Bayne Addresses The Media At Charlotte Motor Speedway

 

STEVE NEWMARK, President of Roush Fenway Racing, opening comments:  “I want to take a second to express our sincere gratitude to everybody in this room and all the media for the respectful way in which you guys have treated this story. We recognize that when the youngest winner of the Daytona 500 misses a number of races with a mysterious illness that it is newsworthy and something you have to follow and report on. We also recognize this garage is a small community and there were rumors running rampant about all sorts of sinister things that were going on. We really do appreciate the fact that you guys respected the privacy of a 20-year-old and let us work through this. With that said, what I have told many of you is that once we figured out a plan and what we would do and when Trevor would be back that we would give you an opportunity to talk about it. We are really excited based on the fact that we are planning to have Trevor back in the car and resume his regular season next weekend in Chicago. He has been on the track the last couple of weeks and has run extremely well and was fast. He was running in Rockingham as well as at VIR. The plan will be that next weekend it is business as usual. Hopefully all the focus at that point will be on how well Trevor is running on the track.”

 

EDDIE WOOD, co-owner, Wood Brothers Racing, opening comments: “I am like Steve and want to echo the thanks to everyone for the respect they gave our race team as well as Trevor going through all this. Now that hopefully everything is back good I want to thank you guys. Everybody has treated us with a lot of respect, which you always have, and I appreciate that. Our plan is that our next scheduled race will be in Michigan and Trevor will be back in our car for that. We are all excited that he is back. Ricky Stenhouse is going to fill in for him this week. That was a no-brainer with Trevor and Ricky being best friends. Trevor is going to help him with the transition because he went through the same thing at Texas last fall of having to make the show and Ricky will have to make the show as well tonight. Trevor will be his best friend for sure tonight and guide him through all that. Thank you.”

 

TREVOR BAYNE, driver No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford and No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford, opening comments: “I missed you guys. It has been bad being away. It has been incredible to me and a real eye opener of how supportive everyone in our sport is. I think that is the biggest thing I have learned through all of this. Carl Edwards flew up and saw me in Minnesota and Tony Stewart was using his plane to fly my family back and forth and Jack (Roush) was sending me back and forth on his plane and these guys come out and hang out for the night. Michael McDowell is there for five days with me. Everybody in the garage texted me at least once to see how I was doing and that means a lot to me. Another thing that has been put into perspective for me is how blessed we are to be race car drivers. You get wrapped up sometimes and go through the motions, but when you have to sit there for four or five weeks and watch races you realize how cool it is that you get to be the one driving it. I am actually in a sense thankful for this eye opener. It has been tough at times like this week when I thought I was ready to go and they had to hold the reigns to give me another week to make sure I could be competitive and run for wins. I am looking forward to hanging out this weekend and finally being at the track. It stinks not being in the car but I am excited for Ricky to make his debut, he deserves it. I am proud of everything Roush has done while I was gone with winning races and running up front. We didn’t miss too many beats here with the Wood Brothers. Fortunately a lot of those races weren’t on the schedule. Missing the All-Star race kind of crushed me but we are back now and as ready to go as ever.”

 

WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH YOU THAT GOT YOU TO THE POINT YOU NEEDED TO GO TO THE MAYO CLINIC AND WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN PEOPLE COULDN’T EXACTLY FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOU? “I think I finally just had to accept that nobody knows. I can promise that if I was just tired or not feeling great I would have still been in the race car because I am a racer. I went to bed Monday night feeling great and woke up Tuesday and I was seeing two of stuff and that wasn’t cool. I went to the hospital and had the best doctors in the world at the Mayo Clinic checking me out and they don’t know. That is all it is. I have had to accept that. They treated me for things that they thought it could be, just like that bite, whether it was Lyme or not, they don’t have any evidence of that but they treated it just to knock it out and since then all my symptoms have gone away. Everything is pretty much 100% back to normal and that is pretty exciting.” 

 

AFTER ALL OF THIS, WHAT IS IT THAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? “The symptoms were double vision; there was inflammation which was temporary obviously because all of my symptoms have gone away. The cause isn’t exactly sure yet. Their biggest hope is that it was an isolated event that is temporary and is gone now. The diagnosis, I don’t have it yet. I don’t know. It could be just a series of events where you get a bug bite and your immune system is down and we had been running for a couple months hard every day after Daytona and it wears down your immune system. That is what I am hoping for. Whether that is it or not, only time will tell with that. I still don’t have an official diagnosis but they treated everything they thought it could be and since then everything has gone away. To me, they hit something.”

 

STEVE NEWMARK INTERJECTS: “The only thing I would add to that is that the doctors that he has seen which has been multiple, particularly at the Mayo Clinic, have cleared him as being fit for racing. Even though there is no official diagnosis and they can’t tell us the root cause, they have run all the tests and done everything possible they can do to him and they have declared him fit to get back on the race track.”

 

TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED -- YOU WENT FROM THE HIGHEST OF HIGHS AT DAYTONA TO WATCHING FOR A MONTH. I KNOW YOU HAVE HIGH FAITH, BUT DID YOU EVER ASK, ‘WHY ME’? “No, not really. I think this year is just helping me figure out what I am made of. I think if you can handle the biggest high you can have and the largest bottom you can have then the rest of the year should be easy from here. I told everybody that I didn’t buy a ticket to get on the roller coaster, I stepped back and watched it even though I was a part of it. I didn’t want to go to the very top and bottom but luckily I do have my faith and that is what defines me because if I was defined by this I would be in trouble right now. I just am thankful for the ups and downs and everything that has helped me find out what I am made of and who is there to support me. I have found a lot of supporters that I wasn’t sure of or didn’t know were there. TO see how much Roush Fenway and these guys have supported me. When I found out I wasn’t racing this weekend, there aren’t many people that would come to your house at 10:30 to talk to you about it and reassure you that you would be back in that seat. These guys did that and to me that means a lot. Carl Edwards coming out and hanging out and bringing a guitar to my hospital room and just hanging out for a few hours says a lot about him. This sport is unbelievable. I have learned that more so than ever through this whole ordeal.”

TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED -- IS THERE ANY SYMPTOM THE DOCTORS HAVE WARNED YOU TO LOOK OUT FOR OR THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED MIGHT COME BACK? “There is always a concern that you had it once and never expected it. They just said to make sure I am hydrated all the time, which I probably wasn’t doing the best job at that. Michael McDowell always says that hydration is the key to life, joking around with me, but now it really is. I just need to make sure that I am cautious and rest and stay hydrated and that is the best I can do. I gotta get back to working out. I have been on a bike for a couple hours at a time every day for the last week at the highest heart rate, 160 or 170, and nothing has shown any symptoms again. Hopefully it was an isolated scenario where a lot of things were going on and my immune system was down and you get a bite, and anything can send it into a spiral.” 

 

HOW MANY TIMES WERE YOU AT THE MAYO CLINIC, DO YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO BE RE-EVALUATED AND ARE YOU ON MEDICATION THAT HAS TO BE CLEARED THROUGH NASCAR? “The medications are just antibiotics so it is nothing extreme or anything. I was at the Mayo Clinic twice. They were really doing everything they could possibly do. Spinal taps at midnight is not exactly what you are looking forward to, but it happens. I went back for a checkup and they were shocked at how much I had improved. They were really taken back by it. Normally if you have something wrong with your eyes you don’t see a recovery that fast. I think they did a great job treating it with whatever it is they did. Hopefully in three of four months I will go back and see what is up again, but they are confident that I am fine now and to me that means a lot. They did the normal stuff of MRI’s and stuff to check your whole body out. They do everything. I don’t know what you even call half the stuff. I know at one point I had like 16 needles in my body at once and shock pads and stuff that I didn’t even know existed. The Mayo Clinic does a great job and I think that they definitely went over the top on testing me for everything possible.” 

 

YOU SAID YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS, BUT IS THERE ANYTHING THAT THEY HAVE RULED OUT? “Yeah, it is not anything terminal or anything like that. I heard somebody say cancer and leukemia and those things but that is not even a word that I heard in the hospital. That was not even an option. They have ruled out all those things. They have treated me and they thought that one thing could have been the Lymes but they didn’t think it was anything like a serious Lyme. Other than that, there are no symptoms or anything showing on the spinal tap or blood work of it being anything else. I am hoping it was a temporary inflammation that caused that and it has been going away, as they said from day one that it should be like a four-week deal and go away. That is pretty much what happened.” 

 

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN COMPLETELY SYMPTOM FREE AND DID YOU GUYS OR NASCAR SAY HOW LONG THAT HAD TO BE BEFORE YOU COULD GET BACK IN THE CAR? “I have been fine for over a week now. Last weekend I took it off as a caution and this week they made me take it off as a caution. Chicago should definitely be over the top as far as being cautious on what could spark anything. They have been way over the top cautious on everything. This weekend I would have been fine to run I think but we want to just make sure. I am 20 years old and everyone keeps telling me I have a long time to run. I am trying to listen to them, even though I am 20 and stubborn and want to be in a race car every weekend. I would be riding around with an eye patch if they would let me. It is all good. I think we have waited long enough.” 

 

YOU SAID HOW BLESSED AND HOW THIS PUT BEING A RACE CAR DRIVER INTO PERSPECTIVE. YET WE HEAR A STORY THIS WEEK OF A RACE CAR DRIVER GOING 128 MPH IN A 45. DO YOU HAVE ANY REACTION TO THAT? “No, not really. We all need to be responsible and I think we are all young or whatever and I am 20 so hopefully I learn from everybody else and don’t do anything like that. I am blessed and happy to be a race car driver. I think we get to drive fast enough on the race track and that is why I drive a truck, so I am not tempted. Even though it is a Ford Raptor and probably could do that, I try not to push it to that level.”

 

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CONCERN WHILE YOU WERE HOSPITALIZED? “My biggest concern was how fast I could get back. I was asking the doctors every day how long it would take. For some reason God put peace in my heart. You would think that the first day when I woke up my roommate and asked if I was cross-eyed or something that I would be freaking out. But I was just like, ‘Well, let’s go to the doctor boys.’ So we loaded up and went to the doctor and I had a peace about it. I think a lot of that too is the support and reassurance I have gotten from everybody. I can’t tell you how many times these guys have both said that this is my car when I am ready and not to rush it because we will go racing again and be competitive. That helped me a lot and took away a lot of the concern. Watching races on TV is not as fun as being in the driver’s seat. The first one I had to watch was the Denny Hamlin Foundation race and that was tough and then the Nationwide race and everything. It makes it tougher when your team is running as good as these guys have too to know that you could have had a shot at winning these races. The good thing is I get to look forward to that in Chicago.” 

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RICKY GETTING INTO THE CAR AND WHAT HE IS GOING THROUGH? “Ricky is awesome and he has been sensitive to the fact where he is like, ‘Man, I hate the circumstances. I have always wanted to run my first Cup race but I hate that I have to do it because you are out of the car.’ He is an awesome kid and I am pumped for him. I texted him yesterday and told him to own this thing because he deserves it. I think he is going to do a great job. You see him in the Nationwide series this year and making huge gains and being really competitive every weekend with practice, qualifying and racing. I think he will do a great job in the Cup car. The biggest thing is 600 laps. I talked to him a little about that and Carl and Matt and Greg did as well I am sure. I told him to just enjoy it. It is his first Cup start. When I was at Texas I got so overwhelmed by everything that I forgot to take everything in. Three weeks later I was like, ‘Man, I ran a Cup race.’ I told him to just enjoy it a little bit and not stress out too much about it.” 

 

CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE TWO TRACKS YOU WILL BE COMING BACK AT, CHICAGO AND MICHIGAN? “I am pumped about that. I have raced at Chicago twice so far, once in a WR car and once in a Roush Car and have a little experience there but not a ton. I am excited about that but I am really excited about Michigan and getting back in both series and riding in Ford’s back door and that could be a good weekend for us. We were really fast there last year in the Diamond Waltrip car and the Roush cars were really strong as well. I am looking forward to the experience I got last year carrying over to this year and it being a good experience for us.”

 

EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED -- CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE FALL FROM WINNING TO DAYTONA TO DEALING WITH ALL OF THIS. WHAT HAS THIS BEEN LIKE BACK IN VIRGINIA FOR YOU GUYS? “Trevor is our guy and he is our driver and whatever he is going through we are going through. We have tried to make the best of it. When you are as old as we are, you have seen all of it, done all of it and been to the bottom and top of it. You have almost been back to the top, fall back down, it is just racing. You just take it and go. As I get older I don’t get nearly as excited as I used to. I used to throw stuff and tear up stuff and all that. I don’t see that in Trevor. He isn’t going to do that. It is okay. He is our driver and whatever he needed we would do. If it had worked out that we could have sat this race out and waited on him we would have done it. It just got too far down the road. I am just glad he is back. You guys can see how he has that warm and fuzzy feel again. I am happy.”

 

TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED -- THERE WAS A REPORT YOU WERE FATIGUED AFTER ONE OF YOUR TESTS. HAVE THOSE BEEN GOOD? “Yeah, I mean last week at VIR I was great and at Rockingham I felt great. We were just being cautious. Obviously if you sit in a hospital bed and at home or in any bed for a month you aren’t going to feel great and ready to go right away. I was a little tired after Rockingham but that has gone away and I have been able to get back to working out and do my normal kind of stuff and get back to that. VIR went awesome; we were really fast there with the Nationwide car. At Rockingham we had two cars on the track. Ricky went and we battled and passed each other and did racing scenarios and I am 100% comfortable that when I get back in the car it will be just like before.”

 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford Fusion – WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT KANSAS? “Kansas and Chicago are kind of sister tracks. They’re a lot alike, but Kansas lately that pavement has gotten real worn out, which is a good thing, so you have to have a good balance there on new tires and still be good at the end of the run, so I think that’s the biggest challenge there is to get it to drive good throughout the whole run.” 

 

IS THERE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAT SETS KANSAS APART FROM THE OTHER 1.5-MILE TRACKS? “Every track is really unique. Like I said, Kansas and Chicago are probably the most similar out of all the mile and a halfs that we go. To put all of the mile and a halfs together isn’t really fair because there are pretty major differences to them all, but it’s similar to Chicago if you had to pick one. I can’t think of anything that really sets it apart, other than the pavement and the way you kind of have to attack the track.” 

 

IF JACK ROUSH OWNED A WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINT CAR TEAM AND HE CALLED YOU RIGHT NOW AND SAID YOU WERE RACING TOMORROW NIGHT, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR REACTION? “I’d say no (laughing). I’d really like to drive one sometime, not so much race one. I’ve never really raced dirt and I’m pretty sure Jack would want to find somebody that actually knew what they were doing. He’d probably put Stenhouse or Carl in there. I’ve never really done any dirt racing. It’s really neat to watch that stuff and those cars are awesome. I think those guys are just great drivers and I think I would be thoroughly embarrassed if I went and tried that right away.” 

 

YOU HAVE THE SAME CAR HERE THIS WEEKEND THAT WON AT TEXAS. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? WILL IT TRANSLATE TO THIS TRACK? “I don’t think a lot translates. The car was really good there, but all of our cars that we bring to the track are real similar these days. There aren’t a lot of big differences in them, so I don’t really have favorite cars like we used to have. At least we know it will run if we have the right stuff in it and can get it dialed in right.” 

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT FILLING IN FOR TREVOR THIS WEEKEND IN NATIONWIDE? “They’ve been keeping an eye on Trevor and seeing when he was ready to go, so not until yesterday did I know I would be driving. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car. Honestly, I wish that Trevor could run the car this weekend, but I’m looking forward to getting in there and working with Chris (Andrews) and those guys. I know they skipped last week, but I think they’ve got a good team there and all of the Mustangs have been really fast. It looks like they’ve been running really good, but I haven’t been in a Nationwide car for over a year, so I’m looking forward to getting in there and seeing what those drive like.” 

 

DOES IT HELP TO RUN NATIONWIDE AND CUP ON THE SAME WEEKEND AT THIS POINT? “Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t run those cars. Everybody says they drive a lot like our Cup cars because they basically are Cup cars, so I don’t know if there will be some stuff you can translate and learn or not. I would think there are some things. Today is always a hard day practicing both cars and qualifying and going back and forth, but on Saturday I think it’ll be a lot of fun and hopefully we’ll be able to learn something that will help me be a little better on Sunday.” 

 

WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR KANSAS. “It’ll be fun to go there two times a year. We’ve never raced there at this time of year before, so it’ll be fun to get there.” 

 

HOW WILL THE WEATHER AND TIME OF YEAR FOR THIS RACE CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS TRIPS TO KANSAS? “I think it’ll be different, but, really, every year is different through the things that you learn about your setups or your cars. Usually, when you race at these tracks one time a year very seldom, at least for us, can you bring back the same car with the same setup and have it run the same when you come back anyway. So you’re always changing and trying to get better. You’ll probably look at your stuff from last fall for a baseline and then look at the things you’ve been doing this year to be successful and kind of add that into your setup.” 

 

WHY HAS ROUSH FENWAY AND FORD BEEN SO GOOD AT TRACKS LIKE KANSAS AND CHICAGOLAND? “I’m not really sure. You want to be good at all the tracks. That’s the key, but, certainly, they’ve been pretty good tracks for us as an organization. Of course, that’s kind of the bread and butter of the series. We have the most mile-and-a-half and two-mile, high-banked, tracks, so I don’t know why it seems we’ve been a little better at those tracks.” 

 

ARE YOU A GUY THAT HAS A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH POCONO? “Not really. I can’t think of a time where I really loved it (laughing). Honestly, I don’t hate it either. It’s OK. It can be fun if your car is handling good. It can be a fun race track, although I think it would probably be more exciting if all the straightaways were half as long because you kind of sit there for a while without a lot to do. But it is a fun track. It’ll be more fun and challenging and interesting this time being able to shift because there are a lot more chances of things going wrong. You have a lot more control over things that are going on, so I think that will add a different element to the race, which, I think, will make it a little more exciting.” 

 

WHEN YOU GO TO MICHIGAN NOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE AUTO INDUSTRY AND THE PROBLEMS THEY’VE GONE THROUGH ANY DIFFERENTLY? KIND OF LIKE, ‘THEY’RE WORKING HARD FOR ME TO PUT THESE CARS UNDER ME?’ “We’re working hard for them to try to sell cars, so we kind of work together as a team. Certainly, if you can win at Michigan it’s neat because it’s kind of the backyard to all the domestic manufacturers and Roush Industries is up there – a lot of employees come out to the races – so it’s neat when you can do that, but you want to run good with your sponsors and manufacturers everywhere you go.” 

 

HOW MUCH CAN YOU TAKE FROM LAST WEEKEND TO THIS WEEKEND? HOW DIFFERENT WILL YOUR SETUP BE? “I don’t think it’ll be a lot different. The track conditions should be very similar. It’s the same tire and it’s only a week later, and nothing has really changed that much, so I don’t think it’ll really be that much different.” 

 

DOES 600 MILES SEEM THAT LONGER THAN 500 MILES FROM INSIDE THE CAR? “It really depends how your car is handling, the weather, how you’re running or how many cautions there are – a lot of things play into that. I’ve been in some of those races where it seems like forever in a week and then I’ve been in some 600-milers where it didn’t really feel that much different than a 500-mile race to me, so it all depends. Hopefully, your car is running good and you can stay up front and you’re not being pressured a lot to go down a lap or you’re falling back through the field where you’re really working that much harder. Hopefully, you’ve got a setup with some speed in it where you can find a spot and get some of those miles clipped away.” 

 

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO KYLE BUSCH’S SPEEDING TICKET? “My first reaction is I was wondering if he was in jail. My second reaction is, when I heard where it was, I thought it was probably a little extreme for that road, but, other than that, I didn’t think about it. I’m glad somebody didn’t get hurt.” 

 

A REPORT SAID DANICA PATRICK WILL BE COMING OVER TO NASCAR FULL-TIME NEXT YEAR. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? “Honestly, it makes no difference to me. It’s just another competitor on the track. It seems to be good for the sport and maybe for TV ratings. When that stuff improves it’s good for all of us.   We all benefit from that, so that part of it is good, but the rest of it doesn’t matter to me. It’s just another competitor to me.” 

 

WHY WAS THE ALL-STAR RACE SO BORING LAST WEEK? “I didn’t think it was. I think every race is exciting. I did not watch the replay of the All-Star Race on TV, so I didn’t really see it. I know from where I was, we passed a lot of cars and my car was pretty hard to drive. It was exciting trying to get that green-flag stop done and there was a lot of different stuff going on. We weren’t like we wanted to be in the last 10. We couldn’t really do much in the last 10 laps when it got single-file, but, honestly, I didn’t expect a lot to happen the last 10 laps when everybody is on the same tires and the best car is already out front that has been leading up there the whole time. I didn’t expect a lot different to happen.   If you throw a caution with 10 to go in the race and you have the best cars running in the top few, and you’re somewhere where it’s gonna be a little tough to pass, after you get through the restart and get single-file, it’s gonna be tough to make anything happen because the fastest cars are in the front. That’s what racing is. When the fastest car gets in the front, if you don’t have a car as fast as his, how are you gonna catch him?” 

 

 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I’m really excited. We ran extremely well in the All-Star Race and we brought our car that we finished fourth with in Texas. I feel like we have a really good race car. The car was decent in practice. We went a little bit early there for the final run and then a big cloud kind of moved in, so, unfortunately, we got bumped down the list quite a ways by all the guys that went late with about two minutes to go. So we have a little bit of an early draw. It’s really hot, so a late draw is gonna be really important here, but it’s a 600-mile race and I don’t know that it’s super-important on where we start, but pit box is important as well, so I’m feeling a little pressure to try and put down a good lap here in a little bit. I think we have a great opportunity to run 600 miles here and be pretty good at the end.” 

 

THE NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES WILL HAVE ITS 400^TH RACE AT KANSAS AND YOU WILL BE DRIVING THE PACE TRUCK TO THE GREEN FLAG. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? “I’m more nervous about that than racing here on Sunday night for 600 miles. It’ll be the first time I’ve driven a pace car to the green flag, so, hopefully, I won’t make any mistakes. I learned so much in the truck series. They gave me my start and gave me my opportunity. I really miss the truck series and all the people there, so I’m looking forward to going back and getting an opportunity to visit with the officials and spend a little time with them before bringing the field down to the green. I’m pretty excited about it. I can’t wait.” 

 

YOU GUYS HAVE FOUND SOME ADDED PERFORMANCE SINCE THE START OF THE YEAR AND IT LOOKS LIKE TEAMS LIKE RCR HAVE FALLEN OFF A BIT. IS THERE ANY REASON TO EXPECT YOU WON’T BE THAT GOOD AGAIN THIS WEEKEND?   “I think you’re gonna see that again, although Jeff Burton was the fastest in practice, so they’ve got their car going good here in qualifying trim. He ran pretty good in the All-Star Race, so I think teams are picking it up. I still feel like we’ve got a little bit in the fuel tank. We’re getting better and better, and I think we’re gonna continue to get better for the next month or two with our cars. We’re going to some of our really good race tracks coming up. We feel the pressure, the 16 team of winning. We know we have to win. Let’s face it, we show up every week and try to win – all drivers do – but it’s important for us to get that win. We’re trying every week, but we know we need it to get in the chase.” 

 

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE WAY GOODYEAR IS BALANCING THE TIRES? “Not many people pay enough attention to come to that analogy you came to and you hit it on the nail head. What’s changed in our sport, I’m not gonna say the old days but about five years ago, if you had too much camber in the right-front, the car is too tight, you were too hard on the right-front tire, it would blow out. You would have problems or issues. The driver had more responsibility inside there behind the wheel. We cannot make it to where it is absolutely childproof inside that car, where you can do anything you want and nothing is gonna happen. I understand we kind of painted and pushed Goodyear into a corner. People don’t want to see on TV a Goodyear tire blowing out. The general public says, ‘Oh, that tire failed or blew out.’ Well, it’s not always the tire’s problem. When you hit a curb or something in your passenger car and break the wheel, it’s not the wheel’s fault, it’s your fault because you hit something. They don’t want tires blowing out. It’s a safety issue. We can’t just say, ‘OK, if you drive too hard your right-front tire is gonna blow out and you’re gonna go in the fence at 200 miles an hour.’  So that’s not safe either. You’re right, there is a balance there. Some of these race tracks we’re getting a softer tire back. They tried at Bristol and Bristol is a good example. Goodyear brought a soft tire. The thing had a ton of grip. It slowed down, but it ran out of rubber too soon, so they brought in a different tire for the race, changed the Nationwide cars 25 laps into the race onto a different tire – an unprecedented change – so they’re working as hard as they can to try to bring us a tire that is as absolutely competitive as they can make it. But these new surfaces and new cars, the way they’re designed and built, who would have ever thought they’d be two-by-two at Daytona? Nobody anticipated that when they repaved it. It just so happened to when we showed up, so I don’t think anybody has really planned what has happened, but I agree that some of the tires used to be softer, they’d run fast at the beginning and then start falling off, and when that green flag came out, you had to come and get tires, or at least two, and not just whoever is out front was the fastest car. It’s put a lot of pressure, and when you make all the cars the same. When everybody is the same speed, all cars through the field, the top 15, it’s hard to pass. Before, you’d have a couple fast cars and then this guy is not as fast and not as fast. When you make them all the same, it’s really hard to get one guy in front of the other guy because he doesn’t have enough speed difference to be able to pass him. We’ve always been aero-tight, always. But the cars are so sensitive now and we’re so close to the same speed that when you get within five or four car lengths of him, you can’t really get any closer. That is a difficult thing. Nobody is playing it that way, it’s just evolution with what’s happened.” 

 

HAVE YOU EVER RECEIVED A SPEEDING TICKET? “That’s a loaded question (laughing). In my younger days I have driven a little faster, probably, than I should have a time or two. I never got pulled over or never got a ticket for doing that, but the fastest I’ve gotten stopped is maybe 85 or 90 – something like that. I think I got pulled over going 90 out in California. I was on my way to the desert one time, going through the desert with tumbleweeds and was on Highway 8 or something like that. That was probably the fastest I ever got a ticket for, but there is obviously a time and a place for going a little bit faster than we should at times. You just have to watch your P’s and Q’s.” 

 

DO YOU WATCH IT MORE CAREFULLY BECAUSE YOU’RE A NASCAR DRIVER? “I do. I will always make sure I take advantage of the nine miles an hour over the speed limit, but, beyond that, you have to be careful how fast you go. Certainly, you don’t want to cause an accident because that’s probably the worst thing to have in the newspaper being a NASCAR driver, so you have to take a little precaution when you’re on the road around other cars.” 

 

HAVE YOU BEEN IMPRESSED WITH COLE WHITT IN THE TRUCK SERIES? “Yeah, I have. He’s done a great job and performed exceptionally well. Again, a lot of it has to do with the equipment. You’ve got to be in good equipment. I was fortunate enough and Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards to be in good equipment, but I am very impressed. He’s doing a good job.” 

 

CAN CARL SWEEP THIS WEEKEND? IS THERE MORE PRESSURE ON HIM? “I can promise you I’m gonna make it very hard on him. That’s for damn sure. I thought I had a car probably as good as he did last week and I didn’t capitalize on it, so I’m gonna take advantage of capitalizing on it this week and not make that same mistake. A lot of it is track position. He got out front and seemed to be the guy, but he’s got a fast car. They’ve got the setup that won and we know he’s gonna be tough. We know the 18 is gonna be tough. There are about four or five cars that were fast in that All-Star Race. The 00 came on at the end, so we’re gonna have to beat those guys as well.” 

 

IS THIS IMPROVEMENT MORE THAN JUST SIMULATIONS? “Yeah, we talk about this so much and it’s so many things. Every time we come to the race track it’s like, this is the lightest car we’ve built. And then two weeks later they’re like, ‘This is better.’ And not necessarily just lighter, but aerodynamics, components. We found this or that or some new whatever. We changed some products in the car. We’re building new dashes. We’re using less wiring or smaller wiring. We’re able to move some things around inside the car. We’ve got the new engine. Doug and those guys are working on the engine every week trying to make more and more power. We’re running stuff now that was R&D’d in the All-Star Race a year ago and during the All-Star Race, and by the 21 car that was raced a few times earlier this season.   Now they’ve implemented it into our engines – maybe a couple more horsepower here and there. It’s just a combination of things. It’s the power.  It’s getting the weight down in our cars, getting the center of gravity lower, getting better aerodynamics, understanding the suspension and bump stops better. We know so far up to this point is it’s never one thing. One thing can screw you up, but not one thing can make you go fast, it’s always a combination.”

 

KANSAS IS NEXT WEEK. WHAT ABOUT THAT TRACK? “Kansas is a really fun track to me. I like it because it’s a little bit less banking, it drives a little flatter and there’s a little more technique involved. There’s a little more difficult for a mile and a half. I like the way it’s laid out. We’ve run really good there. I’ve been able to run up the race track, down the race track and it’s just suited my driving style – kind of like Darlington and a few of the other places. I’ve really taken a liking to that race track and these mile and a halfs. We haven’t been that good at Charlotte over the last two or three years, but this year in the All-Star and so far we’re really running good here and I’m happy about that.”

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “It’s been a great week. That was a huge win for us. We went and did some road course testing this week, which is a lot of fun. I had the Speedway Children’s Charity Gala last night and that was a lot of fun. I was really pleased with how many folks showed up to that and donated money to Speedway Children’s Charities in honor of Bruton Smith and all that he’s done over 30 years with the charity, so it’s been a great week and we’ve got a couple fast race cars here for this weekend. I’m ready to go racing. This is gonna be fun.” 

THE TRUCK SERIES WILL HAVE ITS 400^TH RACE NEXT WEEK AT KANSAS. YOUR THOUGHTS? “That’s huge. If it weren’t for the truck series I wouldn’t be here. Mike Mittler reluctantly hired me to drive his truck in 2002. I ran seven races for Mike, so if NASCAR hadn’t come up with the truck series and guys like myself didn’t get those opportunities, this sport would look a lot different today. One of my biggest wins in my career, hands-down, was the truck win at Kansas in 2004. That was a spectacular win and it meant a lot to me. That’s cool. Four hundred starts at Kansas, that will be a neat race.” 

 

HOW MUCH DOES IT MEAN TO YOU WHEN YOU DO CHARITY EVENTS? “The best way to describe that is I think you hit it right on the head, we talk a lot about how much people in this sport do for people in need, but I learned a huge lesson in that with my first trip to the Aflac Cancer Center. We went to the Cancer Center and I thought, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go brighten someone’s day here.’ And I got there and I saw children who were more courageous and had more positive energy and were kinder than I could ever hope to be, and they inspired me hugely. I thought, ‘Man, I came here with a totally different take on what was gonna happen.’ The reality is much different. I can speak for all of us here, when you run into a kid that’s gone through the things no one should have to go through and they’re eight years old and they have a smile on their face, and you can tell they really believe in themselves, I think that’s inspiring and I’m grateful to have met a lot of those people.” 

 

TREVOR SAID YOU SAW HIM AND TOOK YOUR GUITAR. “That guitar is something very special. Trevor is one of those guys that I think we can all look up to for a number of reasons, but I learned a lot about Trevor with that trip. I walked into the room right when they were telling him they didn’t really know what was going on and it was a really scary moment, but the strength that he has is amazing. But that guitar was a gift to me from Zak Brown of the Zak Brown Band. It’s a little traveling guitar that he said he wrote a bunch of songs on for the last 10 years and he gave it to me and said it was something that always inspired him. When I went up to the hospital I knew Trevor needed something up there to do and I thought that guitar would be a good thing for him to have and it was neat to be able to bring it.” DO YOU PLAY? “I play just a little bit. In fact, there’s a guitar company – Dean Guitars – just sent me a guitar that’s really neat and I was playing it in the motorhome before I went out for practice today. But I’m no good. You’ve got to give me a little bit of time and then maybe I’ll play you guys something.   I’m no Monte Dutton for sure.” 

 

WHAT WAS KIMI RAIKKONEN DOING IN NATIONWIDE PRACTICE THAT IMPRESSED YOU? “They need to take about 500 pounds of right-rear spring out of that thing. He is loose and he was driving the wheels off it. I was just surprised. I didn’t know who was in that car. I had no clue, and then I saw that Perky Jerky on there and I thought it might be him, but he definitely has some car control, that’s for sure. That’s not lip service. That was pretty amazing. I might have seen smoke off the right-rear.”  

 

WHAT DID YOU SEE IN TREVOR DURING THAT VISIT? “I don’t know what kind of details he’d like me to share, so I’m not gonna share any details, but, essentially, I felt like I didn’t belong in that room. I needed to leave and he said, ‘No, no, no, no. Let me show you exactly what we found out.’ And he went through everything and explained everything to me and I thought, ‘Man, he’s just learning all this stuff. I can’t imagine what’s going through his mind.’ We’re not old friends or anything. I’m a guy that he works with, so for him to stop and be so considerate to me and explain what’s going on and, maybe to his detriment, he has a trust of people that is something above and beyond what I’ve seen. He would walk in here and tell you guys, if you ask him a question, he’s gonna tell you the honest answer no matter how personal it is. He really believes in people. I don’t know if I’m explaining that well, but he was just very generous with his time and his explanations and extremely well composed in the situation he was in – much more than I expected. It was shocking.” 

WERE YOU NERVOUS TO GO THERE? “I wasn’t really nervous to go up there, I just wanted to make sure he knew that we were thinking about him, but I didn’t expect that. I don’t know how to describe it, but I guess composure is the word. He just seems to be a very strong person.” 

 

IS THIS SETTING UP TO BE A BIG NIGHT FOR RFR ON SUNDAY? “It could.  It could be a huge night. I think one of the things that’s hard about this place is it’s so competitive and I think that the pit strategy is gonna play such a huge role in the outcome that it’s hard to just go into it and say we’re going to be dominant and we’re gonna have a shot at winning. I know we’ll have a shot. What I saw out of that All-Star Race is that the last pit stop can make or break anything, whether you’ve got a great car or not. It could really make things hard if you don’t have a great pit stop, but, overall, our performance has been there and it has been at these mile and a half tracks. We’ve been really, really good. It kind of reminds me of 2005. Every time we went to a mile and a half it seemed like all the Roush cars would be in the top 10. I hope that’s the case, but I still am a little hesitant. I don’t want to get too confident just because it’s a long race and there’s still a chance – you saw what happened with Tony Stewart at Vegas. I mean, he had the field covered and Matt came out of nowhere as far as I was concerned. I didn’t expect him to be that fast in the race, and I think there’s an opportunity for some guys to surprise people on Sunday.”   

 

YOU MENTIONED YOUR TALK WITH KEVIN HARVICK LAST WEEK. HAS THAT BEEN A POSITIVE STEP FOR BOTH OF YOU? “Yeah. Let’s face it, we’re all competitors. If you go through the garage, there are a lot of people that you go through times like that with and there are a lot of people you really don’t like at certain points, but we’re all competitors. The biggest thing for me right now is just to focus on what we’ve got going on with our team. I’m grateful that I don’t have any big issues with anyone. We’re just racing. I think it’s good. I think it’s better for me and I’m grateful for it.” 

 

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN IN NICK HOFFMAN IN THE TRUCK SERIES? “I think Nick Hoffman is a guy that you guys are gonna hear about a lot in the future. His father and his uncle are amazing racers. Nick has been doing really well. He’s been running dirt modifieds and doing great with it. He does a backflip when he wins, which I think is really neat. They’re a family that are true racers. When I moved down to Charlotte and Jack hired me and I was looking for a place to live, I lived at their house for the first couple of weeks while I was in Charlotte, so they’re just good people. Nick is driving Mike’s truck. I think they’re going to Kansas with it and he’s a very smart racer. He’s got the gifts that it takes, it’s just a matter of him getting the right opportunities and him and Mike getting him that experience that he needs.” 

 

ARE YOU AMAZED IT’S NINE YEARS SINCE ROUSH WON A POINTS RACE AT CHARLOTTE? “That’s a stat I did not know. I’d say we’ve got a really good opportunity to end that streak, but I know I have run really poorly here. There have been some races where we’ve really, really struggled. I think the progress here is emblematic of the progress we’ve made overall. I think it’s a really good sign because this has a place we’ve obviously struggled. I didn’t know it was that bad, so for us to run the way we are right now here, I think is another little piece of evidence that we have made real progress. This is not just a flash in the pan. We have become better and that’s good.” 

 

WHAT ABOUT THE PROSPECT OF SWEEPING THE ALL-STAR RACE AND 600? “It would be huge. It probably would have been easier with the other race car, but that is my fault and my problem, I guess. I joke around about that, but I think our car that we have right now is as good or better, so I don’t think that will really be a factor. But that would be huge. I don’t think about things like streaks and goals like that. What I really want to do is win that race because we want to win, first of all, but, second, I really want those bonus points going into the chase. I want that second victory to really lock ourselves into the chase with the wild card spot if something should happen. But, most of all, I just want to win that Coke 600. That’s a big race.” 

 

THOUGHTS ON TWO RACES AT KANSAS AND IS THERE ANY FRIENDLY COMPETITION WITH BOWYER ABOUT WINNING THERE FIRST? “He can’t win there before me. That would be terrible. I’d like to race there every week. That’s a lot of fun. For me it’s a lot of fun because so many people from Columbia, Missouri go to that race. Yeah, there’s a healthy rivalry that dates back about 150 years with us and the guys right across the border there. If one of us could win that race, one of us is gonna win it before the other, I would definitely like to be the one to win that first. There would be a lot of pride. I think between Clint and I that would be a big deal.” 

 

DOES IT DESERVE TWO RACES? “Yeah, I think Kansas deserves two races. I think the fans really love racing. If you look at Iowa, the fans there are really hungry for NASCAR racing. They’re real racers. There are more race tracks in that area of the country than there are anywhere else – it’s a lot like New York. There are a lot of dirt racers, a lot of really savvy racers, and a lot of racing families in history. So I think the people there really love the racing and I’m glad they have two races and I think they deserve them.”