse the right rear tire and tear it up. But these guys kept me in the game all night long and I owe it to them.
FOUR WINS IN A ROW..IS THIS THE TOUGHEST ONE?
I don't really think about that stuff. I guess when I go home maybe it'll sink in a little bit. I kind of forgot the night -- it's been such a long night. And we had to start at the back. To get a fourth win here -- I couldn't pick a better place. I can't believe we did this. This shows what this team is made of.
ON THE CHASE
I really feel this championship is about not losing it. Tony (Stewart) had the dominant car tonight. If it didn't get out from underneath him, he probably would have won the race and it would be a different story. We've just got to do our job and not make any more mistakes -- especially on my part, and not tear the car up or do anything stupid and we'll be in pretty good shape.
Chad Knaus
Crew Chief
#48 Lowe's Chevrolet
PIT LANE INTERVIEW:
The thing about this Lowe's team is they never give up. In the face of diversity, this team is so strong. We had a bad week at Talladega and then we had a good race at Kansas. That's what we needed to get back in the hunt. These guys worked so hard today. We had tire issues battling back and forth between scuffs and stickers and battery changes and all that stuff. We've got the best race car driver, the best team, the best engines -- we're pretty fortunate.
Winner Press Conference
Jimmie Johnson (driver) , Chad Knaus (crew chief), Rick Hendrick (team owner)
#48 Lowe's Chevrolet
ON BEING TIED WITH TONY STEWART FOR THE LEAD IN THE POINT STANDINGS
JOHNSON
Yeah, we're definitely excited to be where we are in points. But in the first five events, nobody can predict what can happen. We're going to work as hard as we can and put 100 percent in and see where we end up. We did that last year and came up eight points short. We'll do it again this year and if it's meant to be, it's meant to be it's meant to be.
ON THE RESTART WITH THE NO. 21, WERE YOU CONCERNED WITH THE SMOKE COMING OFF THE LEFT FRONT?
JOHNSON
I was really concerned. Usually when you can smell a tire rub, you know it's pretty bad. I could tell in Chad's voice and my spotter's voice that it was pretty severe. I moved up the race track to try to keep the left front from traveling as far and hitting the fender as hard. I'm not sure if that really changed much. But I think the tire eventually cleared itself and moved the fender out and everything was fine from there. The No. 01 was on the outside of the No. 21 and I know that the top side is going to carry the speed. So I moved up and was following the No. 01 down the backstretch. The No. 21 felt like he could come up into that hole. There just wasn't enough room. I let off and we still clipped each other and it pushed the fender in.
KNAUS
Obviously we were very concerned at that point in time. We didn't exactly know why the fender was rubbing. We couldn't see that he'd gotten together with the No. 21 car. So we didn't know what was going on. We thought maybe something had broken in the chassis or what have you. So we just told him to back off a little and take it easy. He did the right thing by moving up the race track because the car won't travel as much when you go up there. It was the right thing to do. We could have pitted, but I didn't really feel like the tire was going to be the issue. If it was rubbing the topside of the fender, it wasn't enough to hurt the tire itself. It was dramatic.
ON LOOKING OUT FOR THE TIRES AND ON THE POINTS DEDUCTION FROM NASCAR ABOUT KEEPING YOUR PRESSURES RIGHT
KNAUS
Yeah, Mr. Hendrick actually told me about the points issue and if you weren't inflated enough to Goodyear's recommended pressure. We didn't have an issue with that because we were well above that all day long. If there was an issue, it wouldn't have been a result of low air pressure. It would have been an actual tire or surface problem. We opted the majority of the day to run 7th, 8th, or 9th and let some of those other guys take off. We decided to chase the rabbit. We could have easily gone up there and raced with those guys, but it just was not time. The guys who were going fast were the ones having tire issues. Our plan from the very beginning was just to maintain on the lead lap until halfway and they try to get further up there. But we had some issue creep up that even put us further in the back with the alternator and changing the battery.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN PRECISELY WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE ALTERNATOR AND THE BATTERIES?
KNAUS
No, not yet. I've got to look at it. It wasn't working. I don't really know what was going on. I know the No. 01 and No. 18 had some problems today. I don't know. We've got to get home and take a look at it. We were running very low. Since we were back so far, we decided to change the batteries and make sure we didn't have an issue. But the batteries we took out of the car were actually in pretty decent shape and we could have left them in there. It was better to be safe than sorry.
ON THE ROUSH MANIFEST:
HENDRICK
I knew this was going to come up when I came in here. I think Jack is making a case on his situation and maybe our situation and the multi-car team situation. I haven't seen anything in writing (from NASCAR) and what the plan really is. So I'm just really going to try and worry about winning this championship and not really focus on that.
DID NASCAR TELL YOU PERSONALLY THAT THERE WOULD BE PENALTIES IF TIRES WEREN'T PROPERLY INFLATED, DID NASCAR TELL YOU AN EXACT NUMBER OF POINTS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT?
HENDRICK
Jim Hunter walked in our pits and said we're going to check the tire pressures. What I didn't understand in the beginning was if you blow a tire and hit the wall and your pressures were too low, we're going to take points. And I thought, well how are you going to check pressures in a right front after the wreck. So then we were told they were coming through checking them and if your pressures were too low that they could take points.
WERE THEY SPECIFIC ON THE NUMBER OF POINTS?
HENDRICK
No, they didn't really say.
WITH THE TIRES FAILURES AND THE TRACK SURFACE, DID YOU FEEL IT WAS SAFE TO RACE?
JOHNSON
The track was predictable and easy to drive from my standpoint inside the car. We started the first run and I was working my way through traffic and wasn't abusing the car. We pulled those tires off the car and Chad told me I needed to take care of the right rear because it was blistering. And I was tight on that run. I was wondering how in the world could I be hurting a tire right now? From inside the cockpit -- and even last night in the Busch car when I blew a right front -- I didn't feel anything wrong going on or bad taking place that would cause a tire to go. So there really a lot of warning for the driver if you're being too abusive or not. There are a lot of theories going around as to why and how. The big thing I think as a team is we can see is that the tires are building so much heat from being so hard that the heat is becoming an issue from running that hard.
ON NASCAR MANDATING PRESSURES DURING A RACE
KNAUS
Do you not see what I go through every week? They tell me what shocks and body and springs and everything else. It's not a big deal. They have to do, in the interest of safety, what they deem necessary. That's what they did tonight. Maybe there were some people below minimum inflation tonight. If they were, and they had a tire issue, it cures itself. You're only going to go out there a couple of times and have a problem. They do what they do to make sure we have a safe and competitive race and that the drivers are able to walk away.
Joe Nemechek
#01 U.S. Army Chevrolet
4th position
GREAT RUN BUT I KNOW YOU MUST BE A BIT DISAPPOINTED WITH YOUR FINISH
Yeah, a little bit disappointed but it just shows how good this Army team is. Jimmie got me there just a little bit, running in the corner. My car got a little bit tight right in the middle. He was able to take advantage of that and then the other guys came up through there. I thank Hendrick Motorsports (for) awesome power. All the guys at the fab shop. It was a great race car and we're going to keep on going.
Denny Hamlin
#11 FedEx Express Chevrolet
8th position
Note: Best finish for #11 Chevrolet in 2005
GREAT RUN TONIGHT
Yeah, we had a really great car. The FedEx Express Chevrolet was really good tonight. I wish we would have got that top 5, but a top 10 in only my second start is a great accomplishment for us. This team has had a tough time this year and these guys deserve it. I'm not sure if it's their best finish of the year? Is it? Yes, so I just don't know what to say. I'm living the dream right now.
WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT YOUR ABILITIES?
Well, I'm not known as a big mile-and-a-half track guy. I'm just a short-track guy. I really run well on the short tracks. I've only had like one top 10 on a mile-and-a-half all year long and including the Busch cars so to do it in the Cup Series in my second Cup start, I really.it's a big confidence booster for sure.
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AT THE END WHEN YOU WERE IN THE TOP THREE?
Had the caution not come out we would have for sure had a top 5. It's just one of those deals-one guy gets a bad start and it's a chain reaction and I really got the short end of the deal. I didn't expect to run where we were, so I'm not disappointed where we finished.
WHEN ARE YOU SCHEDULED TO RUN THIS CAR AGAIN IN 2005?
Next week at Martinsville and then at Atlanta.
Brian Vickers
#25 GMAC/ditech.com Chevrolet
12th position
TALK ABOUT THE NIGHT
There was no enjoyment in the kind of racing we had out there. It was worse than I expected, more frustrating than anything else. We were worried about our tires lasting 30 laps, that's crazy. I'm not going to point any fingers, but I think both the track and Goodyear know what they could've have done to avoid what took place. Fortunately, we chose to play it safe and can home with a good result. The finish should really help us in the points.
Jeff Burton
#31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
14th position
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
We had a piece of rubber get between the belt and the pulley and knocked the pulley off the power steering. The way the set-ups are running and stuff, you just can't drive it without power steering. It's not like it used to be. We had to go to the back and finish. We had a great car. Part of the way through the race, we didn't have a real good stop and I pulled out and got the right front fender tore off of it. That hurt us but we still had a top six or seven car.
Tony Stewart
#20 The Home Depot Chevrolet
25th position
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NIGHT
We did the best with what we had. We had the fastest car all night. I was listening to a stat Zippy was telling me-42 out of 43 cars had tire problems, so welcome to the wonderful world of racing. It was just a weird night.
WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS SITUATION?
I don't think it was Goodyear's fault. You can't blame Goodyear when they didn't know there was a change. So, you know, it's a bad set of circumstances that started before the May race and everybody involved did their part to make it as good as they could. I don't know that you can point the finger at anybody. Everybody tried to make it better. This is just what we had to deal with tonight. We'll take our lumps and we'll go on from here. Everybody can point fingers all they want, but everybody involved-from NASCAR, Humpy and Goodyear-everybody involved did everything they thought they could do to solve the problem and make it safer for all of us. You can't ask for them to do anything more than that.
CAN YOU TELL WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE?
How can I tell what the problems were? I'm in one of 43 cars out there. I don't know. You know more about what the problems were more than I do because you go to see all the problems that everybody had. I don't know what the problems were. I just know from my standpoint that we cut a tire down and we had the fastest car all night and we ended up 25th.
YOU'RE TIED WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON FOR FIRST PLACE IN THE POINTS RIGHT NOW
Who cares. It was the most screwed up night I've ever seen, so all I want to do is just go home right now, I don't care about anything else right now.
STEWART PRESS CONFERENCE:
DID YOU HAVE TO RACE AT 80% OR ANY LESS?
We ran the first two stints and Zippy told me on the radio just to ease my mind that our tires looked perfect. What kind of frustrated you about it is that NASCAR steps in, tells you what tire pressure which totally dictates how your car is going to handle. So, they stepped in. I say this, I'm frustrated about it, but they did what they thought was in the best interest of safety for all of us. We make the adjustment and the next thing you know, we have a problem. You know, it's just one of them screwed up nights. Like Biffle said, he thought he could make up points. We were pulling away in the points tonight. We had the best car all night, we should have been 100 points ahead in the lead tonight, we left here and instead I'm tied for the lead tonight. Nothing like feeling like you've got your hands tied behind your back.
SO, DID YOU HOLD BACK?
I never held it back. I never knew we were supposed to run at 80%. If NASCAR or Goodyear or Humpy would have told us that, we would have ran 80%. To the best of my knowledge we were supposed to race and race hard and that's what we did. I just think it's pretty screwed up and listening to some of the comments tonight I think there's a lot of screwed up people.
IS THERE COMFORT KNOWING THE TRACKS YOU'RE GOING TO DON'T HAVE CHANGES MADE TO THEM?
You know what, in this series, nothing surprises me anymore. NASCAR may tell us again what air pressures to run. We don't know from week to week. Who knows what's going to happen. I thought I'd seen all the craziest things I think I could see in this sport, it just proved to me that there will be something else down the road that will keep that line open in my head that we're not done seeing different things happen.
Kevin Harvick
#29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet
28th position
Note: Hit the wall on Lap 171
I ASSUME YOU'RE ALRIGHT
Yeah, everything's fine. I just got a set of tires. This is the biggest joke in racing that I've ever seen, with tires going down and it's just terrible. Everybody saw it coming last night and out there, not willing, but just knowing that at any time the tires are going to go. It's pretty disgusting and pretty embarrassing for our sport.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS?
Yeah, throw the checkered flag and get the hell out of here.
Michael Waltrip
#15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet
29th position
Note: Accident on Lap 278
WHAT HAPPENED?
The left rear tire was tore off of it I think. It blew out right when he (Jamie McMurray) was beside me and when it did, it turned me into Jamie and we wrecked. It looked like he probably hit me -- and maybe he hit me earlier and cut my tire -- I can't really remember because it happened so fast. But I definitely think that the reason why we spun was because of the left rear tire blowing out. Whether Jamie got into the side of me and did that, I don't know, but I'm just not sure.
YOU WERE HAVING A REALLY GOOD RUN TONIGHT
We had a really fast NAPA Chevy. I was really proud of my team and Tony Gibson and all those guys do a great job. I was just thankful to be in a car that fast. It's better to have a problem when you're running like that, in my opinion, than when you're running like crap all day long. And so, I'm all right.
Robby Gordon
#7 Jim Beam Chevrolet
32nd position
Note: Engine failure on Lap 278, retired from race.
WHAT HAPPENED?
I don't know what happened with the wreck. I think I was running, what, I think I had just gotten back into about 18th. It happened up in front of me. The reason I'm sitting here is no reason of the wreck-I lost a motor in turn 3 and 4 right off the same time of the wreck. So, I was trying to get out of the way and make sure we didn't oil down the race track.
IT WAS LOOKING LIKE A GREAT NIGHT FOR YOUR CAR
We had a really good car. The Jim Beam Chevrolet was very fast. Honestly we were easily a top 10 car all day. We started the night with a right rear flat tire on lap one or two and we fought ourselves back in the top 10. There at the end, we took four. A lot of guys took two and we were saving our two tires for the last stop and thought we might have a shot at it.
Scott Riggs
#10 Valvoline Chevrolet
33rd position
Note: Accident on Lap 267
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Valvoline Chevy was a little loose at the beginning. We kept making air pressure adjustments and got it feeling pretty good. We made some two-tire stops and four-tire stops to help with track position. It seemed like the car was pretty decent though. I thought we'd be able to cycle our way around and be able to get two tires at the end and put ourselves in position to get a solid finish. I thought at least a top-fifteen was feasible. But it didn't happen. There was a wreck in front of us and I didn't get slowed down in time. I tried, but unfortunately I got into the back of the zero car (Mike Bliss) and knocked the fender of our Valvoline Chevy in. There was no geometry or suspension damage-- just sheet metal damage. The guys thought they got it cleared off around the tire, but unfortunately something was still there. It cut the tire down, put us in the wall and killed our night.
Jeff Gordon
#24 DuPont Chevrolet
38th position
Note: Hit the wall on Lap 46
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
The two cars in front of me-Bobby Labonte and Casey Mears-got together and when they did it just sent my car right into the wall. It's just that the cars are going so fast out there. Aero dynamics plays such a role that it just took all the aero right off the front of my car and right into the wall.
YOU WERE MAKING YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT
I was real happy. These guys did an amazing job with this car. We lost some track position because we had a fast car and we went down to the bottom, and then I lost track position knowing, realizing that you can't pass on the bottom. And so we worked our way back through there and we were coming and we were having fun and then that happened. It's unfortunate.
WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS NOW?
It's tore up pretty good. We'll see what happens out there and we'll try to get back out there and learn some things. But, you know, we're not really out there for points right now, so if we go back out, it's just to get information.
Kyle Busch
#5 Delphi Chevrolet
39th position
Note: Hit the wall on Lap 150
ANY INDICATION OF WHAT WAS COMING?
No, no indication. The right front tire went down. There was nothing I could do. I'm only driving my car 85-90% out there. Not even pushing it the final 100% just because I'm scared to death from seeing all the other people with problems out there. It's just terrible circumstances out there to race in. It's not Goodyear's fault. It's not the race track's fault. It's just circumstances. It's a tough break. If NASCAR wants to throw a caution every 30 laps, that's what they're going to have to do to keep us out of the fence. Otherwise that's what's going to bring out the cautions: us.
ANY PROBLEMS WITH YOUR RIGHT FRONT TIRE BEFORE THAT?
No problems with our right front all day. We had a little bit of problems with our right rear. Watching it and trying not to abuse the right rear. We started blistering a little bit, some chunks were coming out of it, but no right front problems. I'm not sure what needs to happen here but I'm sure Humpy's thinking about repaving it now.
Bobby Hamilton, Jr.
#32 Tide Chevrolet
41st position
Note: Hit the wall on Lap 94
NOT THE WAY YOU WANTED TO HAVE YOUR NIGHT GO TONIGHT
The way they was having trouble with tires and the way our luck has been, I was scared to death tonight. I had a feeling.I just knew the way our luck was, we were going to wind up taking ourself out tonight, just because tire stuff or have a wreck or something. The right front went down, I don't know if we cut it. The way it looks, looks like something cut it. Everybody talked about how hard it was. It didn't do nothing, but it killed a race car. But, we're two for two this week.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
#8 Budweiser Chevrolet
42nd position
Note: Hit the wall on Lap 61
WHAT HAPPENED?
I blew a right front tire. I didn't have no warning, just blew going down the front straightaway. Hit the wall real hard. The car is tore up, we probably won't be able to get back out. It was really fast. I want to thank Tony Jr. and the Bud crew-they gave me an awesome car. And, I was going to have a great night. We were really running great and I was really excited. It's something for me and especially my fans to look forward to for next year.
DO YOU EXPECT OTHER PROBLEMS FOR OTHER DRIVERS WITH TIRES AND THESE HIGH-SPEED CRASHES?
I surely hope not. Hitting the wall that fast.it hurts. Luckily it happened to me on the straightaway, but hopefully nobody else has to have any problems tonight.
