Checker Auto Parts 500 - Rookie Friday Quotes

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER HAPPY HOUR QUOTES FOR THE CHECKER AUTO PARTS 500 NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2005.

KYLE BUSCH IN THE No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE DURING THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION FOR THE CHECKER AUTO PARTS 500. “We’ve got a lot of work that we need to do to the car. It’s not excellent; it’s not the way it needs to be. It’s always tight in the center. We’ve been able to work on it some more and were able to get it a little bit better there but once we do we get it loose off so we’ve got to make some changes still to make it better.”

QUALIFYING IS SCHEDULED FOR TOMMOROW MORNING. “This is probably about the temp that we’ll be qualifying in. It might even be a little bit warmer, but circumstances should be pretty similar.”

WILL THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT WITH THE TRUCK RACE AND BUSCH QUALIFYING? “Probably not. There’s about as much rubber as you’re going to get out there right now. There’s quite a bit. The only thing that’s going to change is that the upper groove is going to come in after the Busch race but that’s not going to be any situation for us until the Cup race.”

YOU RAN WELL HERE IN THE SPRING. IS THE TRACK DIFFERENT FOR THIS RACE? “It’s pretty much the same ol’ Phoenix. You’ve just got to keep on working the same things, which is the tight in the center and trying to get the thing to drive off really well without making it too free.”

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER FEATURE FOR THE CHECKER AUTO PARTS 500 NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2005.

A large percentage of NEXTEL Cup teams chose to travel directly from Texas Motor Speedway to Phoenix International Raceway, while others returned to their shops in North Carolina. Transport drivers Dean Mozingo and Bill Lewis discuss the positives and negatives of each logistical approach.

DEAN MOZINGO, TRUCK DRIVER, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: WHY DID THIS TEAM DECIDE TO GO DIRECTLY FROM TEXAS TO PHOENIX? “It saves money, it’s easier on the guys to just bring the stuff out and swap it there [at Texas]. You don’t get to go home, we’re out here for 13 days straight, but other than that it saves us money and it’s pretty much a lot easier than going all the way back. My test truck driver came in Monday morning and we switched everything out. It took us about five hours. All the guys helped us out on the Hendrick team. If we go back from Texas to the shop, it’s 1,100 miles and then you’ve got 1,100 miles back to the place where you started, so that’s 2,200 miles of driving that you don’t have to do. It saves a lot of money on fuel and wear and tear on the guys going back and forth. It’s just a lot easier that way.” BECAUSE OF THE SCHEDULE AND MORE WEST COAST RACES, WILL WE SEE MORE TEAMS DO THIS? “I’d say probably, eventually, yeah. The Michigan to Sonoma trip could be done and it would save money. It depends on where they keep building tracks at, too.” ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVES TO THIS APPROACH? DOES IT PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT THE TRUCK IS PROPERLY STOCKED? “I’m sure it probably would on other teams, but our guys are so organized that you don’t have to second-guess it. You just unload it off one and put it onto the other and that’s just the way it is. The guys are so organized at Hendrick Motorsports that we just rely on the guys in the shop. What we need is there, regardless.” THIS STRETCH FROM PHOENIX TO HOMESTEAD IS TOUGH. “This is the last race of the year and it makes it pretty easy. These three in a row, from Texas to Phoenix to Homestead, it wears on you, it really does. Especially on guys like me driving the transporters because we’ve got to be back Tuesday from here and then we’ll leave again Wednesday and go to Homestead. It doesn’t give you a lot of time at home or anything. I’d like to see that a little different, have a little bit more time you have from a long two weeks like this to get caught up and then leave but that’s the way the schedule is.” IS THERE ANY WAY TO MAKE THE SCHEDULE BETTER? “Not really, not the way the schedule is. I couldn’t really see switching anything around. The schedule is fine the way it is. It really just puts a lot of pressure on the guys to get things ready. That’s the business we’re in and we know it. We just make it happen.” DO YOU HAVE TO BE A BIG TEAM LIKE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS TO KEEP UP WITH THE SCHEDULE? “I wouldn’t say that. I’d say any team that’s organized and puts a lot of effort into organizing their shop and their people, I don’t think it has to be a Hendrick team that can do it. Anybody can do what we do; it just takes a lot of organization. Organizing and preparing, that’s the key to everything.”

BILL “STUMP” LEWIS, TRUCK DRIVER, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: WAS GOING BACK TO THE SHOP AND THEN TO PHOENIX A BIG DEAL? “To me it wasn’t that big of a deal. That’s what the crew chief wanted to do. He’s always worried about leaving something or something is not going to be put on the car. The car we raced has got the air conditioning unit in it and all that stuff and we might need something off that to go in this car that we’re going to race. It wasn’t that big of a deal. We got out of there about 9 o’clock at night [Sunday night after Texas] and we were back home by 11 or 11:30 [Monday morning]. We unloaded the truck and all the guys were there. I helped them get some stuff on and then I went on home and went to bed. I got up [Tuesday] morning and left at 10:30, 11 o’clock and came on back out and we were back here at 11:30 our time Wednesday night. You didn’t have time to mess around. You had to go. The only thing that would really be a problem would be if you really had something go wrong and had a breakdown. You would have been in a scramble. But I get paid the same either way so it doesn’t make any difference [laughs].” WOULD GOING DIRECTLY TO PHOENIX FROM TEXAS SAVE THE TEAM MONEY? “It’s the same thing. If we came from Texas, you’re going to pay me per diem every day to sit out here because I’m away from home and you’ve going to have to pay the guys that run the test truck fuel and all so to me, it’s really more costly, if you look at it that way. You’re paying me per diem for staying out here and you’re going to have to pay them per diems for bringing the stuff out and going back. It would be easier and an lot less stressful [not going back to North Carolina] because when you get here you’d have a couple of days to get away from it and the way I done it, it was every day, every day. But that’s the way it supposed to be. When we were a one-car team, I done it all anyway. I done the testing and everything. It wasn’t nothing new to me.” DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE MORE TEAMS SWAPPING OUT ON TRIPS TO THE WEST COAST? “I think you’re going to see a lot more of it because they’re knocking down a lot of the testing that we can do next year so the test trucks are going to be more free and I think that’s what you’re going to see.”