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News and Results | Point Standings | 2007 Schedule | 2007 Teams | 2006 Schedule and Results | 2005 Schedule and Results Subway Fresh Fit 500 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes JEFF GORDON TAKES FIRST CAREER WIN AT PIR, 76TH CAREER WIN TO MATCH THE LATE DALE EARNHARDT, AND GIVES IMPALA SS THIRD WIN OF SEASON Jeff Gordon Wins Career First at Phoenix and Maintains Point's Lead; First Victory of 2007 Ties Record of 76 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Wins with Late Dale Earnhardt, Sr.; Win is Third for Hendrick Motorsports in Debut Season for Impala SS Team Chevy Drivers Capture Four of Top-Five and Eight of Top-10 in Subway Fresh Fit 500 Avondale, AZ - Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, battled Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Impala SS to the checked flag to capture his career-first victory at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). The hard-fought win was his first of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) season and the 76th of his career to tie the win record of the late Dale Earnhardt, Sr. The four-time NNCS champion started on the pole, the 59th of his career, and led 53 laps of the 312-lap/312-mile/500K Subway Fresh Fit 500. The win extended his lead in the point standings to 74 points over fellow Team Chevy driver Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Impala SS. Burton finished 13th in tonight's race. "It means the world to me," said Gordon from victory lane, who had a helmet change because of radio problems just before rolling off pit road at the start of the race. "Just to get a win at a track we never won at before. I drove my guts out. I never had to drive so hard for a win. I love racing Tony Stewart and Jimmie and all those guys that were racing there at the end. You know, holding that No. 3 flag certainly was by no means saying I am as good or we are as good or even close, but we just wanted to honor Dale in that way. It really means a lot to me. I learned so much from him. To even come close to anything he had ever done in this sport is amazing to me. We just wanted to honor him. We'd been holding on to that flag for a long time. To get 76 wins is just incredible. "It seemed like it was in the cards for us tonight. We didn't lead a ton, but we had a good car. I would go for a long way and be one of the best cars and then it would fall off a little bit. We kept adjusting and adjusting. Luckily I had a radio when we switched that helmet out. The yellow did fall in our lap, we got lucky getting off pit road when the caution came out but I thought we needed to keep going through and I almost drove through the pit, Steve made the call and I love him as a crew chief. He is an awesome guy and as sharp as can be. He made that call, he talked to the spotter and talked to me and the team, he is so cool under pressure. Man, this is just an awesome, awesome feeling. It is great to get the Chevy Impala SS in victory lane. I don't know what to say, I am just overwhelmed right now. It is just an amazing victory for us. I can't believe we finally won at Phoenix." Team Chevy drivers set a PIR record by leading 311 of the 312 laps on the way to scoring eight of the top-10 finishing positions. Stewart finished second after leading 132 laps. The two-time NNCS champion moved up two positions in the standings to seventh. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Impala SS led for 72 before a pit road speeding penalty sent him to the back of the field. He rebounded to finish third and sits fifth in the standings. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, finished fourth after an early race electrical problem threatened his race. Johnson maintained his fourth place position in the point standings after eight of the 36-races in 2007. Jeff Green, No. 66 Best Buy Impala SS, scored his season-best finish taking the checkered flag in sixth place. Kyle Busch, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS finished seventh and moved to sixth in the standings. Johnny Sauter, No. 70 Yellow Transportation Impala SS, his career-best finish coming across the line in ninth place. Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Impala SS, was the leader for 52 laps of the race but handling issues dropped him to 10th in the finishing order. Harvick moved back in to the top-10 in the standings now sitting in 10th spot. Joe Nemechek, No. 13 Pinnacle Impala SS, and Sterling Marlin, No. 14 Waste Management Impala SS, were each credited with leading a lap to give Chevy credit for holding the point for all but one lap of the race. Team Chevy will be back in the Monte Carlo SS for round nine of the 2007 season on April 29 at Talladega Superspeedway.
On first thing he did in victory lane: "Tell what? Kiss my wife's belly? No, I haven't done that before. I hope that one day I get to celebrate with my daughter someday. What an amazing day and night victory this is for this DuPont Chevrolet team. I can't believe we one this one. We hung in there all night long and had great communication. You know, things went our way. We had a good pit stall to get out first and stay with those guys. We had a really good car on the short runs. So felt pretty good about it except for those cars on the tail end of the lead lap. "I got in a battle there with Martin Truex, I had enough to get underneath him but hard to make the pass. We got bumping and banging there a little bit because I knew Stewart was there hot on my trail. I love racing with Tony it was a lot of fun out there. We raced hard but we raced really good and clean. That is the way I wanted 76th victory to come out. ON BEING BOTH LUCKY AND GOOD: "You have got to have all that to win races these days. It is so competitive, everybody is so good and this car is so equal, track position is extremely important. We had it at the beginning of the race but we lost it and had to try and get it back. We didn't lead a whole lot tonight but we lead the right one, man it was just an awesome victory. To be lucky to be on pit road when the caution came out which typically on a track like this, it is unlucky, but we were far enough down pit road and close enough to Tony when that caution came out, that is actually worked in our favor." ON 76TH NNCS WIN: "It means the world to me. Just to get a win at a track we never won at before. I drove my guts out. I never had to drive so hard for a win. I love racing Tony Stewart and Jimmie and all those guys that were racing there at the end. You know, holding that No. 3 flag it certainly by no means saying I am as good or we are as good or even close, but we just wanted to honor Dale in that way. It really means a lot to me. I learned so much from him. To even come close to anything he had ever done in this sport is amazing to me. We just wanted to honor him. We'd been holding on to that flag for a long time. To get 76 wins is just incredible. I have to thank everybody from DuPont, Pepsi, GMAC, Nicorette - I am so fired up, I am going to forget everything. ON HOW NIGHT UNFOLDED AFTER STARTING RACE WITH RADIO PROBLEMS: "It seemed like it was in the cards for us tonight. We didn't lead a ton, but we had a good car. I would go for a long way and be one of the best cars and then it would fall off a little bit. We kept adjusting and adjusting. Luckily I had a radio when we switched that helmet out. The yellow did fall in our lap, we got lucky getting off pit road when the caution came out but I thought we needed to keep going through and I almost drove through the pit, Steve made the call and I love him as a crew chief. "He is an awesome guy and as sharp as can be. He made that call, he talked to the spotter and talked to me and team, he is so cool under pressure. Man, this is just an awesome, awesome feeling. It is great to get the Chevy Impala SS in victory lane. I don't know what to say, I am just overwhelmed right now. It is just an amazing victory for us. I can't believe we finally won at Phoenix." ON VICTORY LAP WITH BLACK NO. 3 FLAG AND DALE EARNHARDT, JR. IN VICTORY LANE: "I was worried how people might think that we have been holding on to that flag for a long time, but we wanted to honor Dale. To be able to accomplish 76 wins and tie him is pretty overwhelming and something I never dreamed I would do in my career, We wanted to honor Dale and to have Junior come over and say he appreciated that and said that was a class act, that means the world to me to have his blessings because I didn't want it to come across the wrong way. We wanted to show tribute and honor and that was what we were able to do and it felt great."
"Well you know, it is hard to give a gift to a guy who has everything in the world but this team really wanted to win races for Jeff. We couldn't do it at Texas but we came here to Phoenix and finally won a race for him here. He deserves it, he drove a heck of a race. Everyone on this DuPont Impala SS car did a wonderful job. Just shows the effort of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports how good we can come out and perform in these Impalas."
ON FIGHTING BACK FROM SPEEDING PENALTY: "That was hard to do, especially with these cars. That was all I had every single lap. We just came up a few laps short there at the end. Track position was so critical, as soon as we lost it; we fought all day trying to get it back. Just happy to get back to the third spot. "I was trying my heart out to bring home a win for everyone at Virginia Tech. I was trying. There is nothing else I could have done. I am so upset, we have a great car every single week and we just can't a win. The pit road thing, I was running the same speed I ran every other time, we checked it the first time and I had two miles an hour to go before I reached the limit, I guess I was tonight's entertainment."
"It went well. We didn't have too many problems here tonight. Our Impala SS was pretty good. We were happy with it. It was just a tough overall night. I'm glad that Jeff Gordon won, our teammate, and was able to get the 76th win for himself. But our CARQUEST/Kellogg's Chevrolet team worked hard all weekend. It was still a handful to drive. But all in all, I think we made a lot of strides as a team. We really struggled here when we unloaded and through practices and everything. We were terrible to start and we finally ended up pretty good and with a good finish. I'm glad to come out of here with a seventh. I figured we were going to be fighting for 30th all day." WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LAST PIT STOP? "We were okay with that actually. The caution came out just before we were pitting." HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS WON ALL THREE COT RACES. HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT? "Well, since the new car was supposed to come out, we started building one. We had the first test and we were the ones that built the first one. We've just been fine-tuning on it ever since the inception of the thing. We just tried to make it better for ourselves and for our team and for our organization. We've worked really hard on it. I'm glad that Hendrick Motorsports was able to pull it out, but the Gibbs organization looks pretty strong as well and RCR led some laps tonight. "Stewart ran up there for a while and had a very competitive car and Denny (Hamlin) if he didn't have pit trouble, might have won this race too. He had a great car. He came all the way back from the back to third. I could have never have done that. It took me all day just to get to seventh. And I had help from that caution when everybody got busted when that caution came out just after they got on pit road. So all in all, I've got to thank my guys. They did a great job tonight."
"This stuff is hard. We really fought all night. We just never quite got on it. We were really good when the race started and really good when the race ended. And all the part in between was no good. We struggled in a lot of areas and that's what this sport is about. It's hard. You've got to be 100 percent on top of your game to run with these guys and we didn't do that tonight but it wasn't because we didn't try."
"We're real happy about the way the car ran tonight. Really proud of the way the team rebounded after last week while I made good decisions and I was patient today. I'll beat the traffic out of here for once."
"We've had decent runs. We could have won the first two Car of Tomorrow races but we didn't. That's the disappointing part, we probably should have more wins this year and somehow we keep letting it slip away. That part of it is frustrating. I don't know if it's anyone's fault. A lot of it was circumstance. I think everybody did a good job overnight and the changes we made this morning and during the race. We brought a car that had a shot at winning and that's all you can do. It's a little frustrating because we won at this place before and I know Tony really wanted to win here, but we came up short again. Overall I think it was a great night for Joe Gibbs Racing, second, third, and J.J. (Yeley) was having a great night and was going to be 12th or 14th but got caught up in that last accident. I think overall the performance was there. We still need to keep working obviously, because we didn't win and that wasn't good enough. "It is a good night any time you can run in the top-five. We are a little disappointed; we felt like the second half of the race we had a good car. The yellow flag bit us and the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) that last 20 laps or so. It took our car a little bit to get going. If we could start out front in clean air, it was pretty good. Overall the team did a great job this weekend and I am proud of them. We didn't have that great of a car yesterday and we made a lot of changes. Everybody put their heads together, we came home second. Still a little disappointed. Feel like we could have one a couple of these this year and they keep getting away."
"It was a decent night. The car was tight pretty much the whole race and we were better on the long runs. I think we could have finished a little better, but we'll take it and more onto Talladega. We caught a break. A lot of those guys pitted before the caution came out and got caught out and lost a lap. It helped us gain a few spots. We restarted 13th, but lost a spot at the end. The car wasn't real good at the start of a run - it was better on the long run, but it was still a good night for the DLP team.
ON TONIGHT'S PERFORMANCE: "Just great performance for all of Hendrick Motorsports. I think the No. 5 car (Kyle Busch, CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS) ended up somewhere in the top-10. Looks like Casey Mears (No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Impala SS) had back luck once again. I just feel bad for him and that whole team. We are off to a great start. I am really proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They gave me a great Lowe's Impala SS tonight and my teammate got it done tonight." ON WHAT HMS IS DOING TO HAVE SUCCESS IN IMPALA SS: "We are one of the few teams that have it figured out. I think the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) was the strongest car all night long to come back as he did to the front and finish third, I think, shows how strong he was and also the No. 20 (Tony Stewart, Home Depot Impala SS). I think whoever had that clean air had the advantage. Things worked out for Jeff (Gordon) on pit road and he got that clean air and got the job done." ON IMPALA SS ON A BIGGER TRACK: "It is still a race car, there are still the same issues. I think we will all learn how to drive this car and how to adjust this car. It still is aero tight and I don't think we will ever get that out of any car, anywhere. It doesn't matter if it is open wheel, closed body, whatever. It is just racing, that is what happens. We are all learning, we are all getting better. As you saw tonight, there were probably five or six cars fighting for a win and put on a good show for the fans."
"We just lost our car about half-way through the race and just got too tight. That's about it."
"It's just what the team needed. We had a really good car tonight. We just got a little too tight at the end and couldn't get into the top-five. Like I've been saying, we just seem to have a better handle on the COT than the other car. A lot of the credit for that goes to Hendrick Motorsports. They're a tremendous resource, and they've been a tremendous help to this team. That's not to take anything away from Harold (Holly) and the crew. They gave me some great stops tonight, and Harold made some smart changes to the car. I don't know what it's going to take to get over the hump and get a top-five finish, but if we can get a top-10 every time we run this COT, I'll be happy." DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX IMPALA SS - Finished 3rd - Post Race Press Conference:
You know, we had to battle back there, and I'm just kind of tired of battling back every single week to whatever finish. You know, I wish nothing would happen. I just wish we just could go an entire race without having problems. We just can't catch a break. We're going to move on and hopefully, I don't know where we're going -- Talladega. We're going to go to Talladega and try to win that one. Q. Did you think it was a borderline call? Did you think you were speeding? DENNY HAMLIN: By the rules, it's black and white, but you know, we -- I've never been caught -- I've been caught speeding on pit road one time, and that was at Bristol in that bend corner where everyone gets caught. So that was my only speeding penalty of my entire career. We checked it after the very first run. We were 2.2 miles an hour to the good. Came back in the second run with the exact same RPM, no exaggeration, no lie, and I was speeding. So, I don't know. I was tonight's entertainment I guess. Q. You kind of just alluded to it, you said you feel like you've had the best Car of Tomorrow all three races and Hendrick has wins in all three races obviously, but do you think you and Tony and Gibbs are the team to beat with the Car of Tomorrow right now? DENNY HAMLIN: Without a doubt. Every time I've lost the lead, it's been in the pit. So, you know, we should have three trophies at Gibbs right now. My credit goes to Hendrick. Those guys capitalize. They do what they have got to do to win races. They catch breaks when they need them, and we just can't seem to catch a break. Q. When you were told that you did speed, what was your reaction? I mean, were you shocked or angry? DENNY HAMLIN: I said they were serious, and evidently, they were. Q. Can you talk about how difficult it was to pass out there? That's the way it looked to us; that it was extremely -- and just how this car performed on this racetrack. DENNY HAMLIN: To be as nice as I can, it just -- it's frustrating. It's very frustrating. You know, it's hard for me to complain and people will say, but you went from the back to the front. But yeah, it took us 300 laps to do it when it shouldn't have. Our car was just that much better than everyone else's. It shouldn't have took that long. We got some long runs in there that played in our factor, in our benefit. I don't know; I don't know how we're going to run these cars on bigger tracks without changes. Q. What is it about the car you think that makes it so difficult, particularly here? DENNY HAMLIN: Well, they built these cars to punch a bigger hole in the air. So these cars have half as much front downforce, twice as much here. So the car already doesn't have front grip. Then you have a car that's punching a bigger hole in front of it, that means even less air gets to the front end. So you've got a quarter -- or I mean, an eighth of the downforce that you had before. So it -- you know, there was instances out there where I would be a half a second faster than a guy. I would get within ten car lengths and automatically be slower. And that was just really frustrating. As a driver, you know, there's just not a whole lot we can do as drivers. We're at the mercy of track position right now. Q. Chevrolets were dominant again tonight obviously and have been virtually all this year. There was a time when a start like this for a manufacturer would lead to changes of some sort or another. Do you guys have the fear that something like that might be coming? DENNY HAMLIN: You mean taking something away from Chevrolet? Q. Yeah. DENNY HAMLIN: You know, I don't know how they could do that and still make all the cars the same. I don't know. They can come up with something, I'm sure, but it just seems like -- it's hard to say it's coincidence. You know, Chevrolet has just got a lot of good teams right now. All of the good teams that are running well, the Gibbs, Hendrick, they are all Chevrolets. And they have got good drivers, and that counts for a lot. So I think it's just they have got pretty much an all?star team and it's hard to beat them. Q. As frustrated as you are, can you even relate to how frustrated Tony must be? I think he led the most laps again tonight and he has not had a win in a long time despite doing that. Can you sort of empathize with each other here at all? DENNY HAMLIN: I don't know. We can drown our sorrows on Monday I guess at the shop. You know, I don't know what happened with the whole 24 pit road or whatever. I don't even know where he was running. It's frustrating for us; I know that for a fact. I'm sure he's probably angry as I am. But it's been a long time since I've felt the way I feel right now. Q. As a native Virginian, I'm sure that everything that happened this week, you really wanted the win as a Virginian especially this week. Talk a little about how disappointed you are not being able to do that when you did have the best car out there. DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, and that's probably one of the -- another reason, probably half of the reason why I'm as upset as I am about it is, you know, it was a big week for Virginia. Something, you know, needed to happen up there to kind of lift everyone's spirits, and I would have loved to bring that trophy back home this week, but we're not going to be able to do it. If I had that trophy, it would definitely be in Virginia Tech's hands before the end of the week, but unfortunately it's not mine; it's Jeff's. Q. One of the purposes of the Car of Tomorrow was it was supposed to broaden the number of teams that could be competitive. It was supposed to bring more people into play. Only one race team has won with this car at every Car of Tomorrow race. Can you talk about that? DENNY HAMLIN: Well, in -- you know, everyone talks about the cream rises to the top and that's the way it's going to be. It's going to take a while for some of the other teams to figure it out. But then the teams that are already dominating are going to figure something else out. So it seems like the guys that get a jump on it are going to stay on top of it for a while and you're just not going to keep a team like Hendrick or Roush or Gibbs or any of those teams down. They are going to run good. There's nothing that you're going to do within the rules to make them run bad. They have just got too many resources, too many people, too many good drivers. I don't think this -- if that was the point of it, to make it more competitive for everyone, mission failed, in my opinion. Q. Following up on what you said, there is some view that this will even up in a while; that the teams with the most resources have an advantage because they have more research to do it, but eventually, other teams will catch up. Do you not think that will happen? DENNY HAMLIN: There's just -- I don't know. I just don't see, you know, a one?car team, a single?car team being able to compete week?in and week?out. Now, given, they are going to have good runs. There's going to be weeks where they are going to run good and things just happen like that. But these powerhouse teams are the way -- they are winning all of these races for a reason, and it's because of the people they have got with them. They have got great people. And I know -- you know, all of the credit for the way me and Tony are running these races go to the engineering staff. They are the ones that come up with the setups that we're racing, and the crew chiefs fine?tune it on race day. You know, it's not -- I'm not trying to be the bearer of bad news or anything. It's just going to be tough to make it to where all of these cars run the same speed. It's just not going to happen. You're going to have some that run faster than others, and more than likely, it's going to be the big teams. JEFF GORDON AND STEVE LETARTE, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS POST RACE TRANSCRIPT
Q. Steve, talk about tonight's strategy and your view from the box.
Phoenix has always been a very finicky place for us. We are always good on one end and not the other, and we never seem to get the breaks at the end of the race even when we have the best car. So to come here and to get a little lucky on a yellow feels really nice. It feels really good to win here.
Q. Getting 76 and behind Dale Earnhardt was no big deal and when the moment came you got the flag from Steve and made the victory lap, so in essence it actually was a big deal. Can you kind of talk about that?
Yeah, we wanted to do something cool for Dale and pay tribute to him. I had so much fun racing with him and I miss him a lot out there. To do something he has done in this sport is pretty overwhelming for anybody and it is for me. I can't believe that we've won 76 races, and, you know, it feels good to get back into victory lane and just to be able to hold that flag. I was afraid, you know, some people might think we were trying to get the Earnhardt fans or think that we're, you know, saying we're as good as him, and that wasn't the case. You know, we just wanted to honor him. It felt really good that Junior came in and really accepted that that way. It was a special moment, you know, and you know it's -- man, it's a special night. I don't really know how to put it into words. It really means the world to me to be able to do this at this point in my career, and, you know, to still be competitive out there; to be coming to the racetrack and driving the cars that I get the privilege to drive; it's a blast. I knew that it was a matter of time that we were going to get that win, but it just seemed like it had been hanging over us for so long. Yeah, in the back of our minds, it was important. But I didn't want to approach it as if that's what our goal was to just get to that number to tie Dale. It was a lot more than that even for us. It's just -- and maybe we knew that it was a lot more; we didn't want to put any more pressure on ourselves.
Q. For each of you after you look back at everything that was accomplished tonight, it started with your cars sitting on pit road on the first lap, and you had to change helmets, can you just talk about what happened there at the beginning?
But it certainly caused some -- and this is where Steve is, you know, I give him so much credit because when that call came to be made on pit road when that caution came out, he was calm and cool. At least he sounded pretty calm to me. He was a lot calmer than I was, I can tell you that. I was going to drive right through the pit, and luckily he made the call and he knew exactly what to do, and it was just awesome. And that's exactly what he did on pit road when that radio issue happened. He looked at me, he said, "Calm down. Everything is fine. We're to the going anywhere. You know, we've got time. We're going to change the helmet if you want to change the helmet." And we found out the other helmet was working so I said, yeah, and I was trying to -- and he wanted to make sure every belt was put on, every hook, everything was secure and that we didn't do anything stupid on top of what had already happened. You know, I give him a lot of credit for that. It was pretty awesome. Q. In a way, once Tony had passed you, you kind of raced like Earnhardt there at the end to get lead back. You went between him and Martin Truex. Just talk about how satisfying it was to get in a side?by?side battle like that when you're going to tie a guy like Dale Earnhardt.
I'll be honest, Tony made a great call -- a great move. His car worked really good on the outside between 1 and 2. And Martin was being a pain in the butt; you know, I don't blame him for it. You know, he was balancing some guys for position. You know, once we got side-by-side and he started to fade, I didn't understand where he was racing the way he did. I had to race him pretty hard, shove him out of the way a little bit, and I think made him mad and Tony just stuck his nose in there and made a great move and he had me. I thought our night was done. And luckily, I didn't give up on it. Drove in the next corner -- and I was getting through 1 and 2 on that set of tires really good, and Tony, I got right on him, looked like he got loose and I was able to get underneath him. Once I got underneath him, I just carried the momentum and carried him wide a little bit down three and our car up front was just awesome. For 20 laps, we had the best car I think all night, and that was why I wanted to capitalize on it so much.
Q. To the best of my knowledge, after the race, there has not been any contact between America and Tony Stewart as far as radio, TV, press conferences. (Laughter) I want to know, has there been any contact between and you Tony Stewart?
Q. Anywhere. "Congratulations, nice race." High-fiving?
Q. On the track?
Q. But not like in victory lane.
Q. He didn't come in here.
But I think that, you know, Tony has to handle things the best way he possibly can, and we all know that he gets wound up. You know, everybody has got their own different type of personality. And I'll be honest, when the heat of the moment's on and the adrenaline is flowing, you know, not all of us think straight, including myself. And if he wanted to avoid controversy by saying something he didn't want to say, then maybe that's why he didn't come in.
Q. I understand that but for a post-race press conference -- (inaudible.)
You know, I want to see him having more fun and I understand what he means when he says that. You know, at this level of racing, it's tough, man. There's a lot more work that goes into it than people think. Yeah, we get paid very well, because that's the going rate. That's the market. If he's the guy who is one of the best and they want to pay him that much, he deserves it. The problem with that is that comes with expectations and a lot of work, and when you win at this level, it's not like winning at a dirt track on a Saturday. It pays a lot more, too. But there's a lot of camaraderie among your guys on the team, the people that you hang out with, the other guys that are at the track, maybe be friends or other team members. You kind of just hang back, sit back, talk about the win. And that's not the case here. You go straight to an interview, they tell you when to get out of the car; they tell when you to smile; when to hold up your finger; what hat to put on; you know, go to this interview; go to that interview. The last people I get to see are these guys and those are the ones I want to be with the most. I've been saying that for years that victory lane, you know, is somewhat spoiled by that. But we wouldn't have this sport and what it is today if it wasn't for that. So, I hear where Tony is coming from, you know, but I hope that he can understand like I do when I sit down and think about it that that's the case for anybody in that position.
Q. It seemed that at Bristol and Martinsville, you couldn't get your front, the nose, under the bumper in this Car of Tomorrow, but when you passed Tony for the lead, it seemed like you were able to push him a little bumper-to-bumper. Can you talk a little about that and are we finding that finally maybe there can be a little bit of the bump-and-run some day in the Car of Tomorrow?
On new tires when the cars had grip, you know, some guys' cars handle better on new tires and some guys' cars handle better on old tires. I still believe being up front was the place to be. But I was able to get close enough to it, to Tony, to loosen them up and he was already loose at the beginning of the run. He needed to get a gap between him and the guy behind him earlier in the race and I could see that. So I kind of took advantage of that. My car was real good on new tires, but I will say, it was better than I thought it was going to be; it really was. I'm not saying I'm sold on it yet. I think there's still a little bit more to do. I think we can make this car better. But I give most of the credit to the team guys and the whole garage of working on this car and improving this -- from the first time I drove this car, this is like a different race car. The thing was horrible the first time I drove it, and you know -- I won't say what I said. Since then, these guys have improved that car so much that they are making it feel a lot like what I was hoping for in a race car, this race car. You know, there are still some things that are different. I mean, I wore the brakes out on this car trying to get the slowdown trying to get into the corner but through the middle and off the corner wasn't bad. And behind other cars, I didn't feel like -- aero, it was there, but no more than in the past, and maybe even a little bit better than in the past. I think that's because we are a little bit slower through the corner.
Q. During this period, you had not won since Chicago last July, other than the Earnhardt part of it which obviously was a big factor, was there something in your mind about the fact that it seems like you've had a lot of shots at winning during that period and didn't get the win, and was that bothering you at all? You won a lot of races over the years, you haven't had many long stretches like this without a win.
And you know, plus, in the last couple of years, I haven't had many opportunities to win, so I really didn't like giving them up. But I've had more opportunities to win so far in, what, how many races are we in, seven races into the season? Eight? I've had more opportunities to win already in eight races than I've had the last two years. So, you know, I'm not as frustrated this year as I have been maybe, you know, in past years, because I know that we're bringing awesome race cars. We've got a great team. Everything is clicking and we're going to be in position to win races. But, you know, my job as a driver is to get that -- when the opportunity is there, it's my job to finish it off. And these guys count on me just like I count on them to help us get there. And you know, I want to do my part every single time. When I don't, it's frustrating. Last week, I was very upset with myself.
Q. You said you wanted to make sure people took things the right way with the flag. I guess who did you kind of go to to get their blessing that that would be all right, and secondly, this sets you up for maybe passing Earnhardt next week at Talladega; are you concerned about what the reaction might be there?
Well, I mean, obviously, you know, John Edwards and I -- I can't remember who all talked about it. It went back and forth when it first -- when somebody first came to me, and I can't remember who it was and said, hey, you know, if you get to 76, would you like to do this. And at first I said no. You know, I don't want people to take it the wrong way. I respected him so much that I didn't want it to disrespect him in any way. But the more we talked about it, the more that we thought, no, no, it would be honoring him and it would be a good thing. So I don't remember; we all talked about it last year. It hasn't been talked about more a long time, I can tell you that.
Q. Did you talk about it with Earnhardt Junior?
Q. Just among yourselves?
I think they would be like, "Hey, make sure that Gordon doesn't win because he's got this flag ready to go." You know, I didn't think that we had to take it that far. And you know what, I may be wrong and John Edwards might be able to answer a little bit better because I think he may have talked to a few people -- oh, Beave (ph) talked with Junior? So the guy that handed me the flag, Aaron, he had actually seen Junior out and mentioned it to him and he said, "No, I think that would be cool." So I forgot. I forgot that we had talked to him about that. I hadn't personally, though.
Q. A lot of people over the years, including I'm sure some of your fans and some of the Earnhardt fans, all wanted a fierce rivalry to develop between you and Senior, and now you and Junior. That never has really happened. In fact, you seem to have extremely good relationships with both. Has the sport missed something not having you racing head?to?head, side-to-side every week with those guys and a really hot rivalry developing from it?
But I think it spices things up no matter what when we're battling with him. There's certain guys, you know, that kind of have that kind of aura about them, that the fans go, oohh, I don't think these guys like one another or whatever they perceive, like say, Stewart or Junior or maybe Harvick or stuff like that. As long as the fans get fired up and excited about what's going on out there on the track, you know, I saw it last week at Texas when Junior and I were battling, I could see the reaction from the fans. They were loving it. They love it whenever he takes a lead no matter who it's from. I will say that Senior and I, we did have a rivalry on the racetrack. We loved to beat one another. We battled hard on the track and he certainly didn't mind shoving me around. You know, I just think that he was very good at not carrying that off the racetrack, and because of the way he treated me off the racetrack. Then I kind understood that you know, where the boundaries were and felt pretty fortunate. And I think most guys do that. Most guys keep what's on the racetrack on the racetrack and don't get wound up with it off the racetrack. Junior and I, it's a totally different situation. You know, I can remember him racing a late model Young at North Wilkesboro and talking to him about coming up through the ranks and stuff. There's just never been any of that on the racetrack. We've hung out as friends before away from the racetrack. And, yeah, we know the reaction that the fans have, but unless we're at a racetrack where both of us are running good, we're just -- we have a lot of respect on the racetrack as I did for his dad. You know, it kind of ends there.
Q. You have greatly sort of -- inaudible -- comparison -- it's not a credit to you -- inaudible. The way this season is going, do you think that's all put behind you?
Between Jeff and I, it's just Jeff. It's the characteristics of our personalities, and I think that's why they complement each other so well. I said -- I've said this to quite a few people; if I was Jimmie Johnson's crew chief we wouldn't win near as many races as they have won. And I think if Chad was Jeff's crew chief, I don't think they would have won as many races as Chad has won with Jimmie. I think that's where Mr. Hendrick comes in. He's a wonderful leader of pairing people up that he feels will blossom together as a group, and that's kind of the toughest part of the sport you is can't see the guy in the face. You have to do everything over the radio, which makes it very, very difficult to communicate. Chad and I are great friends. We worked together in 1995 when we won the championship with Jeff. We're just different people. There's really no comparing us. I'm excited when they win, I'm happy for them because as much as everyone made such a big deal about setups at Martinsville, what the media doesn't understand is that's a 38?race -- that's a 38?race system. 38 weeks a year, Chad and I will sit in one another's motor homes and go through each other's notes and each other's setups piece?by?piece. There's no stone unturned between the two of us. And when we start the race, I mean, he knows I want to beat him as bad as the other 41 other guys out there. But from Monday to Saturday and even Sunday morning, you know, it's completely open book.
Q. Last year, actually the last two years, you've kind of talked about how if you never got the fifth championship, let alone seven, you were okay with that. Do you maybe want to start reconsidering after the way you've been going this year so far?
But I think that may have been mistaken -- and I see that a lot, that people might take that as not being driven enough to want it more and not -- engine fires up, I get in that car, there's nobody more driven than me. There's nobody that wants it more. And when the car is right for my driving style, you know, we're going to get the most out of it. And that's what Steve is bringing to the table right now. The thing I love about what he's doing is he's recognizing setups that it could be from Jimmie, it could be from Kyle, it could be from Casey Mears, whoever, that he knows what works for me and what doesn't work. He's in a great position. He's seen two other, you know, really good crew chiefs, greats in this sport work with me, side?by?side. And he's seen those guys, you know, what worked and what didn't work, and he's able to learn from that. And he knows me better than probably anybody because he's been there listening for so long with what goes on. You know, right now, because of the type of race cars that we've got coming to the racetrack, it's got me extremely fired up and I've always -- I've always wanted to get that next championship. But it's just not what I use for motivation. I go week?to?week, and lap?to?lap. I'll probably always do that. I know that we've got what it takes to do it this year. I just hope we can keep this going with what we've got right now because it's awesome.
Q. Tony Stewart (spoke about) the unbelievable pressure to win and when I asked, where did the pressure come from, he said "from ourselves."
Now, this is your first win this year, either you're not feeling the same pressure or you're covering it so --
Q. So you're happier now, but have you been under that kind of pressure, that unbelievable stress he said, with the Car of Tomorrow, the testing?
It's just how you handle things and how you show things. You know, last -- I think I just hide my emotions a lot more. You know, when I'm frustrated, when I'm upset, I try to contain that or keep that for myself privately or keep it with the people I'm close to. Yeah, I've been frustrated and yeah, I've felt the pressure. But again -- well, we don't -- just like Tony, Tony is not getting pressure from his sponsors; he's not getting pressure from Job Gibbs. He knows they want him to win. They want you to win every race, and the team as well. He's a great driver. He knows he's capable of winning and he wants to take advantage of every opportunity that he get to win, just like, you know, I do. And so we just have different ways of showing it, that's all. But I think that we've -- I carry that pressure, as well. I just might have a little bit -- a little bit taller boiling point. I think for me to crack and really go out and say things that I wish I hadn't said, I think it takes a little bit more. He's got a short fuse; I've got a long fuse. They have their pluses and minuses.
Q. How tough would Denny had been to catch had he not gotten that penalty?
But Denny -- you know, between Denny, he and Tony, man, they had strong race cars. So yeah could have been tough.
Q. Finally what do you miss the most --
Q. What finally, what do you miss the most about Dale Earnhardt?
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