Tony Raines, No. 96 DLP® HDTV Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Hall of Fame Racing (Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, team owners) chatted with media prior to the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series practice session at Martinsville Speedway. The DIRECT TV 500 will be Raines first time as the driver of the No. 96 Monte Carlo. The newly formed team put two-time Cup champion Terry Labonte in the car for the first five events of 2006.
Tony Raines, No. 96 DLP® HDTV Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
What has it been like the first five races watching someone else drive your car?
"It hasn't been that bad. Friday and Saturday weren't too bad, there is just a lot going on. But Sunday was a little tougher. It is harder to watch a race than it is to be in the car driving it. You see a lot more of what is going on and it scares you a little bit.
"Things have gone well. We had a good test Wednesday at Kentucky. I am a little bit nervous, but I am excited. I am ready to get in the car. I know it is going to take some time to get acclimated so I want to just get that over with."
Ideally is Martinsville the track you would want to start your season in the car?
"Not ideally, no. But it is a race. I have raced here before so I should know how to get around here. They have changed the track some since the last time I raced here so hopefully we can get that all sorted out pretty quick."
Do you know what the biggest changes are you will face?
"They have changed this track so many times. I have run a truck here as well as a Cup car. I am not sure exactly what all we will have to overcome. When we got in the car at Kentucky, it was just like riding a bicycle, it didn't take long. We worked on the handling to make the car better. We went there with the only change in the car from Terry (Labonte) was my seat. He is a one-footed driver and I am not so I am sure there are a lot of things that make him feel better that wouldn't work for me. That may work for me, but we don't know that yet. We have to work that out and that might take us two or three races.
"But we have someone to lean on in the other Gibbs cars. We can use that information and hopefully we can get the best effort today and tomorrow and race well on Sunday."
Is there a lot of pressure on you right now given this is a start-up team?"
"Yes, there is a lot expected. There are a lot of hopes. For any start-up team it is difficult because you have no notebook. We have not ran here together as a team. You have a bunch of guys that are coming together so there are a lot of things evolving. I have been here watching it and it is interesting to see it from that perspective although I would prefer to have been in the car. I am going to try and use that to my advantage.
"It is all about communications and all about the people you have working on the car. I think we have good people, good sponsorship and good equipment. I think we can get the job done. Top 25 or better is what I am hoping for.
"I have worked with Philippe before and we communicate pretty well. I like his style, he doesn't get too excited. He is laid back and he listens and he just wants to make the car better. He knows if he can make the driver happy, it usually goes faster."
What is it like to have celebrity team owners?
"I have certainly met a lot of (Dallas) Cowboy fans recently. I told someone recently if we can run well and make them proud, that would be a pretty neat situation. To make two competitors like Troy (Aikman) and Roger (Staubach) proud of their race team and our efforts is my goal. Making DLP happy with our performance will also keep Roger and Troy happy which makes me happy and everybody will be smiling."
How do you feel about racing in Texas next week?
"I think there is going to be a little bit of pressure there because we have a lot going on. That's OK. I knew this would be a tough race to start at and then go right on to Texas, which will have extra pressure because of all the additional activity. I think once we get through these first two races in good shape, the rest of the schedule will be a lot of fun because we will be going to tracks that we are going to repeat at later in the season. We can start building up our information and momentum. I am excited to be here but like I said, I am a little nervous because there is a lot at stake. At the same time, I would much rather be here than not be here."
Do you worry about getting caught up in someone else's fussing and feuding?
"Coming to Martinsville right after Bristol is kind of a tough thing because there are a lot of people who are mad at one another. I am just jumping right in the middle of it. I don't think anybody is mad at me, there might be a couple that could be but hopefully they will have forgotten it or they are mad at someone else now. My goal is to keep the fenders on the car and if that means giving up two or three spots near the end, I am going to do that, we need to finish all the laps and learn more as a team. But the next time we come here, I won't be doing that. "
Is it as difficult to stay out of trouble here as it is at Bristol?
"It is equally as difficult here as it is at Bristol without a doubt. I think if you give up a lot early, it is really the last 50 laps where you can gain a lot of spots if your car is in one piece. There are going to be incidents throughout the race and you just have to stay focused on saving your equipment. It gets hard because if someone is beating on you because they are in a hurry, you have to keep your temper in check and take care of your car. Then by the last 50, hopefully you have made your car better and you have the most speed at the end when it counts."
Kyle Busch in the No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS answered questions from the media today at Martinsville Speedway during the weekly "Behind the Hauler" Q&A session. Busch is currently fifth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings, 105 points outside of first place.
Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS
After Bristol, who are you mad at? Who is mad at you?
"I'm not mad at anybody. I didn't get into any skirmishes with anybody out there. I don't think anybody is mad at me hopefully. We didn't spin anybody out. I didn't get spun out. So all is good. Hopefully everything is well and I'm looking forward to Martinsville."
How concerned are you that there will be some sort of payback at Martinsville?
"You just hope you're not around it I guess. It's almost inevitable sometimes on any weekend especially with two short tracks in a row. It's easier to do that at a short track than it is at a speedway just because if you're going do it, it's a lot safer. You don't have as much speed here. There's still plenty of times where you're going to be able to hit the wall with plenty of speed."
On the high level of feuding lately. Why can't you guys just all get along?
"I love that. I wish we would all get along. That'd be perfect. We'd all be good and happy with each other. We've got a neighborhood of coaches over there. We'd all be able to have a good ol' get together and party and what not. It seems like everybody always has a feud with somebody so you may not be able to invite one guy because the other guy might show up but then if that other guy is not going to show, you'll invite the other one. It's one of those deals where you just try to hope everybody can get along and you just try and go out there and race your race car."
Were you surprised about the incident that happened last weekend with Jeff Gordon after his reputation for being a nice guy?
"No, I wouldn't say that. I don't know why NASCAR parked them that close together after the race anyway. That might have been something they wanted to see. They got it. They got a show out of it. Jeff lost $10,000 out of it so it's probably something you won't see him do again. All in all it's Bristol racing. It's always hard, emotions are running high, you're in the car for so long. I'm sure that wasn't the only time Jeff got run over all day. Maybe he got moved out of the way sooner. It's the same thing for (Matt) Kenseth. Kenseth had been racing for two days in a row so I'm sure he got plenty of it."
On the pressures with having sponsors while also being human:
"You've got to make sure you keep your emotions in check as much as you can because you don't want to put any risks out there for your sponsors to be mad at you or any kind of thing like that. You want to make sure that you go out there and you run a good enough race where you try to put it in victory lane and not have to worry about all that stuff. Sometimes you get into it with some other people. For me, I've kind of started to learn that it's best to take the high road a little bit."
What did the incident last weekend do to Jeff Gordon's image?
"I don't think it did anything. Jeff Gordon is a four-time champion. He is what he is. He's been around for a while. He's won the most races out of any driver that is still running I believe. He's got enough on his side where he could probably screw up a couple of times and be all right."
On his previous issues with Tony Stewart and what constitutes something developing into a rivalry:
"That's a tough question. You can have a rivalry brew out of just something from Bristol. You can have a rivalry brew out of something from Daytona or Las Vegas or California or wherever it may be. It's whether or not you let is escalate that far. If you go up and talk to a driver and try to get it settled and out of the way, then you can have a good time racing around the guy and it's all fine and dandy. But if you let it brew into something that it shouldn't, that's when you have problems."
On Hendrick Motorsports' success here:
"It's been a real good 24-48 place for sure. We're trying to turn the 5-25 around here. I did OK here last fall. I was running 12th in the spring and knocked the radiator out of it on a re-start and finished ninth last fall so that's a good solid effort. If we could just do that again this time around I think we'll be all right."
What makes Jeff Gordon so good here?
"I'm not sure what it is. He just has a knack for this place. He's always run pretty well here. I can't ever remember a time where he hasn't been at least fast here. He's got a lot of respect for this place. He's got a lot of knowledge about it. He knows how to race around here. Hopefully I can learn something from him. I talked to him a little last week at Bristol to try to figure out what I can do to help myself here. Hopefully that will play dividends today and this weekend."
Is Jeff Gordon the guy to beat this weekend?
"Not necessarily. There's quite a bit of guys out here that are fast. Jeff Gordon of course is probably one of the most notable favorites. Tony Stewart is very good. Jimmie (Johnson) is pretty good. Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. is all right. There's some more down the line if I keep looking. It's always a tough race to really plan out. There's no specific strategy to it. You can pit here, you can pit there. You can have a guy on 100-lap tires that holds off a guy on 50-lap tires so it just all depends."
On Jeff Gordon and his relationship with his crew chief Steve Letarte:
"As far as what I've seen, everything has gone pretty well. The way that Steve and Jeff have been working together has been pretty good. Steve works very well with Allen (Gustafson) my crew chief as well as Lance (McGrew) and Chad (Knaus). All is pretty good over there. Jeff seems to like him so that's all that really matters if they're getting the job done."
"He knows quite a bit about race cars. He started out sweeping the floors and worked his way up. He knows where everything is in the shop. He knows all the guys in the shop. There's some new guys that came on this year but now that he's the crew chief he gains respect that way but he has the respect of all the guys that have been there a while because he's made that transition and made that way up."
On the Nashville track:
"I've been pretty successful there over the years. The year before last year we were leading coming out of turn two on the last lap and got dumped. Then the fall race there we were leading again, led the most laps I believe, and had the most dominant car and it ran out of gas with three laps to go. It's a place that I tend to be able to run well at but I need to try to finish there pretty good as well too."
On the cool trophy for the Nashville Busch race:
"Nashville has a great trophy. I heard they're doing something a little different for the pre-race show. I'm not quite sure what it is but I heard it's different. We'll have to see exactly what that is. All in all it's a neat place to race at. I enjoy that race track. The trophy is probably the most prestigious there is out there. It's been around Nashville for a long time. I have one already from the ARCA race, my first ever ARCA win, but I'd love to get a Busch Series win."
Do you play guitar?
"I don't play it but I love it when it's up on my shelf looking pretty."
On the Busch Series going international and possibly going to Canada:
"It's all good. It's hard on the truck drivers sometimes especially when there's not a lot of off weekends already. I feel for those guys and their families. Once you travel and you get through all the passport stuff and customs and you get down to race track, it's not too bad getting down to business, it's just some of the headaches you have to go through to get there."
On your relationship with your spotter and how you developed it:
"When you get a new sponsor you can't just let him jump up there and spot the race. You've got to sit down and talk to him for a little bit and give him an understanding of what you want, what you like, things you don't want to hear about. There's differences to every race track because a place like Talladega, you want him to talk all the time. A place like Bristol or Martinsville, you don't want him to tell you somebody is coming because then you're going to look in the mirror and you're going to screw yourself up for the entry to the corner. You want to be able to have a good enough relationship where he understands what to say and what not to say. When you get it squared away in the beginning of the relationship, that will make it work for a while."
What do you like to hear and not hear?
"I don't like to hear about guys that are faster than me as they're coming up. I like to hear when they get there. If they get to me, yeah they've got a faster car but do they have a strong enough one to get by me. If they get to a point where they're up to my quarter-panel, they're good, they can have it. There's some places and some instances if they're way faster than you, you want to lay over and let them go and have the spot clean and easy. In some instances like what happened earlier this year, you've got a guy that's faster than you coming up behind you, you're trying to preserve for your final pit stop, he's got to work to get by you because you've got to be able get in and get out of your pit space."
How hard is it to be patient here?
"It's very hard because you have people behind you that don't know patience. Sometimes you're running around there, you're in the 10th spot and think OK I'm fine, I'm good just running here and you have somebody on your back door beating on it trying to get by you. It's like where are you going? We're 50 laps into this thing, what are you doing to do? Are you going to go lead the race? OK, that's great. Why don't you wait until the end and try to work on it then. It's difficult because you have that and you're always trying to run your own race, not waste your brakes and that kind stuff. Then you're overdriving it because you're trying to keep the guy behind you, behind you."
How far is too far to bump someone out of the way?
"That's a difficult topic. We've had it for such a long time. Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt are probably the most notables for doing it. Casey Atwood got his first Busch Series win doing it at Milwaukee years ago. It was controversial then. It's just the nature of our sport. Anything goes in the last lap. That's what I've heard. I've been hearing that for a long time but a lot people don't like that. They like to be raced clean. They like to be passed clean. If there's going to be an instance where you've done it to somebody and they got the opportunity to do it back to you, you better expect it."
Dale Earnhardt in the No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS answered questions from the media today at Martinsville Speedway during the weekly "Behind the Hauler" Q&A session. Earnhardt is currently sixth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS
What do you expect here this weekend?
"I am not sure what to expect, I guess I haven't really thought about it. We haven't run good here since they changed the concrete. We are just trying to get our car to where it will be fast. That is all we have been working on today."
Are you enjoying some of the things you are doing away from the track this season?
"I decided to do a little more work than I normally do and make a little bit more money. I have to take care of myself as I get older. I am enjoying it, I enjoy what I do. Racing has afforded me those opportunities to do the other jobs with the radio and the TV. I have only taken on opportunities that are entertaining to me and that interest me."
With the number of rookies here this weekend, do you have any additional concerns about this race?
"If you have a fast car, you can be comfortable anywhere. It will be up to their teams to get them comfortable. Probably most of them grew up on tracks like this. I think they will be fine and we will be in great shape."
Are you concerned about any on-track retaliations that might occur this weekend between drivers after Bristol last weekend?
"No, I like it, I think it is fun to watch. I won't get caught up in any of them. It isn't like they are going to cause an 18-car wreck here. They will just spin each other around is about all there is to it. There isn't any harm in it. I don't think we should think anything about it. If you don't like one another, just take a little extra care around each other. I think it is awesome, I think it is good for our sport. It is really entertaining for the fans and it is really entertaining for the other drivers. I hope it keeps going."
Talk about where the team's intermediate program is at this point.
"I am really happy with how we tested at Texas. I thought we were pretty good, we were turning some pretty quite times. I am looking forward to it. I like the opportunity to tire test with Goodyear. I think I figured out what my opinion was on what tires we should be running. Hopefully that is the one they pick."
What do you think about the possibly of going to Canada next year?
"Going to Canada would be great. I think it would be fun to go there, I might even go there to race."
Talk about your philosophy as a car owner now that you have seen both sides of the equation.
"You have to really be aggressive, set the example for the people you work with. It is all about keeping that fire lit under them, keeping them pumped up. Keeping them motivated. That is really fun but challenging. That is probably the hardest part, to keep them really fired up to go do the very best job they can because they don't know inside just how good they really are. You have to really dig to help them to bring it out in themselves. It is really fun to do that."
"It takes a while to learn how to motivate yourself and how to use different things to motivate you. Like anger, instead of letting it frustrate you and ruin your day, let it fire you up so you just race harder. If not, it will bring you down. I think now it's time to get it out of those guys."
Does it tick you off if someone questions your desire to race?
Yes, I think it would tick anybody off if they questioned that. I just have a different disposition than my Father did. People won't know how to take that. Oh well. I race as hard as I can race. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't anyone that can do a better job than I can. If anyone thinks different, I can care less."
On radio conversations last weekend:
"You can air my radio conversations anytime you want but Martin Truex is already out of his race car when that aired. That's not Martin's fault obviously. I mean please, everybody has to know that. If you have to ask a driver to quote his opinion and you can't quote your own, you got to give me a break. Everyone knows that's bull right there and they're just covering their (butts)."
On knowing their radios are being heard:
"I don't think about it. When you're on the radio, you're not thinking about your language. If that's the case, I may as well not even take any points any week, just keep my points. I'll race for a paycheck. That is ridiculous. It aired and Martin was already out of his car. It's somebody else's job. They're spending million of dollars on it on the TV program and they can't even keep that from happening. That is ridiculous. Somebody is a real moron."
On NASCAR straying from its roots and taking away tracks like Martinsville.
"No, I don't think so. I don't think it's happening. I think it's just made up."
On how Martin Truex, Jr. is doing his rookie year in Cup.
"I think they'll do fine. I think they can make mistakes realistically. Got a little bit of grip here. They should be able to do that. They need to really work on getting along. Being a rookie here is a tough deal. It is very challenging. It is OK to be a little aggressive with each other but they just have to be careful that they treat each other respectfully and be careful what they say to each other. It is not so much anything I have seen from them, but more personal experience."
On mentoring Martin.
"I try to tell Martin what I can. If I see something, I say I did this or that and be careful. He seems to appreciate that relationship between me and him and that advice. That's cool. I appreciate that he respects me enough to listen."
On your Busch team.
"Mark McFarland is a good race driver. He does a pretty good job of not tearing up our equipment. I am really really happy. He is at the shop all week and is very dedicated. They make race cars every day. I am not really worried about running out of race cars, they are everywhere."
