With the track shut down Saturday and racing moved to Sunday (Cup event at 1 p.m.; Nationwide at 7 p.m.) here's some driver comments to help you pass the time.
JEFF GORDON
Q. The one thing you've really battled this year is consistency. You've had some weeks where you've run really well and some weeks where you haven't run well. Assuming you make it into the Chase, what's your personal forecast for -- do you think you'll have something for them, as they say?
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, you know, you're right. It has been inconsistent for us this year. You hear drivers talk a lot about it. If you were in our debriefs and our meetings, you would hear me talk more about it probably than anybody. The inconsistency isn't just with our performance, it's with these bump stops that we have to run on. I can't stand them, and trying to get them figured out is just near impossible.
Some have done a better job with it. Maybe it suits come guys' driving styles better, but it's one of the things that challenging us.
And especially this year -- you can go off last year and say you were good at this track and this track and this track. Yeah, that's true, but if we went back there with the same old setups, we wouldn't be as competitive just because teams have gotten better and we've learned more about how we set these cars up.
Then you add in the mile-and-a-halfs, and it's a whole 'nother challenge. That's the biggest inconsistency that we've had is whether we're on the left front bump stops, right front bump stops, front bumps upright, both bump stops, the timing of the bump stops, we've just had one heck of a time trying to get the front of the car to be consistent in and through the corner at a lot of tracks. And when you see us running good, it's usually because we've got those close and it allows me to do what I need to do.
Q. Talk about your team trying to get your arms around the one-and-a-half-mile setup.
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, again, it just goes back to -- at the mile-and-a-halfs aerodynamics obviously play a much bigger role than the short tracks, so you want to maximize the aerodynamics. But we're also dealing with the mechanical grip. These bump stops that we all talk about, they allow us to get the car at the -- basically get the car where we want it on the racetrack, but then it takes all the mechanical grip away from it. So we're trying to get our hands around that. You've got hard stops, soft stops, stops that come in sooner, stops that come in later, you've got a stop with a spring. There's just a million different scenarios, and some guys are making it work, some guys aren't.
I think all of us are constantly trying to gain the edge when it comes to that. I'm not so sure, there might be some guys out there that aren't on stops at all that might be making it work. Those are the things that we're up against.
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CARL EDWARDS
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU CARE ABOUT THIS WEEKEND OTHER THAN WINNING? “I’m watching David Ragan real close. That’s gonna be fun for the fans to watch that fight for the chase. I know how that feels. It doesn’t get anymore stressful than that – maybe going to Homestead with a chance to win the championship – but that’s what I’m watching. Really, I feel like we’re just out to win. This is our last real fun race, where we don’t have much to worry about.”
WHAT’S THAT LIKE WHEN YOU GET IN THE CAR KNOWING YOU HAVE TO RUN WELL TO MAKE THE CHASE? “In 2005 I will never forget. That race was the most stressful race I’ve ever been a part of because there was a wreck over in turn three and I was real close to getting caught up in it and we ended making the chase by just a real small margin. And then it led to us almost being able to win the championship. I felt like that Richmond race in 2005 was a bottleneck. I mean, so much stress went on in that race and I don’t envy those guys that are in that position right now.”
WHAT KIND OF STATEMENT DID JIMMIE MAKE LAST WEEK? “Jimmie’s car was unbelievable last week. That’s a big statement. There are a lot of race tracks that are big, mile-and-a-half, big tracks in the chase, so I thought that was pretty huge, and for us to kind of struggle there a little bit was a little bit frustrating.”
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MATT KENSETH
WHY IS IT MORE DIFFICULT TO WIN? “It’s definitely a lot different. This car, we can’t work on the bodies. What you have aerodynamically is basically what you have. Back a few years ago, even when Mark was there or Greg’s cars for that matter, you could really change the cars aerodynamically a lot for your own driving style and how you wanted to adjust it. Greg and I had totally opposite bodies on our cars with aero loads and all the stuff we had going on. We can’t do that anymore, so you kind of have to adjust to what that is and work on it from there, so that makes it a little bit difficult because if it’s not driving like you want, you can’t really do the things you used to do to try to fix that and make it run better in traffic and do that. So it is a big advantage to be in front and some guys have been able to figure their cars out better than others and they’re very sensitive to being in front and being in the clean air, and they’re also real sensitive to adjustments and things like that. So I think it’s made it a little bit better too. Carl and some of those guys, when they qualify better they can stay up there all day. I’ve watched some of these races and I see the top five cars – like at Bristol – I think the top five or six cars basically ran in the top five or six for 500 laps. It’s harder to come from the back than it used to be and get up front and challenge them.”
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JIMMIE JOHNSON
YOU WENT THROUGH A FEW YEARS TRYING TO GET A CHAMPIONSHIP. HAS KYLE BUSCH GONE THROUGH THAT NOW WHERE HE IS READY TO BREAK THROUGH?
“Definitely. I think he’s shown that all year long. I’ve said all along, even when he was a teammate with us, once he figures out how to win a race he’s not going to stop, and he’s done that. I feel the same for a championship. He’s been his own enemy at times with trying too hard and being too aggressive and forcing things. And growing up, like we all have, you run a short format races and everything is set at 100 percent and you go and these long Cup races have a different rhythm to them. I think Kyle is figuring that out and is going to be a serious threat this year and for the years to come in the championship.”
IS HE AGGRESSIVE?
”He’s aggressive in the right way. He can get in there and lean on someone without wrecking them. You can intimidate someone without knocking the side off their car. You can run a fast lap without knocking your own right side off your car. And if you think about how many times you’ve seen them pounding out the right side on one of his cars (laughs), the guy is just using every inch of the track. When you run out of room and you’re only giving yourself an inch to spare, you’re going to hit something. And he’s learned all that. And he’s had great teams that believe in him. And everyone at Hendrick believed in him. Now he’s at Gibbs and he’s earned their respect and those guys don’t care what he knocks off the car. They’re going to keep giving it too him and letting him go out there and do it.
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KYLE BUSCH
How much does this track change in day conditions versus night conditions?
“Jimmie (Johnson) talked about it a little earlier that it’s just the pace will slow down and Carl (Edwards) said that he will be all over the place because he wasn’t driving too good today. It becomes real slick. The more rubber that gets down it will get even slicker yet and we will be running all over the race track trying to find where the grip’s at. Racing side-by-side, it will be a little harder to do that so there’s going to be more guys side-by-side because it’s harder to complete a pass. We’ll be fighting it all over trying to find something.”
“I think we’ve got a pretty good M&M’s Toyota for Sunday. We’ll see how it all plays out. Judging from practice today, feels like it was a top-five, top-10 car -- something to contend with. If you’ve got a contender then hopefully you can put it in the right positions all day to have a shot at being able to win the race. I feel good about it.”
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DALE EARNHARDT JR.
Q. A lot of people are going to look at Kyle and Carl as the favorites for the Chase, maybe Jimmie. What would you say to people? Should they consider you as a championship contender or any of the other guys?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I think it's really up to whoever works the hardest and gets the most figured out, has the best cars at the end. I mean, Carl and Kyle are probably the favorites and probably got the best odds right now. But I think that we feel pretty confident that we can win.
Q. Where do you need to get better?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don't know. With what we know now and what we run now and how the cars are, it's so different from this time earlier in the season when we were at all these tracks. I mean, Homestead is really the track that -- Homestead had the worst track record, the one that we struggled with the most, and we always seem to run good at the rest of them.
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TONY STEWART
Q: Has assembling your new team impacted your on-track performance?
TONY: Not at all. I mean, that's why this morning is important, for both Darian and myself, we both have jobs to do outside of what we're doing next year for the remainder of this year. So once we both leave this press conference, we'll shift gears and be back to what we're really here for this week, and that's Darian working for Hendrick Motorsports and myself working for Joe Gibbs Racing the remainder of the year. It was important to be here today to inform you guys of what's going on officially, and once we get that done, it's going back to what we have to do and what we're passionate about for rest of the year before we get a chance to do this job together next year.”
Q: Do non-Chase drivers have a responsibility to stay out of the way of Chase drivers during the final 10 races?
TONY: It's not the non‑Chase drivers' responsibility to look out for us. It's our responsibility to look out for us. If we're not in it at the end of tomorrow night ‑‑ everybody has their different personalities and everybody has their different style of racing but ultimately it comes down to the guys that are driving their own cars. We know what's at stake but when you're in the Chase you know what's up for grabs the last ten weeks and you know that if you put yourself in a bad position, what you have to lose is normally a lot bigger than what you have to gain by putting yourself in a bad spot. I don't believe that it's guys that are not in the Chase, I don't believe that it's their responsibility, because there are a lot of those guys that are still fighting for their jobs and still trying to keep themselves in the top 35 in points, that have bonuses if they finish, you know, at certain spots in the point standings at the end of the year whether they are in the Chase or not. So it's not really their responsibility as much as it is the drivers that are in the cars that are in the Chase.”
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CLINT BOWYER
Q. Is the pressure of the situation you're in now the most you've ever been in or similar to some other situation you've been in, or how could you quantify it?
CLINT BOWYER: No, probably last year trying to figure out how to beat Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson to win the championship. That's a lot of pressure. But I like pressure. Pressure is good. There's no way of getting around it. But I'd rather be me in the Chase right now than them out of the Chase trying to figure out how to beat me at one of my favorite tracks.
Q. You seem completely over talking about this. How tired are you of discussing this?
CLINT BOWYER: It's been three weeks of it. I am over it. But I mean, obviously everybody has got a job to do and I understand that and respect that. But I owe it to my guys to give them 100 percent here and try to stay focused on the task at hand, and right now that's making the Chase.
Q. If you don't make the Chase, is the season a failure in your eyes?
CLINT BOWYER: It's just been a struggle all year. Definitely started off the way we wanted it to, the way we expected it to go and had a tough summer. The Chase could save that some, you know.
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KASEY KAHNE
DO YOU HAVE THE SAME FEELING THAT YOU HAD TWO YEARS AGO WHEN YOU RACED YOUR WAY INTO THE CHASE? “The only difference is that in ’06 we won California and that was a huge boost. Then we came here and ran well too. After we won California, it really shot us up. In California last week, we finished eighth and it didn’t shoot us up (in the points) that much. So we have a little bit further to go this time and we’re going against two really good cars like we did in ’06. Now we’re going against Ragan and Bowyer. So it will be interesting. Just look at the times (in practice). Bowyer’s car is good. Ragan’s car is good. My car is good. It’ going to be interesting to see how it all ends up – it’s going to be a long race – hopefully we’re good at the end.”
ARE YOU RACING THE TWO GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU IN POINTS OR ARE YOU RACING THE TRACK? “I really don’t care where they are at until after the race. I’ll wonder (where they are at) because I want to make the Chase so bad. As far as during the race, I hope that I never see them. Hopefully they are somewhere else on the race track. We’ll do our thing and they will do their thing. We’ll see where it’s at in the end. All we can do is to go out and try and lead laps, win the race and do everything possible to have our best performance, the best finish that we can and look at the points at the end of the night. If I start racing them, I don’t think that will be the key to get that best finish.”
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DAVID RAGAN
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE KICKER NOBODY WANTS TO TALK TO WITH TWO SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME? “Yes and no. It’s a deal where it’s certainly riding on our shoulders, but it’s not to that point yet. If you were to ask me that question before I sat down in the car before tomorrow’s green flag run and started to go, it might be a little different, but we’ve still got a lot of racing with the Nationwide race tonight and qualifying and 400 laps tomorrow. I’ve tried not to put a lot of pressure on myself. Certainly, if we make the chase it’s not gonna be because we had a good race at Richmond, it’s gonna be because we were pretty solid all year. If we don’t make the chase, it’s gonna be because we made some mistakes throughout the year. So Richmond, it’s an important race, but it’s not the only race of the year we’re gonna look at and say, ‘Hey, this is the race whether we’re in or out.’ I’m just trying to go out and not put a lot of pressure on myself. Certainly we’ll be a little more cautious at times and pay attention to the details, but I’m not putting that kind of pressure on just this one race.”