Chevy American Revolution 400 - Dodge Friday Quotes

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Charger)

NOTE: Newman wrecked his Charger with about 30 minutes left in practice. The team switched to a backup Charger for Saturday’s race.

“I got a little high getting in and got the tires in the stuff and that was it. Our backup car seems to be really good. It’s a brand new racecar and I felt pretty comfortable with it in the last 20 minutes of practice. I think the one we wrecked is one we’ve run at Martinsville, but it’s been in the stable about three years ago.

“We got about 25 laps on the backup car, and it felt pretty good. To my knowledge everything is as it was before. I believe you can still win the pole. That’s my understanding. If you change after the impound procedure then you have to go to the back. We go out last in qualifying, so we’ll see what happens.

“I put the car in a vulnerable position going into turn one. It caught the marbles a little bit and shot it up the racetrack into the fence. That’s something to learn from. We had a real fast car. I’m disappointed in that, but I’m pretty confident that our backup car was about 98 percent of what that one was. We’ve got a shot at the pole.

“I’m happy to be running good. Some people struggled to get a top five at Darlington, let alone on old tires. Some people struggle to be No. 1 in practice. We were able to do that. I’m happy to be running good. Obviously we wish the results were better, but at least we’re running good.

“I’m really happy with the surface here. It’s kind of like we come back to a brand new racetrack every time they run off the sealer and wait for the racing to get good. I think the Busch race will be pretty good tonight. We had a good Busch test at Charlotte. It’s a lot of fun, and that should be a good experience for us. It’s a big race, anything in the backyard is big for bragging rights, but we’re going with the same amount of effort no matter where or when.

“I drove home and got a speeding ticket (Saturday night after Darlington race). I know today is Friday the 13th, but it’s Friday the 13th for everybody. It’s just another number. We haven’t had a lot of good luck lately, but you never use up your bad luck. We thought we’d done that before, but it doesn’t work out that way.”

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger)

“Our points look like a heart beat monitor this season. It just keeps going up and down. We have a really good week one week and a really bad week the next. Coming into Richmond we just want to have a good, solid day. If we can get out of here with a top 10 it would be good for us. Going into Darlington and Richmond, if we could get through with top 15s that would put us where we needed to be in points as far as having a chance to attack the top 10. The crash at Darlington set us back pretty good, but we just need to have some solid finishes. We’ve had some strong performances. Our team has shown signs of brilliance this year where we run up front and contend to win races, but we just haven’t done it on a consistent level. That’s what we need to do now. We need to get more consistency and finish in the top 15 and top 10, even the top 20. When you get caught up in crashes or have some sort of problem that’s out of your control and puts you 30th or 40th, that’s what kills your points. We’ve just got to be more consistent.”

COMMENT ON THE TARGET HOUSE PROGRAM “It’s a real cool deal. A lot of people are aware of Target House and what they do for St. Jude’s. Every year we’ve done a special paint scheme on my helmet. This year the kids did a bunch of special paint schemes in advance and we chose the helmet we like the best. We’re going to go to Target House and talk to the kids that painted the helmets. Also, we’re just going to see them again. It’s an awesome place. If you haven’t been to a place like Target House it’s pretty amazing just to see what they do to those kids. I’m just proud to be a part of that.”

WHAT’S BEEN MISSING THIS SEASON? “That’s a good question. We’ve been trying to find that. Really, it’s been several stupid little things that happened at a lot of races this year. We can’t say here’s an area we need to work on. Every weekend something new comes up. Little things like getting paper on the grill or having a flat tire or getting caught up in a crash. It hasn’t been our inconsistencies. It’s been inconsistencies out of our control. The deal at Darlington was my fault. The car was really loose and I hit the fence, but other than that, it seems like something has happened at each race. The two clean races we’ve had this year, where I can honestly say nothing went wrong, maybe it didn’t go the best but nothing went wrong, was Texas and Las Vegas and those were our two best finishes. I think the key for us this year is not so much doing everything right but just not doing anything wrong. If we could do that we can have some good finishes.”

WILL YOU WATCH INDY QUALIFYING? “Absolutely, I’ll watch Indy 500 qualifying if I get a chance. That’s something that’s special. It always has been and always will be. It’s unfortunate the state of motor racing right now in the United States. It’s still going to be a special race. It always will be. Some day if we can make it happen I’d love to run it. They’ve made it a little more difficult now moving the starting time of the 500. Doing the double is going to be really difficult, but hopefully some time in the future that’s something I get to do. It’s definitely something I follow.”

DID YOU THINK YOU’D END UP RUNNING IN THE IRL? “Yes, I was focused 110 percent on going open wheel racing and running Indy cars. The fact that I came this direction is completely surprising to me. I can’t believe I’m even here. That year in 2001 we had a struggling year. I only ran three races with Galles Racing, which was a nightmare. Then I got to fill in for Alex Zinardi for the rest of the season when he got in a crash in Germany. What an honor to do that. We had a really good experience the year before that, finishing fourth for Rahal in my first Indy car race. It just seemed like I was going to go in that direction. It was starting to get fired up. Between the split in IRL, it diluted the sport so bad and it was kind of confusing at that time what was going to be the premiere racing series to go with. I got an opportunity to try Busch out and got an opportunity to come over on this side and see how things are. I think a lot of times on the open wheel side of things you get so focused on what you’re doing you don’t tend to look at what’s going on around you. I think a lot of guys are living in the dark when they try to say open wheel racing was the best racing in the world and I was one of those guys until I got an opportunity to come in this direction and really see how big NASCAR is and how much fun the racing is. It’s funny because the first couple of years I raced stock cars I had a big desire to go back to open wheel and run. Now the longer I’m here, and the more I learn about this sport, the more fun I have. I really don’t have a lot of desire to go back to open wheel at all, other than to run the 500.”

IS THERE MORE AGGRESSION ON THE TRACK THIS YEAR? “I think it’s more circumstances. Honestly, the only time I ever hear about it is on the news or in an article. When you talk to drivers you don’t hear about it at all or within the teams. If it does seem more intense, it probably is a little bit. The competition is getting tougher every year. You’re getting younger drivers in that are more aggressive for a longer period of time. Even my first year here I noticed there were guys who could wait out until the end of the race to really make some aggressive moves. You’re seeing more aggressive moves early, and I think it’s just a combination of getting a lot of new younger guys in here that have a different approach. The problem with that is, and it really isn’t a problem, is they’ve been so aggressive and getting aggressive sooner and getting away with it, not necessarily wrecking guys, but driving hard the whole time, leading races the whole time and being able to finish that way. It encourages more guys to drive that way, so it’s probably getting a little more aggressive, but I don’t see where anybody is doing anything intentional.”

DO YOU THINK THE CHASE CREATES MORE AGGRESSION? “I think maybe some of it is. I think there is desperation for some guys to do well and get inside the Chase. If that’s the way they’re going about it it’s the wrong way. The way to get in the Chase is to be consistent, not the fastest. I would think if they’re thinking about it in the right direction, it would be not so aggressive. It’s the guy that gets the most top 20s, the most top 10s that gets inside that top 10 when the cutoff comes around. Some guys might be looking at it like that, but if they are they’re looking at it wrong.”

IF CHAMP AND IRL JOINED BACK, WHAT COULD THEY DO TO MAKE IT BETTER? “The only thing that’s going to save open wheel racing is if they get together. There’s got to be one series people can focus on. It’s funny. It’s almost like asking how you can fix a restrictor-plate race. For years NASCAR has been trying to do something about it and they can’t get it quite right. They’ve got to get together. That’s the bottom line. Right now a bunch of hard-headed guys are running both series and they can’t make anything happen. That’s unfortunate because it keeps diluting the sport and it gets worse as each year goes on. They need to get together and make something happen.”

WHAT’S YOUR NASCAR LEARVING CURVE LOOK LIKE RIGHT NOW? “I think I’ve gotten a lot of the big stuff out of the way. I don’t feel like a veteran at all, but I feel more comfortable when I show up at each racetrack racing with the guys out here. I think I’ve learned what is aggressive and what isn’t, when to be aggressive and when not to be. Those are all things when I first got in that were confusing to me. From open wheel side of things, you drive hard all the time. Learning those adjustments and when to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive, what is aggressive in these cars. I think my idea of driving aggressively was 10 times over how hard you need to drive one of these cars to be aggressive. I think I’ve got a lot of the big stuff out of the way. I think I’m 80 percent there. I think if I ever get 85-90 percent in the sport and you stop learning you’re getting lazy and you’re just not doing your job right. This is always a sport that’s evolving and changing. I’ll be learning every year, but I feel 100 times more comfortable just knowing what to do at a lot of these places just to get to the end.”

IS IT IMPORTANT TO COMPETE IN THE PIT CREW COMPETITION? “I think it’s good when Nextel is doing things like that for ‘em. It gives them something to get fired up about, and those guys are kind of the unsung heroes. They don’t get a lot of attention when it comes to a race win or something like that, but it’s amazing. The pit stops are getting so fast, so tight, so close, that everybody is on edge. A pit crew that doesn’t make many mistakes in the race and still has fast pit stops definitely needs to be rewarded for that.”

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

COMMENT ON NIGHT RACING “It’s cool to come to Richmond or any of these places at night. It’s cooler and it’s kind of what we all grew up doing – racing under the lights. Typically it means we get Sunday off. It’s fun to get to go to the lake on Sunday, too. I think the visibility is better at night. There’s never any glare from the sun, and the way they light the racetracks, it’s phenomenal how well you can see. There’s not really a down side to racing at night other than it tends to bring out the worst in people. I think everyone runs really aggressive at night, and I don’t know why, but it seems like there’s more drama that happens at a night race than what you typically see during a day event. We get in such a routine in racing during the day that when you don’t do your hospitality appearances until 3 or 4 in the afternoon it makes for a very long day. You’re used to waking up early and having a typical routine that doing stuff at 3 or 4 in the afternoon is just off. It’s different.”

COMMENT ON WHY SO MANY CUP DRIVERS RUN BUSCH RACES AT RICHMOND AND CHARLOTTE “Everyone likes racing at Richmond, and everyone likes racing at Charlotte. Those are two very good racetracks. I’d guess at Charlotte more so this year because of the new surface. When I ran Busch a lot of Cup people always ran Charlotte. I don’t know that there’s a reason. Maybe they just want to race. It’s very hard this year to make information go back and forth (from Busch to Cup). Last year usually if I ran well in my Busch car when we got finished in Happy Hour with the Cup car it would be close and we would have a good day on Sunday. This year with the spoilers, it’s totally different. It’s very hard to run a similar setup in the Busch car and Cup car.”

DO YOU THINK A DRIVER SHOULD BE PENALIZED FOR SOMETHING HE SAYS ON THE RADIO? “I guess every situation has its own circumstances, but I think what a driver says between a crew and themselves should be just between them. If someone wants to listen, that’s great, but I don’t see any reason you should get penalized for that.”

IT’S FRIDAY THE 13TH. HOW SUPERSTITIOUS ARE YOU? “I always wore the same boxer shorts on Sundays. I kind of have a routine getting in the car. I don’t do that because I’m superstitious. That’s just the way it works. At Martinsville we ran really bad in Happy Hour and I did all my things hoping my luck would change and we still ran bad and had a flat tire, so if your car is good, you’ll have a good day. If it’s not, then you won’t. I watched CNN this morning and they kept talking about it (Friday The 13th), so maybe I’m thinking about it more than normal. I’ve heard it 10 times already this morning and it’s not even 9 o’clock.”

COMMENT ON RUMORS ABOUT YOU GOING INTO THE 2 CAR NEXT SEASON “Last year I got into talking about my contract. I’m not going to talk about that at all. It’s not worth talking about. I don’t want to get any rumors started. I just want to go on and not worry about that. I think last year if I had just said I wasn’t going to talk about it and just go on it would have been better. Sometimes the media comes up and they front you, I don’t know if you feel intimidated but you just don’t know what to say. I’ve been reading the stuff on the internet. I knew it was going to happen, so I’m just going to do my thing. It’s better to be in the rumor mill than not being in it. As long as they’re talking about you it’s a good thing. I don’t pay attention to it. When you see it on the internet you read it, giggle about it because you know what’s true and not true and you just go on.”

DO YOU THINK GREG BIFFLE’S SUCCESS WILL CHANGE THE WAY EVERYBODY SEEMS TO WANT A YOUNG DRIVER? “I don’t think so. I think sponsors more so than anything want young drivers so they can build relationships with a team and owner and sponsor. That’s what everyone is looking for. The last two years a lot of young guys have come in, but recently you’ve had a lot of young guys come in that aren’t making it. There was a streak there you saw some guys that were extremely talented and they were young. They’ve made it, but I’ve watched a lot of guys the last year or so that aren’t here right now and they were with really good teams. I don’t know if there’s a magic way of getting there, but I know it’s hard to go wrong with a young guy. I think if you’re with a good team they’ll give you a year or over half a year (to make it). I think really good car owners know that sometimes things are out of your control if your motors are blowing up or you’re getting caught up in wrecks that are out of your control, I think car owners look at that. But if you just go and run bad or run into a lot of stuff, it’s different, so typically if you make it to this level you have a lot of talent. You don’t see a lot of guys make it to this level that don’t perform well. I think you see it more in trucks and Busch where they hire guys you don’t know.”