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Question & Answer: Earnhardt Jr. / Gordon
Question & Answer: Earnhardt Jr. / Gordon
From Press Release
April 12, 2006
04:44 PM EDT (20:44 GMT)
During this week's test session at Richmond International Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon took a break to address the media in regards to how the session was going and their season thus far.
Q. Would you mind discussing your thoughts on the new testing limits.
Earnhardt Jr.: You know, it just doesn't make a difference to me as long as it's the same for everybody, I guess. If we weren't testing, we're doing something else. I think a lot of drivers are apt to test more. As long as it's the same for everybody, I feel like it's an equal playing field.
Q. How hard was it last year to be on the outside looking in in the Chase? Does that give you a lot of extra incentive?
Earnhardt Jr.: Last year wasn't really that hard. I had a lot of fun. It was kind of nice to take sort of a break from the spotlight a little bit, kind of recharge your batteries in an immediate sense.
We were frustrated that we didn't get the finishes. There was a couple races, a good handful of about 10 or 12 races where we should have finished well, and either I made a mistake, which was probably more often than not, or we had a mechanical failure of some sort or something like that.
You know, it wasn't that difficult of a season for me. I enjoyed working with Steve and the team that I had. A great group of guys. You know, they made some of the frustration a lot easier to take.
Coming into this season, we sort of brought some of those guys from that team last year to the new team now with Tony Jr. A lot of the old guys that were there in '04 are still there with me now. I just really am lucky to be driving the car that they put together. They got a lot of confidence, they got a lot of skill, and they build a great racecar. I just really feel fortunate to be in a position I'm in right now.
Q. In terms of etiquette and unwritten rules on the track, what in your mind is the most important? Does that kind of thing exist?
Earnhardt Jr.: I guess if they're unwritten, you're definitely going to get a lot of different answers.
You just have to have a lot of respect for each other on the racetrack. You know, for example, one of the more common ones is if a guy races you really hard, and it seems pointless at the time, then next time when he's in a position that he needs a break, you don't cut him one. The guys that do cut you a couple breaks, say if I run down Tony Stewart or he runs me down, if it's not in the last 50 or hundred miles of the race, we're probably going to make it easy on each other because the tires are so crucial, you can't really be racing people. If you want to continue -- if you're three-tenths faster than the field, trying to get up through there, you want to continue that type of dominance, it helps to have people helping you out, getting out of your way when you come up to them.
That's sort of one of them unwritten rules, sort of like a little courtesy on the track goes a long ways, a little respect goes a long ways. That's sort of the main one that I probably deal with most often.
Q. Who is the best at on-track etiquette?
Earnhardt Jr.:Mark Martin has a great etiquette on the racetrack, shows a lot of courtesy. Races really hard, drives his car really hard, but he treats people on the track with a lot of respect. But when it's time to go, time to race, he can get what he needs out of his car. You don't want to be giving up so much on the racetrack that you take yourself out of position to win. You can't just let everybody go by that catches you.
If a guy runs you down from a straightaway back and a couple laps, it's pretty cool if you let him go because he's probably going to remember that next time when you're in the same situation. Mark Martin is probably the guy that holds class every week for all of us that are still learning and still trying to understand a lot of the things that are going on on the racetrack.
You know, all the rookies come in here. One of the first things that they see that's different from where they were before, whether it be Truck or Busch, the Cup guys race harder every lap. We run hard every lap of the race. Everything's really happening a lot faster. They assume right off the bat that they've got to drive their tail off every second. They get a little overzealous every once in a while. When it comes to a situation where you need to cut a guy a break, they're not even thinking about that, they're thinking about trying to impress their team, their owner, whatnot, which is cool and fine, but they'll realize after a couple, two or three years that, you know, it's really smart to play it cool and keep your stuff in one piece and try not to wear your car out to where you're in position at the end to have a good shot at winning the race.
Q. Last week you were talking about being in the best shape you've been in as far as resources. Do you look at these next two races and say now we're getting somewhere where we can get back in the groove?
Earnhardt Jr.: I mean, you know, I don't really think that. I want to be in the groove all the time. We've ran well, we've had great-driving cars every week. I just want to hope that continues, that we can continue to go to the racetrack, show up, not be scrambling to get in the ballpark.
You know, we got a couple tracks coming up that we do traditionally run well on. There's a stretch in the summer where we struggle, like at Michigan, Pocono, places like that, Sonoma. I'm sort of looking that far ahead really trying to prepare myself and hopefully have a better opportunity and a better finish at a lot of those racetracks that we've struggled on in the past.
Q. As far as the new testing rules go, how has it changed the way you test? Also with so many cars at the track testing, is there more spying going on?
Earnhardt Jr.: I suppose, yeah. You walk around, see if anybody's got any springs laying out, just kind of take a look at some of the buckets, the front A-frames, see what kind of angle they are, things like that. You look at their spindles, know what kind of degree spindle they're running. It's pretty easy to see all that stuff when we're all piled in here pretty close.
As far as how it changes the way we test, there's just a larger sense of urgency because you know you only got five tests. Where you might take a little more time in between runs, you're in and out of the garage a lot quicker now, where you're trying to get as many runs as you can, trying to try as many things as you can. You're doing a lot of things that you may be testing for for other tracks, like Phoenix and other places that are similar to a Richmond.
Not only are we testing, you know, basically to get a good idea of what we need for this racetrack here, but we're trying to test to learn what we can learn at other tracks we won't have the opportunity to go to.
Jeff Gordon addressed the media on how his test at Richmond is going and what it means for Hendrick Motorsports.
Q. When things are kind of going well, would you rather go to a track next week versus having an off week or does it make a difference?
Gordon: You know, that's hard to say. I always welcome the off weekends. We have very few of them, so we look forward to them. You know, I would like to see them spread out a little bit differently throughout the year. I mean, we don't have an off weekend.
If we were coming back here, Richmond, just prior to the Chase, you know, I'd say we need an off weekend here after the Richmond race, you know, getting ready for the Chase. Right now, yeah, some guys maybe are in a rhythm, you know, and want to keep that going. But I think being well-rested can keep you in the groove just as much as actually being at the racetrack and in the groove of, you know, how your team's performing.
Q. At Bristol, Matt [Kenseth] brought up that Dale [Jarrett] didn't get out of his way. Are there such things at etiquette, unwritten rules? If so, what do you see as the most important of the unwritten rules on the track?
Gordon: I do think when the leaders are racing, they're in a tight battle in the closing laps of the race, whether you're going a lap down or not going a lap down, I mean, is insignificant, I think you have to let the leaders race. I think that's definitely somewhat of a gentlemen's agreement.
But you can't control what guys do out there. I think nowadays you have lead-lap cars that are fighting to get their laps back, but you also know that they have the Lucky Dog, so they're fighting to be that No. 1 spot for the Lucky Dog as well as trying to get their laps back. You got guys being a lot more aggressive. If you're a lead-lap car, you take that into account. But, you know, closing laps of the race, absolutely, you got to move out of the way of the leaders, if it's 10 to go.
Q. Who are some of the best at observing that etiquette? Who are some guys that maybe need a little work?
Gordon: Well, I think Mark Martin's always one of the best gentlemen-type racers out there. He's a guy, even when he's in the lead, and he doesn't have the car that maybe the guy behind him has, he's really great at moving over, working on his car, getting his stuff better, then going back after those guys later.
Who needs work? I have no idea. I mean, you know, some weeks guys do a fantastic job, other weeks ... you never know. Something may have happened to Dale Jarrett that he was just ticked off. You don't know. Sometimes things set you off to where you don't want to get out of anybody's way, you're mad that you're a lap down, you're mad your car is wrecked, maybe it wasn't your fault, you're not thinking about being kind to the guy coming up behind you.
Q. Are the new testing limitations changing the way you do things? What are your thoughts on the new regulations?
Gordon: Well, I like the fact we've limited the number of tests. I've got thoughts and ideas all the time about the testing policy. If it was up to me, I'd get rid of testing altogether and allow us to put telemetry on the car, either the first day we get here or a day early or something like that at least at every track one time a year. There are obviously some challenges that come along with that from a NASCAR standpoint or a timing standpoint. It takes a long time to put the telemetry on and take it off. We can't race with it because they don't like us having wheel speed sensors because they think -- which we probably could -- incorporate traction control, things like that. So I understand that side of it.
You know, I'm in favor of limiting the test. You know, I like Richmond. I'm glad we're here. I wanted to be able to test here, but not this week. I don't think that we should be testing on our off week. I think we have so few off days that I wish we were here on a different week.
But I like the night testing a lot. Being able to test here under true conditions for what we do here for the race is extremely important and probably some of the most valuable testing that we've ever had here at Richmond.
Q. Your thoughts on a couple recent changes by NASCAR. Reduction of the fuel cell for the race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and the softer bumper for Talladega.
Gordon: Yeah, the Charlotte situation is very unfortunate. I was really hoping -- it's a temporary fix because we shouldn't have that problem once we get a couple races on that new surface. I haven't been on the surface yet, but I hear it's really smooth, got a lot of grip, really fast. Unfortunately, Goodyear hasn't been able to build a tire that can really withstand the heat that's built up from that track having so much grip.
Somebody suggested, you know, to NASCAR, you can either throw a caution every 25 or 30 laps or you can run us out of fuel. I guess that seemed like the best option. It's going to be -- a lot of that race is going to be won on pit road. You're looking at probably 16 pit stops if not more. That's going to be incredible.
Still going to use up a lot of tires, but hopefully we won't have failures. Safety issue, you got to look after the safety, especially with what we saw there last year.
The soft bumper, I'm all for it. I've been hoping for something like this for a while because I think the bump-drafting has just gotten out of control. NASCAR took the first step in Daytona by incorporating some penalties. This is the next step. I'm real curious how they're going to govern that because there's so much behind that front bumper, duct work, it's going to be difficult for them to really get behind there. I think there may be some teams that are still trying to hide things back there that they're able to use that bumper.
I think in the closing laps of the race, the bumper's not going to mean anything. In that last two or three laps, guys are going to go for the win. They're going to be -- they're going to be using their front bumpers. The don't care whether it overheats or not. The only reason you soften the front bumpers up is so you can't hit the guy because it overheats the engine with the radiator ducting.
Q. Have things changed the way you drive a little bit this year?
Gordon: Well, I don't think so. I think that my team is just providing me with equipment that in the -- and the passion they have for what they're doing has probably transferred over to me. I feel like, you know, Steve Letarte, a lot of the new people on the team has sort of rekindled things for us.
I want everybody to know the passion is there within me as well. I think maybe because some people questioned it last year with our performance, then bringing some of the new things to this race team, I think those have just gotten me more fired up on and off the racetrack to go out there and perform.
When you've got a good race going, it only gets you more upset when something happens, like what happened at Bristol. Every race is valuable. You need all the points that you can get. You can't get 'em back, but you have to move on from it as well.
Out there on the racetrack, I guess I've just been -- the last couple years, to a lot of the guys, especially some of the young guys that have been fast, running good, the 24 car has just kind of been a car that every once in a while runs good, so you catch me and I didn't have a car capable of running with them, they said, I'll stick my nose in here and he'll move out of the way. I did in the past. But now I've got a car capable of running with them and I'm not going to do that this year, or anywhere. If I have a car any year, any time, that's capable of running up front, I'm not going to move out of the way quite as easy as I would if I didn't have the car.
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