Talladega Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Written by John Davison · April 29, 2005
Kevin Harvick took the pole for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. Here, thanks to various teams and manufacturers, are collected notes and quotes from Friday’s qualifying session: Kevin Harvick - No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet - Pole Position - Note: First pole at Talladega. Third career pole. - HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES FOR THE RACE? I think that over the past couple of years, here and Daytona, we always look forward to coming to the superspeedways. Obviously, everything at RCR is really good on the superspeedways. This year we went and destroyed both cars at Daytona, so we had to go home and build two brand new cars and it’s been a lot of work and it’s not something that you can do overnight. We had to build new chassis, new bodies, new everything. So, a lot of work and a lot of effort. I know when I called Todd Monday night and asked him what he was doing, he was still working at 9:00 at night and was ready to throw in the towel because he had enough of working on superspeedway cars. Hopefully we can carry the success from today and on until Sunday.
Kevin Harvick - No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet - Pole Position - Note: First pole at Talladega. Third career pole. - HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES FOR THE RACE? I think that over the past couple of years, here and Daytona, we always look forward to coming to the superspeedways. Obviously, everything at RCR is really good on the superspeedways. This year we went and destroyed both cars at Daytona, so we had to go home and build two brand new cars and it’s been a lot of work and it’s not something that you can do overnight. We had to build new chassis, new bodies, new everything. So, a lot of work and a lot of effort. I know when I called Todd Monday night and asked him what he was doing, he was still working at 9:00 at night and was ready to throw in the towel because he had enough of working on superspeedway cars. Hopefully we can carry the success from today and on until Sunday.
DALE EARNHARDT’S BIRTHDAY IS TODAY. HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THAT FOR YOU TODAY TO TAKE POLE POSITION? Yeah, obviously it’s really special for everyone at RCR and the whole GM Goodwrench Chevrolet crew and it means a lot to everybody and everything that’s happened here in the past. Hopefully we can open a new chapter in that long book of history that Dale and Richard and everyone at RCR have shared here and get a win. We’ve been really close several times, so hopefully we can knock that door down.
YOU RAN A FEW LAPS IN PRACTICE BUT TOOK A BIG LEAP IN QUALIFYING I think when you look back at most of the restrictor plate races, we usually just make one run and try to run our motor as little as possible. We don’t chassis dyno our stuff or anything like that. We feel that our stuff is better when you don’t put a bunch of laps and heat cycles on it and come in and cram cold water on it and things like that. That’s always been the philosophy of myself, or Todd Berrier. All I do is hold the wheel here. Todd and everybody to run as few laps as possible. We put everything we think we have on the car. When you push it off the truck, it’s pretty much what you’ve got. The brakes are pulled back and the thing is pretty much on keel at that point. There’s no reason to beat a dead horse. It’s all we’ve got.
TALLADEGA JITTERS? IS THIS TRACK SPECIAL TO YOU? I love restrictor plate racing and this place. It’s like a big chess match. It’s like going to the local go kart track with a bunch of your buddies and beating the heck out of each other. It’s fun, I think, to race. Some people would definitely disagree on that. I think a lot of it is how you approach things. I don’t get any more nervous for a race here than I do anywhere else. I look forward to coming here because our cars are really good here. I get excited.
ARE YOU OVERDUE TO WIN HERE? Well, I feel that we’ve put ourselves in a position to win. I felt that way at Bristol and we knocked that barrier down. You know, it’s something where you can’t really complain about finishing second. We’ve finished second or third here and always been in contention to win the race. Eventually that wall is going to fall down. That’s kind of one thing I’ve learned that you can’t beat yourself up over circumstances that have already happened. You go into the next race trying to make sure you approach it with a positive attitude and do everything you can to put yourself in a position to win.
THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE THE GREEN/WHITE/CHECKER ORIGINATED. DO YOU THINK THAT HAS BEEN BENEFICIAL? Yeah, I think obviously the fans deserve to see a checkered flag under green finish. After St. Louis in the Truck race last year, we had to put a few extra stipulations into that. I thought it was fun to watch—St. Louis—but obviously I don’t think tearing up 15 cars would be the right thing to do. I definitely think the green/white/checker is a good thing and good move to make it a part of our sport.
DO YOU FEEL THAT SOME GUYS COME HERE AND PLAY DEFENSE? Yeah, there’s definitely a group of us that have a different attitude toward restrictor plate racing. That attitude can reach out and bite you hard sometimes. It bit us hard at Daytona and I spent the first four weeks crippled, basically, in the driver’s seat to try to keep up with everything. That’s the chance you take. It’s definitely something where I feel like the odds on your side if you’re on the aggressive side and if you can keep the car at the front of the pack. I don’t know the percentage you can put on it. 75-85% of the time, you’re going to be in front of the wreck. The wreck could start up front, it could start in the middle, but a lot of the time, it’s going to be back further in the back than if you’re in the top 5.
DALE EARHARDT, JR. IS A FAN FAVORITE HERE Yeah. If we win the race, they can throw stuff at me, too. I don’t care. I’ll be the target of some frustration from some race fans. I think there was a lot leading up to that. I think there were a few races and a caution if I don’t remember right. And obviously it came down to a television camera deciding who was in front of who, so you can’t really evaluate all that when you’re sitting in the grand stands and you’ve drank 12 beers. You probably react a little differently than if your’e sober. It was definitely a little bit chaotic. If they want to throw stuff at me, they can do it as long as we get to go to victory lane.
YOUR QUALIFYING GIVE YOU AN EDGE? It makes you feel good but I think I’d have to agree with them that it doesn’t matter where you start. A lot of it has to do with where your car runs compared with other cars. Staying out of the wreck. Putting yourself in position the last few laps and you’re only as good as…a lot of times if someone is behind you can’t go out of line and pass two or three cars by yourself. Even if you have a car that’s faster than everyone else’s, you can definitely win it from anywhere.
ENGINE PROGRAM AT RCR? PROBLEMS LIMITED TO RESTRICTOR PLATE TRACKS? Let me think about how I can answer this without getting my ass chewed here! We’ve done a lot of work to make our engines better. I don’t think we’ve had a distinct problem on our superspeedway stuff. I know we’ve done a lot of work to make them better. We still aren’t where we need to be on the unrestricted race tracks. But we’ve made an improvement and are on track to make a better improvement through the year. You know, I’ve always been the first one to jump up and say that our engines aren’t what they need to be and we need to go to work. Richard and everybody is listening to everything I have to say. Jeff Burton has helped with a lot of things at RCR since he has come in. A lot of the things that we talked about the last couple of years kind of came to a head and we’ve made progress and our going in the right direction for sure.
IN WHAT WAY HAS JEFF BURTON MADE THE ENGINE PROGRAM BETTER AT RCR? I don’t think Jeff Burton himself or myself or anybody has made it better other than Richard has taken it upon himself to go down and be a part of the engine shop and we came to a solution where we felt we had problems. And so, we’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve been behind and that’s obviously not been something that I haven’t said. It’s not something that I’m trying to say to knock anything. I’m just trying to get better. We’ve made our bodies a lot better since Jeff has come along. That has been his biggest help, getting the bodies and the aerodynamic side of it better. There’s not one person who has made it better. Jeff has brought his part to the table. You know, I brought my part to the table and Dave and the crew chiefs. Everyone is working together well. We all work together and try to make everything better, but you can only do so much in a certain amount of time.
IS THERE A RIVALRY BETWEEN RCR AND DEI? I don’t think there’s a rivalry. There’s definitely not anything like it used to be as far as sharing information and stuff going back and forth as when Dale was alive. I didn’t get to see that before on the Cup side. There’s really, other than Chevrolet’s stuff, not much shared between the teams anymore.
HAD YOU NOT GOT IN THAT WRECK IN DAYTONA, DO YOU FEEL YOU COULD HAVE WON WITH THAT CAR? I feel had we had that car on Sunday, we would have been in contention to win the race, so the car we had in the trailer is the same car we had here today. The same car we had in the Daytona 500 and wrecked. The car we had in the 125s was definitely substantially better than the car we ran in the 500 and that car would have contented for the win, definitely.
QUALIFYING TAKES A LONG TIME HERE. IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO DO IT? Yeah, there is. I think we should do Busch qualifying today and Cup qualifying so we don’t have to come on Thursday. But to answer your question, no, there is no better way to do it. Jeff Burton said it best that it’s a formality and you have to go through it. Two laps here takes a lot longer than somewhere else. I think the process will be a lot better when they’re impounding and you can’t go all the oils and change the brakes and do all the things. You’ll have a lot better show because the two hours of practice, it will be all race practice. Nobody will care about qualifying. It will be just like Busch practice. I think once we get to that point in the schedule, it will definitely be a better show because you’ll get to see everything. If you don’t feel like sitting around and watching qualifying for three hours, you can leave, but they’ll be something else to watch once everything goes into effect on that side.
HAVE YOU EVER ENJOYED THE INFIELD EXPERIENCE HERE? I’ve heard a lot of stories but never actually enjoyed the experience myself. I figure if you go out too late at night, you might end up in the Talladega jail. If I was in the Talladega jail, it would give you guys a lot to write about, but it wouldn’t do any good for me.
Scott Riggs - No. 10 Valvoline Chevrolet - 4th position - DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE GOING TO BE THAT QUICK? Well, actually, I thought we’d be able to back up to what we ran in practice. It seemed like we had a little bit left. But, I guess once you go through that room of doom and you have to put on better shocks and better springs, it’s not quite what you had on the car. I’m just proud of all the guys. I’m happy for a good starting spot. I don’t know if it’s going to hold up for the pole, but thinking it will definitely be a top five. I’m real happy for the guys in the Valvoline Chevrolet. They did a good job of preparing this car after it got a little bit banged up at Daytona. They worked on it every day. Every time we go to a speedway race, it seems our cars are a little bit better than in the past.
DO YOU FEEL THAT HAVING YOUR ROOKIE YEAR BEHIND YOU HAS PUT YOU IN A BETTER SPOT? I definitely have a lot more confidence than we did last year. We have a good car. Being able to use my head this last year and learn a little bit. I think the guys around me see that I’m not going to do anything real stupid and take care of the car. I think they know they can race me pretty hard but clean.
IS THERE A POINT WHEN YOU’RE ON A LAP THAT YOU KNOW IT’S FAST? You can’t tell. You can’t tell how fast you’re running when you’re out there. You could be a half second difference and you can’t tell out there. Just concentrate on being relaxed and not being nervous. Usually when you start trying too hard at a place like this, you start turning the wheel more. And when you start turning the wheel more, you slow the car down. I just try to be real relaxed and get as much speed out of it as we could. I feel that’s a good spot for us.
Jimmie Johnson - No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet - 6th position - It was quite a bit of speed that we picked up. And Chad and those guys focused and made some good changes to the car and got it running some good lap times. Hopefully we’ll be top 5 but probably will be 6 or 7 when it’s all said and done.
Yeah, you just want a good pit stall pick and that should get us that. And then, from there on, second, third or fourth doesn’t really matter. It’s the pole or nothing. We’re very content with where we’re starting. We haven’t qualified the best on the plate races lately. This will be our best in quite some time. But we always race really well. I’m excited for the race.
IS THERE A LOT OF PRESSURE ON YOU RIGHT NOW? THERE IS WORD PEOPLE ARE BOOING YOU TO SEE IF YOU CAN MAKE A MISTAKE I make plently of mistakes, so I guess I’ll take that as a complement. We try hard, we work hard. It’s been tough at times. We started off the season strong. The last couple of weeks, we haven’t had the best car but we’ve pulled out some finishes. You know, it’s the cycle of the season. We’re dedicated and focused to stay on our game and getting in the position to make the cut, and from that point forward to try to be the champion. We’re very happy with the season and the way it’s gone. A win already and two already if you count the Bud Shootout.
YOU LIKE THIS TRACK? Yeah, I do. This has been a great track for me. The spring race hasn’t been very good for me. I’ve always had a bunch of weird stuff happen. The fall race has been good, so hopefully we’ll get some luck in the spring race and win my first points restrictor plate race.
Dave Blaney - No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet - 8th position - They tuned it up a little bit. They got us to really lean on it in practice and they’ll do it for one lap. Those RCR guys are pretty good—they know what they’re doing. And, it’s a good run for the Jack car, no matter to where it ends up. Thanks to Ron Liddell, my motor guy—he lost his Dad last night so we’re thinking about him.
It was real good. That was the pickup we hoped we’d get after practice. The guys tuned it up. It worked good.
IS QUALIFYING IMPORTANT HERE? No. It gets you a good pit location and that’s about it. You know, a Pole anywhere gets you in the Bud Shootout. If the Jack Daniels car runs well in the race, that’s what we’re thinking about.
AT TALLADEGA, PEOPLE TALK EARNHARDT AND GORDON. ARE YOU READY FOR THEM TO START TALKING BLANEY? Well, it comes down to having a good car in the draft here and having guys that will work with you. You know, I’ve got three teammates in this race, so that’s a very good thing.
Tony Stewart - No. 20 The Home Depot Chevrolet - 11th position - WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ON SUNDAY? We need one good first place finish to go with those second place deals. No, we’ve had good luck here. I’ve just come up a little bit short. With all the point races we run here, we’ve got a lot of points running second. Hopefully we can get our first win here Sunday.
HOW WAS YOUR LAP? The run was fine. It had good speed. Hopefully this Home Depot Monte Carlo can stay up front on Sunday. It looks like we’ll have a fairly decent starting spot.
DOES QUALIFYING MATTER MUCH HERE? I don’t know. We’ve been 38th here in qualifying and still run well in the race. So, the good thing is you get probably a little bit better pit selection, but other than it’s really not a huge deal.
YOU DID A GOOD JOB GIVING PEOPLE A PUSH AT DAYTONA, WHO ARE YOU LOOKING FOR TO GIVE YOU A PUSH THIS WEEKEND? Whoever is behind me. I just want some help finally. We get a lot of good help here. There are a lot of guys that know we’re a good car every time we come here. We finished second four times, so we know the equation pretty well to get there at the end.
Bobby Labonte - No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet - 15th position - I feel it’s a good thing when you practice faster than you qualify. And like other guys said, this is all due to the guys in the shop. They do a great job. You know, our restrictor plate program is probably one of the best it could have been in the last couple of years. Worked real hard, stepped up to the plate, built some great engines and worked on the bodies and everything else to go along with it. It will pay off in the race on Sunday, too.
I ran pretty high on the first lap. Maybe even higher than I wanted i na few places. That just equated into a better second lap. The difference was we changed one thing in practice that didn’t work right. We changed it back, hopefully to where we should have been in pratice. But we picked up where we needed to pick up.
YOU HAD A BEST FINISH OF THE SEASON LAST WEEKEND - It kind of felt like a career best finish, I’ll have to admit! It was a great race for us. We didn’t have the best finish all night. It was a little tight in the center, but we missed everything that happened in front of us. Finally we got one of those nights where we finished. It was a good finish. Everybody’s doing hard work, sometimes it’s just hard to finish a race without a problem.
Jason Leffler - No. 11 FedEx Express Chevrolet - 18th position - HOW WAS QUALIFYING? - It was good. We basically backed up to what we did in practice. In practice we ran like a 12, 13, 14 and 15. And I ran a 14, I think. So the car is right there.
SAME AS PRACTICE? - Yeah. You can’t ask for anything better than that.
Jeff Burton - No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet - 27th position - HOW WAS YOUR CAR? - We think we’ve got a much better car to race than to qualify. It’s the car we ran in the Daytona 500 and it was really fast down there. I’m looking forward to Sunday.
STRONG FINISH IN PHOENIX - Well, that was our best finish but it wasn’t the best we’ve been running all year. We’ve just had trouble finishing races where we’ve been running. The last two we finished where we’ve run. That means a lot to us to get the finishes we think we deserve.
Martin Truex, Jr. - No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet - 32nd position - HOW WAS QUALIFYING? - It’s good. We’re pretty slow in practice. You know, we were like 42nd or something, and we picked up a half second, so we’ll see where that puts us. We just hope we’re in—that’s what we’re here for.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO DRIVE THE CAR OUT THERE ON THE SUPERSPEEDWAY? - It’s feel good. We had a lot of fun in Daytona running the Cup race. We just hope we get our Bass Pro Chevy in. We had a really good run at Daytona and ran in the top 10 all day until we blew up at the end. I think this car drafts real well, we just need to get in the race.
Mike Wallace - No. 4 Lucas Oil Chevrolet - 33rd position - HOW WAS QUALIFYING? - Qualifying is quicker than what we ran in practice today, but you never know until we end. Unfortunately we’re one of those cars that has to qualify.
The No. 1 ran a little faster than the No. 66, also. All I can do is hope that it’s good enough and get in on time.
DID YOU CHANGE MUCH FROM PRACTICE? - No, everything is exactly the same. Little stuff like oil. We made a last run on oil in practice. It ran better. I’m surprised it ran that much better. We did a little bit different procedure in qualifying. The first lap under green, I didn’t run as far up the race track. We were taking a gamble that if anything went wrong, water got hot, burn a gear up or whatever, we’d at least have one lap in the books. When you’re outside the top 35, you approach things a little differently. Or the other guys get to approach it differently, I should say.
Kyle Busch - No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet - 35th position - HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? - It wasn’t that good. The Kellogg’s Chevrolet is a strong race car, it just doesn’t have the qualifying effort into it. We’re worried more about Sunday—that’s payday and trophy day. We’re going to try to go get them then. It’s all about trying to find friends out here. You know, you’ve just got to work with the veterans a little bit and get them on your side so you can go out there and draft to the front. Hopefully we can do that. If not, we’ll probably finish mediocre midpack if we don’t get caught up in the big one.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet - 36th position - HOW WAS QUALIFYING? - It’s disappointing to qualify as bad as we do, compared to how we used to run here. I think, you know, just like Daytona you know, we were slow in qualifying. We will get up there somehow in the race. We always do. We’ve got to figure out how to get these things to run a little bit better by themselves. It’s a little embarrassing. But it will be alright.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE OUT THERE? - I was just holding onto the wheel. It was not quite as fast as we wanted to go. We just haven’t been that fast on our own on the plate tracks. You know, we’ll figure it out. The car will race good. Martin looks like he might make the race, so we’ll have three teammates doing all we can do for each other. It should be a lot of fun.
WHY DO THESE CARS RUN SO DIFFERENT ALONE THAN WITH OTHER CARS AROUND THEM? - Well, I don’t know why it won’t run by itself better. It’s kind of fun starting in the back, anyways. We’ve started in the rear and go to the rear because of early wrecks and stuff like that and won races. It’s kind of fun starting in the back and cutting up through there, so that’s one positive way of looking at it.
Brian Vickers - No. 25 GMAC Chevrolet - 37th position - HOW WAS QUALIFYING? - Well, we need to be better, you know. We cut the body off this car and rebodied it with the exception of the roof and some of the posts. And that helps some, but we didn’t spend the time on it we wanted to spend on it. Normally we spend four weeks on a speedway car and we spent a week. On certain areas and in other areas we can to cut time.
THIS IS YOUR DAYTONA CAR? - Yeah. You know, it’s better than it was, but it’s not where we need to be. Our teammate Jeff is the fastest in practice, Jimmie’s faster than us and the No. 5 car is faster than us. So we’ve got a little room for improvement. But I thank the guys for the amount of time they had, they worked so hard. And we picked up a little bit from practice. That’s all you can ask for, you know. But, are we happy? No. The GMAC Chevy still needs to get a little more out of it.
ARE YOU CARRYING MOMENTUM FROM LAST WEEKEND? - Yeah. I think team morale and confidence has everyone pumped up and excited about this week. Right now in qualifying, we’ve just got to get it together.
Michael Waltrip - No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet - 38th position - HOW DOES THIS SET YOU UP FOR THE RACE? - We’ll be fine. When they start drafting on Sunday, we’ll be a part of the show. That’s all you ask for. These cars just draft so well and run so well with a little bit of air stirring around. And I’d rather have that then being the star today.
GREAT RUN LAST WEEKEND - We just have had a good year all year long. A couple of engine failures early in the season and since then we’ve been building on a lot of good things. I give a hand to Tony Eury Jr. and the guys. I feel real good about things.
Bobby Hamilton, Jr. - No. 32 Tide Chevrolet - 40th position - HOW WAS QUALIFYING? - Slow. It picked up a little, but I don’t know if that’s in or not. When you’re so slow, whatever happens, happens.
DID YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES AFTER PRACTICE? - No, we just unloaded slow and only picked up a couple of tenths. I thought we were going to pick up more than that. We’ll just have to get in and see where we can go.
Jeff Gordon - No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet - 2nd position - Note: Three victories at Talladega. Second time in a second place position start (in 1996 went from 2nd to win the race). - This is a proven race car here. We won this race with this race car here last year, so I’m pretty happy about that. What I’m really excited about is that our best car is sitting in Daytona and the guys went to work on this one knowing it’s our next best one. They massaged on it. The engine shop did their work and we came here and qualified second and we’re fast all day. I’m thrilled. I’m real happy the way it’s going.
CHEVROLETS THE CARS TO BEAT AT THIS TRACK? - I don’t see how you can give anybody an advantage here. Other than qualifying, we’re out there by ourselves. That’s when you’re going to find who’s got the raw speed. In the race, once you get into the draft, it’s an equalizer. I’ve never seen a car out there look stronger than another one, really, especially here at Talladega. So, I think it’s more of who knows how to work the draft and use their mirrors and who has a pit crew that is solid all day long to hold onto that track position.
CHEVROLET HAS WON 12 STRAIGHT RACES. IS THAT A COMPLETE ACCIDENT? - Yeah, but look who they are. I think that DEI’s restrictor plate program contrinuted to a lot of those wins. And I think that you put any body style on their car and they are going to run good. I think that some of it just has to do with what they’re doing, not with what make of car they’ve got. I drive a Chevy, so I’m happy to hear that. But I don’t think that has everything to do with it.
HARVICK AND A LOT OF OTHER CARS PICKED UP TIME OVER PRACTICE. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT HAPPENED? - I knew that we ran an 85 in practice and thought that we had one or two tenths left in it and that’s exactly what we had. How you go out there and pick up almost a second? And all of them did it, except for maybe the Kerry Earnhardt car. All of them did. You know, you’ve got to give them credit. Whatever they did, it certainly worked for them and they’re on the pole and we’re second and I’m happy with second. I’m not going to complain. But it definitely gets your attention when you see that.
YOU SAID THIS RACE GIVES YOU A HEADACHE BECAUSE OF THE TWO AND THREE WIDE DRAFTING. DOES IT STILL DO THAT? - Well, not as much of a headache as it used to with the roof rail and the wicker bale in the back. But it definitely still gives me a headache. This is a race that you never stop to take a breath, really. Even though the track is easy to drive, it’s the draft and being around all those other cars that make it so challenging. You’re just sitting there running wide open, nothing you can do to run away from anybody. You’ve got to run right in the middle of the pack. And obviously if you get out, that’s the best thing to do. It’s hard to do, even at Daytona, I ran second and third and fourth most of the day until we finally had to get out of line to make a move because we were running out of laps. But when you’re in that bunch like that all day long, it’s sometimes hair-raising because you see accidents and stuff. They don’t always materialize, sometimes they do. Your hands are somewhat tied behind your back. You’re trying to do your best to pay attention to every little detail going on, and there’s a lot going on. It gives me a headache.
DALE EARNHARDT’S BIRTHDAY TODAY. DOES THAT GIVE YOU ANY PAUSE THAT IT MIGHT BE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? - No, I didn’t think about that at all really. I think he’s a crowd favorite. There are a lot of Earnhardt fans that are here that know that his birthday would have been today. It’s a great way for them to celebrate. You’ve got to give him credit. All I’m saying is based on what Ben (Blake) said is that they go out there and run one lap in practice and park it and go out there and pick up six, eight tenths to qualify. Whatever they’re doing, it makes us think about…and I’m not saying they are doing anything wrong. Whatever it is that they’re doing, it’s only for one or two laps and they don’t really have it for the race. You know, it will be interesting to see what happens when we go to impound. You know, when we come back here and impound.
BUMP DRAFTING: HAS IT GOTTEN OUT OF CONTROL? - I think the day we started bump drafting, we went over the line! But, you know what, we don’t have a choice. It’s either that you get used to it or deal with it or get off the race track. It’s here to stay. It’s not going anywhere. It’s an evolution of technology, aerodynamics, restrictor plate racing, all of those things. It’s not going to go anywhere. Instead of not trying to bump somebody, we just beef up our bumpers more and more. And you know, to me what takes it further over the line is when somebody does it in a tri-oval or in a corner. And I’m hoping that there’s been enough incidents—and I know there were in Daytona—where it got people’s attention to know they can’t do that. I’m hoping they recognize that on Sunday and we’ll have a good race.
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