Friday

Mark Martin Captures Pole at Kansas; His Seventh of the Season and 48th Career

Filed under Press Releases, Sprint Cup Series

Team Chevy Drivers Score Six of Top-10 Starting Positions for Price Chopper 400

Kansas City, KS – For the seventh time this season, Mark Martin put his No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Impala SS on the pole for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race. The current points leader in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will lead the 43-car field to the green flag for the Price Chopper 400 Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

It is the 48th career pole for Martin, but his first at Kansas.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. powered the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Impala SS, to the second starting spot on the grid, alongside his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-three qualifiers behind the wheel of the No. 25 GoDaddy.Com Impala SS.

Team Chevy drivers captured six of the top-10 starting positions for the third race of the 2009 Chase. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Impala SS, will start fifth. Kansas native Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Impala SS nailed down the eighth starting position. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, will roll off ninth on Sunday.

The remaining Team Chevy drivers in the Chase qualified as follows: Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS – 11th; Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Impala SS – 14th; and Ryan Newman, No. 39 US Army Impala SS – 30th.

A total 15 Chevy Impala SS drivers made the field for the 267-lap/400.5-mile race set to start at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Live coverage will be provided by ABC TV, MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PRICE CHOPPER 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 2, 2009

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S IMPALA SS, POLE WINNER

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET YOUR SEVENTH POLE OF 2009?: “That’s pretty incredible. 1989 was the most poles for me in one year — I remember it was 1989, we got six so that’s a crazy stat right there.”

HOW DOE IT FEEL TO HAVE THE YOUNGER DRIVERS LOOK UP TO YOU SO MUCH AND ENDORSE WHAT YOU’RE DOING?: “It’s been incredible. I try not to think too far forward right now. I’m thinking about the present, but not too much forward because I don’t want to think about the possibility of letting all those people down. I will race with all my heart like I have all my life. I’m incredibly blessed. Hendrick Motorsports swept the top-three spots today in qualifying and I was really excited for Dale (Earnhardt) Jr., he really needed a shot in the arm and got it. It would have been nice to see him on the pole, but it’s still front row is great. I’ve been blessed. Let me ask you guys something. Has any of you ever stepped on a cat’s tail? Have you? I have accidentally stepped on a cat’s tail before and it’s pretty funny how fast, they make a noise and they go really fast. That’s kind of like when I stepped on the gas in that 5 car today, it was like stepping on a cat’s tail. This thing has so much horsepower, I’m really impressed with everything — with the engines, with the chassis, with the fabrication. What Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and I have going is really something special — it’s really something special. I hope for Alan that he will continue in his career to have something special with other guys in his career. I won’t. The communication that we have, the faith and belief that we have in one another — it doesn’t matter if they don’t fix my car. If I tell them that it’s not good and I walk away, when I come back, I believe it’s fixed and I’ll drive it like it is fixed, which is pretty much what we did today. We believe in each other — I don’t see how you can believe any more than this team believes. We are new together this year. That’s one thing that we have going for us really, to be honest with you. We have never let each other down, never. I think that’s worth something to us right now and we’re just going to fight for it with all our heart.”

DO YOU FIND IT AS EASY TO STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE NOW WHEN YOU NEED TO?: “I must because I’m stepping out of it every time I qualify. And I’ve been driving really hard this year, really pressing my luck. The equipment has been great and I’ve had good luck with it. I hadn’t let us down yet, I hadn’t messed up and had to take the blame for messing our day up because I wrecked the car driving over my head. We are going for it — no matter where we are on the race track. If we happen to be out there running 25th on Sunday, you can believe we are racing our guts out. We’re not leaving anything on the table, no matter if we’re leading or we’re running in the back, we’ll be racing and fighting with everything we’ve got.”

DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHERE JIMMIE JOHNSON IS ON THE TRACK DURING THE RACE? DO YOU THINK OF IT JUST BEING THE TWO OF YOU THIS WEEKEND?: “No, I would think that would be ridiculous. We’re 20 percent in to this Chase. We don’t even know whose going to be the contenders yet. You would expect the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) to be, they have been before. No, I have not kept up with the 48 as of yet, but it’s very early in the running. We were really fighting to get in the Chase and I kept up with our competitors then so obviously when I believe the race is on, I probably will. I don’t think that will probably come until something like four to go. It’s just very early.”

HAVE YOU HAD THE SENSATION OF STEPPING ON A CAT’S TAIL IN A RACE CAR BEFORE AND IF NOT, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO SUDDENLY REALIZE THAT THIS IS WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE?: “I have used that reference before because I have really stepped on one before, it was an accident, but it was pretty incredible how a cat will move and the noise that it makes. And I was referring really to the engine, our engine today was amazing. Down every straightaway, it felt like I had a tail wind going both directions. I know the guys are bringing their A-game from the engine shop for this Chase. I’ve driven really good race cars and I’ve had a lot of success, but I haven’t had this much success this late in my career before.”

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE AS STRONG AS DICK TRICKLE USED TO BE AT I-70 SPEEDWAY?: “That was one hell of a compliment — that’s how it feels, I’m humbled. I spent a lot of time chasing him too.”

DID YOU CONSIDER RUNNING OUT OF GAS AT MICHIGAN THE TEAM LETTING YOU DOWN OR IS THAT A SIGN THAT YOUR TEAM DOES NOT LET THINGS LIKE THAT LINGER?: “That’s technical and that’s a technical question. I guess my response to that is, selective memory. I never, ever felt like my team let me down because we ran out of gas. I felt like that we as a team ran out of gas. You could take what I said and technically say that’s not true, but certainly our history is much shorter and much more successful for the short period of time when you think we haven’t worked together, we went to California in February and we did not run good. We’re excited about going back because we’ve learned so much about our cars and that was our first time and we really have learned a lot and come a long way. When we came from 34th in owner’s points to make the Chase, I don’t think there was any letting nobody down. We all had to dig to do that. Technically, you could say what you want to say, but for me, they could not possibly, I told Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) right there in the lounge after that race, I said ‘Alan, it’s okay, I don’t care if we make the Chase or not man, we’ve run four races. It’s been Christmas every day this year for me.’ That’s how I felt right then and there. If we didn’t make the Chase, I absolutely did not care. We had won four races. Way beyond my expectations and I really meant that. It’s been Christmas for me every day this year. And he says, ‘We’re gonna make it.’ And I was like in the back of my head saying, ‘I don’t think so, I don’t know how we’re going to do it, there’s not much time left and everybody that we’re racing is running good.’ We really stepped it up and since then we’ve had top-fives after top-fives. It’s really gotten stronger.”

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS – Qualified 2nd:
ON HIS LAP:
“Yeah, this is a good run for us. This is the car we run at Indianapolis, which was a pretty good car and it was new then. We worked real hard in practice. We didn’t show as much speed as we had in the car in practice, but we just were a couple adjustments short and got those in right before qualifying and we had a pretty good draw going out 25th. But the track was about the same for everybody, I felt. The wind was pretty good all day long, I mean it was pretty rough and pretty windy, but I think I might have caught a window during my lap because I didn’t have any gusts or anything that bothered my car. It’s a good front row starting spot for us and we need that type of performance and have needed it for some time. It’s got all the guys on the team excited and we’ll see how that rolls over in tomorrow’s practice and see if we can carry some momentum throughout the day and try to turn out a pretty good race car for Sunday.”

WITH THE HUBBUB SURROUNDING JIMMIE JOHNSON, MARK MARTIN, AND JEFF GORDON, HAVE YOU FELT LEFT OUT? IS THIS GOOD TO GET BACK ON STAGE?
“Well, it’s good to burn good. I’ve always felt like I belong in the upper percentage of our sport and when you don’t perform that way, it’s definitely tough on you. But I’ve maintained my confidence and I’m maintained good confidence in my team and in (crew chief) Lance (McGrew) and I just feel like the more we work together the better we understand each other and the better our opportunity is to do something like we did today. But we looked at the rest of the season as any time we can get on the race track to try to prove ourselves and prove our worth to the rest of the sport, that’s what we’ll do for the rest of the year.”

ON WORKING WITH LANCE MCGREW, HAVE ANY DECISION BEEN MADE ABOUT HIS COMING BACK NEXT YEAR AS CREW CHIEF?
“Well, I just want to make it clear, I guess, that the decision is Rick’s (Hendrick) and his management team. I like working with Lance. I get along great with Lance. We have had some great runs and I feel like I can build on that type of success and it happened more often, more consistently with Lance. And I hope that we’re successful the rest of the year and that we go into next season with the same group of guys. But the decision isn’t mine, and never will be mine. So, I hope that we’ll have more success and continue to give Rick and the people that do make those types of decisions good reason to keep us as a team and keep us working together because I really do enjoy working with him. I feel like I’m a different race car driver than I’ve been over the last several years; just my temperament and my disposition throughout the races and the weekend. I still have to check myself every once in a while; I get a little angry, but just during practice and stuff when something you do to these cars can frustrate you. But for the most part, Lance is really great at controlling the situation and controlling our team and directing our team throughout the weekend and the races themselves. I’ve enjoyed the experience working with him.”

CAN YOU GAUGE HOW GOOD IS YOUR CAR FOR SUNDAY?
“Well, not really. We didn’t get any race runs in today. We just did all qualifying runs. I really like this track and I’ve qualified good here before and I’ve had some pretty good runs. So if we do what we need to do tomorrow we should be able to put out a good race car for Sunday.”

HAVE YOU PRACTICED UP CLOSE TO THE WALL, AND WHEN YOU’RE RUNNING THAT CLOSE TO IT, DOES THE WIND AFFECT YOU?
“I haven’t run in race trim this weekend. This track does have a couple of different grooves and a couple ways you can go around the corner. The CoT doesn’t like the top of the race track as much, at least over the last year or two that we’ve been working with the car, I haven’t been able to get the top to be as successful as I had years ago. But you run wherever you can make time. So my intentions are, and have been for the last several months, to work the bottom of the race track in practice all day Saturday to try to make my car work down there because I feel like that’s where the races are won. When you run up top, I really don’t know what the wind does to the car or how that affects it. I’ve always felt like we move up there to get on some asphalt that’s not had a lot of wear and use on it that has a little bit more grip and has a little bit more tars and other particles on it that the bottom groove has been worn away and we just use that top groove a little bit. But sometimes, there’s a good chance that there could be something to what happens to the wind when it goes between the car and the wall itself, it may become denser and create some sort of a cushion, but that’s debatable.”

THEY ARE GOING TO DO A TEST AT RICHMOND NEXT WEEK WITH A LARGER TIRE. WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT A LARGER TIRE WOULD DO?
“I really don’t know. I’m excited that Goodyear is trying to look for new opportunities for the teams and the drivers. Hopefully they’ll have success in developing the new tire. A taller, wider tire could do a significant amount of things to the handling and the characteristics as to how the car feels and drives. But obviously if the tire is wider, we’ll have a much more larger contact patch and probably pick up quite a bit of corner speed. The wheel itself I think is what’s becoming bigger and the tire, I’m not sure about how big a difference that will be in the size of the tire versus what we have now. But if the sidewall gets smaller, there’s a chance that it’ll become harder. And I’ve always liked a stiffer sidewall because I have a more direct feeling of what the right rear or the right front of the car is doing than with a softer sidewall. A softer sidewall sort of dilutes the feeling of how much grip the actual tire has.

“So I’ve always had more success when the sidewalls are stiffer, especially on the left side of the car. So, if they make the wheel bigger, which is in all the press releases they’re talking about the size, they’re speaking more about the wheel. I’m not sure how much that changes the actual overall size of the tire, but hopefully if the sidewall gets a little smaller, and in turn, would have to be a little harder, I think it would produce a pretty good little tire if developed properly.”

WITH EIGHT RACES TO GO, HOW DO YOU MAKE THE MOST OF THOSE RACES GOING INTO 2010?
“Well, basically what we’ve been doing is looking at Jimmie’s been really fast and Mark’s been really fast and Jeff’s been running great too, just looking at the characteristics and how their using their race cars and trying to put that into my car and trying to understand how it feels and why it feels this way and what their searching for in the set-up and what’s working and what the driver’s looking for in feel. You’d love to be able to go out on the race track and be quick and provide them with ideas because they’re trying to win a championship; and if I could help them on any given weekend that would be one of the better accomplishments to these last 10 races for our team, aside from winning. But we’re still sort of trying to find speed so we’re still leaning on them quite a bit as we have been over the last several months trying to get our program to where it’s more consistent. And we have yet to really improve on anything they’ve been doing, we’ve just been trying to get that in itself to provide us with some more consistency and better performance.”

LIKE FINE WINE, MARK MARTIN JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER. DOES HE AMAZE YOU AS MUCH AS HE DOES THE FANS?
“Well, I’ve always thought that Mark was a great race car driver. Him coming back and running as good as he does doesn’t amaze me. I always felt like he was capable of doing the type of things that he does. Him and my dad had some very, very tough battles week after week and they in turn, became championship battles. So I watched Mark a lot because he was one of the guys that either Dad had to outrun or had to run with. And then I got to watch him out of the windshield a lot in ‘98 and maybe out the back mirror a little bit in ‘99 as we raced in the Busch Series. He has amazing car control. He has the ability to really hang a car out that a lot of guys don’t possess. There is something unique in his personality that has maintained his youthfulness as far as his exuberance for competing; just overall competition and just going out and hot-lapping or going out and winning a race, he still has the urge and the yearning to do it as if you were in your first season or as a rookie. So, you see a lot of guys, their temperament sort of softens a little bit over time and he seems just as excited about going around the race track as he was when he first strapped in a car. But he’s a very talented guy. And I’m real happy for him. He was a bridesmaid for so many years and so here’s one guy that’s pulling for him to win a championship this year because he’s deserved it.”

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
BRAD KESELOWSKI, NO. 25 GODADDY.COM IMPALA SS, QUALIFIED THIRD

TALK ABOUT BEING IN THE CUP CAR THIS WEEKEND AND WHAT YOU’RE HOPING TO DO OUT THERE ON SUNDAY. “Well it’s been a phenomenal day so far. The No. 25 car, GoDaddy.com on the Cup side is extremely strong and the Nationwide car is even better yet. So figured I would leave well enough alone and come over here and talk to you guys. It’s been good. I really didn’t expect to be this fast. It’s just a testament to how good the Hendrick cars are and that’s something to be proud of for sure. They’ve done a lot of work and I’m proud to be part of that and looking forward to finishing my opportunity with the No. 25 team out strong. We have this race here and Kansas and then we have Charlotte. They have this wall over there in the shop with a bunch of H’s with dates underneath them that signify wins with the driver’s name underneath them. I told Mr. Hendrick before I was done I wanted to get my name on that wall. It looks like I’ve got a good opportunity to do that this week here in Kansas so I’m pretty excited about that. I don’t want let Mr. H down so I’m going to put a good effort into it and it’s been phenomenal to date. Just a great day and a great car.”

ARE YOU TRYING TO RUB OFF A LITTLE MARK MARTIN MAGIC? “He’s got the magic right now. Man everything he does it turns to gold. He’s a Midas I guess. He’s just good. Whatever he’s got going on now it’s clicking for sure. He came into the deal at the perfect time and he’s so good. It’s just everything came together and Mark is like the perfect storm right now. He’s about unbeatable the way things are going right now. Hopefully I can pull something off.”

DENNY HAMLIN HAD SOME CHOICE THINGS TO SAY FROM DOVER AND WAS DISAPPOINTED YOU DIDN’T CALL HIM AND YOU SHOULD BE NERVOUS WHEN YOU ARE AROUND HIM BECAUSE OF THAT, DO YOU HAVE ANY REACTION TO THAT? “I didn’t know I was supposed to call him I thought he was going to call me. I don’t know. This is what makes racing awesome. Otherwise it’s just cars going in circles so you’ve got to have some human drama. As to how I feel about it, I’m looking towards the future and I’m not looking toward the past. As for as how I’m going to race around him because I’m sure that’s the next question somebody is going to ask, no differently than I’ve raced around him before. He’s another race car driver and that’s how I see him. I race him like he races me as I race everyone like they race me. That situation just evolved into what it has based on how he’s raced me. Mentally I’m tough enough to where whatever words he has to say it doesn’t bother me. It’ doesn’t phase me. At the end of the day that’s how I’m going to look at it and continue to look at it. It comes down to the race track and the performance not the words said on or off the race track. That’s just how I’m going to view it. I don’t wish to have any conflict in the garage but that doesn’t mean I’m going to rest on my laurels to try to fix it.”

DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT THAT CONFLICT WITH DENNY IS NOT SETTLED YET? “I mean nobody likes to have an open conflict out there. To be honest it was never really settled after Charlotte in my mind. I don’t know. I read what he said before I came in here so I would know because I figured you guys would ask me. He’s just frustrated which that’s just the way racing is. Racing is hard. It’s frustrating. You get mad, you get angry. Sometimes that’s right and sometimes that’s wrong. It seems to me a lot gets put into a specific situation when really it’s a lot broader picture and you have to really step back and see that. I know I’m kind of circling around here. I’m working on my politician but as far as it being unsettled on my mind I just take a page from the Jimmie Johnson book and mental toughness is what wins races and wins championships. I’ve put a lot of emphasis on that and I feel like I’m tough enough to where it doesn’t bother me.”

HOW IS YOUR CAR FOR THE RACE ON SUNDAY? “That’s a really good question. It’s to be determined at this point. Toward the end of qualifying the track got the slightest bit better. I’m not sure that can really be attributed to my strong qualifying run because I did have a good car and that goes both ways because I’ve had it go the other way where I had a good car and got a lousy draw. For it to qualify as well as it did with the limited experience I’ve got it must be pretty dang good. So I’m really happy about that. I feel really good about it.”

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- GM Racing Communications, Press Release