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POST-QUALIFYING NOTES: Brickyard 400
DALE JR. HIGHEST CHEVY QUALIFIER AT BRICKYARD, IN THIRD
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DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (third): "The car wasn¹t as comfortable as it was yesterday. The car¹s really looser; I really couldn¹t find exactly what I wanted through the corner. I didn¹t think it was good as it was. Pretty happy about the time. If the car just would have been under me a little bit better we might¹ve been able to be a little faster. Bill Elliott¹s kind of been setting the standard lately; we¹re only a tenth off his time; it should be a pretty good starting spot for tomorrow." HOW OUT OF CONTROL WAS IT? "It was right in the middle thereŠ
"I think the guys working on the cars should be real satisfied. It¹s a little faster than we practiced. I knew Bill (Elliott, on the pole at the time) was going to be real tough. Our early draw helped us out, to get a good lap in. We should be in the top five. It¹s a good starting spot, (hopefully) we can stay up front all day Sunday. It¹s great to be back in Indy."
POST-QUALIFYING Q&As WITH MEDIA:
Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo (qualified 3rd) - "The track didn't have any laps on it this morning and it was a little green, but the early draw really helped us out. Me and Michael (Waltrip) had about the same car (he qualified 14th).
(On the heat) "We're not supposed to do a whole lot of complaining, but it's pretty hot. You'll see the guys push the cars out for qualifying and for the race with the covers over the windshields and whatnot. We didn't cover the windshield of my car before qualifying and the steering wheel was too hot to touch. If I hadn't of had gloves on, there was no way you could have held onto it for as long as I had to. It just gets real hot in there (cockpit). It's real important to keep your helmet in the shade. It gets real hot in there when you first put it on. You need to keep everything as cool as possible. It's going to get probably 140-150 degrees in the car tomorrow. It'll probably be the same way in Michigan in a couple of weeks, and the same at Watkins Glen next week.
"If you're running good and you're real competitive, it never enters your mind. When you're not, and you're just trying to hang onto track position,that's when it tends to bother you."
(Will the heat be a problem for the motor?) "I don't really think it'll be much different for the motors. It depends on what gear you pull and how much tape you have on the grill and things like that. You can do things to accommodate for the heat to help the motor and try to save the motor a little bit. We're pulling a little less gear than I think a lot of people are. You've got to watch what you do in practice. We try not to put too much heat on the motor. When you continue to heat it up and cool it off, it makes all the parts that much more brittle. In these two practices this afternoon, we'll try to save as much of the car as we can. I'm probably not the best guy to ask as far as the engines go. I think if you take care of what you've got, you'll be fine."
ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (fourth): HOW DO YOU FEEL? "To be honest with you, I think probably the left ankle being sore is a good thing here because you don¹t use the brake very much. I¹m pleased. We got in the show. That was our big concern. Last year we had a shot at the pole and I¹ll be honest I overdrove the car; I was a little disappointed. This time to come back and set a good solid time, pick up basically six 10ths of a second over what we did yesterday, I¹m very happy."
STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (sixth): "I¹m doing great; I just appreciate all the race fans for their concern. We¹re very fortunate that the Pennzoil Chevrolet was a safe race car, we take extra measures to make sure the cockpit is safe. To survive a violent crash like that is a credit to NASCAR and all the guys on the Pennzoil team to make sure it¹s a safe car. Again, I want to thank all the race fans Œcause they¹ve been listening on the radio, writing into the fan club just to make sure I¹m OK, so I¹m doing fine. Just some nicks and bruises, so I¹m doing really good." ANYTHING HURT TODAY? "No, Man, it feels good today. All the pain I had just went away. We qualified and qualified good and had a good lap and I¹m just thankful that I didn¹t get hurt so I could come here to the Brickyard." HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN? "I feel really good. We put a lot of effort into coming here and we felt at Pocono last week that we turned a corner. We just hoped we could bring a good car here and qualify good and we backed that up. My teammate Dale Jr., he qualified good, and Michael¹s (Waltrip) got a really good race, so hopefully we can put them all up in the front." DRIVING THIS RACE TRACK; DIFFERENT STYLE? "It seems (in) qualifying you¹re wide open and the Pennzoil Chevrolet was a good race car. It was a little bit loose; I was wiggling it in the back a little bit; I came up off 4 and kinda had to check up because I was a little bit loose and lost a little bit of time. I thought right after that point we had a really good lap going and I was coming down the front before we crossed the start-finish line and (I was thinking), Like, Man, I gave up time coming off of 4 and crossed the finish line and Paul (Andrews, crew chief) just said, good lap. And he said, uh, really good lap. We knew we had a good lap and went through 1 and the tires were all hot, didn't get through 1 like we did in the first lap, and we just gave it up. Water temperature was kind of hot. We set the car up to go all-out on that first lap, and that¹s what we did." HOW ABOUT THIS TRACK? "This track is awesome. You can tell by all the race fans how awesome it really is. Indy is the hot bed of auto racing and growing up with NASCAR you thought you¹d never get a chance to come here and race, and now here we are -- stock cars at the Brickyard 400 and it¹s just nice for us to bring our Pennzoil Chevrolet here and run good."
MORE FROM STEVE PARK: "We thought we had a good car yesterday. Paul Andrews (crew chief) is so good. We turned a time that was decent yesterday - I think it was 20th or 21st and Paul (Andrews, crew chief) thought that was a good time for yesterday. We knew the guys in the shop and I had a little bit more and we showed it today."
(How close are you to getting things locked up for next year?) "We're getting closer. We're not totally locked in yet but Ty Norris is doing a good job of making sure that this team runs good and stays together. We feel we turned a corner in Pocono with our set-ups and stuff. We just need to run good and that's the main goal for myself. When we can do that, I don't think we should talk about contract negotiations."
JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (29th): "We didn¹t get a lot of practice yesterday. Second run out we blew a motor, something happened to it; it started blowing a lot of oil out. These guys did a great job, we got back out right at the end of practice just to see what happened to our car. We tested here a couple of weeks ago; I think everybody was prepared. We still didn¹t run as fast as we tested, and that kind of concerned me; it was a little bit hotter today, probably. Them guys are running 49.40s, we ought to be able to run down there with them too. So I¹m a little concerned about that. Even though we (qualified) we blowed up, so we still have to start in the back, but that should give us a little better pit selection." ON DIFFERENT DRIVING STYLE AT THIS TRACK: "It¹s pretty awesome to be able to come here. As a young boy in Kentucky watching the Indy 500 forever and to be able to participate in the Winston Cup Series is pretty awesome. It¹s a unique race track and you¹ve got to get around every corner. There¹s four corners instead of two, basically. The better you get through 2 and get through 4 the faster you¹re going to run down the straightaway. So just concern yourself with that and that¹s where you¹re going to do all your passing up off the corner and hope this AOL car will be able to turn under them when I go by them."
RICHARD CHILDRESS, TEAM OWNER (NO. 30, NO. 31, and NO. 29 - qualified seventh): ON ALL TEAM CARS SOLIDLY IN: "We¹d like to have our 30 car going a little better right now. We¹re trying to figure out what we¹ve got to do to get it going, but the other two are going to race real good; we feel we¹re going to race real well."
JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHIA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (qualified 10th): "Not a bad run. I gave a little bit of speed up in turn two and it kind of hurt the backstretch a little bit. But it wasn't a bad run at all. I think it's going to be a pretty good spot and that Sunday will be a pretty good day for us."
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (14th): WITH THAT CHEER YOU¹D THINK YOU¹D WON THE POLE: "Well, I would¹ve thought we would¹ve won the pole too, but the weather made it unfair. I¹m mad, but I¹ll get over it." JUST TOO HOT LATER IN THE DAY? "Yeah, anybody could have seen that that was going to be the case. I¹d like to have been in on those meetings when they said we¹ll just have it at 10 in the morning. What kind of sense does that make?" ESPECIALLY BECAUSE YOU PRACTICED IN THE AFTERNOON YESTERDAY? "No, especially because it¹s about 15-20 degrees cooler at 10 than it is at 1 o¹clock. It just gets hotter. You know you¹re up against that. I guess that if I had drawn earlier I wouldn¹t be complaining, so I just like for it to be fair." DO YOU LIKE YOUR CAR FOR TOMORROW? "Yeah, it will be fair tomorrow; we all race at the same time. So, hopefully we can win. We¹ll take the green together and we¹ll take the checkered together, tomorrow will be a better judgment on who¹s got the fastest car. It doesn¹t make any sense, but they¹ve (NASCAR) done a pretty good job of guiding this big old ship down the ocean for 50 years or so; I guess they had a better idea than I that I couldn¹t see." A DECENT WEEKEND FOR DEI? "DEI¹s definitely got some good handling cars; that will be really important tomorrow. I think I have the best starting average in Winston Cup racing in 2002, but I don¹t have the best finishing average, and that¹s more important." IS THE TRACK SLIPPERY? "It¹s real slippery. I never felt my car stick to anything. Nevertheless, we got us a decent time in, and shoot, 15th place is a good place to start."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (21st): "I didn¹t want anything to break at all. It¹s going to be interesting to see what happened to it. I¹m just hoping it¹s not a motor Œcause that will mean we¹ll start in the back of the field, which certainly wouldn¹t be where we would choose to. We haven¹t really been super fast with our qualifying setup. We¹ve got some work to do anyway, but I think we¹ve got a good race car." CAN YOU WIN THIS RACE FROM 21ST? "You can win it from anywhere; it just depends on how the cautions fall and the pit strategy that you use. Certainly it¹s possible and we hope that the right things work in our favor. We¹ve got a good race car and a great race team. That being said, I think that we certainly can win this race, but we¹re going to have our work cut out for us." ANY PROBLEM IN ANY OF THE CORNERS? "I got a little bit tight off of turn 3 that hurt my momentum. It¹s the difference between a 49.90 and a 50.14. I don¹t know how much that would have improved our position, but certainly it wouldn¹t have put us anywhere near the top." ANOTHER HOOSIER ON THE POLE: "Tony, he knows how to get around this place. They¹ve been fast, but I didn¹t think he was that fast. That¹s not going to be beat. Nobody is going to touch that; that¹s a heck of a lap." ON QUALIFYING EARLY IN THE DAY: "As hot as it is right now it¹s about the same conditions as we had yesterday so it ended up working out. If I was doing the schedule I¹d probably do it a little bit different, but it certainly seems to be in a lot of people¹s favor to go early, but at the same time this track hasn¹t been as temperature sensitive as it has in the past, with the diamond grinding that they¹ve done. I think guys that go later will still have a pretty good shot. An early number, I think, is beneficial today, just not as much as it used to be. It doesn¹t matter, nobody is going to beat Tony." WILL A WIN BE A BIRTHDAY PRESENT? "Birthday is tomorrow; hopefully the birthday presents are waiting for tomorrow. We¹ve got a great race car, great race team; we just don¹t have the speed for qualifying and we saw the same thing last year and we¹ve been seeing it this year. We¹ll give it our best shot. I just hope that whatever we broke that it¹s not something where we¹ve got to change the motor, Œcause then we¹ll go all the way to the back."
MORE FROM JEFF GORDON: "Something just snapped in the motor when I crossed the start/finish line to complete the first lap. It could have happened during the lap, so we were lucky. I probably wasn't going to make a second lap anyway. You could hear it. It's something in the rear end gear or the transmission or the driveline. It just shut completely off. Something just snapped. It's stuck in gear right now. It won't go very far. I'm hoping it's not the motor. I'm hoping that it's something in the driveline. We'll just have to wait and see.
"We had a good car. That's definitely the best that we've run. We're not even close to what those guys are running up front there. We went into (turn) three and it felt like I had a decent lap going. I got a little bit tight. That hurt the lap a little bit but all in all it was a good effort. Obviously I wanted to go faster than that.We definitely brought the right car. It's a great racecar for us. It just has a good feel through the corners and I'm real happy with that."
(On the building pressure of not having won a race yet this season) "We certainly know that there is pressure on us, but we put more pressure on ourselves and we always have. This group is very good at not paying a lot of attention to outside pressures and just focusing on our own program. I'd like to know exactly what it is so I could be more precise on what we're talking about here.
"But if we have to start at the back of the field, it just depends on how the cars come through traffic. If we can pass cars, then we'll probably stay on our strategy, and if we can't, then obviously we'll change our strategy and try to play opposite of that and hope the cautions fall the right way. Last year, we started 27th and we went backyards at the beginning of the race. We did some two-tire stops and did some things that got us some track position and we were able to hold onto it. Actually, we had a very fast racecar if we could just get it up towards the front. I think we have the same thing this year. We kind of found that out last week in Pocono where the further through the field we could get our car, the better it handles and the more we realize that we've got a good enough racecar to run up front and that is capable of winning if we could just get it in the right position. But the way we're qualifying is not helping anything.
"For whatever reason - we've sat on three poles here at Indy - the last few races here have not been very good in qualifying. It's changed so much and what combination it takes to go faster. It's just crazy - these set-ups and things that we have in these cars these days to go out there and qualify. We haven't been able to get on it or I haven't been able to get comfortable enough with those set-ups to make it work."
(On the tire stops) "I think the tires are pretty much the same. They're probably better this year as far as hardness and how well they wear. There will be more guys making two tire stops, which does make it more difficult. There's still going to be a number of guys who will do four tires (stops). That's why when you're far back and you don't find yourself moving forward, sometimes the best thing to do is to get completely out of sync with everybody else and kind of get on your own strategy. When you do that, you take a risk and hope that the cautions fall the right way. For us to come from 27th last year, that tells us we can do it. But we also remember how everything just fell completely in place for that to happen. You can't expect that to happen every time."
(On fan support in Indiana) "It always feels good to get more cheers than boos (laughs). I've always taken the approach that as long as they're making noise, that's important and that means something. That's usually something good. It's very nice to come here and hear the number of supporters and cheers out there. There are still boos, but there are a lot more cheers. I think that's very refreshing. I don't look at that as pressure; I look at it as incentive. It makes you feel good about what you're doing out there and I know how proud I am to have grown up in this area. And I know how proud they are when we go out there and perform - especially when we run well. So you've got a real Hoosier on the pole (Tony Stewart) and an adopted Hoosier who hopefully will work his way up there and race with him on Sunday."
UPDATE: The crew reported that Gordon's car problem was in the rear end gear and an engine change will not be necessary.
Thanks to Jade for forwarding this information!
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