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NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES: BANK OF AMERICA 500October 12, 2007Jeff BurtonRichard ChildressCONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA THE MODERATOR: A come-from-behind victory to win, Richard Childress Racing is building on its owner's lead with the victory tonight, 160 points ahead of the No. 20 team of Job Gibbs Racing, and 180 now ahead of Roush Racing. Jeff, why don't you talk about your run, especially coming behind and also joined by Richard Childress. JEFF BURTON: Obviously real happy with tonight. We broke an engine yesterday, which I can't remember the last time we broke an engine in a Busch car, but we broke an engine. And our guys, we started in the back and our guys did a great job of changing, and not only did we change the engine, but changed the oil lines and whole system and went out cold turkey and obviously everything was good. So real proud of that effort. Any time you start in the back and can win the race, it's really rewarding. This to me is one of the biggest -- here in Darlington, as far as the Busch Series go, the two biggest races we run, a real honor to win here tonight. Tommy Houston was here tonight and that's one of my heroes and just a fun night. THE MODERATOR: RC, you want to talk about the victory and talk about building on that owner point lead in the Busch Series? RICHARD CHILDRESS: Like Jeff said, for the team to come back after having a problem with our engine, and we had some water get in the oil, they changed it; and him starting from the rear -- having to come from the rear actually twice, I was really proud of them. And right there at the end, Junior was coming and that caution gave us time to cool the tires a little and I knew Jeff, when they dropped a green, I knew he was going to be good. Q. About the third restart from the finish, Junior had a run up on your tail and dove up underneath you, and coming up to four, he wiggled and just about took both of you out; did you realize how close he was when he came up behind you? JEFF BURTON: Yeah, I heard him give the gas -- and I didn't give him a lot of room. When he rolled up behind me, it was close enough where it pulled the air off the car and my car kind of turned side ways. I knew it was pretty close. It was amazing how fast the restarts were and he could run wide open all the way through one and two, and almost wide open through three and four. I went wide open through one and two and he was still next to me. I'm like, how did you do that? It was close, but I heard him the throttle. These cars just to make them run good later, you have to be loose to start, and he was too free right there which is why he was good later in the run, but it was a close call. Q. Richard, you saw a number of Chase drivers crash out tonight in a race that really didn't mean anything to them, except that it was a Busch race. Do you have any reservation about letting your guys run in a Busch race in the height of the Chase season? RICHARD CHILDRESS: Not really. These guys are all professionals and they know what they are doing. You could get hurt driving home tonight in your car. I don't have think about it and that's what we all do for a living, and it's just racing, you know. Q. A lot of accidents out there, how close were you to anything, especially having to come from the back? JEFF BURTON: The one where Clint spun getting off four, we were really close to that one. We were just far enough behind to be able to miss it and that was -- that was by far the closest call we had, had to go through the grass, and luckily didn't hit anything. So that was the closest. I don't remember being in another one that we got that was a wreck. It was some close calls but that's one that I remember Q. And what exactly was wrong with the engine yesterday? JEFF BURTON: I'm a driver. I don't know. Water was in the oil. That's never good. RICHARD CHILDRESS: We were thinking he might have had gas leaking and they just replaced it to be safe, so they did the right call. Q. Jeff, earlier this year there was a lot of speculation about when the Busch Series and the Truck Series are so different that not as many people would run. However, I've been listening to people talk, and I'm thinking that maybe you guys love those cars and you're going to miss them so much that it might cause a lot of people to run them. JEFF BURTON: Well, they do drive pretty good compared to the Car of Tomorrow, there's no question. It's going to be interesting to see moving into the future how many people do run the Busch Series. I know that I'm going to. I'm going to pull my schedule back a little bit but I'm definitely going to run. I really think -- there's rumor that kind of the COT program is going to roll over to the Busch Series, too, that's the rumor going around. That will just suck everybody back in. But I think that's good. I think it's good for the sport. I think the Truck drivers in the Busch Series is really good. I mean, there is a limit, you know, and we're pushing that limit right now for sure. I don't know. As long as it's -- like Richard said, and the question earlier; the only negative is the possibility of getting hurt. But, you know, I think it's -- I mean, we didn't run all that great today in the Cup car and we had to come out here tonight and win the Busch race and that does a tremendous amount for me from a confidence standpoint. You know, there's some pluses there that are hard to weigh. Q. Have you been able to pin down what your schedule is next year for your Busch program and who is going to drive? RICHARD CHILDRESS: We're working on it and hopefully going to announce something in a couple weeks. Right now we're going to run two full-time cars for sure and maybe a part-time, maybe three. As an owner I really enjoy the Busch Series. It's a lot of fun and I think we've been able to get -- watching the Cup drivers in it, and watching guys like Kevin Harvick out run him when he was a Busch driver; and Clint Bowyer; it's good to see these guys race against the Cup guys, and that's how you want to pick a driver. And the crews, you see them out there, like the 29 tonight, we have a lot of young guys that come from the Busch Series that we will move up, and most of our Cup teams came from our Busch Series. So the Busch is really a good feeder system for all the Cup teams. Q. Just how important would it be to win the owner's championship, maybe compare that to Kevin's driver championship last year? RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, we've won it once before. Any time you win any kind of a championship, it gives all the guys that work so hard an amount of pride to win, and they set that goal early in the year. And I would just be proud if they would win it, and I would be proud for all of the guys and ladies that pulled it off. Q. Richard, talk about a possibility of a split title with you getting the owner and Carl getting the driver; how does that really kind of all sink in when you both can claim the championship? RICHARD CHILDRESS: Well, I guess it was two or three years ago, we won, when Brian Vickers won the championship and Hendricks, and we won the championship I think it was with Kevin and Johnny Sauder. It was special. We all had a fun time. I think our party was a lot bigger and better than theirs, so we won the party side of it, too. JEFF BURTON: That's important. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much and congratulations. End of FastScripts |
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