	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 17, 2008

DENISE MALOOF: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this week's NASCAR teleconference in advance of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway at Sonoma, California. It's the Toyota Save Mart 350, one of the Series' two road course events. Joining us today are the two drivers from Team Red Bull, Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Toyota, and A.J. Allmendinger, driver of the No. 84 Toyota. Both are on the move.
Brian, who starts off this call, comes off two consecutive Top-5 finishes. In addition, his pit crew won the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge last month. A.J., who will join us at approximately 2:15 eastern time, has two consecutive Top-10 runs. Also last month he won the Sprint Showdown, a preliminary event that earns him a berth in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race.
Brian, we'll start with you. Obviously things are looking up for your team. What's been the difference of late?
BRIAN VICKERS: Well, you know, we have definitely been running better lately, that's for sure. It's always hard to pinpoint exactly what the cause is, and it's rarely one single event or one cause, but I think it's a culmination of a lot of things.
Jay Frye coming on board this year has given a lot of leadership and inspiration to the team and a lot of experience and knowledge in the sport, which we definitely needed. He's done a great job with that. He's brought in a lot of new people on board that have done a great job, and also kind of redirected the talents of a lot of existing employees.
And when you combine all those together, you think about Toyota, learning and growing, their second year, TRD's second year building Cup engines and just having a year under our belts, things are starting to come around, and we've just got to keep this momentum going and hopefully get back in the Top 12.

Q. Sonoma has been a good track for you. You won the Grand National race out there a couple years ago. Do you look forward to going to the road course, and is it an extra challenge for the Toyotas?
BRIAN VICKERS: Yeah, as far as your first question on Sonoma itself, I enjoy Sonoma. I enjoy road course racing. Obviously what I like most about Sonoma is probably the wine (laughter). It's just a good trip out there, and it's a lot of fun. It's beautiful, beautiful country. I actually usually go into San Francisco and spend the night there either before or after the race.
As far as the racetrack itself is concerned, it's fine. One thing about our sport is we have a lot of diversity as far as the track is concerned, and everybody always asks the same question, what's your favorite track. I'd probably have lean toward Darlington on that, but I what I like most is going to a different track and different configuration and different style every week. And two road courses on the circuit add a lot to that. You know, we did win the Grand National race out there a few years back, and that was awesome, and it was fun to win on a road course.
My Cup experience at that racetrack has been up and down, some decent rides and some bad rides. But the testing we've done recently on road courses I've been really pleased with and been pretty happy with our cars, and hopefully we can take some momentum from the past several weeks and carry it into Sonoma.

Q. Just touching on something you said in your first question there about Toyota and their development, can you kind of just sum up the difference from year one to halfway through year two?
BRIAN VICKERS: Well, you know, there's been a big difference, and some of it just takes time. Some of it has come from intentional, deliberate changes that have been made in the program to try to make it better.
One thing that I think people don't realize is that -- it's not necessarily a good or bad thing, but TRD builds our engines and builds Michael Waltrip engines, and Gibbs builds their own engines. You know, TRD has come a long ways, I mean, a long ways. We started out at the end of last year having a lot of mechanical problems, and NASCAR changed a lot of dimensions for Toyota which really threw them for a curve ball right at the very last second. They were kind of in the Cup Series expecting to run the block they had been running for years in the Truck Series and had to start over basically. That was tough to overcome, but they did a good job.
You know, we went through a lot of other struggles last year, but this year we've gotten a lot better. Our bottom end power is probably still where we're lacking the most, but the top end power, I think we're right there with the best of them.
Gibbs obviously has helped a lot. Gibbs has had a very successful engine program for many years, and obviously coming to Toyota, you know, there was some new parts to it, but the basic process and building these engines was still the same, and I think they've helped bring the whole pie up a little bit.
But at the same time, they haven't shared everything. Gibbs is not -- they do their own engines. It's not an in-house Toyota engine, so it is a different program. But when you take a look at where Michael Waltrip Racing is and where Red Bull is, how much we've gained and how strong TRD and Toyota is compared to last year, you know, maybe TRD hasn't won a race yet, but we've had a second place, we've had two Top 5s in a row and had very little failures or mechanical problems like we had last year. So I'm really proud of them. I think they've come a long ways, and I see a lot of potential for the future.

Q. How much of the growth do you attribute to only having to get one car ready as opposed to two?
BRIAN VICKERS: Explain your question one more time. What do you mean getting one car ready as opposed to two?

Q. Last year going between the old car and the new car throughout the season. This year it's just one.
BRIAN VICKERS: I'm sorry, I misunderstood you. Yeah, as far as just having to worry about one car has made a big difference. I think that NASCAR's implementation of the new car last year helped spread the cost of that change-over out, and I think it was probably the right way to go. But it did make it very difficult, especially for new teams coming on board. Learning one car is hard enough, but having to learn two makes it pretty difficult.
So this year has been a lot easier. When you get a test, you don't have to decide which car you want to go test, you just go test, and you try to get those cars the best you can.
It's made it a lot easier, I think, for everybody involved, especially for the new teams. It helps us focus our resources a little bit more because our resources are somewhat inexperienced and limited.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk for a moment about your teammate A.J. and just how he's come back strong, and what's changed since he took the break for a few races there?
BRIAN VICKERS: I think that A.J. is a very talented race car driver. He has good car control. He is very new to our sport and our cars. People forget, and it's really not fair to him, that he never raced ovals or stock cars his entire career, his entire life, and then he just went straight into Cup racing, ran a few Truck races and went straight to Cup, which in hindsight probably wasn't quite the approach that should have been taken. But he dealt with it, and he's rebounded.
This year him coming out of the car for a little while and Mike Skinner coming on board I think really helped that team kind of understand some of the things that A.J. was feeling and helped him and helped the team and just helped the whole process and helped those guys get a little bit of a head start on the Top 35 and was a good thing for him. I think it was very frustrating, and I'm sure it was for him at first, but I think now he looks back on it and sees that it's a positive, and it's obviously showed in their racing performance.

Q. From a distance it seems like he handled the switch pretty well, I mean, all things considered. Instead of lashing out he seemed to be pretty humble about it.
BRIAN VICKERS: Yeah, I honestly didn't end up having a lot of conversations with him about it. I'm not sure how he handled it in the media, but for the most part when I saw him, he obviously seemed disappointed and not really happy about it, which hey, he's a race car driver, who would have been. But now looking back on it, I definitely think he sees it as a positive, and I think at the time he handled it as best as anyone could expect him to.
He listened to Mike, he worked with Mike, they went and did a lot of testing together. It was a lot more than just Mike running the car for a few races. Mike went to a lot of tests with him, they got in and out of the car. Mike would set it up one way and say this is what it feels like. There was a lot more to that than I think even people realize.

Q. You mentioned a moment ago that you liked this track. The debate always comes up this time of year about road courses, no road courses. Why should road courses be part of the NASCAR mix?
BRIAN VICKERS: I think if you want to -- especially on an international level, personally I like the diversity of the series. I like the fact that we go to Martinsville, Talladega, to a road course. I think from an international flair, to bring in international fans, I think you've got to go to a road course. Granted, I do think that our cars put on a better show on ovals, but having a couple road courses in there I think is a good mix. I think it's a great mix.
It's tough for me going to Sonoma because I have to admit, personally I'm probably a bigger fan of Watkins Glen; it's a little bit higher speed faster road course than Sonoma is. But I'm also a big fan of wine (laughing), so going out to Sonoma is always a good experience. It's just beautiful country and you get to do a lot of fun stuff while you're out there.

Q. How much of a test of your skills is it to race on a road course?
BRIAN VICKERS: You know, I think it's a test of your flexibility as a driver. You can be an extremely talented race car driver and not be good at road courses. Earnhardt, Sr., wasn't the best at road courses but arguably one of the best drivers of all time. Just because you don't run good on a road course doesn't mean you're not a good driver. But I think the more tracks you can run good at, it says a lot about your flexibility as a driver to adapt to different scenarios in racing, from short tracks to super speedways to medium tracks to road courses.

Q. You had some questions after the race out on Pit Road this past weekend. I wonder if you ever went to NASCAR and got the full explanation so that you understood better or maybe have a different view of it.
BRIAN VICKERS: Yeah, you know, your question is about the 8 car. I had some questions at the end of the race before the last caution. We passed the 8 car about two laps before the caution came out, and then under caution they put the 8 car in front of us. To be honest with you, I was furious (laughing), I was pretty upset about it, and rightfully so. I wanted an explanation as to why that took place. You know, I felt like in a lot of ways it cost us a shot at the race. There's no guarantees what would have happened, but it definitely hurt us.
I did talk to them after the race and they said we made an honest mistake; the 8 car was supposed to be behind you. I think it's all you can ask for. It's like when a driver on the racetrack gets into you, it makes all the difference in the world if they call you up the next day and say, man, I'm sorry, I messed up, I'm sorry. Let's just more forward from here on. I totally respect that. I've made many, many, many mistakes in my life, and I probably will make many more, and I think the important thing is you just own up to it and move on.
Unfortunately in our sport, and if I was sitting in the tower, I couldn't do it any different, you can't just call a time out and go look at the replay and sort it out. I mean, you're talking about -- you look at a football game and they get a bad call on the field, they call a time out and they look at the replay and they fix it and they move on. Well, that's one call. For those guys it's 43 calls up in the tower. They have 43 positions to sort out every caution, not one. It's a tough job, you know, and they can't just pause the race. They've got guys running out of fuel, the race is coming to an end, and it's time to go green and get the checkered out there, so it's time to move on.
But they did say they made a mistake and owned up to it, and that's all you can ask for.

Q. After experiencing the top levels of racing for a few seasons, is every race still an adventure for you?
BRIAN VICKERS: Yeah, some are more adventurous than others (laughter). Every race is an adventure. I love racing and I love what I do. You know, I just enjoy life. I think it definitely is an adventure every time you get out on the racetrack, what kind of car you're going to have, what kind of situations you're going to have, how do you get out of them and how do you prepare for the end of the race to be the best, just the sheer fact of going 200 miles an hour.
I think the biggest adventure I've had recently, though, is I've kind of taken on skydiving as a hobby. That's a new adventure for me. Jumping out of a plane at 13,000 feet is almost like -- it's almost taken me back to like when I first started racing.

Q. You mentioned flexibility of race car drivers. Do you think that flexibility separates from the pros from the wannabes, so to speak?
BRIAN VICKERS: Yeah, I do. I think that the ability to adapt, the ability to stay focused. Some of the best race car drivers in the world in my mind are the ones that can adapt to the different situations, different cars. You know, the really good drivers when their car is not just right will move around with it until they find a place for it to work. Not every track allows for that. Michigan is probably more prone to than that others. You have a lot of options from a line standpoint, but drivers can move around and adapt to a car and adapt to a track in different situations and stay calm, cool and collected in all those situations, no matter what comes up, can stay focused and mentally keep it together.

Q. What are the drivers told either in the driver meeting or in the rule book about passing the pace car?
BRIAN VICKERS: It is not allowed and it's illegal.
DENISE MALOOF: Brian, thank you very much for joining us today. Best of luck this weekend.
BRIAN VICKERS: Thanks so much for having me on, and hopefully we can keep that momentum going.
DENISE MALOOF: We are now going to be joined by Brian's Team Red Bull teammate, A.J. Allmendinger. A.J., welcome. You have won a number of road course events while competing in the Champ Car Series, and also you're a native this week. You're a native of Los Gatos, I think I've got that right, California. Factoring in all of that, how much are you looking forward to Sunday's race?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, it's one of those things that for me still unfortunately I've got to look forward to Friday, and that's our race first. We've done a lot of road course testing, Red Bull Racing has done a great job at building new cars. Last year we went in there and we really didn't have any road course testing. I had had a half day on a road course in the Cup car. I'm a lot more confident going into this weekend.
But for me it's always one of those things that it's cool because it's a home race, but at the same point it's probably one of the toughest weekends just trying to divide up time with your family and friends and still being focused on the racetrack. By the end of the weekend I'm definitely spent.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your turnaround in the last few weeks and if it's at all similar to what happened with you in Champ Car when you sort of all came together at one time?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, I mean, I think it's a completely different situation from Champ Car. For me I switched different teams and just got in the right team, kind of right people around me that believed in my talents, and we went out there and did the job. But I think here the biggest difference is just Red Bull and everybody back at the shop and the team. They're building new race cars. That's why you see Brian running so well, that's why you see myself starting to run so well. We're really just focused on we've got our qualifying package better and we're making races a lot better and a lot more with ease.
But at the same point our race package had kind of been lacking a little bit, and in the last couple weeks I think with a brand new car I think we've been doing the right things. I've been a little bit disappointed with our finishes because we ran in the Top 10 both weekends and just kind of missed a little bit on pit strategy. But first things first, we're running better, we made up a lot of points in the Top 35 and we're getting closer, so we've just got to keep doing the right things.

Q. What did you learn in your time out of the car?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: You know, it really wasn't so much learning anything specific, but Mike Skinner does a great job, and he did a great job in the race car but he helped me a ton outside of it, just more than anything giving me a peace of mind. When you go with a brand new team and a brand new manufacturer you really have nothing to gauge off of, and for myself never having been in stock cars before and jumping in that situation -- it would have been a different from if I would have jumped in the 48 or the 24 car or a car that you knew where it ran, whether it ran up front or mid-pack or things like that, but with a brand new team I never really had a sense of how much of it was of me, how much it was of the team, what we needed to improve, and Mike showed me that. He taught me that I was doing the right thing, saying the right things, me and him both were feeling the same things in the race car, but that's just -- it gave me a lot of confidence to know when I got back in it that I was doing the right things, and I think more than anything that was the biggest thing for me is just a confidence level getting back in the car.

Q. You alluded to you have a lot of family and friends out here obviously. Do you get out here much during the year other than during this one race?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: No, unfortunately I don't. It's one thing with NASCAR, they definitely keep you busy. I don't get as much time as I'd like to be out there. My parents come to at least a third of the races, so I get to see my parents at least a lot. But like I said, it's -- I wish I had two weeks to come out here and hang out and then get into race mode, but it's still kind of packed into four days. You know, like I said, it's an enjoyment to see everybody, but I'm still focused on going out there with the momentum that we have and getting close to the Top 35. I'm still just going to be really focused on that and hopefully getting the car into the race and then going from there.

Q. You've raced locally, but do you have that much experience at Sonoma?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: I have no experience at Sonoma. I did a go-kart race in 1997 on the big track, and then we basically ran unfortunately only about three laps last year. We had mechanical trouble in practice, never really got on the racetrack, and I wasn't qualified and we didn't make the race. It's still kind of brand new to me.

Q. We hear a lot about the transition from open wheels to stock cars. Just wondering if you could tell us what is the most difficult part of that transition?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: I mean, unfortunately there's not one thing. It's just -- I think really it's -- a stock car isn't like anything else that open-wheel guys or even sports car drivers drive really. I mean, they're big, heavy cars with a lot of horsepower; the tires are really small. You just -- the car slides around a lot more. It's a lot less downforce than really anything else out there, any kind of big series out there. So it's a difficult thing to learn, and when you learn it on ovals, you've got 43 of the best drivers out there, it's a difficult thing.
I think except for the guys that go through it, the open-wheel drivers that go through it that try to come over that really take it and understand it, it's tough for other people to understand just how big of a change it is. That's why when you start running better, it's almost more of an accomplishment to finish in the Top 15 and start running up front than it would be finishing Top 3 or Top 5 in any other series because it's that difficult.

Q. I take it you're not too surprised at some of the bigger names in motorsports that have come to this series this year and had some struggles? I take it you're not too surprised by that?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: No, I mean, it's difficult. Some of us, we take a lot of heat sometimes for coming over here and struggling, but it's more difficult than you could ever put into words. I mean, it's -- basically the way I can put it is you take something you've been doing your whole life, and when you start in go-karts and you go up through the open-wheel ranks and the Junior Formula and you get to Champ Car or IndyCar or F1, the cars always feel the same. They may be faster and you keep moving up in level, but the way the car feels and drives, they're the same every level that you step up. It's just you've got to get used to the speed, the downforce, the G-force of the car. But this is completely different. It's almost like starting over again.

Q. You've been in NASCAR for a little while now. Are you starting to feel a little more at home?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Definitely the last few weeks have made me feel like that. You know, I look up to all these guys, and guys like Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin and those types of guys, they were my heroes growing up. Now getting to get up there and be more competitive and actually pass those guys and race with them and hopefully gain the respect of the guys that run up front is definitely making me feel like I'm more at home and more like I belong here.
It feels good when you're up there and you have guys like Bobby Labonte came over to me after Pocono and even Kyle Petty coming over from the booth and telling me good job and they're happy for how I'm running. It does make me feel good because I do respect everybody so much because this is so difficult.

Q. You were getting some help from Mike Skinner. How much does it mean to you, especially with such a young team and a young teammate, to have sort of a mentor?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: You know, it means a lot, because Mike has been through a lot. He's had a lot of experience to kind of go off of, and I guess the biggest deal is the fact that he was in my race car, so he understands what I was feeling and when I was struggling, and for him to come over and kind of just tell me, yeah, you're right, that's what you should be feeling, that's what I'm feeling, that's just -- like I said, that gives a lot of confidence to me, and it gave me more confidence probably being out of the car for five weeks and seeing Mike struggle a little bit and having him tell me that I was feeling the right things than if I had ever been in the car for those five weeks. For me it was good to be out of the car.

Q. And finally, with the unification of Champ Car and IRL, do you look over there and say, what if I had stayed?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: No, no. I mean, I'm happy that it's reunified, and I've learned in this sport that you never say never to anything about going back over there, but I'm happy about where I'm at.
I'm happy that Red Bull Racing and Toyota are getting it together and running stronger, and I still think that this is the most difficult racing series in the world to win in just because there's so much competition and there's so many guys in the series, and these races are so long. So there's a lot of luck and a lot of skill and just a lot of things have to happen right to go win a race.
I'm happy where I'm at, but I definitely keep my eye open over there. I've got a lot of friends still, and I enjoy watching it.

Q. In addition to you and Brian coming on strong lately, Scott Speed has been doing a great job down in the Arca. Can you share with me your perceptions of Scott?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, I mean, Scott and I grew up together, so I've known Scott for a long time. He's definitely a good driver, and Red Bull, they're doing the right things for him to come over and learn the right way. You know, I guess maybe I was the guinea pig to start with, take an open-wheel guy and just put myself straight into Cup, and we saw the struggles that I went through. And I guess in a good way they learned from that and they're doing the right things with Scott. He's in the best equipment in both series, with the Arca team. A lot of it is our old Cup equipment from last year, especially late in the year when we were building good race cars. He's on the best team there, and he's definitely on the best team with Bill Davis in the Truck Series. He's doing a great job with it.
It's just -- it's good for a whole for Red Bull, and that's what the most important thing is. We're sponsored and owned by the same person, and that's Dietrich Mateschitz, and when he's running strong and we're running strong, that makes him happy. That's only good for all of us.

Q. He's also a pretty colorful guy, I guess, in relative terms to NASCAR with the blue toenails and whatnot. Has he always been kind of a guy who walks to his own drummer?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: He's always been out there a little bit, but spending five years in Europe kind of, I think, exceeded that process.

Q. How would you compare the challenges you've had this year to past challenges?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, this past year and a half, I mean, it's been the most difficult thing in my career. I kind of look back at when we were struggling at Champ Car, and you know, it was one of those things that I knew that when I was at RuSPORT I wasn't getting treated fairly and I needed to go somewhere else to really show what I could do. I thought that was a difficult time in my life.
But that kind of makes me laugh now compared to what I've had to go through here. I've always said what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I think people have seen the character that I've shown and everything and all the struggles that I've went through, and even getting taken out of the car this year and being at the track every weekend and being right there to show just how bad I want to do this, that I know I have the talent to go out there and win and run up front every weekend; it just takes the right situation, and I think people are starting to see that.
You know, I think in the end, it's -- of course you'd like to go out there and be on the best team and go out there and win right away, but to have to go through this just means that much more to when you start running good. You know, I'm never going to give up; that's one thing you'll never see out of me is me giving up. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with having to fight.

Q. Do you see your learning curves kind of shrinking toward the end of the season after this season? Or do you see the learning curves are there forever?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: I think you're always learning to a certain extent, but you know, it's definitely shrinking each weekend. You know, at first it was just trying to get the race car around the racetrack and being comfortable doing that, and I'm definitely comfortable now. You know, the second step was trying to learn how to make these races consistently, and we're just starting to do that. Not saying we're great at it, but if you take out Michigan where it rained, we've been Top 10 the last couple weeks in qualifying, and now we're starting to run up front consistently and learn how to carry it on for 400 or 500 miles.
It's definitely shrinking because I'm definitely a lot more comfortable and feel good in the race car each and every time that I'm in it.

Q. I was just wondering, fuel mileage obviously is a big story on Sunday. Talk our listeners through how does that play into your day, and how frustrating is it to know you're making such great strides on the track on that day and you're progressing along and the race ultimately comes down to something you have very little control over?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, I mean, that's part of racing in general, and that is NASCAR racing because when you're on oval it plays into it a lot more. The last couple weeks, Pocono and Michigan, they're racetracks that always for some reason lean towards fuel mileage, whether it's just the -- the yellow always seems to fall right at the right time where it's a fuel mileage race, and that's just something that you have to live with. It's a part of racing, and heck, five weeks ago I would have killed to just be in that position, to be running up front and be disappointed with a 12th place finish or finish 19th and really just be kind of pissed off about it because we were running so good.
So yeah, in one way it's frustrating, and I know that the last few weeks we could have been Top 5, Top 10, just like Brian was. At Pocono we ran ahead of him the whole race, and at Michigan we started kind of in the back and ran up through the field. So in one way it's frustrating because in another way it feels great because we're making big strides and we're running up front. We've just got to keep doing the same thing every week. As long as you keep putting yourself in that position you're going to have good finishes, so that's what we're doing.

Q. So after Sunday, learning from that, how much of the focus this week is on pit strategy?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, I mean, you just -- you always have a set strategy going into the race, but as soon as that first yellow falls or the yellow falls at a different time, it all changes. You know, you can always go back and say, what if this happened, what if that happened. But you've just got to learn from it. You know, we'll just take it when it comes. But first things first, we're just got to focus on having a good car and running out front again so we can use that strategy and make it work for us this time.

Q. Just want to ask one other question in a more humorous vein. How does a guy that grows up in 49er country become such a Brett Favre fan?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Well, first they trade Joe Montana. That quickly gets you -- I didn't like the 'Niners very well after that happened. What I like watching about Brett Favre is kind of what I take into my racing, I've learned a lot from it, is the passion that he has for the game, and that's kind of the way I am for racing. He wasn't out there to showboat, he wasn't out there for me, me, me, just for that. He went out there just to win, and that's the way I am on the racetrack.
You know, I have a lot of respect for a guy, especially when the team struggled about three years ago when they went 4 and 12, you know, he could go out there and throw ten interceptions in a row, but that 11th pass he was going to go back out there and swing the thing in there again. He just always had confidence and never gave up, whether they were down 35-0 or they were winning 35-0. So I take a lot from that and kind of put that into my life, as well. You're always going to have struggles. It's never going to come easy; that's why I enjoyed watching him.

Q. You truly were disappointed or upset when he retired?
A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Yes, I might have to take a sabbatical from football this year. That was my man. I won't lie; that's my one and only man-crush that I had on somebody. It all has to come to an end sometime, I guess. I just wasn't ready for it.
DENISE MALOOF: A.J., thank you very much for your time today, and best of luck this weekend. Thanks to all of the media who joined us today. We will talk to you again next week.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297