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Transcript: Media Day - Jan. 21, 2009 DATE: Jan. 21, 2009 LOCATION: HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS TEAM CENTER (CONCORD, N.C.) PARTICIPANTS: - RICK HENDRICK - OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS - MARK MARTIN - NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET - JEFF GORDON - NO. 24 DuPONT CHEVROLET - JIMMIE JOHNSON - NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET - DALE EARNHARDT JR. - NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET - DOUG RICE - EVENT EMCEE DOUG RICE: It's time now to introduce the principles here at Hendrick Motorsports, celebrating as we said their 25th anniversary in racing. One hundred seventy-five Sprint Cup wins have come out of this shop since 1984 - that's 175. Pretty impressive. The most wins of any owner in the modern era. Second on the all-time list; 12 NASCAR championships including eight in the Sprint Cup Series. Proud to introduce the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, Mr. Rick Hendrick. (RICK HENDRICK ENTERS.) Up next three-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. He tied Cale Yarborough last year; trying to break that record this year. Forty Sprint Cup wins overall; has never finished outside the top five in points; seeking a fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title this season. Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet. (JIMMIE JOHNSON ENTERS.) Our next driver, like a lot of the folks at Hendrick, has won a Daytona 500. He did this in 1967. In 1969, he also won the Indianapolis 500. In 1978, he was the Formula One World Champion. It's my pleasure to introduce the Driver of the Century, voted so by the Associated Press, Mr. Mario Andretti. Also coming out on the stage to join us right now is Hunter Nickell, president of SPEED. (MARIO ANDRETTI ENTERS.) MARIO ANDRETTI: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm here on behalf of SPEED to present the Performer of the Year Award to a driver that happens to be a driver for Mr. Hendrick. Of course it's a hat trick. Jimmie Johnson. Jimmie, a beard? You're looking good. You still look young. This is a phenomenal feat. This award is only three years old. It was instituted three years ago by SPEED, and Jimmie Johnson has won it every year, and what's more interesting about all of this is as far as I know in motorsports, this is the only award that takes into consideration every driver from every major discipline in the world. That includes Formula One, Indy cars, World Rally, even MotoGP; World of Outlaws -- so again from a driver standpoint, you're pitted up against the best of the best, and it's certainly outside of your own discipline. I can only say that, Jimmie, you should be extremely, extremely proud of yourself because of the competition you were pitted up against. It was not an easy task to be able to select the ultimate driver because the competition was phenomenal this year. In Formula One -- the season, the champion not being crowned until the very last lap of the very last corner of the race. So you had some extremely worthy competitors in Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, who fought the entire season -- Ferrari and McLaren. And of course you had another guy snipping at your heels. Carl Edwards had a phenomenal season along with yours. You still came out on top because of your phenomenal performance and you and your team. I'm only too proud to present it to you again. They might have to change the name of the award after this because of your hat trick. I think it's going to be a long time again before this is done again. Congratulations. JOHNSON: Thank you. I'm shocked. I wasn't expecting this. Thank you so much for being here and presenting me with this trophy. It's a huge honor to win this trophy and do it these last years. I hope to honestly go for four, but it means a lot to me to be respected in the racing world and to have what this racing team and all Hendrick Motorsports does, be recognized. (APPLAUSE.) RICE: Everyone needs to know Jimmie had no idea that Mario Andretti was here today, so they've had him basically sequestered in another room up until right then. I think he was the only person at Hendrick Motorsports that didn't know Mr. Andretti was in the house. Another round of applause for our presenter today, Mr. Mario Andretti. Also special thanks to Hunter Nichol and the folks at SPEED for making the trophy possible. That was pretty cool. Let's meet another one of the drivers from Hendrick Motorsports this year. This driver has 18 Sprint Cup victories to his credit; 2004 Daytona 500 winner; two time Nationwide Series champion and made the Chase for the Sprint Cup in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. Driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (DALE EARNHARDT JR. ENTERS.) RICE: The next driver out of the Hendrick Motorsports stable. Here's a couple of his career accomplishments -- I think most of y'all know these by heart; four-time Sprint Cup champion; 81 Sprint Cup Series victories; he has won the Great American race, the Daytona 500, and four times he has won in his backyard, at least one of the places he claims is a hometown. He is a four-time winner of the Brickyard 400. Driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon. (JEFF GORDON ENTERS.) RICE: Now the newest member of this driving quartet from Hendrick Motorsports, who is returning to full-time Sprint Cup competition in 2009. He has an impressive 35 Sprint Cup victories. He finished in the top 12 in Cup points 17 times, and this year he will make his incredible 750th start. Driver of the No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet, Mark Martin. (MARK MARTIN ENTERS.) RICE: Alright gentlemen I think you all can have a seat. Mr. Hendrick, I know you wanted to do a welcome here as the usual stop for the media tour. HENDRICK: Hello everyone and first of all where did Mario go. I'm honored to have a guy like that on our premises. If you check with folks in any kind of racing all over the world, he is recognized as one of the best or the best. We've asked NASCAR if we could run five cars if we could talk him into coming back here. But we do appreciate him being here. We'd like to welcome all the media and all of our sponsors. We had a great sponsor night last night and the lunch today. Thank you folks for being here. We're excited about getting into the '09 season. We know it's going to be another dog fight, but I feel like we have a legitimate shot with four teams at the championship, so we're excited about the "Drive for Nine in '09." With that we're just here to welcome everybody, and we're ready to kick the year off and we do appreciate everybody in NASCAR and all the media that covers our sport. Thank you for all your support, and especially for me over the last 25 years. Thanks a lot. I hate to say it, but I see a lot of gray-headed folks that have been here 25 years, too. I want to tell you folks, too, while I've got this opportunity that I never dreamed we'd make it 25 years, and I feel honored and blessed that I can do anything in life that I enjoy as much as racing and stay with it this long and be surrounded by a lot of great folks. I would like to say one more thing. Doug, this little car over here, this silver car, we have our employee luncheons where we celebrate birthdays, and we had it yesterday and they surprised me. They built the car here without me knowing it. That was the first chassis we built in 1989. That car was called Dusty. It had a lot of history. They reminded me it was only wrecked one time and that was at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and I was driving it. (LAUGHTER) I think Greg Sacks finished second in Talladega with it. Bobby Gerhart, a great friend of ours, had that car. They found the sheet metal somewhere in Florida and the NASCAR templates. They built this car here and restored it without me knowing and presented it yesterday. I've had a really good couple of days. With that, thank you and thank you for being here. RICE: Are they going to let you take it out again? Are you going to get another chance with it? HENDRICK: Well, I shouldn't tell this, but if you look up on the hill there are some black marks. They presented me with another car the day before (Monday). And I have to show it to you media folks. When you get to be old and fat, it's hard to get through those windows anymore so I was asking them to build me a road race car that you could open the door on. And I've got the most tricked COT you've ever seen. It's got a lever in the door and the roll bars open and you get in it. I've got two carbon fiber seats and if there are any volunteers here we'll go out and have some fun. But I got to do some burnouts on Monday with that. RICE: I'm gathering that it's not NASCAR approved. HENDRICK: It probably was the day before yesterday, but the rules have probably changed. (LAUGHTER.) RICE: It's not written down anywhere. I did want you to comment briefly about the video Jay showed and that whole project. HENDRICK: I'm so excited. I want to thank NASCAR for doing this. You know, you watch it and it's the height of your life and something you treasure, and it's a lot of hurt with the family and friends that we've lost during this period, but it's going to be something special, and I'm going to cherish. I'm thankful every day I'm here, and it's something that means so much to me, and it's so much a part of our history. I'm super-excited about it. I know Tim Richmond, he died 20 years ago, was a big contributor to our company. You look back at our family -- Harry Hyde, Robert Gee. It's so much of our history when you look at the wall and all the wins. There are so many people that dedicated so much to make that happen. There are so many folks that have been with this company 20 years, and it's amazing when you have that many folks. I tried to recognize them yesterday at the lunch, and they were all waiting backstage to push the car back in. I thought I was making a big deal out of our 20 year people, and I asked them to stand up, and they weren't there. They were all backstage waiting to push the car in. It's been a great ride, and I'm excited about it. I think they've done a superb job, and I can't wait to see it finished. RICE: Sounds awesome. Let's start with the new guy on the group. He just turned 50, but he's brand new to Hendrick Motorsports. Back in full-time racing in 2009, Mark Martin. How anxious are you to get all this started again? MARTIN: Man, I'm really anxious. I've known I was getting to drive the No. 5 car for about eight months now, so it just keeps building and building, and I'm so glad that Daytona is around the corner. It's really, really the most excited I've been as long as I can remember so it's just a tremendous opportunity. The more I've gotten to know Alan (Gustafson) and all the guys on the No. 5 team, the more excited I've gotten. It's an incredible opportunity. RICE: Having a little bit of leeway on this, have you been able to get a feel for this team and this organization in this time even though you haven't been on the track? MARTIN: It's been exciting, and it's been humbling. It's unbelievable to have this kind of opportunity at this stage in my career. Rick's just been an incredible guy and you know I think that Alan and that race team are capable of winning races and contending for the championship and I just hope that I can experience that with them. RICE: What's the goal right now looking at 2009? What can this No. 5 team do? MARTIN: Our first goal is to get 20 more pounds off the boss. HENDRICK: You've already got 20 off. MARTIN: We're halfway there, buddy. RICE: You know for the new guy that's pretty cocky. (LAUGHTER.) MARTIN: No. listen, I think the sky's the limit for this race team. I really look forward to it. The more I get to know Alan, the more I just don't even want him to explain that stuff to me. He's just wasting his time. He's so far ahead of me technically. It's given me an opportunity to really focus on what I do; focus on getting physically fit, getting physically and mentally ready for this season. My goal is to reach the full potential of the No. 5 car. RICE: Thank you very much, Mark Martin. Jeff Gordon, your new look for the 24 DuPont Chevy this year. JEFF GORDON: Yeah I'm extremely excited for a lot of reasons. This is the start of my 17th season, and I feel like I just came off the first off season I ever had. I'm not used to having this much time. Especially being a fairly new dad and getting to spend time with Ella and Ingrid as much as I did was fantastic. I'm refreshed and really ready for the season to start, but I am so fired up about this paint scheme and having the opportunity to take a black race car with that hot looking flame on it to the track. It's going to be something. The fans are already buzzing about it and are really excited about it. I think an awesome race car deserves to have flames on it. I'm hoping we can make it go as fast as it looks. RICE: One of the constant themes in the media has been questions and the lack of testing and how impactful you think that will be. Is there any way to gauge that at this point? GORDON: I don't think there's any way to truly gauge that at this point. I think the teams that were strong last year have a great opportunity to continue that same success. While I mentioned having an off season, this is the first time I've ever seen our team, the engineers, everybody just sitting down and really being able to go through some data and analyze some things. You get this group of individuals that are as sharp as they are and you give them time to rethink things or try to improve upon what we already have, and I think that can be a pretty dangerous combination. I'm extremely excited to see. I think Daytona is not going to change a whole lot. We had a great package there already. I know the guys in the engine shop are doing some great things with the power so I'm excited to see that. But from a chassis and handling standpoint, aero package, I'm really looking forward to get to the other tracks and see what we have. RICE: Dale Jr., you're out of your freshman year. How does it feel now going into your sophomore season? EARNHARDT: Well I still kind of feel like the new guy. I don't know. With Mark around, he's so much older than me. He's not really the new guy. I enjoyed last year, and it was really great to be able to work on getting a good close working relationship with Jeff, Jimmie and obviously work with Rick as an owner and getting to meet all the employees. Just building relationships, it's been fun. I haven't met a person here I don't like so that's always good. We've been having a lot of fun at the racetrack. Going to the racetrack has just gotten funner; being around the race car and getting involved. Some of the stuff had become a little bit of a drain; it's all gotten fun again. I had a good time last year. I'm looking forward to this year. The cars look great; look prepared. The teams, all the teams and the employees, are so dedicated. It's such an inspiration to be around them so I'm fired up. RICE: Toughest competition on this stage, what's the expectation for the No. 88 this year? EARNHARDT: I think we can expect to run good. We build race cars that I think look great, best looking race cars in the shop. You have to feel like you're the best race car driver out there, and I think all these guys probably feel that way about themselves. You just have to see what kind of weekend you can put together. You do it one after another. I think we are given the proper tools by Rick and the engineers and everybody. We're given everything we need to compete and it's really up to us to take it and utilize it right. RICE: Anything fun in the offseason especially since it got extended? EARNHARDT: Well I went to Aspen to drive some snowmobiles, which was fun. I took about 19 of my family members with me. I took my sister and Taylor and Kerry and that was the first time us four went anywhere together. That was pretty special to me. We really enjoyed that. Rick sent Kelley and maybe a third of that group on a trip to the Bahamas without inviting me this weekend. I guess I just had to work, so I didn't even get an invite but I can understand. (LAUGHS.) It's been fun though like Jeff said, we've had more times on our hands due to the testing policy this year being like it is, so January has been a lot of fun. Getting up and doing the requirements that you're typically responsible for, such as the media day and photo shoots and what not, are not a chore like they used to be when they were mixed amongst the four-day test. RICE: Rick, did you want to comment on why Dale isn't going to the Bahamas? HENDRICK: You'll have to check with Kelley. RICE: Maybe we'll just leave that alone now. Jimmie Johnson, great to see you here. Going for four in a row, but how cool was Mario Andretti coming out and giving you the SPEED trophy a minute ago? JOHNSON: That was really special. I didn't expect it, of course. Usually at the Rolex race they announce the winner. I was hopeful that I would have a shot at it. It's such an amazing award with the drivers that Mario talked about and really racers in general for all sports and all forms of auto racing. A huge honor and I'm looking forward to a great ‘09. RICE: Hard to believe you could be under any pressure with the roll you've been on, but is it self-imposed to try and set the record? JOHNSON: I know, it's crazy. In theory, I've thought about it. It would be great to win four in a row, but there is so much racing between now and then. And if you look at last year, when we started off, we all said that we were tied for 43rd up here. I'm not sure many people wanted to believe that that was our mindset and our position, but we started the year and we really struggled and really had to fight through some things to get our cars sorted out. Today, I'm sitting here. I know this team is capable of winning races and a fourth championship, but we have to get to the track and get to work and see where we fit, what kind of speed we have, what kind of regression have we seen in the offseason without the testing. So I'm extremely optimistic, but the Chase is so far away that it's not in the forefront of my mind. RICE: Heading to Florida for the Rolex 24 and also taking in the Super Bowl? JOHNSON: I was down there a couple days last week shooting a commercial and I picked up a cold, so I'm not excited to run back down to Florida right away, but the Rolex 24 is coming up. Hopefully I heal up and get my energy back for that. It's going to be an awesome event. I'm teamed up with Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Jimmy Vasser. Last year, we finished second down there. I'm hopeful we can be on pace and keep that car on the road all night long and have a shot at it at sunrise. RICE: You're also running a lot of paint schemes this year -- not just the Lowe's scheme. JOHNSON: In general, we've changed the paint scheme. We introduced it last year at the race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. That will be the primary paint scheme for the car and then Kobalt tools, that paint scheme will run a lot more this year. RICE: Rick, as always it's a pleasure for the Lowe's Motor Speedway tour to stop here at Hendrick Motorsports. I just wanted to give you a moment for some final thoughts here. HENDRICK: Well I again want to thank everyone, Doug and Lowe's for putting this together again, and all you folks for being here. We're just looking forward to getting started. Make yourself at home, and I'm sure all the questions will be for these guys. I'm really excited about this makeup. When we talked about Mark, every one of these drivers here said if you've got a chance to get Mark Martin, then you need to do it. I had to work on him for about six months and finally we got it done. I didn't welcome you at first there, Mark, and I'm really upset with you that you didn't give me credit for the 20 I've already got off. MARTIN: I'm proud of you, really proud of you. It's a great start. (LAUGHTER.) HENDRICK: Thank you everyone for being here. Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports. Media Relations | No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard Racing ***** Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Official Site - www.dalejr.com  |
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