Gordon Leads Team Chevy With Runner-Up Finish at Richmond
Six Team Chevy Drivers Make the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
RICHMOND, Va. (September 8, 2012) – With a second place finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, earned a spot in the coveted 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Quaker State Chevrolet, likewise clinched a slot in the Chase with his 12th place race finish at Richmond.
The addition of Gordon and Kahne to the roster gives Team Chevy six entries in the final 10-race showdown for the championship. They are joined by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, (seeded 2nd), three-time defending champion Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet (seeded 3rd), Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet (seeded 7th), and Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet (seeded 9th). Kahne and Gordon are seeded 11th and 12th, respectively.
“We are very proud of the six Team Chevy drivers and teams who qualified for the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup,” said Jim Campbell, US Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “We look forward to a spirited battle as our drivers and crews take on the 10-week contest in the quest for the Driver’s Championship.”
Johnson is the only driver to qualify for each of the nine Chases (2004-12). Both Gordon and Stewart have now qualified for the eighth time. Johnson (2006-10) and Stewart (2005 and ’11) have combined to win the last seven driver’s championships.
At Richmond, Stewart finished the race in fourth position. Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy finished 6th; and Ryan Newman, No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet was 8th. Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. were 13th and 14th, respectively.
The 10-race Chase opens next Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway and concludes November 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
POST-RACE DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
An interview with:
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – 3RD SEED IN THE CHASE
THE MODERATOR: We have our defending champion is Tony Stewart. He’ll come into the 2012 Chase seated third. Let’s hear from you, Tony. Third seed, you have three wins on the year, defending your championship. Your thoughts.
TONY STEWART: Definitely after last year, you realize next week is kind of the start of the second part of the season for us. Excited to get that going. Had a strong night tonight. Just didn’t have enough to finish it off at the end.
Man, it was a heck of a race and really fun watching Jeff and Mark there at the end. It would have been nice to be up in the middle of it with them. Man, what a race to watch at the end.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take a couple questions.
Q. Tony, you set the standard for the new way to get through the Chase last year where you kind of ran the table. Even you were surprised you got in. Now it seems like anybody can come in from behind and win. What do you think your chances are to defend this year and who do you think your biggest challengers are?
TONY STEWART: I think you kind of answered your own question a little bit to a certain degree. I mean, everybody is a factor, obviously.
I obviously couldn’t predict it last year. I wasn’t good enough to predict it then. I’m not sure I’m going to be any better at predicting it now.
It just showed all 12 of them are capable of doing it now. You look at the run that Jeff had tonight, raced his way in. That’s the kind of drive you have to have to win a championship.
All 12 guys have a shot, and a good shot I think.
Q. Tony, having just said how wide open the championship is, can you speak to how big it was that you were able to have the race you did tonight and get the 10th place so you do have the bonus points? That could turn out to be very big at the end.
TONY STEWART: Yeah, especially knowing that it came down to one point at the end of the year last year. Those nine points are huge right now.
Nine points doesn’t sound like a lot, three points doesn’t, but when it came down to it, one point was the biggest you’ve ever seen in your life.
It was a big deal for us tonight to make sure we stayed in the top 10 and make sure we got those bonus points and didn’t lose them.
THE MODERATOR: Tony congratulations. Thank you.
An interview with:
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – FINISHED 14TH – 7TH SEED IN THE CHASE:
THE MODERATOR: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has also joined us. Dale comes in as the No. 7 seed.
Dale, talk about how the Chase feels being set and your thoughts about contending for the championship.
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I feel we’ve got a good shot at it. We’ve been consistent all year long. We just hope we can keep that up. I think it’s going to take a couple wins to win a championship outright.
You know, we’ve been consistent, running well everywhere. Just, you know, look forward to getting the thing started off on the right foot.
Q. You have known you’re going to be in the Chase. There are some strategic things you’ve been in position to prepare for with the selection of cars, getting ready for the tracks. Right now, is there any grand meeting where you need to sit there and talk about how you’re going to do this or is this just a seat of the pants thing at this point? Secondly, if you start out and you have a bad race in the first one, do you stick to the course or do you have to change by the seat of your pants as things develop?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: All right.
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, we’ve been running good all year. We’ve just been going week to week. You go to each racetrack and work on your car in practice, run the race, try to use your head, finish as best you can.
I think you can’t think too far ahead of yourself. You just do what your job is that day and try to accomplish the goals you set forth in that afternoon. That’s all you can do, you know.
If you have a bad run, you keep trying. You just keep plugging away. I don’t think you really alter the course, per se. You got to go show up every week and run against everybody and try to have the best finish you can have, try to win the race.
Everybody runs as hard as they can run all the time no matter what the circumstances. So you can’t really, you know, ask more out of yourself or ask more out of your equipment. You do that already. You run as hard as you can anyway.
You just got to be smart and try not to make any mistakes or get yourself in any holes early on.
Q. Dale, can you talk about Jeff and the comeback he made tonight. It seemed like when you had the red flag, he seemed dead in the water, got out of the car, was all mad. He made a remarkable comeback. Does momentum carry over from something like that?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I think they know they’ve been strong all year. They just had some poor luck. And I knew that, you know, given enough opportunities, they would eventually get the car working the way he wanted it, and they did.
You know, they’ve been a strong team all year. They were really fast right out of the gate first couple weeks. Just had a lot of bad luck. Got themselves in a hole. Like Denny said, I think every team in the Chase has an opportunity to win it, including Jeff and those guys.
Q. Michael (Waltrip) got two cars into the Chase. He’s really come a long way from a team that almost folded. Denny, you’ve probably seen more of the struggles he’s gone through a little closer. Just the job he’s done. I presume you’re both pretty happy to see him finally being successful on the ownership side.
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I mean, Michael really put everything he had into it, made the full commitment right out of the box. They did struggle. Now he’s able to enjoy all the efforts and the sacrifices he made. It’s been a challenge, I know. When I see him up there with his two drivers, Truex and Clint, I know he’s as proud as he can be.
I think he deserves it more than anybody, to have put as much as he has into the sport, even as a driver. He put everything he had into it for all those years.
He’s finally really able to enjoy it. You know, it’s great to see. I’m proud for him. We got to race against him, but it’s great to see him do well and see his company do so well. He generally has a knack for it. I think he’ll be around for quite a while winning races, developing that program even further.
Q. Dale, Joe Gibbs Racing losing a car in the Chase, you gain a car. Can that have any impact to have all of your teammates on the same page going for the same goal, nobody is left out?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, yeah, I guess so. I mean, I know how strong that team is. Part of me knows that a really formidable opponent has an opportunity to beat us out.
Jeff’s really clever and savvy with how he races. Aside from just outright speed, you got to outsmart him a lot of times to beat him, which is tough. He’s won a lot of championships, knows how to get it done, knows what it takes, the mindset, how to prepare himself mentally.
I think it just makes the group of guys all that much tougher. It’s hard not to talk about the morale, how it helps the company, how the company is proud, how everybody works hard during the off season to find some speed.
We’re a much better company this year, and we’re able to reap the benefits of that with all four of us being in the Chase. It will be fun.
Q. Dale, you’ve talked several times this year about how you’ve changed some and spend more time with the race team and everything. Have you changed more than the team has changed, and how much does it mean the fact that you have changed more to the fact that you’re in this Chase running for that championship?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, one thing I’ll add, I think the debriefs get a lot shorter on Saturday night. Everybody won’t be such an open book, I won’t imagine.
You know, I just think that Steve deserves a lot of credit for our performance. Steve puts a lot into the program. He’s helped me as a driver. He’s helped me become a better driver. He’s shown me how I can be a better asset to the team inside of the car and outside of the car. I think he’s improved me in a lot of areas.
So, you know, that feels good. We work real hard to improve certain areas of the deal and he tells me what he thinks I need to be doing, how I can help. I do those things, we see the results. It’s pretty neat.
I never really had anybody ask much of me other than bring the helmet, get in, How does it drive? He’s a lot more detailed and wants a lot more information. It’s just a totally different atmosphere, a totally different culture than I’m used to being around.
He deserves most of the credit for the performance of the team. Me as the driver, the last couple years, how we’ve ran.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Dale. Congratulations. Good luck in the Chase.
An interview with:
KASEY KAHNE, NO 5 QUAKER STATE CHEVROLET – 11TH SEED IN THE CHASE – IS THE 1ST WILD CARD MAKING IT INTO THE CHASE
THE MODERATOR: Kasey Kahne is now with us. He was the top wild card contender. He got in. Kasey, congratulations on getting in the Chase. Your thoughts.
KASEY KAHNE: Well, I’m just really, really happy and excited to be able to do that. Hendrick Motorsports, Mr. Hendrick, gives us great opportunity to win races and run up front, the way the season started, to fight back, make it into the Chase. I feel like the last few months have been really strong, minus Atlanta. We kind of made a mistake there with some things. Other than that, we’ve been really good. We’ve done a great job.
It’s great for Farmers Insurance, their first full year in the Sprint Cup Series to be in the Chase. Really happy for them and Quaker State, Hendrickcars.com, Rockwell Tools, Chevrolet. Everybody that’s been part of it.
I feel good. I feel like our team has gotten better each race. I feel like tonight our pit stops were as strong as anyone’s. I feel like I gained every time I was on pit road. The calls, the preparation of the car and things, I feel like we’re in a really good spot.
I’m excited to be in. I’m relieved and happy that we made it.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take a couple questions.
Q. Having all four Hendrick cars in the race, Gibbs having one fewer, what does that mean as strategy?
KASEY KAHNE: I think it’s great for our company and everybody that works at Hendrick Motorsports, what they’ve done, accomplished to give us the cars, four of the fastest 12 cars that made the Chase this year, the most consistent. So I feel really good about that.
I don’t think it changes a whole lot. We all race as hard as we can. Each one of us wants to win and run up front. I don’t think that really changes a whole lot from what I see. I think it’s just really, really good for Mr. Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports.
Q. Kasey, as you were dancing between the raindrops, it was questionable whether you would complete the race, how did that affect your strategy?
KASEY KAHNE: Well, it affected it some. We decided to stay out. We were running second right with Denny Hamlin. He was the best car. We were very close to him.
We stayed out and Denny pitted right as the green flag came out. I led for a few laps until the guys on tires got to me and passed me. From there, it was just trying to be the first car out of the five that stayed out.
We ended up 12th, which was really good, because those guys got to put tires on twice, we only put them on once. Tires are a big part of this race.
I feel like we got a great car. It worked out for us kind of. But I think it really worked out for Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff, because the five of us staying out, Kyle being one of them, just gave Jeff the opportunity if they could get to the front. Jeff drove up to second, so it was really good.
Q. You’ve made the Chase before. How do you feel this year heading into the Chase? Do you feel you have a better chance than ever before?
KASEY KAHNE: I made it before and enjoyed being in it. This year I have pretty good speed. Each week we’re kind of in the mix. If we can do things right…
I feel like we can pass those guys for sure and see how far we can get.
THE MODERATOR: Kasey, thanks a lot. Good luck in the Chase.
KASEY KAHNE: Thank you.
An interview with:
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET – 12TH SEED IN THE CHASE – IS THE 2ND WILD CARD MAKING INTO THE CHASE
THE MODERATOR: We have Jeff Gordon who raced his way into the Chase. Congratulations, Jeff.
THE MODERATOR: Jeff Gordon, congratulations getting into this Chase. Your thoughts now that you will be competing for a championship.
JEFF GORDON: Went from last week to being the most disappointed I’ve ever been to finish second to the most excited I’ve ever been to finish second.
Wow, what a race for us. We just flat out missed the setup at the beginning. Luckily Alan and the engineers got together and found the tools that we could utilize to make the car better. The biggest thing is that rear bar, we just had to get rid of it. We did that. We cut the chain. Our car really started coming to us right then. We finally got some drive off.
You can look at this race. All the things that have gone for us this year, everything went right for us tonight. We had some guys stay out there on tires on basically that last caution that really cost them good finishing positions. We came in and got tires at that time. We were able to drive up through there. Had a good racecar.
Alan called a great timing for that last pit stop because Tony was ahead of us. We short pitted it, and it worked us getting out ahead of Tony and run Mark down at the end.
It was amazing. I still can’t believe we actually did it. I know how proud Rick is to have all four teams into this Chase. That was a big goal of ours. Pretty amazing to know we accomplished that.
Q. Did you have anybody on your team calculating right down to the position where you needed to be?
JEFF GORDON: I’m sure there was. We discussed prior to the race that we weren’t going to talk about it till that final run. Even in that final run, they just kept saying, Go get that next one, all right, go get that next one. We were going through a bunch of cars there because there were guys on old tires. We were passing cars.
I didn’t know what position we were in. I didn’t know what was going on. I knew that it looked like some guys were staying out because of how slow they were running. Alan got pretty animated when he said, You got to get the 55, you have to get the 55, and there was 10 to go.
I kind of had an idea that that would get us in, but he didn’t ever say it.
I’m assuming, yes, they were calculating it some way, somehow.
Q. Jeff, you seemed to be smiling and at ease during the rain delay. Were you confident this could happen? Was it Alan at the end that said (indiscernible)?
JEFF GORDON: You weren’t standing at the car when I got out of the car obviously because I was not very smiling and happy at that rain delay, the one red flag. I was pretty ticked off that we got that far behind.
I’ll be honest. I don’t know about Tony, but for me as a racecar driver, when you have that kind of start to the race, you don’t have a lot of hope you’re going to get it turned around.
I went to Alan. He never wavered. He was confident. They were looking at the data from what we had, to our teammates, even Tony. We had just done the rear bar. They were pretty confident that was going to get us close to our teammates. He was right. I still had a little doubt in him, though.
I felt like I won the race tonight. When that was over, they told me I was in the Chase, we made it, I mean, I was ecstatic. I was going nuts. To me, after you have that kind of effort, fall back, then come up there and finish second, almost win the race, make it in by one point, man, I don’t see any reason why we can’t go over these next 10 races and be a real threat for the championship.
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