Ford Cup Drivers Discuss Brickyard

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion, met with media members Saturday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the first practice session. Edwards discussed his teams crew chief change, what it would mean to with at the famed Brickyard and more. 

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion –  HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PRACTICE?  “The car is okay. We did a good job with our strategy there. I think we ended up 11^th or 12^th, so that will be a decent spot and time of day to go out qualifying, which I think will be really important. If the clouds are out it could make it interesting because anyone could get a cloud or you could get some sun and that will shake it up. Really we are just at this point fine tuning our race balance. We got a few runs there and the balance wasn’t very good. We will go back and work on it between practices and hopefully have a good Fastenal Fusion. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. So much happened after Loudon and I am glad we had the off weekend and we were able to kind of gather everybody up and get a good plan going forward. I feel really good about it. It has been great working with Chad (Norris). I think Bob (Osborne) is doing pretty well. He won’t quite tell me exactly how he is doing. He keeps things pretty quiet. The biggest thing is we are all behind Bob 100-percent and hope he gets better and feels better. We are all excited that he is still able to contribute in a huge way with our team. It was a crazy Monday with Scott Graves, he got the promotion he has always dreamed of, crew chiefing the Nationwide car and a Cup car a little bit this year. Chad Norris is as excited as anyone and all the guys on the team seem really upbeat and ready to move forward. I am real grateful for the timing of all this that we had the off weekend.”

IS YOUR MINDSET TO WIN, WIN, WIN OR POINTS, POINTS, POINTS OR A COMBINATION? “Our whole 99 teams mindset is to go through these next seven races and make every race as perfect as we can make it and get every single thing we can. If that is a win, then we are going to get the win. If that is 12^th, then we are going to get 12^th. We have to be perfect and get the best we can. If at the end of the day, that gets us where we want to go, then great.”

IS THAT DIFFICULT WITH A NEW CREW CHIEF? “I think with the structure at Roush and the way we have done things I don’t expect to miss a beat with Chad here. We talked a lot here this last week and even through the off weekend and I don’t think that there is really much of a learning curve. Chad works so well with all the guys and has worked in the R&D department and headed up so many different projects. He has been around the sport a long time. I didn’t realize that about Chad. I didn’t realize his experience, which is pretty extensive. The kind of guy he seems to be and the way the guys have embraced him, I think we will be pretty good.”

WHAT WAS YOUR LEVEL OF SURPRISE WHEN THIS HAPPENED? “I would say that I was really surprised when Bob sat down and talked to us about the things he is going through. He is a very tough man. He is a very dedicated individual and any of us standing here it would be hard to say with confidence we would be able to do what he was doing with all he has been going through, to be able to perform how he has. Through the year we obviously haven’t been as good as we were last year and more importantly we weren’t as good as we should be compared to our teammates. We all sat down on Monday and talked about it and Bob kind of let us in on what was going on with him and all three of us, me, Bob and Jack (Roush) decided this was the best course of action for the 99 team, Bob and everyone. It is a pretty interesting set of circumstances and pretty wild how it all came together but I think we are doing the right thing for Bob which is most important and then also for our team. I think it is as good as we could do.”

CAN YOU ELABORATE ON WHAT IS GOING ON WITH BOB? “No, I can’t.”

DO YOU THINK HIS HEALTH ISSUES IMPACTED THE PERFORMANCE OF THE TEAM? “That is up to Bob. I would have to let Bob answer that. I know a couple of you guys have insinuated and talked to Randy and have thought this health thing is not as big a deal as it seems. I can’t overstate enough that Bob is a very, very dedicated guy to our sport and he is going through something right now that would be tough for anyone and for him to have done what he has done at this level and to have kept it quiet, he is just a tough, tough man. He is a good friend of mine so I am really thinking a lot of him.”

CAN YOU COMPARE THE STYLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOB AND CHAD? “Bob has a style all his own. You guys know Bob well enough. He is an engineer and he stands on his own two feet and does what he thinks is right and that has given us a huge amount of success. Chad appears to be – and I don’t know him really well yet – the structure seems to be a little different where it will be a standard crew chief driver combination where he will rely on the engineers more than Bob did because he doesn’t have the same engineering background and I think there will be times where that is better and times where that is worse. I think we will just have to see. I tell you one thing, Jack has backed Chad up with some great engineers. He gave us another engineer. We have three engineers and I think it is as strong of a team as we could have. If we knew we were going to make this change we would have probably made it earlier but pressure makes diamonds sometimes, so hopefully it works.”

SO, JUST TO CLARIFY, YOU WERE NOT AWARE OF BOB’S HEALTH ISSUES THROUGH THE YEAR? “Bob had told us he had some issues he was working on but we didn’t know the extent of them and how much it was going to impact him. First of all, he won’t exactly tell me all the details of what is going on and second it is his issue and if he wants to talk about it he can talk about it. As far as I know he is going to be fine. I don’t think it would have been possible for him to continue in the capacity he was in.”

IS HE AT THE RACE TRACK?  “No, he is not at the race track.”

DO YOU EXPECT HIM TO BE YOUR CREW CHIEF IN A YEAR FROM NOW MAYBE? “What we are trying to do right now is make the team better and fix any issues we might have which we don’t even know exactly what the issues are. If we don’t do any better here and Bob is up to it, we will probably put Bob right back in as soon as he is able. If this goes well and Bob is doing well in his new role and that is the best thing for him and Chad is doing great then we will move forward with that. Nothing is in stone right now. It could be a whole difference scenario next week and we all know that. We are doing everything we can right now to be as good as we can right now.”

DID YOU HAVE IMPACT ON WHO YOUR NEW CREW CHIEF WAS? “No, I didn’t have much impact in it. I haven’t worked with Chad, so I didn’t know much about him. We sat there, Jack, Robbie, Chip and Bob and they all said that it was the best thing and this was what we were going to do. We discussed it and talked to Chad and brought him in the office and talked to him a little bit. If you look out there across the sport, this looks like the best thing we could do – maybe not for the long run – but for right now this was as simple of a change with as much blue sky in front of it that we could make.”

CHAD IS NO STRANGER TO WHAT IS GOING ON THOUGH WITH HIS INVOLVEMENT ON THE R&D SIDE RIGHT?  “Chad knows a lot about what is going on with these cars. He is on the cutting edge with what we are doing with all of our cars. No slight to him, I just had no clue he was sitting there waiting for something like this. I had never thought about that. I think it is going to be good. And he has a great sense of humor. All the Chuck Norris jokes have been hilarious. I thought I was the only one that thought of that and I started getting texts. They were really good. We are having fun and I hope it continues.”

WITH THE REPAVE AT POCONO, WILL YOU TAKE MORE OUT OF HERE TO THAT RACE NEXT WEEK THAN YOU PREVIOUSLY WOULD HAVE? “I think so. I think that Indy this weekend and the test at Michigan are both going to help us for Pocono to try things we want to try. We just ran at Pocono so I think we have a pretty good feel for what we were lacking there. We qualified really well and got hit in the first corner and fought back all day. I think we have a pretty good plan for Pocono and these two races will help.”

WHAT IS THE APPROACH INTO THE CORNERS AT POCONO? “Turn one is insane. You are going 208 mph or whatever it is and to me there is always this big negotiation with yourself on how deep you will go into the corner. Usually my left foot wins and I brake. Turn two is a really fast corner and really punctuated. If you get through there perfectly it is good. It is a lot like one of these corners at Indy. You only get one little crack at it and it has to be perfect. Turn three is a big sweeping turn and feels like a dirt corner because you slide the car in there and it is a nice slow corner. They are very different.”

HAVE YOU EVER LOST FOCUS AND THOUGHT ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE ON THOSE LONG STRAIGHTAWAYS THERE? “They have those cypress trees on that back straightaway and I always watch those and wonder what would happen if a deer jumped out. You have to put that out of your mind.”

IS THIS A PRETTY UNIQUE STRETCH HERE WITH THIS TRACK, POCONO AND THEN A ROAD COURSE? “Yeah, I didn’t think of it but it is. Indy is a rectangle with short fast corners, Pocono which is different than any race track and Watkins Glen. It is kind of fun. This mixes it up. It is a fun summer stretch and that is what we need right now. We need different race tracks and to shake things up. We want to maybe have some guys struggle and run the best we have ever run.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON WAS TALKING ABOUT WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO SEPARATE FROM A CREW CHIEF. WITH WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF LAST YEAR THAT MAYBE THIS WOULD ALLOW YOU GUYS TO GET RID OF ANYTHING LINGERING IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR. “How would Jimmie know about that? (laughter) I know everybody else thinks they know better than me, and they may, but I am telling you that I don’t think last year has an effect on how fast or slow we are going at these races. I am not thinking about it in the race car. I think at the end of the day, Bob, Jack and I sat there and agreed that for Bob’s reasons and reasons of performance that this was the best thing to do. I think that Jimmie is right. Sometimes just changing something and meeting new people and understanding how they work – maybe there is a little more effort put forth – all of those things can be good. If you walk in our shop right now the guys are ready to go. They are ready to perform for seven races. They saw last year what happened with the 14 team. We all know what is on the line and we know that if we can make the Chase and turn this thing around we can go with the championship. We feel like each one of these races is as important as Homestead was last year. We feel like with our experience we can do this. Those are the motivating factors. I don’t think it is simply the crew chief change. It is the entire package.”

YOUR TWO TEAMMATES GOT OFF TO FAST STARTS AND ARE STILL FIRST AND THIRD IN POINTS, BUT EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE GAINING. WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO GET YOU GUYS BACK TO HAVING AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE OTHER TEAMS?  “One more guy, like our 99 team pushing everybody would help. If we could go up there and run a little better and give more input to Matt and Greg and help our team, that would help. You nailed it on the head. It’s tough. You have to peak really at the right time. You have to be fast when it is time to be fast. Right now, we have seven races to build everything up and shine in this Chase. I hope that our team is on the upswing. It just seems like someone gets ahead and then somebody leapfrogs and it is as tough now and as dynamic now as it has ever been.”

AS A MIDWESTERN GUY, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR YOU TO WIN HERE? “It would be amazing to win this race. I watched the video of last year’s race yesterday at home and my heart was beating in my chest watching Paul (Menard) hold off Jeff (Gordon) for those last few laps. I was sitting there on the couch watching on my laptop and was getting anxious and nervous for Paul. That is how special this race is. I think that the opportunity to win would be unreal. Last night we went and drove a little cart that I keep up in my motor home and I took my brother out and we rode around and went out on the racetrack. I don’t know if we are supposed to be out there or now but we went out and looked at the track. I have been racing for a long time and my brother has been around a lot of racing but we were out there like eight-year olds talking about how awesome it was to be at Indianapolis on the race track. That is how neat this place is. We saw some police driving on the track right after that so we kind of came off and my brother was like, ‘Man, those cops are patrolling.’ I said, ‘Kenny, they are doing the same thing we are doing. They are out there saying, ‘Man, we are on the race track at Indianapolis.’ I think we all know how special this place is and how cool it would be to win.”

WITH ALL THE RACING HERE THIS WEEKEND, WITH RUBBER ON THE TRACK MAKE THE RACING TOMORROW DIFFERENT? “Well, do you think there was rubber on the track this morning or did rain wash it off? I felt like the track was a little slippery at the beginning of practice today from whatever rubber was or wasn’t on it. If it doesn’t rain and that Nationwide race runs, I don’t know if their tires are the same but they have to be pretty similar and I think it will change the race. We might see more rubber than we have seen and that might throw a wrench at things.”

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT DOING THE BACK FLIP? “I don’t know if anybody has ever done a back flip on the bricks. That would be huge. This front straightaway is so cool to stand out there. We finished second in 2008 at this race and I watched Jimmie go through that whole victory lane celebration and it was spectacular to stand up on that pagoda and get the trophy. It is a special place. It is hallowed ground. I don’t know what I would do if I won. I would surely do a back flip and I would try to get up there in the grand stands. I think it would be really cool to go up there with the fans at this race track.”

HOW DID IT COME ABOUT THAT YOU GO INTO THE GRAND STANDS? “I stole that from John Cena. We did a Gillette commercial and they had a crowd of actors and with the cameras off he ran into the stands and did this whole thing and would everybody up. I thought that was cool. That is definitely not my deal. I say every time someone brings it up that the other drivers should do it. It is such a neat experience to go up there and look back down on your race car on the track and celebrate with all the fans.”

IS WATKINS GLEN A WILD CARD FOR YOU IN THIS THREE RACE STRETCH? ‘I feel pretty good about Watkins Glen. We sat on the pole there a few years ago and had some good runs and almost won the race one year. We were running second and I ran off the second to last corner trying real hard. We have run really well there and I like that race track. To me it is the road course that suits my style more than any other I have been on. It is a really fun race.”

QUESTION INAUDIBLE “Chad and I agreed we are putting our feelings aside. We are going to tell each other everything. If I don’t like something he is doing I am going to tell him and if I am doing something he doesn’t like he is going to tell me. We are going to race hard, communicate and it doesn’t matter. If we like each other great, if we yell at each other it doesn’t matter. We are going to try to be fast. It seems to be going well so far. I don’t know if you guys have had a chance to talk to him. He is a really interesting guy. He is really level headed and calm and has a lot of confidence. I think he is ready to go prove to the world how good he is and that is the kind of guy I like to work with. We are not pulling any punches here. We are going out there to perform. He has been through a lot, I have been through a lot and we aren’t nervous about offending anyone. Bob and I were never worried about that and I don’t think it will change.”

DO YOU THINK CHAD WILL TAKE MORE CHANCES? “I don’t know. That is a good question. I think Chad is in a different position. He is going to stand up there and be a guy that by definition he is not an engineer. He is not a guy that is worried about things maybe that Bob was worried about. He is going to do what he thinks is best based on his strengths and rely on these other guys. It could be a chance to take more risks and do more things but I just don’t know. I haven’t been through a race with him yet. If anything I am curious about Sunday and how it is going to go. You might want to tune into our radio. Who know what we will be doing. We might be yelling and misunderstanding. I think it will go well but I am anxious to see.”

DO YOU WISH YOU WERE RUNNING THE NATIONWIDE RACE TODAY? “I would like to run that race today. I didn’t think too much about it before we got here but it would be a cool one to run. I am running one coming up. Have we announced that yet? No, okay, I don’t know if I am supposed to say anything about that or not but I am going to run one coming up. I am pretty excited about that.”

 

Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, stands in third place in the Sprint Cup championship standings heading into Sunday’s Brickyard 400. Biffle spoke with media members Saturday afternoon after posting the fastest lap in the final practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – HOW WAS THE PRACTICE SESSION? “It was a good session for us. It feels like the car is not real fast yet we are at the top of the board. I am curious to see if the track picks up speed or grip for qualifying. It is only a few hours but I am curious if it is going to do that. We are going to have to wait and see.”

WHAT IS YOUR COMFORT LEVEL WITH SUNDAY? “I feel really good. The car is driving extremely well in race trim. We never put a set of tires on in this practice, so we just worked on the old set of tires and worked on the track being slick and worked on good grip. If the track cools down and it is real overcast and gets faster then we will probably fight a little bit loose but we will have to wait and see. I think we will be good for a warmer, slick, rubbered up race track.”

WHAT WOULD A WIN HERE FOR YOU MEAN?  “It would mean a lot. It would mean a lot for this race team. That would be something special to win at the Brickyard. It would be our second win of the season and it would certainly give us a little boost going into the Chase.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE OTHER ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND?  “I think it is good for the fans and good for the city and good for racing. Our schedule is a little bit cramped and we could have used a little more time in between practice. Maybe a late Friday afternoon practice would have been good. I understand though and we are used to weekends like this, no at this kind of venue though, but it seems like it is working well so far.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT PLACES YOU WANT TO WIN IN THIS SPORT, WHERE DOES THIS PLACE RANK? “It ranks right up there in the top two or three. I want to win a Daytona 500 for sure and there are a couple other places that I would like to win. I want to win a road course race and winning here would be pretty special.”

DO YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT CHAD NORRIS? HAVE YOU DEALT WITH HIM OVER THE YEARS? “Not that much. I have tested with him some and that is about it. About the same as Matt (Puccia) before I started working with Matt.”

ANY THOUGHTS ON HOW HE WILL MESH AS A CREW CHIEF? “I think he will do well. He will be excited about the opportunity and work hard at it like Matt did and he has a lot of friends in the garage here and with the team and these guys will help him.”

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES TO A MID-SEASON CREW CHIEF CHANGE? “I think the first few weeks some of the challenges are expectations and kind of getting the lingo down. When you say the car is a little loose, what do you want me to do to it. Working through those things and what your driver preferences are and things like that. That will be about all they will face getting going.”

YOU SAID YOU WANT TO WIN A ROAD COURSE RACE. WE GO TO THE GLEN IN A COUPLE WEEKS. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT PLACE THAT YOU LIKE AND WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN THERE? “I really like the Glen. I have won there in the Truck Series, sat on the pole and sat outside front row with Jeff Gordon there my second or third time there. I like that track. It is high speed with elevation changes and we have been working hard on our road course program and brakes and everything, I want to go there and be competitive. I know we can run in the top five and that is what we need to do to be able to win there. We need to have good pit stops and strategy and be there to shoot it out at the end.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE TURNS AT POCONO? “Right now it is a little different than it used to be. Turn one – all the turns are much smoother than they were. That makes a huge difference. Back down to the very bottom in turn three and four. The tunnel turn is still kind of a struggle to get turned in there and get the power down and get the front to stay under it as it is exiting the corner. They are definitely three unique corners. I like it a lot better paved than I did before.”

THE STRAIGHTAWAYS ARE LONG. DOES YOUR MIND EVER WANDER? “No, you are thinking about the next corner and what the guy behind you and in front of you are doing. You are anticipating always at that race track. It is the same here.”

YOU ARE THE ONLY GUY THAT HASN’T SAID THEY WERE WONDERING IF A DEER WOULD JUMP THE WALL. “Yeah, we have seen deer all over the place up there. I have seen them at the track. We had to wait once because they were trying to shoo one off into the woods there because he was near turn one. It is fun to joke about but it would be pretty serious if one got out on the race track. We definitely need to watch out for that.”

DO YOU WISH THE CHASE STARTED TOMORROW OR DO YOU HAVE WORK TO DO OVER THE NEXT SEVEN RACES? “I don’t think we have work to do, I think we have races to win for bonus points. I want those opportunities before the Chase starts to try to get myself some more points. I think we can win here and at Pocono and Michigan and at the Glen. If things go right we can win those races. There are some race tracks coming up that we can definitely win at before the Chase starts.”

DID THE OFF WEEK COME AT A GOOD TIME FOR YOU? “Yeah, I got home from being out of town for a week and I said I was ready for a vacation. It always seems like vacations are a lot of work. I was out in Washington and had a good time. I was able to go back and visit the family and I snuck away a day to the Oregon sand dunes and that was a lot of fun. It is time to get back to work though. I was ready to get back to work.”

YOU HAVE QUALIFIED WELL HERE AND JUST IN GENERAL DONE WELL HERE. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF THE TRACK AND WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD HERE? “I think the challenge of it being four flat symmetrical corners. I love things that are challenging. The other thing is the prestige of this place. I focus hard on it and try to pay attention and do the best I can.”

THE NEXT THREE RACES ARE AN INTERESTING COMBINATION. “Yeah, it is a challenging stretch although even though Pocono is not the same as this, this place drives somewhat like Pocono with a long straightaway and flat corners. The transition between here and Pocono is not that much. The speeds are similar and corners are kind of similar. When you go to  a road course you are stepping into something different.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE ROUSH R&D DEPARTMENT THAT IS PRODUCING SO MANY CREW CHIEFS? “I don’t know. I think a lot of crew chiefs come out of engineering type situations and trying things outside the box and learning and they have all been crew chiefs in a Nationwide or Truck Series program before. They have that experience and engineering experience and that creates an opportunity to come on the Cup Series I guess.”

IT SEEMS LIKE THAT HAS BECOME THE FALL BACK FOR ROUSH WHEN THEY NEED TO FIND SOMEBODY. I GUESS THE TRACK RECORD HAS BEEN GOOD. “Yeah, it has been good. Let’s face it. Bob (Osborne) will do a great job in R&D or wherever it is he is going and I think Chad will do a good job.”

 

Ford Racing legend Leonard Wood and Wood Brothers No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion driver Trevor Bayne, held court with the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon to talk, amongst other things, about the No. 21 tribute car honoring Leonard being run by Bayne this weekend.

 

LEONARD, IT HAS BEEN A BIG WEEKEND FOR YOU COMING BACK TO INDIANAPOLIS. YOU AND YOUR TEAM MADE A SPECIAL TRIP HERE IN 1965 FOR THE INDY 500. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMING TO INDIANAPOLIS? “First of all, it is guys like this right here (Trevor Bayne) that put me in the Hall of Fame. We have had the greatest drivers in the world driving for us and Trevor is certainly one of them. We came here in 1965 with Ford Motor Company because they wanted us to come pit Jim Clark. We came up a week ahead and prepared the car for a stop and we were going through inspection and the inspector said, ‘How come you have the gas outlet so far up on the tank. I bet you can’t fil 20 gallons a minute out of that tank.’ We didn’t bet with him. We just wanted to get through inspection. Anyway, we put 58 gallons in in 15 seconds. We knew we were going to have a good pit stop. We went on to win the race and my nephews Eddie and Len and niece Kim decided along with the Hall of Fame personnel that they wanted to celebrate my going in the Hall of Fame at this race track because we won in 1965. They wanted to paint the paint scheme the same as we used on the Cup cars in 1965 which was candy apple red. It has certainly been a very special week for me to come back here 47 years later with my face on the front of the hood coming down the track. I watched Trevor make a practice lap and it is pretty exciting to see your face on a car.”

 

TREVOR, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BEING ABLE TO HONOR LEONARDS LEGACY AND THEN ALSO BEING ABLE TO RACE OUT ON THIS TRACK.  “Leonard looks pretty young still so I promised him I wouldn’t give him any more wrinkles on the hood. We have to keep him looking good there. I am really excited to be driving for the Wood Brothers in general but to have guys like Glen and Leonard Wood honored on our cars, last year we did it at Charlotte for Glen going into the Hall of Fame and this year is Leonard’s turn. To me that is special that they have had their own individual significance to the sport and they weren’t just recognized as the Wood Brothers but they are recognized as individuals for what they did for our sport. Leonard is such a great guy. I always go see Leonard and he has something crazy going on. I am kind of scared to walk in the door. You might get run over by a lawn mower, you never know. I love driving for these guys. They feel like family to me, all the way through the whole race team. Not just Eddie and Len and Leonard and Glen – everyone that has anything to do with it feels like family. Every time we run a special paint scheme it feels like the car is really fast. We unveiled the David Pearson one for Daytona and it was really fast. We were running top-five with Glen’s paint scheme at Charlotte and this thing is pretty quick here. This is our first new car we have run from Roush Fenway, the first new chassis this weekend and the car is pretty fast so we will go see if we can make a good qualifying lap with it.”

 

LEONARD, A FOLLOW UP ON 1965, DEALING WITH JIMMY CLARK, DID YOU ALL WORK ANY ON THE SETUP OF THE CAR OR DID THEY HANDLE THAT AND ALSO IF YOU DID, HOW DID YOU ALL START TO TRANSLATE ALL THE TERMINOLOGY? “No, what we were up here for was to pit the car and we didn’t know if they were going to accept us or resent us being here being that we were a foreign team. They rolled out the red carpet and gave us full control of preparing the car for a pit stop but as far as setup, they did all of that themselves. His chief mechanic did that and it was amazing to me to watch him hand make A-frames right there in the shop with a settling torch. He was welding it together with brass and a settling torch and making A-frames and changing the front end geometry. I was very impressed with how sharp he was. They wanted us to pit the car and if anything out of the ordinary happened they wanted their crew to go over and work on the car because they were familiar with the car.”

LEONARD, WHAT KIND OF GUY WAS JIMMY CLARK?
LEONARD WOOD CONTINUED -- “He was a quiet sort of somebody. Very competitive and he sort of played himself down. He said, ‘I am not going to run hard.’ But the second lap he just dropped down and just went on. To watch the history of his driving career you could tell he was one of the best he was. Dan Gurney said that if you went down in the straightaway and braked as hard as you could brake and barely got the car slowed down to make the turn on a road course, that he would beat you if you didn’t do that every lap. Dan Gurney had the highest regard for him.”

TREVOR, WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE OUT ON THE TRACK AND DID YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE? “I don’t know what comfortable is here yet, especially getting into turn one. In three and four you can at least see where you are going. In one you have pit road wall there and it is a feel thing and you drive to the two marker the first run, then to the light, then to the one. You have to use reference points. Normally you are looking at the track justifying your speed and trying to manipulate the car like that. It is different here and showing back up it felt like the first time all over again except this time we were four or five second off the run. That was a lot better for us this time. I felt we were way into the game this time and able to work on the setup of the car. Last time when I showed up here I just went out the whole first practice and made laps and tried to get used to the place. It is so much different than any other track we run. Having four different corners where if you can’t get off the corner because you don’t have forward drive and the back is moving around you have to focus because it is two times more than you usually have. If the car is too tight on entry you have to fix it because you have to do it four times. You have to really pay attention to the car and make sure you keep it turning. For me, coming back a second time I know a lot more what to expect for the race so I am able to adjust the car better for practice. I love coming to Indy here. It is so much different than anywhere we go. It is kind of an eerie feeling. When you are in the infield and can’t see any of the track, it just kind of has a sense of awe about it when you get out there and are making your laps.”

LEONARD WOOD CONTINUED –

THE 21 SEAT HAS BEEN A COVETED RIDE TO A LOT OF GUYS THAT WEREN’T NASCAR REGULARS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH AJ FOYT?  “He relieved for Marvin Panch in 1965 at Atlanta and we had these blackboards, we didn’t have radios, and sometimes drivers had a tendency where you would give them a board and they would keep looking straight ahead and not acknowledge you signaling them. AJ, every lap we would give him a signal he would turn that head straight at you and acknowledge your signal which was very important and of course we went on to win the Daytona 500 with him and he was one great driver. He was on top of his game setting the car up. I remember one time that he said he needed a stronger right front and so I said, ‘Well, I will change it.’ Then I changed it and he said it felt good but I told him he was running a half a second slower and he said, ‘Put it back like it was.’ Another time I did that sort of thing and it picked him up. He was very on target with what the car was doing and how to drive the car.”

TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED

WHAT WILL CHAD NORRIS BRING TO CARL’S TEAM? “Chad Norris is a motivator. He is somebody that is going to come in there and get the cattle brand going and stir people up a little bit. I think he and Carl will be a good fit because Carl doesn’t necessarily need that. He is self motivated and self driven and they will push each other to that next level. I think Bob Osborne is a great crew chief and it is unfortunate what is going on with him but Chad is definitely the next guy to step into that position. I hate losing him because I wanted him at Bristol for my Nationwide car. He is going to bring a lot to that program. If there is anybody down on the team he will be the guy to pick them up and get them going again. He is the kind of guy that will work on the car until his hands fall off trying to make it better. You have to have people that are dedicated and want to make the car the best they can and that is Chad.”

 

TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED

DO YOU HAVE A DRIVER YOU IDOLIZED THAT YOU ARE SUDDENLY ON THE TRACK WITH? “Most of these guys I grew up watching. Most of them were driving when I was a little kid going to Bristol with my parents skipping kindergarten. It was a good time watching those guys. I remember the first time I got on the Cup track at Texas, my first race with the Wood Brothers, I am looking around and Tony Stewart is beside me and Jeff Gordon in front of me and it didn’t feel real. The first time I passed Jeff Gordon in the race at Texas I felt like I was on top of the world even though we were running 17^th. It is a cool feeling to be out there with the guys I grew up watching and had their lunch boxes and all that. My first number was 24 because I liked Jeff Gordon and I still look up to these guys because I have so much to learn, especially a place like Indy here where seat time is so important. I have talked to a lot of guys about what I need to do here and it is fun to be out there with people I grew up watching.”

TREVOR, TALK TO ME ABOUT PATIENCE. YOU MUST HAVE TO HAVE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF IT. YOU GET SPORADIC OPPORTUNITIES EVEN AFTER WINNING THE DAYTONA 500. WHAT IS THAT LIKE FOR YOU TO HAVE TO HAVE THAT TYPE OF PATIENCE? “Man, you have to have good people around you because to me as soon as something happens or I talk to Jack or Steve Newmark or Eddie or Len, I get really anxious because I want to be at the track every weekend and I am really competitive. I have called Jim Farley and Jamie Allison and I have worn their phones out just talking about what is the next step for me. It is hard to stay patient through that. After you win a race you feel like you want to be a full time guy and it is hard to take that step back. Next year I will probably be running the Nationwide series full time and running for the Wood Brothers hopefully. It is hard to stay patient and know your time is coming and to prove yourself again. I feel like we have already proved ourselves but I am thankful to have the opportunity to come out here as much as I have been with the wood brothers. I just want that opportunity in a full time ride and get experience and work together as a team. It is the little things you learn and get better at when you work together every single week like a lot of these guys do. The patience is the hardest thing I have had to learn. It is all about the people I have around me and knowing that when the time is right I will get my opportunity.”

 

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Fifth Third Ford Fusion, heads into Sunday as the points leader and spoke to media Saturday afternoon at the Brickyard.

MATT KENSETH, NO. 17 Fifth Third Ford Fusion  -- TALK ABOUT HAVING A WEEK OFF AND COMING HERE TO A HISTORIC TRACK LIKE THIS. “Yeah, it was nice to have an off week and we didn’t really do a lot. I spent some time with the girls and Ross which was fun. It was strange not coming in until Saturday and packing everything in this morning. We haven’t had a lot of time to think about what we need to fix or what we are missing. It happens pretty fast. The Brickyard is a historic place and I feel like it is a privilege to race at this race track. It is one I look forward to and in my mind is the second biggest race of the year. You always look forward to this one.”

WHEN YOU LEFT HERE LAST YEAR YOU WERE PRETTY FRUSTRATED THAT IT CAME DOWN TO FUEL MILEAGE. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU HAVE WORKED ON AT ALL TO GET BETTER AT? CAN YOU DO ANYTHING TO GET BETTER AT THAT? “There are some funny stories about that in my mind. Our fuel mileage has been pretty good this year. I get the same fuel mileage as my teammates now that we have EFI. I think that has changed the game there a little bit. I think everybody is way closer to the same than what they were before, or at least it feels like that. We haven’t had any real fuel mileage races and we have been pretty good on mileage. I haven’t been as concerned about that as I have been in years past.”

DID YOU DO ANY SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IN THAT FIRST PRACTICE? “I think I made it faster. I was just telling Katie a few minutes ago that I have been really clumsy today. I don’t know what my problem is. I kicked over my coffee coming out of the motor home and then I hit the wall on the first lap on the straightaway and I don’t know how I managed that. Then I walked back to the hauler and tripped and almost fell face first in the hauler. It has been an eventful day. I am hoping to make it through qualifying safely and get back to the motor home without anything bad happening and hopefully be better tomorrow. It just scraped the paint up a little bit though to answer your question.”

WONDERING WHAT IT WOULD MEAN FOR YOU TO WIN TOMORROW AND HOW REALISTIC IT IS FOR YOU TO PULL THAT OFF? “The Brickyard is a huge race and everybody wants to win at Indianapolis. I feel like there have been a lot of times here we have had one of the best cars and ran really competitively and felt like we had chances to win but haven’t for whaever reason. One year two tires beat us, we got beat on fuel once, we had a piece of lead come out of someone’s car and wipe our car out when we were running second once. We just always have issues, we have blown tires, it seems like we always have something keep us back. I feel like this has been one of our better tracks in terms of performance. Hopefully we figure things out because we haven’t been good today at all. If we don’t’ get it a lot better than we did today we won’t have a chance tomorrow. My guys have been doing a super job. When they drop the rag on Sunday we should be good and hopefully we have some stuff to look at tonight and get a decent lap this afternoon and are in the mix at the end.”

POCONO NEXT WEEK, WHAT DID YOU LEARN WITH THE REPAVE? “It was way better. I thought they did a great job paving it. Usually everyone is against new pavement, including myself, because you think it hurts the racing but I thought it was better. I don’t think it could have gotten any worse though. I never did good there and never really liked it before. I feel like we ran competitive. I don’t remember what happened or what we did to get to 7^th or 8^th or whatever it was. I am looking forward to going back and trying to improve on that a little bit.”

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE PRESSURE OF BEING THE LEADER COMPARED TO THE CHASER HEADING INTO THE CHASE? “I think that depending on what your cushion is ahead of 10^th or 11^th, however you want to look at it, that is where you pressure is. Even if you aren’t the leader, if you get to a couple races to go and know you are going to be in the Chase I don’t think the pressure is any different being the leader or being fifth. After the 26^th race they put the top-10 in order of wins and right now we only have one compared to a couple guys that have three. We know we need to pick it up a little bit and get another win or two hopefully before we get to the Chase assuming that we make it.”

HOW FAMILIAR ARE YOU WITH THE ROUSH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. ANYTIME SOMEONE NEEDS A CREW CHIEF THAT IS WHERE JACK LOOKS AND MORE TIMES THAN NOT IT SEEMS TO WORK OUT. “The R&D department has probably changed a bit through the years. Jimmy (Fennig) ended up over there running R&D when they took him off the crew chief job of the 6 car and that is where we got him out of. Chad has been over there I think because he was the crew chief on a Nationwide car and they downsized the program. Instead of moving him out they put him there to work on projects. Same with Matt Puccia, he was a crew chief and always thought he would be one of the best in the business. We went from three Nationwide cars to one or whatever it was. They had to do something with those people and didn’t want to let go of all those people. They put them back there working on projects and keep trying to move the programs forward. There is a lot of depth there.”

I BELIEVE I HAVE HEARD YOU SAY ONCE BEFORE THAT WINNING AT INDIANAPOLIS WAS WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO, AS FAR AS A SINGLE RACE, IS THAT THE CASE? “Yeah, you  want to win everywhere and if you can pick any race and just one I think it is the Daytona 500. After that probably the 600 at Charlotte and the Southern 500 and the Brickyard, those are the four biggest races of the year. If you could pick four races, if you were lucky enough to pick four races to win, those would be it. I think this would be the second one on most people’s lists.”

WHEN YOU GET BACK IN THE CAR AFTER A WEEK OFF OR OFF-SEASON OR WHATEVER, IS IT AS SIMPLE AS RIDING A BIKE? “I have been clumsy out of the car too. I think for the guys that have ran here a lot and are comfortable with their cars and team it doesn’t take too long. Our first lap of the day was in qualifying trim and you go out there and try to cut a fast lap. You have to be ready for that. It is the way it has always been, especially since they eliminated testing at these tracks. It is kind of different, even for the Nationwide guys. They got here Thursday, sit around for a day, then go qualify. You don’t get time to get up to speed. That is just what we have always done. If we were sitting around for a couple months that might be different but after a week I think you are alright.”

QUESTION INAUDIBLE  “I don’t know, that is a tough one to explain. The edge I guess is something that you just feel. I have never been a big guy to pick points out. I don’t know how I figure it out. I just drive it and feel it and drive it until I feel like I can’t go any farther. I don’t know how I do that. That is a good question and a hard one to answer. I wish I had a good technical answer.”

GOING BACK TO EFI AND THE MILEAGE, IS WHAT YOU ARE IMPLYING IS THAT GUYS USED TO HAVE TRICKS AND THOSE ARE LIMITED NOW? “Well, I know for us that when we ran carburetors that guys would have carburetors that would maybe detune their engine a little to get better fuel mileage. Carl always had the best mileage of anybody somehow that carburetor got lost and all of a sudden it is the same as all of us and usually mine is actually a little better than his. It isn’t so much a driving style thing as it is how your car is tuned. Now they do it all on the computer so you know where everybody is mapped with the fuel injection stuff. There is something to shutting the car off and doing all that but now with all the data it makes it real easy to look at all that. If you come up short or are better than your team cars you can analyze all that and see what they were doing different to get better mileage.”

 

-30-