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Mark Martin Wins Nextel All-Star Challenge


May 2005
 Filed under: GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATE Car News | GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATE Headlines

MARK MARTIN, PAT TRYSON and JACK ROUSH press conference

May 22, 2005 -- PAT TRYSON – “It was good from the start, and Mark did a great job, won the first segment and fortunately for us they only inverted six so we were able to keep some decent track position. He did the rest. He was awesome all night.”
JACK ROUSH – “The first thing I’d say, there’s a crack in the armor here. I don’t hold out much hope that Mark would re-consider his retirement plans, but at least if we can get one more race out of home in 2006 that’ll be better than nothing. I am so proud of this team and what we were able to do tonight with all the people who have worked so hard for so long to make this possible, I just don’t know where to start. Pat has been the heartbeat of this team. The pit stops are great with Wayne, what he’s doing over there leading that group. I got a little news just about the checkered flag fell, it turns out that this is a car that Pat had some history with that we built for the Wood Brothers whenever we were working closely with them, and we traded them out of that car and got the car back, so it’s a car with a lot of history that’s been in and out of both teams. Doug and Robert Yates are central to our engine program. We’ve got great power and that helped make it possible. But Mark Martin is the man. He’s the cornerstone of Roush Racing. When I was finally able to get to him – I love Mark Martin. He’s been the center of my racing life and it means so much to be here with him one more time. Three years ago, when I was recovering from my airplane wreck, I was home, but I wasn’t able to move around yet and I watched him win the 600 here three years ago in 2002. He was unconscious that night as he was tonight. Pat Tryson had the wisdom and the fortitude to put him on four tires. Thankfully, my credit’s still good with Goodyear so we could afford four tires over two, and if you give Mark martin four tires you give him a chance to be out front at Charlotte, it’s just about over.”

MARK MARTIN – “The reaction of the fans, is number one. And part of that reaction was seeing the paint on that race car. So the Salute to You tour is about the fans. Their reaction to this win is number one. It is the thing that I’ll remember as long as I live. Second of all, I want to thank Viagra and all our sponsors for allowing us to get a little glimpse of old school. That car ran like it did in ’93 and it really means a lot. The other thing, next in line, is the look on the face of each and every guy who made that happen, the guys who do the work. I wish I could capture that and hold onto that and visit it every day. The best that we can do is photographs, and we’ll do the best we can with that. That’s really special. Then comes the trophy. It’s really special. This is how I want to do it. We did this by racing smart with a great race car tonight. Certainly don’t feel like it was anything more than coming to the race track with a great race car and great execution by a team that I’m honored to drive for.”

HOW HARD WERE YOU DRIVING THOSE FINAL LAPS? IT LOOKED LIKE ELLIOTT SADLER WAS CATCHING YOU. “I was driving as hard as I could and not mess up. And every single lap tat I would check up into the comfort zone, he would gain on me. Then the next lap I would step outside the comfort zone and either stop him gaining or pull away. I didn’t want to put together 15 laps outside the comfort zone, even though you can, I probably ran nine of the 15 out there right on the edge.”

JACK SAID THAT HE DOESN’T HOLD OUT HOPE THAT YOU WON’T RETIRE. DO YOU EVER HAVE ANY SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT RETIREMENT? ANY MORE RACES NEXT YEAR? “I only see the Bud Shootout and the All-Star race. That’s all I really see at this time. I don’t see how it would be possible to race a limited schedule on the level that I want to race on. It’s just not possible to do that, so I’ve already said I can’t sign up for another one of these. I don’t know that I’ve ever completely explained to Jack why I’ve made this decision, because I know that he regrets it so much, but there are so many things that play into that decision and I’m excited about 2006, and I’m not regretting my decision at all. This just makes it even better. And we’re not done yet. Pat Tryson and this team, they want to deliver another miracle. This was a miracle tonight, and they want to deliver another one – that being a championship. We’ve been in the top 10 in every race but one this year, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. If we’re going to come back here with fire in our eyes at the 600, and, man, we go from here to Dover, there to Pocono, and then from there to Michigan, we could get on a roll here. These are race tracks where we are strong. We’ve gone through a number of race tracks where we’re not nearly as strong. I’m excited about what’s coming up in front of us. We do have challenges in front of us. This business is not easy, and I have had to reach – last year I had to reach deeper than I’ve ever reached in my life to contend for that championship, and I thought there ws no way to find any more and I’ve had to reach even deeper this year and find some more. And that’s the real reason why I can’t do it again next year. There’s no possible way I could step it up another notch from 2005.”

PAT TRYSON -- ON THE LAST PIT STOP, WHEN MARK GOT OUT QUICKER THAN ANYBODY ELSE. “It’s all the pit-crew guys. They’ve been working real hard and doing a great job, and there was never a question, I never even thought about two, I was going four all the way and what everybody else did was what they did. We were going to live and die with four and the pit crew did an awesome job right there.”

MARK MARTIN – “It never crossed my mind, either, to do two. I felt like it was the right decision and then out on the race tack I knew it was the right decision, because there we were right on top of those guys who had gotten two. So, great pit stop, great team effort, it’s honor and a privilege to drive for these guys. I went to each and every one of them at the latter part of the season last year and asked them to stay together and give me one last shot at this thing, and that’s what they’ve done. And that’s a little treat tonight. Hopefully, there’s many more to come.”

ON THIS SEASON. “This is exactly the kind of season I had hoped and dreamed for. Not only has the Cup thing been very, very stellar, aside from some bad luck, but we’ve won a couple of Busch races, and we’ve won an IROC race and we’re leading the points in that thing, too, and we broke a record at Daytona when we won down there and if we’re lucky we might not be done yet. This is what I was looking for, but as you know, most of what I’ve looked for in this business I haven’t gotten, I’ve only gotten part of. It’s an honor and a privilege to drive for these guys, and my biggest fear would be to have less of a team or less of a car to work with, but thanks to Pat and thanks to Jack Roush, here we are.”

YOU SAID EARLIER THIS IS YOUR FAVORITE RACE TRACK. “Lowe’s Motor Speedway is without a doubt, in my mind, it’s only my opinion, the greatest race track in the world. There’s nothing else close. And I still like it even though they ground it. It still is. I wish they wouldn’t have, but here we are. And all I can hope for is that we can continue, we can come back for the 600 and Pat can put a setup under my car that will work and give me the latitude to move around on the race track like I did tonight. Top or bottom, either one.”

COMPLIMENTS BRUTON SMITH. “I have some of the most respect for you that I have for anybody in racing. You guys have done so much for motorsports since I met Humpy Wheeler in 1981, and seeing all the things that you guys have done and what Humpy has done, and what you’ve done at all the other speedways is pretty incredible, and you should get a lot more credit than you get for the things you’ve done for the sport. Thank you.”

AT DAYTONA YOU WERE ASKED HOW EMOTIONAL YOU WERE GOING TO THE 500 FOR THE LAST TIME AND YOU SAID ASK THAT QUESTION WHEN I GET TO CHARLOTTE. WE’RE AT CHARLOTTE. “That’s a scary question. Obviously, it’s not emotional right now because I’m nowhere near done here. This was something that is very important to me and very important to my fans and to my sponsors and to my team. If I had to look out on the grandstands before the race started and think that I would never drive again here, I would cry, like a baby. But that’s not the case yet. So, we don’t have to worry about it yet.”

EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT THIS RACE BEING FUN, BUT IT IS EMOTIONAL, TOO. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL PART OF THIS RACE? “It’s real fun for me tonight, but the last several years it hadn’t any fun at all. It’s incredibly frustrating when your expectations are higher than your results. Whether it is that you wish you could be up there contending, or that you got wrecked and didn’t get a chance or whatever it might be, it was fun. It felt like it was supposed to feel tonight, for me, because we were never further back than fourth at any time in the race, so our car was spectacular and we were fortunate enough that the wreck didn’t start in front of us. We had one of the more dominant cars. The 38 was pretty incredible, but we had a car, as usual, that had legs, it seemed to run longer, better then it would take off. It’s a high-intensity race, it pays a million bucks. There’s not many races that pay that, and it happens quick. And there’s nothing to lose in it. That’s still no excuse for not racing like a sportsman. All I said when they had that big wreck was they had that too soon, because now they didn’t have a chance. They shouldn’t have done that, yet.”

JACK ROUSH – HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO SEE MARK WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP? “You’re going to get me started. Mark knows where I’m going to go. If I had been better connected, if I had been wiser, if I had done a better job, he’d have had two or three championships right now. The fact he doesn’t have those is my fault. I bear the responsibility for it. And that’ll be diminished some if we can save this year. I felt like we saved last year. He was on a good run, and we broke a transmission at the wrong time and had some other trouble and we were able to dig our way out from that, based on the fact that he reached down and got something that maybe he didn’t want to reach down and get last year, but we needed it and I appreciate it. But if we can go save this thing and he can win a championship I’ll be some relieved. The commitment that Mark made to me and to Roush Racing was huge. I was not established. There was lot that I didn’t know. I was late middle age when I started. He had a real handicap. He hung with me and kept the faith and he helped me, and I helped him some too, but not as much as he helped me. It’s been great, but I owe Mark more than he owes me.”

MARK MARTIN – “One of the things that doesn’t get mentioned all the time is the Roush/Yates horsepower is incredible. It’s so good sometimes we just take it for granted. That was very important in this win. We couldn’t have run like we ran tonight had we not had the kind of commitment that it takes to not only do the engines for the 6 car, but the engines for all the Roush cars and the Yates cars and the Busch cars we drive and the trucks and everything else. It’s an incredible operation. Doug Yates’ commitment to it is unbelievable as well as Jack Roush riding along there, trying to make sure everything is done so that we have great reliability on top of the great horsepower, which we have right now. It’s awesome. A tip of the hat to those guys.”

ELLIOTT SAID THAT THE CONTACT HE MADE WITH YOU ON THE RE-START WAS A FACTOR. DID YOU FEEL THAT IT WAS THAT SOLID A LICK? “I’m trying to remember. Was he on the outside or inside? I don’t know. With 20 to go? He probably feels like it might have pushed his right-front fender in and that’s a real sweet spot in these cars, and you have to think about that. You have to drive these cars today, you just can’t touch anything with that right-front fender. Sometimes you get lucky and it doesn’t hurt, but it killed us, it killed us, at Texas. We were running 10th and I hit the wall coming off the corner, not very hard and it pushed it in and I went right to dead last in the lead lap, 20th.”

BUT IT DIDN’T BOTHER YOU TONIGHT? “No. We just barely touched. But it’s a tender area and it may have been a factor for him”

ELLIOTT SADLER press conference – “No, it wasn’t the two-tire stop. When Mark and I got together on the re-start, it knocked my right-front fender way in and I just knew I was too tight. The time I tried to run down Jimmie and get around him it was tough to run Mark. Mark had a good race car. I didn’t think I’d be sitting here tonight being so sad finishing second. It’s just that’s by far the best race car I’ve had in my seven years of racing. It was a lot of fun to drive. Just wish I could be out there on the start/finish line right now.”

EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT THIS RACE BEING SO FUN, BUT THIS ONE SEEMED TO BE VERY EMOTIONAL. “It’s not an ordinary race. You don’t win a Nextel Cup race every weekend to be able to get in this race. I mean that’s how you have to get into it, or a champion, and there’s so much emotion for it in it. You’re running the best against the best, it’s a shootout, it’s not like different pit strategies or problems during a 500-mile race are going to set you back. Tonight, Mark was the better man. He drove that car good, he drove it hard, and you could tell he was very, very hungry, and I think that’s why the emotions are so bad, because you put your heart, your blood, your sweat and your tears, and that 20-lap shootout we just had, and everything is on the line, and it’s not every day you get to win for a million bucks. That’s a lot of adrenalin rush and there’s no points, so you drive hard. Whatever happens, happens. It’s a fun race but we do pour a lot of emotion into it because it is the best against the best.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW YOU AND MARK GOT TOGETHER ON THAT RE-START? “I think we both knew whoever got to turn one on the outside first ws going to win the race or have the best chance of winning the race. I was trying to crowd him up and he was trying to crowd me down, and we just got together. It was just good, hard racing. No bad stuff intended. It’s just we knew you had to be on the outside going into to turn one to come off turn two to get the lead, and he got me a little early and kind of showed me that, so I knew that going in. I tried to get a really good start, and he was pinching me down, and I didn’t want to give up my real estate. We got together a little bit and it slowed me down and I lost a little bit more momentum than he did and we fell back to third. It’s just good hard racing. We knew you had to be on the outside lane getting into turn one and two, it was just good hard racing. Again, 19 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, and Mark outsmarted me a little bit on that one. That was a great job. He did a great job.”

ON THE THINKING BEHIND THE TWO-TIRE STOP. “We watched the Open, and we watched theguys that stayed out and didn’t have tires, like the 77, the 0. We were watching and those guys stayed out, track position was so important. We figured some guys were going to get four tires for just 20 laps to go because if you get out front and stay on the high groove it would be hard to pass. So before we buckled in the car tonight we were going to get two tires no matter what. The only thing we were going to decide was if we were going to put fuel in it or not. If we wanted to put fuel or not depends on how loose or tight the car was, so really that was the only thing we had the option of. We were going to get two right-sides, get track position. I let Todd down. I told today, ‘Todd, you get me out front for that last 20 laps and I’ll win this race,’ and he held up his end of the bargain and I didn’t hold up my end, but he forgave me after the race, and we feel really good about coming back here for the 600 and maybe I’ll make it up to the guys then.”

ARE YOU USING THE SAME CAR NEXT WEEK? “We did learn a few things this weekend that’ll carry over to next weekend. That was not going to be my 600 car. Actually, we think we got one better. But it ran so good tonight, how can you bet against it? It didn’t matter, it ran good high, it ran good low, it was really good in traffic. I guess we’re coming back with that one. I’d say we were a top-five car all night long and every little adjustment we made to it affected the car and why not? I think we’ll definitely come back with that car and take our chances with that it because right now we feel really to come back next week.”

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 Pedigree/M&M’s Taurus (finished 2nd) – “We had an awesome race car. I’m not really sure what happened on the start if I came up or Mark came down or whatever and I think I knocked my right-front fender in and I was a little tight from then on after. Awesome race car. I’m very disappointed. I think we had the class of the field tonight. My guys worked their butts off. Awesome race car. Awesome motor. Best motor I’ve ever had in my life in Nextel Cup racing. That was a lot of fun to drive tonight. To come in second, I think everybody knew we were here. I think we’re going to have something for the 600 when we come back.”

DID YOU LEARN SOMETHING WITH THAT TWO-TIRE STOP NEAR THE END? “Yeah, we did, and we’ll keep that in the back of our notes for next week. We just wanted to see what that would do. I know track position is very important here. I tell you, I enjoyed racing Mark. That was a cool paint scheme he had. We raced each other hard. I knew he wanted it in this his last All-Star race, and I wanted to get my first one. So, it was just two guys just racing as hard as we can, But I congratulate them and their whole team. But my guys brought me an awesome race car. I can’t ask for anything better. They gave me the tools to win with, I just let them down tonight.”

KURT BUSCH – No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools Taurus (finished 7th) – “I’m just so excited for Mark Martin. I’m beyond words for how cool this is and what it means to me watching him, growing up, watching him race race cars, them having him as a teammate. I was having a gas watching Mark Martin race. That’s pretty much it. Our Fords were great. I can’t say anymore. I’m just so happy about Mark.”

ON STARTING THIRD IN THE SECOND SEGMENT. “We fought a real loose race car all through practice, and once we got into the race we were extremely tight, so we had to undo everything we had changed. That last run I thought we were going to be great, and then the car got tighter. We just missed it, but I was having so much watching Mark.”

ON HIS CAR. “We were just aggressive on our setup. This new track is definitely different, it’s more like Texas than it is like Charlotte now, so we’ve got to revert back to some of those notes.”

WHEN DID YOU REALIZE THAT MARK HAD A CHANCE TO WIN, AND WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT THAT IN THE CAR? “I saw the 38 take two tires and the 24 take two tires, and I’m like, ‘The 6 car’s got it in the bag.’ Because I thought we were close enough to hang with him and maybe give him a run, but I was just so happy watching Mark race. That was phenomenal. I’m going to go to Victory Lane as soon as I can to see him.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Charter/National Guard Taurus (finished 14th) – “The 38 knocked our left-front fender in down in the middle of three and four, I don’t know what he was doing. Knocked the fender in and we’re all done for the night.”

DID YOU GET A GOOD FEEL FOR THE RACE TRACK FOR NEXT WEEK? “Oh, yeah. We got a pretty good idea. We’ve got to figure out what happened from testing and qualifying to now. Our car totally did some different from what it’s been doing, and got real tight. Obviously, it was hard on that right-front tire and we blew a right-front tire just one lap before the break. They only pay the winner here, so there was no sense in putting ourselves in jeopardy, or the race car, so we’ll just go back and work on our stuff and come back for the 600.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts/Miracle-Gro Taurus (finished 15th) – “I thought we had a right-front coming apart so I came in for a stop. We looked at the points and the money and this is a good car and we want to take it to the 600 next week. There’s no point in stinking up the show out there.”

WERE YOU CLOSE TO MISSING THAT FIRST WRECK? “No. I was trying to get slowed down and the guys behind me couldn’t get slowed down and bumped me a little bit. But, the Scotts Ford did pretty good there. Didn’t damage it too bad, but just enough it just won’t go. Terrible tight. We got two laps down there. We got a good car here for the 600. Right now it’s not damaged that bad. We just felt that it was best to save it up for next week.”

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