Laps Quotations

I can't play soccer, and I'm not a great swimmer. I won't drown, but you won't see me doing laps in a pool.

With those long straights and tight corners, Martinsville is a tough track on the brakes and the motors. It really puts a lot of it on the driver too because it is so mentally exhausting to go run around for 500 laps on those tight turns. We had a good run going in the spring here before we were wrecked, and Kurt has taken the car to victory lane here before. We all know he knows how to run short tracks, so we'll see if he can keep the fenders clean and get a good finish.

Wow, this place is physical. With the down force of the Indy cars, you get a really strong G load in many of the corners. It is almost as much as some of the high-banked ovals we race. But it is different since we turning left and right. But that is why we train so hard off the track. (Meira is a tri-athlete). You need to be in as good shape as possible. Overall, we learned a lot with the car today. We'll be stronger on Saturday and be prepared for the race. Eighty laps is going to be long at a track like this place.

Wow, I don't even know what to say. Those final ten laps were the hardest in my life. The race reminded me a lot of 2002 when I won my second Indianapolis 500 -- to be able to win the first time in a touring car is just an amazing feeling. I'm so fortunate to have had this opportunity and to have been able to compete with three wonderful drivers. We had a great team and a fantastic car. I just consider myself lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

We were trying to kick the bag out of each other. Ryan doesn't believe me when I tell him this, but he is so unbelievably strong. If he had gone as hard as he could have for the last two laps he would have won no question. But when you try and play McCormack's game he's going to lose, because Mark already has 150 finished just like that in his brain.

We were trying to kick the bag out of each other, ... Ryan doesn't believe me when I tell him this, but he is so unbelievably strong. If he had gone as hard as he could have for the last two laps he would have won no question. But when you try and play McCormack's game he's going to lose, because Mark already has 150 finished just like that in his brain.

We ran some good laps on it. We were not able to get back to it. We haven't solved the puzzle.

The pool has been a big help for us. It's a big benefit having a playground for the kids and swim lessons. At swim lessons, the lifeguards helped one girl who was afraid to jump in 5 feet, now she swims laps in 5 feet.

We're happy with it, ... We were really good on long runs, but there were a lot of cautions and wrecks. I was not very good on restarts. I was up to second at one point and fell back to sixth. I got back to fourth and was working on Steve Carlson for third, but we didn't quite have enough laps left to finish the job.

We had a very strong Q3, but we are not running around taking victory laps at this point. The momentum that we built is really paying off.

Seth and I were having good runs in the early going. Unlike Paul, we came through the first lap melee in pretty good shape. I think we ran three or four laps under caution, but then once the race went green, we were able to pick up some track positions.

Since Buzz joined my runs, I too have run more laps - slower and bigger ones than he might otherwise do, but laps just the same.

Most of the time when they do it, it is a situation they know they've got a window that they can get the race in, so if they lose eight or 10 laps in the beginning, it will still start an official race so the fans will not have to come back the next day.

My first laps in the Courage were really satisfying, throughout the three free practice sessions, I bettered my lap times by 2 seconds per session. By doing so, I wasn't too far away from the regular prototype drivers in qualifying.

My first lap in qualifying was the first lap that the car turned today. We had new brake discs and pads, and then they black-flagged it. I had three laps to bed some pads and discs in and try to set a respectable time. I'm very disappointed we couldn't show the teams' and the cars' potential.

Of course I was excited to have that opportunity, ... It was a great experience and opportunity. Probably the one thing that I remember the most from that race is it was late in the event and I was a few laps down and had Dale Earnhardt come up behind me. We raced side-by-side for a few laps, but for someone who was making their first start it was pretty cool.

My goal is to keep the pace up, like I have been this summer, and hope for the best in the end. But I know those last couple laps of the second moto, if I'm out in the lead, the bonus money will probably pop into my head.

Obviously I'm very happy to start the race on the front row. I think I had a good qualifying session and I really pushed hard, especially in the last five laps when Bill Riley was telling me to push harder to avoid ending up in the back. I just kept pushing and pushing and finally got a good lap together. And it was my best. I don't think I could have done any better than that.

Obviously I was trying to get close. But his car's been fantastic, and he didn't make any mistakes ... With about eight or nine laps (left) he completely disappeared (from view). I was hoping he had pitted at that point.

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Nineteen laps to go, running for a million bucks, you're going to do every little trick in the trade and everything you know how to do to try and win the race, ... Mark outsmarted me a little bit on that one. That was a great job. He did a great job.

I would have liked to run a lot more laps today to continue with the good set-up direction we found yesterday, so it's disappointing that the wind was so strong. But at least we've got a good base setting for this circuit now so have a good starting point at the race here in a few weeks. I'm feeling totally at home on the FP1 and around this circuit and have just really enjoyed testing these last four days.

I'm a purist, and I love the sport. I loved the '60s and '70s, when the fans even enjoyed the races where only four cars finished, and they were two laps apart.

I have a lot of confidence in this car, ... The first couple of laps we were a little bit tight, but that's normal with the heavy fuel load at the start. As the fuel burned off, the car kept getting better.

If I only had 10 more laps to drive in my career, I'd want do them at Darlington.

Frustrating, I take the blame for Richmond. I got in over my head a little bit and I messed up my qualifying, something that is pretty simple. I just got down too low and made a driver mental error. And from there we were behind the eight ball. We had a big media day announcing General Mills and with everything else going on I just want to forget about that day all together. Then Dover, I felt really comfortable, we qualified really well, and I felt if we could just get some laps it would be so much experience, and to have that happen on lap 12 is really frustrating.

If a caution comes out late in the race, it's a free-for all. When the caution came out in the '70s, all it did was bring three or four cars together because 10th place was eight or nine laps down.

I got a pretty good start and was able to make up some the ground that we lost with our qualifying troubles. The car was really good all of the way through my stint. Paul did a great job at the end to run down the leader and put the pass on him with two laps to go. Two wins in a row gives us the points lead.

If that wasn't Jeff Burton back there we probably would have had a wreck. His car was a little bit better for the first three or four laps (after a restart) and then we could get going.

He turned in some of the fastest laps in testing last week at Daytona. I could just see by the spring in his step and the way he was talking that his confidence is coming back in a hurry.

When instinct kicks in now, he bolts into high gear and dashes invisible laps for a minute or two before dropping back to my pace.

Today is about guys back in the fab shop and the cars they gave us, ... It's a brand new race car. (It's about) the adjustments Todd (Parrott) and these guys did to get me ready to make two laps today. So, my job really starts tomorrow - getting it ready for the race. I'm looking forward to that. I think we've got a good car for Sunday so it should be fun.

His story was I hit him. I did hit him, but he checked up a little earlier than he had the last four. I don't know whether he was trying to protect the bottom or whatever. It was just a racing deal. I didn't do it on purpose. That's racing. I don't know. I had no intention of hitting him. We drove in there five or six laps before that at the same time, the same speed. Next thing I know, he let off and I hit him. That was the end of that. We'll talk before Classic but I'm not talking to him tonight. I'd be mad too. He has all the right in the world to be mad. I don't blame him a bit for being mad.

He was a disciplinarian, ... Any time you got out of line, any time you fired back or had an attitude, you ran a lot of laps. I think I ran more laps than anyone.

It became evident on the pace lap that something was wrong with the exhaust, ... It had cracked and the muffler started to come off. We pitted early, which put me way back. Needless to say, exhaust fumes were getting to me, as well, so it was a pretty demanding race physically. Then, the fuel pump died with 15 laps to go, so we nursed it around and made it to the end. Our season went well. The GT-1 program gave me a chance to shine within the Trans-Am Series and to entice future sponsorship for next year. The heightened exposure helped and our plan worked.

I thought even going to the back we could get them. We've won a couple like that in the Busch Series, but it's a gamble. You know, everything has to go just right. We probably needed another caution there with about five laps to go.

I think with our track record here at Daytona, with the performance that we've got going for us already this week, I'd like to think that we're one of the favorites. But whether we're the guy to beat or not, we'll find out in the closing laps of the 500.

I think the compound is a little soft. We have a very well-balanced car but we were in the cords on the right-front after 30 laps of practice.

I saw after six laps I was seventh. At this time nobody would have thought I could get the bronze medal. But these are the Olympic Games and we are in Italy so I did my best over the final laps.

Steve and Robert did a good job today. We brought them in for a pit stop just two laps before the yellow, but there was no way to know what was going to happen. Both guys never really put a wheel wrong all race. We have some work to do on the handling, but it was a positive weekend for the Porsche guys.

Testing went really well this week, particularly taking into account the lack of running time in the mornings. I completed a lot of laps as we are focusing mainly on tire testing and reliability work at the moment.

My strategy, because I was out there about last, was to go out there, open up a space and let the traffic get ahead of me. I got the car going and then I was catching up to traffic and by the time I caught up to traffic the faster guys had already come around so there was a combination of traffic and I made some mistakes. It was hard to get some clean laps in.

Matt is always saying that. He has not reason to complain. He started the whole thing by squeezing me in Turn 2 with just 20 laps gone in a 200 -lap race. I just finished it.

I was fading so I don't really have any complaints with the way that he raced me. I passed him two or three times earlier in the day and found another line and worked my way around the outside of him. I was a little surprised that he continually drove it in and kept trying to blast me in the center. I think he probably hit me for four or five laps and the time that he got by me, he really had my wheels off the ground and I couldn't get in the gas and he got inside of me and from there drove on and drove away from me. This is short track racing.

That was probably the best race I've ever seen Robby drive. And hats off to him on that four-tire call with two laps to go (for the green-white-checkered). I was probably going to get two, but he opted for four.

I wasn't expecting to medal. This definitely is not my favorite race. My start is just too slow. I was hoping to get some good laps in, which I did.

Well, we just had a very tough weekend. Our car wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, either. It's hard to take when you run 490 laps and have a flat tire with 10 to go.

We're still trying to find a happy spot with this new chassis, and even though this Pontiac GTO has been very good lately, we definitely keep gaining on it every week. We're pretty pleased right now, but you have to look for even better and that's what we tried to do during our two days of testing at Indy. We experimented with shocks and springs and stuff like that, trying to find something that will help us. At the same time we wanted some laps on this racetrack because even though it will be different when we come back, there are some characteristics that are going to be the same.

The qualifying went from two laps to three laps and then to four laps, stuff like that, hoping I'd mess up one lap and not get it, ... Then, they changed the track, took that hump out of (Turns) 3 and 4. Humpy said, 'I've got you now.' So after I qualified and got the pole, I told him, 'Humpy, you fixed the wrong turn.' And he did.

We know that after Richmond (the 26th race) comes, we've got to be in the top-10 and when we are, we'd better be set on 'kill' to go out there and lead laps and win races.

We had a perfect race and it was unfortunate for the team what happened in the last few laps because we could have had a one-two and we deserved it,

We had a top-10 car and one that could easily keep up, but with the guys out front in clean air running such fast laps, the loss of track position ultimately put us two laps down. Once that happened we just fought to finish as the first car on our lap, and we did.

The Daytona Prototypes keep showing improvement every race. We have led the most laps all season and are a threat to win each race. We have one victory, but the team is hungry for more. Mid-Ohio is a driver's track and we have four good ones, so we are looking for good things next week.

We'll start as many as 200 cars. It's wild and crazy. It is total cars. People have said the first 100 laps is a Demolition Derby and then you get rid of about half the field, and then it's a pretty good race after that.

Winning my first ARCA race is my biggest accomplishment to date. We came from two laps down to win. I've been racing since I was 12 years old. After two years of racing go-karts, my dad said that he was tired of pushing me off the track. So, we moved up to Sportsman and Hobby Stocks and progressed from there. Then I took the next step and started driving Late Models. From ASA, I grew and started racing touring series. After that we did two ARCA races. Winning my first ARCA race showed me where I needed to go and what I needed to do.

With about 40 laps to go, it's time to race and time to get after it and that's what I was doing. If I did something and aggravated Stewart, well, I'm sorry.

With about 30 laps to go my team told me to come in. We knew we might be the only one. We knew we had a pretty good truck.

We've been running in the top 10 now, and that was our goal; just get solid runs. I think Richard's goal in sending me out here was to get laps and learn how to drive a heavy race car.

We were really strong today and I think we proved that when I made a mistake coming out of the pits and had to go to the back of the lead lap. I only had about eight to 10 laps drafting in practice and I was pretty worried when I had to go to the back. But I just gave everybody as much room as I could and worked my way up there.

We had a difficult morning with the track conditions and then we had some delays with my car. The day was very promising, especially with the new car and in general, the testing we got through was good. Tomorrow I hope to put in even more laps to gain a feeling for the new package and to be able to make a better judgement.

We had a 14th- or 15th- place car at best, and then we lost two laps when we cut that tire. But all the Hendrick cars were off.

With caffeinated beer, you can be wicked drunk and stay awake. It can be the middle of the night and I'll want to run laps around campus naked.

When you get caught in lap traffic and you lose 20 car lengths and there are five laps to go, it's not realistic after you've already reeled him in once.

We had somewhat of a tough race. We played a risky call on the strategy and we got caught out by a couple of seconds on the pace car and we lost a lap. Max did a great job and got the lap back. Unfortunately, we needed a yellow and it came two laps too late. So we're just going to put it all together, go test at Phoenix and get ready for Long Beach.

We had some really promising runs with the car this morning, which was encouraging, as I believe we ended up just over one second behind the quickest time of the day. In the end, we did about 60 laps -- which is very close to a race distance -- without any problems.

There is no reason in this world this tire made it. It should have blown five laps ago. I knew it was going to be bad. Ten laps into the race, I could feel it. I just slowed down and kept her straight and didn't spin the tires.

We had a great car and I was able to make passes pretty much anywhere around the track. I got a couple guys right off the bat but the car was so good that I was able to make up ground through the infield section as well as the oval. I was making easy laps and it looked good.

Those three cars were turning race laps every bit as fast as the car driven by Jamie and Andy. The fact they finished much lower is not related to the performance of their cars or driver abilities.

Tony's the kind of guy who can just show up on race weekend, run four laps and he's ready - his first lap is perfect and on pace.

Tony Stewart is tough here. He's probably got more laps than anybody here in IndyCar testing and I.R.L. and stuff like that. It's a fun place to drive. Tony has done well here. We look forward to beating him, too.

We had the right package today. But not having a shot at the victory after starting from the pole and leading a number of laps is disappointing. I thought this was the race we were going to win for our soldiers, who are protecting our freedom here and abroad. We'll get that victory for our troops and I have a gut feeling it's going to happen soon. But for now, we'll take the eighth-place result and go on to the next race.

We had the best car, without a doubt. We were able to take the lead and just throttle back. But when the right front went down, the day started to unravel. We led the most laps, even with the problem we had. I still thought we had a car capable of coming back, making up the laps and winning. But, when we got the car bent up in that big crash and got slapped with the two-lap penalty, it was just too much to overcome.

We had sheer determination and drive to fix the 07 front and back. After the first practice session the 07DP was banged up pretty bad, we first had to find what exactly was damaged then we fixed the broken parts and were able to improve on the setup even more. Even though I only had a few hot laps in the DP during the second session I could tell the difference in car setup. They could not have gotten it any better in those 45minutes.

Even though we started quite late today, we have still been able to do many laps this afternoon and have seen some good results. I hope that my input helps the team continue this development and progress further when we have the new car available next week.

Billings was looking real good for us. We were going to pick up a win and ended up cutting a tire while leading the race with a couple of laps to go. It just kind of set the tone for our whole trip out here. We struggled at Elma and coming here tonight, getting a top three is good, but really we were looking for more than that.

Everybody did a good job. I think if it goes like that for the 500 it'll be OK. I'm telling you no matter what anybody says or tries to say or mandate, those last laps of the Daytona 500 are going to be exciting.

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Fernando was also very productive in the laps he was able to run.

I started the race on the tires that I qualified on, everyone else was on stickers. I ran them pretty hard early on and then wanted to cool them down. I think stickers at the start would have been a better call. I got caught in traffic and that put me to second for a few laps before I could get back by. Once I got by and was in clean air and had clear track I could focus on consistent lap times.

It would have been a different race if we could have pitted for tires with 16 laps to go, but that just didn't happen,

The team has been working so good on the road courses this year. The whole weekend really clicked for us. I thought it was a really good race. We made the passes when we needed to -- and we had the power and the handling to do it. We had a really good car and the whole team did a great job. I was confident we could hold them off before the yellow, but wasn't sure about the re-start. We got a great start, though, and ran some really strong laps at the end.

I've led so many laps before, but it took me six years to understand that it's the last one that counts.

So much calmer, from what I saw in the first race and saw in my mirror in the second race. But you're still going to see crashes, especially near the closing laps of any race.

Running both series helped me in a bunch of ways. The first thing is I just got to race more. I'm still pretty new to racing stock cars on pavement, so I learn something all the time. The other thing is that it's just fun. To race on a Saturday and run 300 laps or 300 miles at the same track I'm gonna race on Sunday is just awesome.

Probably two more corners and we would have got him. We had the fastest car all day. We stuck to our strategy. We only got six laps of practice, and we didn't have a good fuel mileage number.

Ours is a life of constant reruns. We're always circling back to where we'd we started, then starting all over again. Even if we don't run extra laps that day, we surely will come back for more of the same another day soon.

Now it's easier. Before you couldn't really hike up there with a camera guy and a video guy because it was just too much work, so if we can run laps through that area, then maybe we can get some good footage.

Daytona and Talladega are two different animals. When it comes to speed they are basically the same. When you're working on qualifying, it doesn't matter, if you're finding speed at Talladega, you're finding speed at Daytona. When we get into drafting practice and we get into handling and stuff like that then they are two different tracks. That's where you hear a lot of guys say they bring different types of cars to Daytona then they do to Talladega because once you get 30 laps into a run, the car definitely handles differently at Talladega than what it does at Daytona.

As far as the to-do list is concerned, it's the No. 1 thing. The last two years, I've led enough laps to win the whole race outright.

That should help. In 250 laps I can learn where to pass, where to get runs, just learn how to pass.

You see it every week. Guys are staying out (on cautions) and leading laps and stuff, trying to get all the points you can if you're in the Chase or not. I've noticed it every week, and it will all add up at the end.

They tell me it's my imagination and that there was nothing wrong with (the tires), so I decided to run a couple of laps and I should have trusted my first instinct and pitted.

You can't make a grave move with 60 laps to go. It's a lack of patience, ... If a guy is not in the points, he doesn't have to take your points away. He went from hero to zero -- to be in the pole position and then to make a move like he did.

There weren't enough cautions to get the damage fixed early in the race. By the time we got the car working better, it was late in the race and we were already two laps down. It's a shame what has happened to us the past two weeks. But we'll bounce back. We've been through these bad streaks before.

This is what we need to do. It's championship form right here. We wanted to win, but we came here and led a lot of laps and ran real strong and finished second. It just goes to show how solid this race team is.

As more laps are put on the track, the conditions will change. But we've learned a lot. The reason we are here is to gather information so we can decide which direction to go. Everything we did yesterday and everything we do today is to gather data so we can go back and build the best tire.

It's easier at the beginning of the race because the tires are fresh and I still have a lot of energy, as well. The last 10 laps slowed down because I took it easy if someone wasn't willing to let me pass.

It's a shame we haven't had more time to test the new bike - in the end I only managed four laps with it. That's why it seems a little early for me to comment on its performance, but it is clear that Honda are making a big effort.

It was good fun. At the beginning of the race, I was saving a little more fuel than both of them, hoping that maybe towards the end and on the third stop there was going to be a yellow on that three-, four-lap difference, then it would have been golden, two laps ahead of everybody. It would have been nice. It was a good race, and I'm very happy for the team. 1-2 again. For the championship, I don't know exactly how the points are, but obviously I must be a little better, a little more solid in second place. It's a good weekend thanks to my PacifiCare team

It was difficult. There were laps where we certainly had to breathe and back all the way out of the throttle.