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NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 22, 2014Erica Enders-StevensSCOTT SMITH: Thank you for joining us today. There are only two races remaining in the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The points battles are alive in all four of the professional categories. The series will stop first in Las Vegas for the NHRA Toyota Nationals October 30th through November 2nd, then end the season in California at the Auto Club NHRA Finals November 13th through the 16th at Pomona, California. Through the course of the day today we'll be joined by three racers, Erica Enders-Stevens in Pro Stock, Courtney Force in Funny Cars, who are both alive and well in their championship hunt, and also John Force, who is second in Funny Car points and who will make an announcement regarding John Force Racing. Erica, we'll start with you. Thank you for joining us. Erica is the driver of the Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. She has four wins this season which ties a career best. Five number one qualifying positions and only one first-round loss. She is second in points trailing Jason Line by only 35 points. If she were to win the championship, she would be the first female to win a Pro Stock World Championship. Erica, you've led the points 13 races this year, now you're in second. Which one is easier or harder, being the hunted or hunter as you go into these last two events. ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: I don't really know honestly. It was definitely fun. It's the first time in my 10-year Pro Stock career we've ever led the points. To be able to do it for 13 events was certainly fun. By no means was our objective to allow someone to go around us. We were forced to miss two races on the Western Swing. We're just doing the best we can with what we have. Having said that, I just try to focus at the task at hand, that's one race, one round at a time, just not get too ahead of myself. We're definitely still in the hunt significantly. With the qualifying bonus points that we've been acquiring this year, it is certainly doable. We can go into Sunday, if we're able to do what we've done at the last few races, qualify on the pole, be low, we can go into Sunday less than one round behind Jason Line. We're going to go in and focus and see what happens. SCOTT SMITH: We'll take questions for Erica. Q. Is there any more pressure now that you have these two races and you have this opportunity to make history? How do you approach it mentally? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: Mentally I'm just going to go into it like I've done all year. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't any pressure. There's been pressure all year long. My team has performed tremendously under it. My crew chiefs continue to give me a good racecar week in, week out. We have to battle it out. The pressure was immense in Reading, being able to see what was happening in front of me with Connolly who was first in points of me, then Jason Line being beaten by my teammate second round, we had the opportunity to make up some ground. My stomach was a little tighter than normal. But having said that, I'm going to focus just one round at a time. I know I keep saying that. But I don't want to get ahead of myself and focus on something that's not ours yet. We just have to continue to focus to get there. Q. The mental process that you have to go through all season, how does that compare to right now? While you're going through this, fans might want to know, do you have time to think about anything during the off-season? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: Sure. The pressure is immense in the Countdown. These final six races are extremely crucial. Leading the points all year, our largest lead being 240 points, ahead when the Countdown goes into effect, everything goes back to equal. Our domination was cut significantly. We've just got to focus on these last six. It certainly didn't start the way we wanted it to. It did at Charlotte, qualifying on the pole, being low for every session, then with the track condition being what it was had to move the event to Dallas. So Charlotte and Dallas being run in the same week, we didn't perform as well as we had hoped. Kind of behind the eight ball a little bit. Swinging as hard as we can. The pressure is certainly there. I honestly haven't changed my mindset at all as far as how I prepare. I mean, nerves are high. But it's just really weird. I think the majority of the drivers would agree. When you fire the car, all of that goes away and you just have to focus on what you're doing. You could be sick, feeling terrible, just really nervous. But when the car starts, everything goes away. I'm pretty sure my heart rate goes back to normal once the car fires. I'm able to focus on what I need to do. As far as the off-season is concerned, I will be returning to Elite Motorsports in 2015. We've secured our partnership. We're going to race together as long as we can. My team owner Richard Freeman has made that pretty evident. I've never been happier, honestly. I've got the best team in the world. For the first time in my professional career, I have a group of guys that have my back and we're having a lot of fun with it. Q. Would you compare the two weeks that you skipped during the middle of the season to the time you've had off, which would have occurred no matter what, waiting to get to Las Vegas. ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: Sure. I mean, both weekends off I've been antsy and wanted to get back in the racecar. It's hard to start the Countdown off with four races consecutively and go three weeks of downtime. I've been working really hard on the sponsorship aspect of things, traveling a lot to our shop base in Oklahoma to work on that stuff, and of course our engine department, Elite Performance, has been hard at work at finding more horsepower. In a way it gives us more time to work on the funding aspect and horsepower aspect. As a driver, I'd rather be in the car every day if I could. It's pretty similar. Sonoma and Seattle were something we didn't want to do but had to do business-wise. This is just a little mini vacation NHRA has allowed us. We'll go back to Vegas all rested up and ready to get out and start swinging. Q. Once Vegas is over with, you get another week off. Is that an important week off or would you rather go straight to Pomona right after Vegas? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS:  Like I said, I'd rather be in the car every day, if I could. But in between Vegas and Pomona, they have SEMA. I'll be there all week working with that my sponsors, Royal Purple, GM, Chevrolet, and my team owner Richard Freeman and my engine builders will be there. We'll get to work on things in that downtime as well. I guess it won't necessarily feel as long of a downtime as it really is, then we can head into Pomona fresh. Q. I know it's been a while, but Disney made a movie about you and your sister a while ago. What was that experience like? Do people besides myself still ask you about that? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: Yeah, they absolutely do. Disney still airs it on the Disney Channel. The kids that saw it initially when it was released back in 2003 have grown up with me and a new generation is starting to watch it as well. It's something I'm asked frequently about at the racetrack, the fans at the back of the pit. It's really exciting for me because I'm just a normal kid. Through a supportive family I've been able to accomplish a lot of really cool stuff. But I recognize that look in these kids' eyes that I had before I started junior drag racing, then after I got involved with the Junior Drag Racing League. Standing at the back of Angelle's pit, Shirley Muldowney's pit, Shelly Anderson's pit, looking at them like, man, I want to be like these ladies when I grow up. It's cool to recognize that look in the young kids' eyes now as they're looking at me. It's very surreal, humbling. As far as the movie experience goes, it was the same. Just surreal. Like, Why are they doing a movie on my sister and I? We haven't done really anything that cool. But it was definitely an exciting deal. We filmed everything in six weeks in Salt Lake City. It was just a blast to be on set and see what that business is all about. Courtney and I were able to do all the 'stunt driving,' so every time the racecars were going up and down the track, it was Courtney and I driving. It was fun to be hands-on, to see how everything went down. To see the final product was really exciting. Knowing what we know about drag racing, we like to say they Disney-fied it a little bit. There's some aspects if you know anything about cars or motorsports in general typically doesn't happen. They said they were playing to the 50 million viewers who had no idea what drag racing was. In a nutshell, it was a very cool experience and very blessed to have had that opportunity. Q. If you are able to win the Pro Stock title, what would be the sequel be called? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: I don't know. Hopefully that topic is visited. We'll see how it goes. We'll do our best here. We certainly have the best opportunity I've ever had in my career to accomplish this. We'll take it one step at a time. Q. You've been racing for a while. Women's success in racing, can you touch on that? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: Sure. I'm honored to be a part of the movement. It's really cool. I've been involved in racing as a driver for 22 years now starting in junior dragsters when I was eight years old, moving on to Super Comps, dragsters, Pro Stock. It's been an awesome experience for me. I've been a huge fan of the ladies along the way. Now being a part of it with Courtney and Brittany Force, before they started with Ashley, I started racing Pro Stock in '04, so I was around when she was racing Funny Car as well. That was a lot of fun. Alexis DeJoria, they're all extremely talented. I think we secretly root for each other. I know I do. I try to get up there and watch as often as I can. Now with Angelle back, she's the winningest female driver in NHRA history with 41 national event wins, Shirley will be out, I was able to talk to her today. Really neat to be a part of it. I'm proud of the girls that have done it before me and the ones I'm having the opportunity to do it with now. It's just a pretty exciting time for our sport. Q. You've been in Pro Stock for quite a while. This seems to be a breakout year for you. What do you attribute it to? More money for parts, confidence in the car, your team? What has helped you get to this marvelous point where you are right now? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: My team. Teamwork makes the dream work. That is absolutely so true. We operate on half of the budget that I operated on when I drove for Victor Cagnazzi for the last three years. We're a small team running on a small budget, but we've been able to accomplish a lot of really cool stuff this year because of the people involved. They're the most important part of the puzzle. Richard Freeman, my team owner, has assembled a tremendous group of people on and off the track. They're talented on track, but they're just great guys to the core. I mentioned that earlier, but that's the first time I've had that in my 10-year professional career. I attribute our on-track success to that. It's a no pressure, no drama situation, and I've never had that before. Q. Last year the Elite Motorsports team qualified for some events, Rickie Jones driving the car, run a couple rounds until he won the World Finals. You being in this car for the first year, did you expect to be in this position in the Countdown being your first year with this team? ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: I guess we did. I mean, I'm an eternal optimist. I wouldn't have joined the team if I didn't think they were capable of what we're doing. Having said that, Rickie Jones gave up his seat for me to drive. Him and his father, Rick Jones, are my crew chiefs. It's a really unique atmosphere. But, yeah, I mean, I hoped we would be here. I wouldn't use the term 'expected.' I don't want to come off arrogant by any means. I want to share my confidence in my guys. We've done a great job. We've missed out on quite a few races this year. I've lost on a few hole shots. We've shook. But we win and lose as a team. At the end of the day, that's what's most important. We've got a lot of heart. My guys have so much heart and determination and they never give up. You know when it's crunch time, they really shine. I'm looking forward to these final two races with them. I know that together we can accomplish a lot of really cool stuff in the future. I'm hopeful to seal the deal this year. We'll see what happens. SCOTT SMITH: Erica, thanks for taking time out of your day. We look forward to seeing you at Pomona and Las Vegas. ERICA ENDERS-STEVENS: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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