Dodge Teleconference with Rusty and Larry

Tuesday, April 27, 2004.
Dodge Motorsports Teleconference
Talladega Recap, California Advance
                          

 

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No.  2 Miller Lite Dodge)

 

TALLADEGA RECAP "We had a poor qualifying run, but in the race the car
handled fine. It handled great and it was running good. I was just
logging laps and biding time because I tell you what, I don't think I've
ever seen that much aggression in my life out there at Talladega. There
were a lot of drivers bumping into each other, a lot of banging, a lot
of cars getting knocked sideways. The cars I was drafting with, I
couldn't believe what I saw. I saw doors knocked in, tail clips knocked
off, right front fenders knocked off and cars looked like they were
still running pretty fast. I saw Casey Mears' car, I was running with it
one time, it was beat all to the living heck. I saw the 23 car with the
nose knocked off of it running good. People ask me why so much physical
contact out there? Why so many crashes and stuff? I guess I'd have to
say that the aerodynamic package has still got the cars too tight, too
close. They've got to get away from each other somehow. They're just way
too tight running together. It caused a lot of wrecks, and then
sometimes there were guys that are in control of the gas pedal, the
brakes, the steering wheel like they're supposed to be and they just
didn't use their heads. They caused a lot of wrecks. You can sugar coat
it all you want, but there were a couple of characters out there who
caused a lot of big wrecks, drove dangerous. A lot of them got caught up
in the big ones, too. Anyway, I was running up at the top of the
racetrack along and I was up in the third lane logging laps and when the
big wreck happened, when Tony Stewart and the 97 got together they came
across the track and there was just nowhere to go. I got collected in
it. It was too bad. We had three good runs in a row, and I go to
Talladega. I had that one in the back of my mind. I thought 'boy if I
get through this one it'll be a lot easier,' but I got tangled up in it
and that was it."

 

OUTLOOK FOR CALIFORNIA "I've always had good cars there. The Penske
power has always been real good at California. I think of all the
racetracks we go to, California is the place you've got to have the most
power. It really, really shows up at that track for some reason. On the
other hand, I've had good handling cars, too. We ran third there last
year, me and Bobby Labonte back and forth. We had a great run. I feel
real good about the car we've got. The guys are telling me in the wind
tunnel it's the strongest car we've had all year, so you think that's
great. I know I'll go out with good horsepower. I'm feeling real strong
about the team, and based on my record out there, it's always been good
so I don't expect anything less than that."

 

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE TO PREVENT RACES FROM ENDING UNDER
YELLOW? "Not really. I like 'em ending under yellow. The fans don't like
'em ending under yellow. The reason we like it is because we know as
drivers if you've got two or three laps to go it's going to cause one
heck of a mess trying to restart. That's how I got on my roof and ended
up in the hospital with broken bones, tore all to crap. The only reason
we try to restart these races is to put an exciting show on. The thing
that confuses me is we've already put an exciting show on for three and
a half hours. We've missed the last little bit because of a crash. I
know the fans want to see it. That area down there at Talladega is a big
Dale Earnhardt Jr. track and he was running and they were all wanting to
see him win that race. There's no doubt about that. They were slinging
the beer cans and doing all the stuff when you have a couple too many
beers in you I guess. It caused that. For safety of all the drivers, and
if you poll the drivers most of them will tell you, 'hey look, it's been
a nail biter all day long. We're just happy to get this thing over with
right now.' It was the safe way out. When the caution flew, the 24 car
was leading. I saw it on TV myself. End of story."

 

DO YOU THINK NASCAR WILL EVER RUN ON STREET COURSES? "No, I really don't
think that will happen. I even see the day coming down the road when
there might not even be road courses. The cars are so much different. I
love road courses, but I do see the day, with only two on the schedule
it's kinda of an oddity to build new cars and do the types of things it
takes to run on road courses. I don't see road racing with NASCAR
getting expanded, especially with street courses. It's just my personal
opinion, but I don't see it coming. I've never heard any conversation on
that whatsoever. Again, I do like the road courses. I've always run good
on them. I've won some of them. It's a specialty type of vehicle and
specialty type of race. I don't know with the new race NASCAR thinks if
that would be something they'd entertain."

 

DO YOU THINK NOT RACING BACK TO YELLOW HAS BEEN POSITIVE FOR SPORT?
"It's absolutely been a positive change for the sport. The No. 1 thing I
think it helps a ton is it lets the safety personnel get to the injured
driver or the car in distress because when you've got two cars out there
running 200 mph you don't know if they're going to slow down or not. The
car could be out there in the middle of the racetrack burning or hurt
real bad and they can't get to him because the cars are whizzing by so
fast. It helps so much. It lets everybody get under control. Instead of
looking at your back and running real hard at the line, you've got a car
closing in on you trying to get a lap back, and stuff like that, it was
very, very dangerous and it's been that way for a long, long time. I
totally commend them for doing this rule. I love when the caution flag
comes out we just stop racing, and it's really not been a problem at
all. I haven't seen a problem. Somebody might have felt it hurt their
finish, but the big picture, what it's doing for safety, it's much, much
better."

 

HAS DRIVER MENTALITY CHANGED? "That's a really good question because I
went into that race and I didn't really know why they were doing what
they were doing. It wasn't everybody. I didn't see Mark Martin do
anything wild. I didn't see Sterling Marlin do anything wild. I didn't
see Terry Labonte. I didn't see Kevin Harvick. I didn't see Jeff Gordon.
I didn't see any of the guys doing anything wild, but I did see a lot of
the younger guys getting real aggressive, really crazy. It was just way
too early. I don't know why they did that. I don't know why it happened.
I'm sure Mike Helton is going to have to address it next time. I think a
lot of times things happen because it can be done. It can happen. The
new rule last year, they put another half inch on the rear spoiler, and
that extra spoiler height creates a bigger turbulence behind the car and
it'll let the cars draft up and draft tighter. At Daytona this year,
everybody's cars were pushing real bad. The front ends were sliding real
bad. We had more spoiler on the back for that, and I think that's the
reason it happened. It happened to be my suggestion that they cut more
spoiler off the back so cars don't draft that tight. That will help. I
know it will help. You sit back and wonder why they didn't calm down a
little bit, why didn't they just log some more laps. Why didn't they do
this and why didn't they do that? You see some veterans, and some of
them not even veterans going, and you listen to the radio chatter and
they're saying they're just hanging back, it's not looking good. There
were wrecks in the middle of the pack, front of the pack, back of the
pack. There were wrecks all over. There really was no rhyme or reason
other than the fact the cars are drafting so tight that everybody is
taking advantage of every single hole instead of just logging laps and
letting the race wind down before they got it on."

 

YOU LOOKED YOUNGER AFTER MARTINSVILLE WIN "I appreciate that. I feel
like I'm driving the best I've drove in a long time. I feel great. Our
team is pulling for me. I don't feel anything weird. People just keep
telling me that. I guess it's the thing to talk about, but I'm glad I
won the race and the monkey is off my back. People can quit hounding me
about that. I'm all excited right now about getting to California. I've
got a brand new paint scheme there. I got this red, white and blue with
stars all over it. It's the Miller President of Beers paint scheme. It's
got nothing to do with politics. It's going to be a funny think that
Miller's doing. I don't know if you've seen their ad campaign behind it
right now on television, but it's kind of a quirky thing. Miller Lite is
just flying off the shelves right now. Their low carb advertising is
doing great. They're all pumped up, and I'm going to have a star
spangled banner uniform on out in California. The cars are going to be
red, white and blue, so you're going to have to check that thing out."

 

WILL CALIFORNIA AND RICHMOND BE GOOD INDICATORS FOR THE FINAL TWO RACES
BEFORE THE FINAL 10 STRETCH? "I do think they're going to be good
predictors. If you go to California and get your doors blown off and you
run terrible, I'm sure those guys will go test before next time and get
better. Richmond is going to be a repave, so it's going to be a lot
different for everybody. I'll be up there testing in a week or so at
that track. I was going to test Martinsville, but I told the guys the
track is the same and I'd rather not waste that one day going to
Martinsville. We've got a lot of good notes for that place, so we're
going to use that test and go to Richmond. I expect Richmond to be quite
a bit different because of the fresh pavement, so it's definitely going
to play into it, but I think the first race versus the second race at
Richmond is definitely going to be different. The track will have more
age on it, it'll be worn in, the setup is probably going to change a
little bit. That's two races I look forward to going to because I think
they're going to be good for me."

 

COMMENT ON CHANGING REAR TIRE CHANGER "All the guys on the pit crew were
really good, but we were having problems with one position, the right
rear tire changing position. We tried a couple of guys and it just
didn't work out, so what we did, Larry Carter found a guy he had been
watching and D.J., one of our tire changers which is super fast, we
moved him from the right front to the right rear. He did just as good on
the right rear. We found a kid named Jay Hackney. He was working for the
4 car, and Jay has always been pretty quick. We tried him out and he
looked great. We hired him and he went to the right front and
immediately (we found) that one missing link in our pit crew. Bristol
was his first race and I almost won at Bristol. We went to Texas and ran
fifth and then went to Martinsville and won. Now we've got our pit crew
where we want it."

 

IS THERE A LINE BETWEEN GOING TO BIGGER MARKETS AND STAYING AT OLDER
TRACKS? "Rockingham is one of my favorite racetracks. I love it. There
has got to be some type of line drawn, no doubt about it. I don't know
what's going to happen down there. I don't know what's going to happen
to Rockingham or Darlington. I've been hearing rumors like everybody.
I've asked NASCAR to give me the inside track, and they're not willing
to do that right now. I've won at that place four or five times. I
almost won it this year. I was running second when I had a bad pit stop.
It's a track that the location of the track is way out there, and
there's not a ton of people out there. NASCAR is trying to grow the
sport. They're trying to get it where there's a ton of hotels, great
road access, there's a lot of things to do. They've got these fresh, new
facilities, and unfortunately some of these older facilities don't have
that. They're suffering because of it. I don't know what's going to
happen to Rockingham or Darlington, but it's fun going to those two
places. I've been doing it my whole life. I'm just waiting to see like
everybody else right now. I'd hate to see Rockingham come completely off
the schedule. I like going to Rockingham. I guess I'm going to be bold
in this statement I'm going to say here, but Darlington is in that
category, too. It's hard to get to and I haven't seen a lot of
rebuilding going on at the track. I haven't seen resurfacing. I haven't
seen anything going on around there to bring the facility up to the
style NASCAR wants these days." 

 

DO YOUNGER GUYS PICK UP ON WHAT VETERANS DO IN RACE? "Tony (Stewart) is
a good driver, and drivers have good days and bad days. Unfortunately
Tony just had a real bad day Sunday. When you bump into one guy it's one
thing, but when you bump into one guy and take out 12 or 13 with him,
it's unreal. He's a friend of mine. If I had done that I would be
getting the heat, too. We got together early in the race and I got
knocked sideways coming off turn two. I gathered it back up and he
gathered it back up. I blew that off just as a racing thing, but then we
got into another one. I hate it for him because I know he's taking a lot
of heat right now, but the first thing you don't want to do is get your
peers down on you. I've been there a couple of times, and when your
peers are get on you, they're not real understanding about having a bad
day or driving a little aggressive. I was eighth in the points and now
I'm 13th. I'm not a happy camper right now, and I thought we had a car
that was an easy top0-10 car. If I was in that position NASCAR would be
talking to me, and I'd be listening. I'd be calming down and being a
little more patient. No one ever questions Tony's talent and
capabilities. You've got to be a pretty good driver to be in NASCAR, but
it's his time in the frying pan right  now and he'll get himself out of
there.

 

"I saw a lot of young guys this weekend driving over their heads and
driving out of the limits of the cars. They got in trouble. I'm not
going to mention any names, but all you've got to do is look at their
cars when they came in after the race.

 

"I was trying to miss the Miller Lite cans. I saw a lot of them out
there, and I saw a lot of Budweiser cans. Anything they've got in their
hands and they've got frustration they're going to show it. At Daytona a
couple of years ago, they threw all those Pepsi coolers out on the
backstretch a few years ago. Unfortunately if they wanted to get the
race started, once the cans come over you can't restart the race. It was
a warm day, and lot of people were drinking and showing their
frustration. It's not the right thing to do. You wake up the next day
and realize it wasn't the cool thing to do. If cars are going down the
track at 200 mph and somebody slings a full beer can at you over the
fence and hits the car it could kill somebody. I don't think those
people want to have that on their conscious. That's a very dangerous
thing. Compare that to driving down the road and somebody throwing a
rock off the interstate, killing somebody. It's ridiculous. I'm trying
to find rhyme or reason for it, and wanting Dale Jr. to win is not
reason to do something that drastic."

 

DO YOU WORRY ABOUT RACING LOSING ITS ROOTS? "Yeah, I do. It's a
Catch-22. Rockingham, the whole back of the racetrack has been rebuilt.
The facility looks great. Unfortunately it's the location. There are not
enough hotels and restaurants and stuff like that to get out of towners
excited about it. I love going there. I've won there a bunch. Some of
these facilities don't fix up their places and are really run down and
don't have enough seats to pay big purses. They've definitely got a big
bull's-eye on their head. I'm totally with you on losing its roots. I
like going to every one of these tracks. Do I want to go to Texas twice?
Yes, because it's really big for Miller Brewing Company. Do I want to go
to California twice? Yes, because it's huge and it's great out there. Do
I want to lose Rockingham and Darlington because of it? No. Do I want to
run more than 36 races? Absolutely not. It's a tough question to
answer."

 

LARRY CARTER (Crew chief No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

 

COMMENT ON TALLADEGA "It wasn't very good. We really struggled Friday in
qualifying trim. I really felt like we would be better than we were. We
got behind a little bit on that car. We're trying to get a speedway
program up and going, and in doing that, moving people around and moving
surface plates and getting all that centralized, at some point you've
got to bite off a chunk and go for it. We did and our car didn't get in
the wind tunnel until Monday. We came back on Tuesday and did a little
cutting on it. We really didn't have adequate time to set up. I felt
like we'd be a little better, but at the same time I wasn't surprised we
were struggling with the lack of time we'd spent on it. It was a little
disappointing. Once we got in race trim I thought our car was pretty
good. It seemed to draft well, but it's hard to get excited about those
places. It's like going to a Las Vegas casino and throwing the dice out
there. You really have no control over what you come up with. At least
at these other places you can go race. You go there and you hope when
the day is over you can load the racecar in the truck and run all the
laps. We weren't able to do that, and it was kind of disappointing."

 

\COMMENT ON CALIFORNIA "I'm definitely excited about going out there.
That place is a good racetrack. It's wide. The guys can race and they
don't have to beat and bang on each other. We should have a good car,
and Rusty gets around that place well. I'm looking to go out there and
run pretty good."

 

DO YOU SEE BASE OF NASCAR TEAMS MOVING OUT OF N.C.? "I really don't see
that happening right now. Maybe it's something that would happen over
time, but I don't see it happening in the near future. We still run two
races at Charlotte, actually we run three. That's really a lot of days
the guys get to go home and sleep in their own bed. We've still got
Richmond, Bristol and Martinsville that we can drive to. Basically all
the other races we fly to anyway. I really don't see us moving, plus
there's such a large base of race mechanics already based here. I think
you're looking at 10,000 people having to sell their homes and moving. I
really don't see it moving right now."

 

COMMENT ON NOT RACING BACK TO YELLOW FLAG AND FINISHING RACES UNDER
GREEN "I definitely think they need to cease racing when the caution
comes out. When a guy wrecks and is sitting sideways in the middle of
the racetrack and you've got a guy running 20th trying to get his lap
back. They're darting in and out of cars. It just makes for a dangerous
situation. NASCAR has gotten where it is because of the superstars or
the heroes we have. We don't need to lose any of these guys to a freak
accident or something we can prevent, and that's definitely something
that can be prevented. Racing is obviously a dangerous sport and some
things we can't prevent, but the things NASCAR can do like slowing down
the cars on pit road and not racing back to the caution are things I
think we've got to do and expand on that and get better. I guess I don't
have a firm handle on what happened at Talladega. I know in the drivers'
meeting basically in the last five laps of the race they tell us every
Sunday if a caution comes out they won't red flag the race to finish it
under green. I think that rule is OK if you've got cars down in the
grass and sitting everywhere wrecked. I understand that. I guess what I
don't understand is they had some scoring issues and they couldn't
decide who was going to be in front of who. Now you've got a guy sitting
in the grandstand that paid $150 for a ticket and he's not going to be
able to see the last three laps of the race because NASCAR doesn't know
who's eighth and who's 12th. I think that might be a time when they
should look at red flagging a race so they could get the scoring squared
away, but at the same time, I still don't know what's wrong with a
green-white-checkered finish. They do it in the truck series. I think
now when you're talking about promoting the sport and you have these
finishes that are controversial where you've got fans there that have
been there all weekend, they want to see a race, they've seen a great
race all day and they want to see that last lap. It gets taken away from
'em. I see their frustration. I guess there's two or three ways to look
at that."

 

COMMENT ON NEXT TWO RACES PREPARING YOU FOR THE FINAL TWO BEFORE THE
FINAL 10 IN THE FALL "We've saved a few tests to use the later part of
the year, hoping we'll be in the top 10 and be able to make a run for
it. Both of these tracks are actually good tracks for us. We hope we'll
be able to continue to gather information as we do every week when we go
and just build on it. When we go back maybe we'll be a little ahead of
where we are now. I feel like we'll be able to run good at both of those
tracks. Maybe it'll just boil down to you might have to look at a
Homestead our Loudon to go test to be in good shape for those races. I
think we'll be able to use it as a stepping stone to get ready in the
fall, but at the same time every time you go back to a track it's
different than the last time you were there, so we may start similar in
our setup then we're looking to get better. We're always changing. I
guess the degree of change could be different from the first Richmond to
the second Richmond. It probably won't be as much different from the
first California to the second California."

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT FINAL 10 LAPS OR LAST 5 BEING GREEN FLAG LAPS?
"I wouldn't have a problem with it. NASCAR would really be better to say
their reasons. I know they have reasons for everything they do. They
just don't do it for no reason. I feel like now fans are spending a lot
of money to come to these races, and if it wasn't for the fans we
wouldn't be able to race anyway, so we need to give the fans what they
want, which is a race. Whether it's the last five laps under green or a
green-white-checkered for whatever it might be, I just feel like we owe
it to them to give them a race. With the tires the way they are now, it
could change, but the way things are now, we're not seeing a lot of full
fuel runs like we saw last year. We're seeing them, but we're just not
seeing as many. We're not seeing fuel mileage play into the end of the
race like we did last year. The way the game is being played right now
it (fuel mileage) wouldn't be as much of an issue."

 

DO YOU LOOK AT THE POINTS CLOSER NOW EARLY IN THE SEASON WITH NEW
CHAMPIONSHIP SYSTEM? "I guess I'd have to say yes you would look at them
closer. Really, if you look at it, we've run a third of what we're going
to run before we decided if we're going to be in the final deal (10
races for championship) or not. You've actually run more of the season
than you think you have because when you get to that last 10 you're
either in or out. Really the first two-thirds of the year is real
important, but I guess my philosophy is any time we go to the racetrack
we go to win. We're not going to do any less or any more any Sunday we
go. We're doing the best we can. We want to win every race. I feel like
if you do those things you'll be where you need to be. I think we've run
in the top 10 everywhere other than Darlington. That's probably the only
race we've struggled at. I think we just need to keep doing that."