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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: TOYOTA - SAVE MART 350

June 26, 2016

Sonoma, California

THE MODERATOR: We have car owner Gene Haas with us. He's car owner with the No.14 Code 3 Associates Mobil 1 Chevrolet at Stewart‑Haas Racing, and Gene, congratulations. I know you've had a lot of wins in your storied racing career, but this has to be one that ranks right up there with Tony Stewart, winning here at Sonoma. Talk about the thrill of this victory here today.
GENE HAAS: Well, you know, I think when that last caution came out, I know that pit strategy was to come in a few laps earlier because there's always a caution somewhere in the last 20 or 30 laps. They were saying, well‑‑ I think he was ranked 22nd at the time, and it was like, well, we're not going to do anything back here, so it was‑‑ when I heard them discussing that strategy, it was kind of like Tony was saying, well, what do we got to lose here. Might as well go for it. So they said, okay, we'll pit this lap, and I think that was with like 25 laps to go.
So they came in, they got tires, and then immediately I think within a lap, the caution came out. So that left‑‑ Tony was going to be up front when everybody else came in to get their tires, and his tires only had like two laps on them. Those are the kind of strategies that you just can't make happen. You just have to be lucky. So the luck was on our side today, and that put Tony out front. Once the caution was over, I think we restarted with‑‑ around 22 laps to go. 22 laps is a long time here at Sonoma. We know that. The tires wear out after about 10 laps, you're off a second and a half on the laps. So anything can happen.
Watching the restart, Tony got away. He was getting a little bit of a lead there. But right behind him was the 78 car, and behind him was the 11 and the 18 and so on and so forth. You know the cars in back are going to try to catch Tony, so what they ended up doing was they ended up overdriving a little bit because that's what you have to do. So you wind up burning up your tires a little bit, and I think Tony knows that so he's going to drive as hard as he can do to that. So a little bit of strategy there I think on Tony's part to know he has to maintain that lead and also make the competitors behind him use up their tires trying to catch him. If you watch him carefully, you could see how he goes into the turns, kind of gives them a little bit of room and then moves out in front of them and basically makes them use up their tires, and that really worked well.
Then he started to pull ahead. With about 10 laps to go, I started thinking that now everybody's tires are dropping off, the drivers behind him, their tires are a little bit used up, so now he has a better chance of pulling ahead.
But like anything else, his tires were like three laps older, so here we come, we're getting down to the last five laps or so, then they start to catch him. So now all of a sudden the worry goes to how much better are their tires than Tony's tires.
I think as you saw the race unwind, Tony basically, he was running out of tires. Denny Hamlin was a little bit better. Martin Truex had burned up his tires. And I think obviously Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart are great drivers. They drove it hard in the last few turns, and Denny Hamlin came out ahead, but in true Tony Stewart fashion, he‑‑ you just know when he came into Turn 11 he wasn't going to use his brakes. Whatever was in front of him was going to either get punted off the track or run over or whatever. That was going to be his bumper stop.
But actually when you watched it, he did a great masterful job. He slid around, got on the inside. I think Denny overdrove it, a little bit of a mistake, and the result was that Tony won the race, which I think was an incredibly exciting race, and I think everybody at Stewart‑Haas Racing is very proud of him. We have to thank that winning strategy of bringing Tony in with like 25 laps to go. That was probably the key today.
THE MODERATOR: Let's hear from our winning crew chief, and that's Mike Bugarewicz. Congratulations ‑‑
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: Thank you. I appreciate it.
THE MODERATOR: ‑‑ on this win today. Maybe just talk about what Gene alluded to, to win a race like this sometimes you have to make some decisions, some gut decisions. Talk about your decision there as Gene mentioned to come in and pit a little earlier than everybody else, and then as the laps were going, what was racing through your mind before the final lap there?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: Yeah, I mean, early in the race, we were running fairly well, and basically pitting according to the strategy we laid out the night before. We kind of lost some track position there on pit road, and it's tough to pass. People get strung out and it makes it difficult. As we were running there I noticed we weren't passing people. We were still going to be a lap short on fuel unless we saved, which we had that in our plan, but at the end of the day we weren't going to have an opportunity to win just doing what everybody else did, so we had to take a chance here and pit early in hopes that we would get a caution, and we heard NASCAR talking about the debris a little bit, so you know, at that point it's about winning this year, especially for us in the situation we're in. We had to take a chance, and it could have worked out not in favor of us, and we could have lost points today. But instead it worked out, and I'm thankful for that.

Q. Did you have an opportunity to ask him if he's having fun now, because it has not been a lot of fun for Tony the last couple years. If both of you can kind of address that; how do you make it fun for him for the remaining time that he has left, because clearly it's not as fun as it once was for Stewart.
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: I did not remember to ask him that, I just assumed by the look of his face that he was enjoying it. One thing I will say, no matter what, every week, it's the last thing I say to him before I leave the car and he actually reminded me of that today. He said, If I get angry and start yelling at you today, just remind me to have fun. I said, yeah, I know how that'll work out for me. But no, we always talk about that. What's most important for all of us is just enjoy it, take it in. You have to do that.
GENE HAAS: Well, you know, racing is a tough sport. 39 of the competitors go home losers. We're on that side most of the time, so we all know what it's like to, okay, you just kind of hang your head, you pack up your equipment and you head home. I think every racer realizes that's just part of the sport, and most of us that's what we do every weekend is we go home losers.
Once in a blue moon when you do win a race, it's phenomenal. Like I can't remember the last time we won here, but it just happens so seldom. When it does happen, it's very addictive. It makes you feel renewed, and I know from Tony's standpoint, I'm sure this is a great motivator. Tony knows when he gets out in front that he has the ability to compete with anybody. He's one of the greatest racers in NASCAR of all time. He's smooth. He doesn't make mistakes. He's fast. You haven't seen that in a few years, and I'm sure that that grates on him. But this is just a vindication that he has a natural talent, and that talent is something that is still there. You can see it. And I think he feels great, and I hope this day lasts for the rest of the year.

Q. Gene, what does it mean now that Stewart pretty much has a chance to win the title in his final season? And no matter what happens after today, what do you think this win means for his final season?
GENE HAAS: You know, this is a big win. I guess I compare it to Jeff Gordon when he won a race and got into the Chase. I think it's great for the sport. It's great for the fans. It brings excitement to the sport. I can't think of any negatives whatsoever.
Last year we lost this championship by half a second, and that was a very, very difficult pill to swallow. I think if we could have three cars in the Chase now, that would be phenomenal, and we will do everything we can to correct the errors of last year.

Q. About the timing of the pit stop, did you know there was already debris? Did you figure out that they were going to call the caution, or was it just by luck that it happened when it did?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: We heard them talking about it, but we didn't know for sure if they'd throw it or not. Kind of just assumed with a rag laying on the track earlier and they threw a caution, I figured, well, if there's anything similar to a rag or larger, they're going to throw the caution again. Again, it was just a chance that we took, a chance to get a win. Running 17th, finishing 17th wasn't really going to do us much good, so we had to try something.

Q. How often does gambling pay off, and how sure were you that it was going to actually work out today?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: Not sure at all. Again, I think almost every race that's won here basically on a strategy deal is just a lucky call by anybody. You know, if it's 10‑lap shootout and everybody has tires, then the best guy earns it. But when it comes down to something like what happened today, I just was fortunate.

Q. Mike, Tony kind of has a reputation of a guy that's really hard to pass, especially in a crucial situation. Were you surprised at all when he got passed in Turn 7 and what do you think was running through his mind after that happened?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: No. I mean, I actually was surprised how long he kept the gap to the 11 and the 78 car. They were very, very competitive cars today, and track position for us I think helped our car a little bit, and then of course having a three‑time champion who knew he had an opportunity today is a big thing. At the end of the day, we only won because of his desire and his drive and his want. I truly believe that with these competitors and how good all the cars are and these top‑tier drivers, that's all it is. It's a matter of who wants it more at the end of the day in most cases. Today Tony wanted it more.

Q. Mike, can you walk us through that last lap and kind of maybe tell us what Tony was telling you over the radio or if you were verbal over the radio, especially that last lap?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: I stayed pretty quiet. The spotter was keeping in touch with him. He didn't say much, either. In those situations I just like to let him concentrate and let him do his thing. He's got a lot going on, especially at a place like this, so we just let him focus.

Q. When you did bring him in, I heard y'all on the radio, you were talking about don't tell him until he gets to 5. What was the strategy of that? You said half a lap earlier that you were thinking about bringing him in, but why wait so long until he got right there to the end to make that decision?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: Just because I didn't know how many other people were listening to NASCAR at the time to see if they were hearing that they were talking about debris or not, so I kind of didn't want to give anybody an extra couple seconds to think about pitting with us or anything. So I wanted to wait until we were going down the esses there to let him know that we needed to come.

Q. Can you just talk about what this means to win your first Cup race as a crew chief, to have that opportunity, because you worked as a team engineer and such, and this was no small task, what you were asked to do, first working with a couple of other drivers until Tony could get back, just what this season, how it's unfolded and what it's meant to you to finally get to victory lane?
MIKE BUGAREWICZ: Yeah, in some senses, it really hasn't sunk in about being my first win, but I can't thank Gene, Tony, Greg Zipadelli, Brett Frood, all of them enough for the opportunity. They believed in me. I've only worked at Stewart‑Haas, this is my third year, two years with Kevin as his engineer. Every win is sweet whether I'm a race engineer or crew chief or whatever, it's all great. But yeah that part of it hasn't sunk in yet that it was my first, but our goal from the beginning of the year was to get Tony back in victory lane and I'm just so glad that we could get him there.

Q. Gene, I don't know if you heard Tony's comments from Friday where he said I want to race things that make me happy again. How seriously should we take that, and how happy is he when you normally see him?
GENE HAAS: You know, I think Tony is a really well‑balanced individual. He doesn't seem to get too excited either one way or the other. You know, I'm sure if he could go on, if he could keep winning, he would want to keep racing. But it's hard. It's a hard sport. You have almost 40 races a year, and it takes a toll. I think he's looking to some new adventures. He told me he bought an airplane, a Cirrus airplane, wants to become a little bit of a pilot. I think it opens doors to do other things. Tony likes to do a lot of things, that's for sure. I think we all know that. And whether it's off‑road racing or Sprint Cup racing, he has a lot of hobbies to occupy him.
So I think that even though certainly I hate to see him go from NASCAR, we have a great lineup for next year, and I think Tony is going to be perfectly happy pursuing new adventures.
THE MODERATOR: Mike and Gene, congratulations on this big win, and good luck the rest of the season.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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