Jade Gurss Named Director of Corporate Communications for Andretti Autosport

Andretti Autosport announced today that Jade Gurss has been named the Director of Corporate Communications for the open-wheel racing team.

Gurss was the owner of fingerprint, inc., a sports publicity company, since 1999. Among his clients, he represented Anheuser-Busch for nine innovative seasons as NASCAR publicist for the Budweiser brand and Dale Earnhardt Jr. He has also represented clients such as Kevin Harvick Inc., Petty Enterprises and athletes such as Ricky Carmichael.

The Kansas native has written two New York Times Best Sellers, "Driver #8" with Earnhardt Jr. and "DW!" with Darrell Waltrip. His third book, "In The Red, the 2001 Season with Dale Earnhardt Jr." has just been released by Octane Press. He was also an adjunct professor in the MBA program at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

His two decades of publicity and marketing experience involves nearly every category of motorsports, including representing Mercedes-Benz in North America and directing marketing and communications for Ilmor Engineering (then the engine design and development arm of Mercedes-Benz).

JF THORMANN, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT:
"We are pleased to announce Jade as our new Director of Corporate Communication. We were impressed with his background and with him as a person from our first meeting. He will bring a fresh perspective and a great deal of experience to our communications team."

JADE GURSS, DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT:
"I can't imagine a better scenario than to be joining Andretti Autosport. I've always been very passionate about Indy car racing, and to be back in the sport with the most legendary name in racing, a roster of young, personable and fast drivers and a wide variety of sponsors is an ideal situation with immense potential. I can't wait to get started."

JR Motorsports Tabs Cole Whitt For No. 88 Chevy in 2012

(After a strong year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, former dirt open-wheel standout Cole Whitt has been signed by JR Motorsports to drive the No. 88 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the 2012 season. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

JR Motorsports' flagship team will compete for a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship with one of the sport’s up-and-coming stars, as Cole Whitt has been tabbed to drive the company’s flagship No. 88 Chevrolet in 2012, team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced today.

Whitt, a 20-year-old native of Alpine, Calif., will also compete for Sunoco Rookie-of-the-Year honors. He comes to JR Motorsports from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he finished ninth in last year’s championship standings with one pole, two top-five and 11 top-10 finishes. To date he is the youngest driver ever to win the USAC (United States Auto Club) National Midget championship, as his title-winning effort in 2008 put him alongside esteemed former USAC national champions such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne.

“Cole is the guy we wanted, and we’re lucky to get him,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He’s got raw, untapped talent, but we are most impressed with his ambition. I sought advice and input from people I respect in the industry, and the overwhelming consensus was that Cole has the potential to do great things in this sport.”

The signing of Whitt completes the 2012 driver line-up for JR Motorsports, which will compete in Nationwide Series competition with Whitt in the No. 88 Chevrolet, Danica Patrick in the No. 7 Chevrolet, and Earnhardt Jr. in select races in the No. 5 Chevrolet. All three drivers will compete in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 25.

“This is a big opportunity for me, and I’m happy to be a part of the JR Motorsports team,” said Whitt, who was introduced to employees Wednesday morning. “I’m grateful to Dale, Kelley and everyone at JR Motorsports for giving me this chance. It’s an honor to work with the Eurys, and I will do everything in my power to put this No. 88 team where it belongs in Victory Lane.”

Whitt got his start racing karts and saw immediate success with eight International Karting Federation championships and two World Karting Association grand national championships. He was the Hoosier Sprint Car Rookie of the Year in 2006 and earned 34 top-10 finishes in 60 USAC starts in 2007 before winning the championship in 2008. Whitt advanced to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2010, promptly notching two poles and finishing fourth in points in his first year.

TRANSCRIPT: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Talks to the Media at Atlanta

(NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. signs an autograph for a young fan at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sept. 2 in Hampton, Ga. Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD MILITARY INTELLIGENCE/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Atlanta Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Atlanta, contract extension at Hendrick Motorsports, the Chase and other topics. Full transcript.

TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS WEEKEND’S EVENT.

“Well we’re just going to come in here and try to run as good as we can. We really like racing at Atlanta, it’s a fun race track. We’ll just see how practice goes – see how the car’s driving and see how much work we’re going to have to do to get where we want to be on speed and drivability and go from there. Hopefully it will be a pretty productive weekend for us. It’s not just to help us along in the Chase but we need to improve on performance as a whole. We’re looking to try to do that this weekend.”

CONGRATULATIONS ON SIGNING THE DEAL WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT IT?

“I’m happy that it happened. Me and Rick talked on the phone about probably five months ago. I just told him if we were gonna do another deal that I wanted to start on it now because I didn’t want to talk about it next year and it be any kind of distraction for me, but if he wanted to wait we could wait. He’s the boss and he can do whatever he wants. I just wanted to put that out there and he was ready to go so we just went ahead and shook hands and let Marshal and Kelley handle the heavy lifting. I’m excited about it and happy that I’ve got a place to work. I’m happy to have Rick’s commitment and hopefully me and Steve can continue to grow and start to do what we want to do on the race track. I’m looking forward to it man, it kind of puts it at ease there a little bit.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED IT TOOK FIVE MONTHS TO GET THE HEAVY LIFTING DONE AND IT DID IT MATTER TO GET IT DONE BEFORE THE CHASE?

“I really have no idea what all Marshal and Kelley had to go through and what they had to talk about and what the discussion was about. Kelley would come to me and say hey these are the kind of numbers, and I said I don’t care if you think it’s fair then let’s just do it. I don’t want to talk about numbers and base salary verses percentages and this and that other just whatever you think is fair its fine with me. Maybe because we started working on it maybe six to eight months before you would typically start to address that kind of situation they took their time and just wasn’t in a big hurry. You have to talk to Kelley and Marshal to see if there was a lot of back and forth. Obviously a lot of things happened in that period of time that would put a lot of things on hold which may have had a lot to do with it too.”

AS YOU LOOK FORWARD TO THIS NEXT CONTRACT, TAKE A LOOK BACK AT THE CURRENT ONE AND RATE IT, ASSESS YOUR TIME AT HENDRICK SO FAR.

“I would give me barely a passing grade at this time. I’m not content at all and I feel like I’ve been given some really good opportunities there and just haven’t been able to capitalize on it. Haven’t been able to go to the race track and get on the race track and go fast. This year we made a lot of changes in the offseason, I’ve said that damn sentence so many damn times this year, but we had a lot of changes and this year things started to swing upward for me and I started to feel like we might be on the right track and my confidence is up and I feel good about what’s going on there. I like to see how we can do in the future over the next 12 to 18 months, what kind of growth me and Steve have. I really, really like working with him and I’m satisfied with the performance that he has and how he works and goes about running his race team. I’m satisfied with the way his cars drive. We just need to find that little bit extra and we’ve had it at times this year and we’ve had some pretty fast cars at times but rarely do people really recall that. People tend to look stronger at the negatives and our more recent performance which I can understand that but we’ve had some pretty good cars this year. We’ve got to keep our heads up and try to do what we can with this opportunity that we may have going into the Chase. I’m not really answering your question I guess. I’m not nowhere near at all satisfied with what I’ve accomplished so far. I feel like that motivates me to try to go in there and do what I want to do and accomplish what I want to accomplish with that company and that’s why I feel fortunate to have that opportunity with the new extension.”

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER?

“I will tell you I feel personally that we were pretty close to realizing that type of potential with the start of the year. I’m saying we’re close, I don’t think we were a championship caliber team at that time, but we were as close as I’ve been in some time consistently week in and week out. I had top-10 speed, ran in the top 10 in races week in and week out. When you go into the Chase you need to average or you need to consider to try to average a fifth-place finish for those 10 races. I think when Jimmie barely beat Jeff that year, one had a 4 point something and one had a 5.0 or something, someone can easily put together that kind of average in the 10 races so you’re going to have to be very, very good to win that championship. We kind of feel like we’ve fallen off a little bit on our speed and I’ve always kind of struggled in the summer for whatever reason so maybe that really doesn’t concern me that much going to the rest of the race tracks that we’re going to run at but we went to Bristol and we kind of underperformed compared to how we ran there last time so I’m a little concerned and we’re working hard as a team and we’re going to try to do the best we can. I can’t really tell you the exact parameter we’re missing. I can’t put my finger on, and I don’t think you ever can in the sport say we’re missing this piece of the puzzle right here and if we can get that, it’s just so many variables involved. I think that we started the year off great. I took the typical summer slump I always seem to have for whatever reason and hopefully we can rebound and it will cycle back around at exactly the right time. We’re coming up on a couple of race tracks that I feel pretty good about and then all the ones in the Chase I really enjoy and hopefully if we have that opportunity to be in the Chase we just might surprise some people.”

WE KNOW YOU ARE FOCUSED ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP; WILL MAKING THE CHASE GIVE YOU A FEELING OF RELIEF?

“Yea, relief is probably the right word. Everyone expects you to make the chase. If you don’t make the chase you get that tag on you. You get labeled when you don’t make the chase and I want to avoid being in that situation. There are only a few drivers that get to make it, it is a pretty competitive sport but if you can be consistent and be smart, I made a few mistakes and a few driver errors that I really wish I could have back now, that I tried to tell myself not to make all year. I did pretty good, then we got along in the middle of the summer there and I started making a couple of mistakes. Blowing the left front tire coming onto pit road in Kentucky, and a couple of other places like that, that took away finishes that we needed. I know that if you can just be smart in the kind of equipment and the kind of team I have I should make the chase. We are plenty good enough to do that, but we put ourselves in a tough position going into these last two races over the summer time with a couple mistakes that I made and I’m sure Steve might stand up here and tell you he made a couple himself too. We just have to learn from those and not do them again. I think I will just be relieved if I make the chase. I want to win this championship and be a champion one day. I think that is what everybody out there drivin strives to do. Making is just something that is expected of everybody.”

YOUR ORGANIZATION, JR MOTORSPORTS IS OBVIOUSLY TIED IN WITH HENDRICK FROM THE NATIONWIDE SIDE OF THINGS, WAS THAT AN INTEGRAL PART OF THIS CONTRACT WITH HENDRICK? AND HOW IMPORTANT IS THE RELATIONSHIP YOU HAVE WITH HENDRICK TO MAKING YOUR RACING ORGANIZATION FUNCTION?

“That’s a good question really. When me and Rick first started working together, JR Motorsports was part his, part mine, and that was a pretty important part of our relationship. In the last several years we have split off 25% to Kelley and 25% to Tony Jr. to involve them in the company as owners because those are two people I really cared a lot about. Me and Rick had less to do with the day to day operations, especially Rick; he has a lot going on with a race team and 600 dealerships. That team runs on its’ own with Kelley and Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. and everybody there. Our dependence on HMS (Hendrick Motor Sports) is with chassis and engines and some engineering help but that really is up to Tony Jr and Tony Sr. how much they really want to dive in and get that help. The technical side of it is up to them really. There is not writing on a sheet of paper that says these are the rules and this is what happens. The help is there for them to seek out. JR Motor Sports and Hendrick Motor Sports really aren’t tied at the hip there is no real, I don’t know really what you’re asking me but, there is no real dependency between the two. JR Motor Sports has a big performance advantage being involved with HMS the way we are.”

GOING BACK THROUGH YOUR CONTRACT NEGOTIATION HISTORY, THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF TIMES IT HAS BEEN DIFFICULT AT BEST AND VERY ANNOYING TO YOU AT WORST. THEN YOU HAD TO MAKE THE DECISION TO LEAVE DEI AND GO TO HENDRICK, MIGHT THIS BE THE FIRST CONTRACT OF YOUR CUP CAREER THAT YOU SAY ALL I HAVE TO DO NOW IS JUST GO RACE?

“Well, you could say that, and I definitely am at ease. This was definitely an easy extension put together. When we signed the first contract with Rick, it was big news, but we brought a lot of that on ourselves. So we can’t through a pity party for all the attention that was had at that time. Driving with my family was really easy; I did not have to worry about job security. I was around a lot of people that we relatives, long time family friends and that was a very easy relaxed situation. When I drove the red 8 car, ya know if we had a bad race or something, I mean you know you would hear from fans or critics, media would point it out but really you didn’t care too much because your family wasn’t going to talk crap about you behind your back. You just said we had a bad race and we’d go back and race the next week. It was just easier to rebound. Now when I have a bad race, I take it home and it will last a few days till I get over it. I wonder whether the right people are still behind me weather I have given them reason to doubt me those kinds of things. When you are racing with family, you just don’t have those kinds of worries. And the job security thing was awesome. I just wanted to be with a competitive team and I have always idolized Rick. I have always idolized that company, always thought that they were impressive. I never knew what the inside of that place looked like. What it worked like and how they did it. I wanted that opportunity and I am glad that I got it. I feel real lucky and real fortunate to be there and I know I am not just saying that because it sounds like the right thing to say, I personally feel real lucky and real fortunate inside and I’m real thankful for that opportunity.”

SOCIAL MEDIA, SUCH AS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, HAS REALLY CHANGED THE COMMUNICATION OF LANDSCAPE GLOBALLY. SOME DRIVERS LIKE IT, SOME DON’T WHAT’S YOUR OPINION AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE WILL BE LIKE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?

“Well, it’s a big player I think and the easiest way to get your information. It is awesome that the drivers that are physically on there, like Harvick and those guys, I think it is great that the fans have the opportunity to connect and walk side by side with them through their day, whatever they are doing or whatever they happen to be talking about. I don’t have a personal twitter account, and I don’t have a personal account on any online or any social network, but we use it a lot at JR Motor Sports to keep people updated, give people the opportunity to know what we are doing, and interact with us, get involved with our programs. It has made things a lot easier for the media to get information out, you guys are in here trying to battle to get information out. It has definitely made things a lot better for everyone involved. Like everything, you have to use it in moderation. I think it is a good thing."

TRANSCRIPT: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Talks to the Media at Pocono

(Dale Earnhardt Jr. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL RUN WELL HERE THIS WEEKEND? “I hope so. We’ll see. We’ve got a tricky little race track here and some new shifting rules. So we’ll be learning all day long hoping we’ll be able to get up to speed and be competitive.”

HOW ABOUT THIS TRACK AND HOW YOU’VE RUN HERE IN THE PAST, DO YOU THINK THIS IS A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN END THE STREAK? “I don’t know. We’ve not been real successful here in the last several years. We’ve had a really good start when we first started coming here. We’ve had a lot of good runs but the last couple of years haven’t been that awesome. We’re taking it one week at a time and see how it goes.”

WHERE IS THE CONFIDENCE LEVEL RIGHT NOW? “It’s good. I’m still good. Just trying to be productive, show up on time, be ready to work, try to work hard. See how that works out for me. It’s been going so good so far. Wanna keep trying to get better too.”

HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING ANYTHING DIFFERENT THAT HAS LED TO THESE GOOD RESULTS? “Basically we changed everything. I’m in a new shop, new team, new crew chief. Everything has been changed. I don’t know what else different I can do. That’s a lot. We’ve made a lot of changes.”

AFTER THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS DO YOU TAKE THAT AS FRUSTRATION KIND OF FUELED THE FIRE FOR POCONO? “It’s great, it’s not frustrating. I’m running good.”

SO CLOSE TO FIRST LACE THOUGH? “Yeah, that’s great. That’s where you want to be. Close. If not winning, that’s better than running damn 25th and 30th every week I’ll tell you that.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SHIFTING HERE AND IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE SHIFTING? “I don’t know. I’m going to try to find out. I haven’t shift here in a while. I think it’s unnecessary but they think the brakes are going to be better but it ain’t going to be no better.”

DO YOU THINK ANYBODY WILL HAVE A REMEMBERING ISSUE WITH IT? “Shifting is no big deal. Just hopefully you’ve got the gears all right and everything feels pretty comfortable. It should be fine.”

AS FAR AS THE RACING, WHAT DO YOU THINK WE ARE GOING TO SEE AS AN IMPACT OF THE SHIFTING? “It will be the same as it was last year. Take last year’s race and replay it and just imagine all the drivers are shifting.”

THERE IS RAIN IN THE FORECAST, HOW MUCH DOES THAT IMPACT HOW YOU APPROACH PRACTICE? “What are the rules if it rains out tomorrow?”

FASTEST IN FINAL PRACTICE I THINK. “If none of us know, I don’t know if we can answer that question. Steve will do all that, I just get in there and he’ll say man we’ve got to put a lap down lets go and I’ll go try to do it. If we do we do, if we don’t, we don’t. Mainly today we’re just going to focus on how the car gets through the corners, whether we’re comfortable, how we’re shifting. We’ve got a little bit of time today and just try to really get those things down and get that stuff comfortable so we can run a whole race on Sunday.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT MICHIGAN? “I don’t know. I feel like we’ve run pretty good there the last several times we’ve raced there. I really like the race track. It’s a real fun place to race. You’ve got to have a lot of motor and you can’t use a lot of gasoline. When we put a lot of gas in these cars to go fast you end up running short on the fuel mileage. A lot of times that is a fuel-mileage race. You do need a lot of motor though and we’re pretty good in that department.”

SPEAKING OF MOTOR, IF YOU COULD PICK BETWEEN POWER AND AERODYNAMICS WHICH ONE WOULD YOU PICK? “Aerodynamics probably. Matt Kenseth won a championship without any motor. Jack Roush will tell you they ain’t got any motor, they’ve got a pretty good one these days but back then they haven’t too much. Sometimes when you actually get down on power you go through the corner faster. Aerodynamics is always important.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE QUALIFYING CHANGES THIS WEEKEND? “I really don’t know what the changes are. I haven’t really paid much attention to it. I think first practice determines how we will qualify. I thought if it rained out we would start by points but I guess it could be the last practice speed. I don’t know. It will take me a couple of weeks to get this all sorted out. It sounds kind of confusing.”

YOU SEEMED REALLY HAPPY AFTER LAST WEEKS RACE. “Yeah, I feel like it’s a good relationship and going pretty good. Just trying to protect it and keep it going that way. Hopefully everybody on the team is enjoying what we’re doing. We’re not satisfied, we want to win races and I know that those guys are itching to win and get in victory lane and if we work hard we’ll get rewarded with that. I hope everybody on the team is enjoying what’s going on this year. I certainly am. I’m certainly having a good time.”

HOW MUCH HAS BORIS SAID HELPED ELEVATE ROAD RACING IN THIS ENTIRE SERIES WITH THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE HE HAS WORKED WITH? “Well he’s definitely very helpful. He’s helped me with setup ideas, knowledge about road course set up, how to set a car up for road courses and obviously helped me with driving, helped a lot of drivers with driving. Him and Ron Fellows both, any time any of those guys come in and are fast they elevate the standard of competition and elevate the level of speed and what you need to change to be good always gets tougher. They definitely made us all faster whether it be by tutoring us or by raising the stakes by showing up.”

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR YOUR NATIONWIDE CARS WITH DANICA AND SOMEONE ELSE NEXT YEAR? “We haven’t really talked about it. We’re waiting on Danica to make her decision and we can start to plan what we want to do. It would be a lot of fun to try to go full time. We definitely would like to be part of that opportunity. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

WHAT IMPACT DOES FUEL STRATEGY HAVE ON THIS PARTICULAR TRACK? SOMETIMES CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE CAUTIONS PLAY A ROLE AS WELL? “Yeah, that’s what really causes it from the get go. If the caution comes out, if you’re car is going to go sixty laps on fuel and the caution comes out with 65 laps to go then you’re in a little bit of a pickle. That’s just the way it happens sometimes.”

WITH ALL THE CHANGES COMING INTO THIS RACE, THE SHIFTING AND QUALIFYING, EVERY WEEK IT’S A WIDE OPEN RACE FOR EVERYBODY, DOES THAT MAKE IT ANY DIFFERENT COMING INTO THE WEEKEND? “Not really. I think it will be pretty similar to how it was last year. Racing here has always kind of been the same.”

ARE YOU CONFIDENT AT THIS RACE TRACK? “I like this place. It’s real tough to get around. It’s a pretty tough race track with all three corners being really different. The car wants to drive different through all three corners. Hopefully you kind of got a good balance across the board. But I feel good. Feel like we just are going to try to come here and do a good job, put together a good weekend just like we’ve been doing every week.”

DO YOU THINK THERE SHOULD BE A RULE IN PLACE FOR A DRIVER, IF YOU DO DAMAGE TO ANOTHER CAR AFTER THE CHECKERED FLAG YOU SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR THE DAMAGES? “I don’t know if that would have made a difference. I don’t know. The way it was handled and I was reading some of Brian’s comments about Darlington and he was saying and I may be wrong but as far as I remember he was saying where he had a problem was the extracurricular stuff that went on outside of the flag. Everything in between the green flag and the checkered flag was fine but what happened after the checkered flag they felt was a problem. And then in Kansas it wasn’t a problem. So that was the only thing that stuck out to me, when is it okay to hit a guy after the race and when is it not okay. What Kyle did in Kansas we do all the time. I didn’t really think that was too big of a deal. Obviously it upset Richard but we run into each other all the time after a race but really a lot of it never gets caught on television or seen by anybody. Sometimes it’s because you’re happy for somebody and sometimes it’s because you’re mad at somebody. We end up sorting those things out ourselves someway and somehow. I guess there is a certain level of contact that doesn’t need to happen after the race. I can totally understand. I’m not calling Brian out or anything I’m just saying I wish I knew everything and I don’t.”

KYLE SAID HE DIDN’T REALIZE HE CAUSED THAT MUCH DAMAGE, YOU SAID YOU GUYS DO IT ALL THE TIME, AT WHAT LEVEL DO YOU DO IT ALL THE TIME? “If you’re mad at somebody you’re not thinking about nothing but what you’re mad about. You’re not worried about nothing but what pissed you off. Sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes you handle it just right and sometimes you don’t do nothing. It just depends, it’s all circumstantial. I don’t have much concern in it and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It was a big deal. What Richard did obviously drew tons of attention but what Kyle did wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. When you just see it on TV you go oh man that happens all the time. I’ve seen that a million times before.”

IF SOMEONE HAD DONE LIKE $10,000 DOLLARS DAMAGE TO YOUR NATIONWIDE CAR? “I’d get mad. Heck yeah. When Denny and Brad were being idiots at Charlotte that one race and banging into each other’s fenders and stuff it really upset me. I was in another car and I went up there and ran into Denny.”

AFTER THE RACE OR DURING? “During. We were all like hey don’t hit that car. It was just really stupid all of us and then there was that big fight afterwards between the two teams. Not my team but the other two teams. It was just silly. That happens all the time and yeah you get mad. That damn Beuscher kid wrecked Danica in California for no freaking reason at all so he’s on the list. He’s got his coming one day.”

Dale Jr. Earns Daytona 500 Pole

(Former Gateway International Raceway winner and two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned the pole position for next Sunday's Daytona 500. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 2004 Daytona 500 winner, earned the pole position for next Sunday's Great American Race. It will be the tenth anniversary of the death of his father, Dale Earnhardt, in a last-lap crash during the 2001 race. This year's Daytona 500 will be Junior's 400th start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. For the full story, visit the St. Louis Motorsports Examiner.

TRANSCRIPT: Dale Earnhardt Jr Winner's Press Conference from Daytona

In what may be the last time an Earnhardt drives the legendary No. 3, Dale Jr. finished its legacy in style. After winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona, the two-time Gateway International Raceway winner talked to the media.

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined in the infield media center by tonight's winner, driver of the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Dale, tell us about your run. 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, when the race started, we practiced, and the car felt great. When the race started, I just kind of tried to run in a straight line, tried not to slit my tires off in the corner, really work the tires too hard. There were some guys racing a little bit harder. Felt like it was gonna be important to take care of your tires. 

Near that middle part of the race, we were sitting there with the best-handling car on the track, and we took the lead. Felt like I could hold it till we pitted, which was going to be real short. But the caution came out. We had a 30-lap run till the end. Harvick just set in second place trying to position himself for the finish.

We had a green-white-checkered. I told Logano that his best bet I thought was to try to push us off into one and get both of us clear of the outside row, and then whatever he wanted to do after that was up to him. That's basically how it worked out. 

He had a pretty good run on the last lap, the back straightaway. He kind of ducked out a little bit and then thought twice about it because I don't know if the guys behind him were going to do it. Once they got back in line and felt that little shove I got off into three, I felt pretty confident we was gonna win. 

I'm happy for Wrangler because they've been a great friend to our family for all these years, and I've enjoyed the relationship that I've had with them. They didn't put anything into the racecar because that's what I asked. I asked them if I could take some of my personal service that we'd already agreed on and carve some of that over to the racecar to run this race. I just wanted to run this paint scheme once. So I want to thank them. 

I want to thank Hendrick engines because they improved for us for this race. They worked especially hard to help us for this race. We got a great qualifying run. We had a great, great car in the race power-wise. 

Tony, Jr. did an awesome job. He managed his people well and prepared a great car that never had any bugs in practice or never had any flaws throughout the weekend. We had the 88 boys from the AMP Energy National Guard team pitting the car. I want to thank them for volunteering to do that. I hope they volunteered (laughter). 

But it was just a fun, fun deal obviously. I was happy to see Richard. He told me before the race we were gonna win, and if we did, he was going to Victory Lane. I told him he was on the car listed as the owner. Rick called me in Victory Lane after the race. He was happy. I thanked him for allowing us to maneuver what we had to to make this package work. 

He had to step aside on a few things even though he did build the chassis and the engine. He foregoes some credit toward helping us get here as an owner of our company for the last several wins and this win. 

So it was great. So that's it. You know, pretty much a real emotional win. But, you know, it was for obviously to honor my father, but for his fans, too. They were so supportive of him, and still are today. So I want to thank them. 

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Dale. We're also joined by tonight's winning crew chief, Tony Eury, Jr. Tony, your thoughts as the race unfolded from on top of the box. 

TONY EURY, JR.: I mean, the way we started out, we had a good qualifying run, like he said. Basically we got a good qualifying run. When the race first started, we was kind of worried about the way the race was going to play out with the incidents and stuff, the car being brand-new. 

But as the race started, he looked pretty strong. Like he said, people started racing a little bit hard. He kind of fell back a little bit. Then once I seen him on I think it was the second stint, he really started coming up through the field by his-self running the top groove. I was like, Okay, we got something that's capable of winning this race at the end. 

 Like he said, the 88 AMP guys really stepped up on that last pit stop and got us back out in front. That was pretty key to get back out there in fresh air. From then on, it was just pretty much everybody kind of chilled out and waited till the end. 

You know, it was a pretty special win. It's kind of like old times there. Like Dale Jr. said, it's more of a tribute to Dale Sr., the things he brought us. I think we've always had a real good restrictor plate program. Now we got Rick and Richard both involved. That was a real special night for me personally. 

You know, to be able to work with Dale Jr. again, I guess caught my first win as a car owner. 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Forgot about that. Hell, yeah. Congratulations. Awesome.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. We'll now go ahead and open it up to questions from the media. 

Q. Dale, you made it pretty clear here this week that you don't plan to drive the 3 again. You saw again tonight, though the incredible fan emotion tied to all this. Does that make you rethink it at all?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I will never do it. I'll never rethink it. I'll never consider it. I think that it's important for everybody to know that that's as concrete as it gets. I'll never do it again. 

So I enjoyed it. It's hard for me. It's a balancing act between you and the public and myself and my own feelings. I mean, I kind of, you know, look to what you guys are putting out there to kind of get a temperature of how the public's feeling. It's such a tough deal. It's real emotional for me preparing for it and putting it together. Is Rick okay with it? Did Rick mind? Is Richard happy with his role? Is Teresa truly okay? It's just so damn hard to know how everybody feels about it.

Hell, I just want to come race. I just like cool-looking cars. This was a helluva cool-looking car. I always loved the scheme. That's all that mattered to me, was just the scheme. I just love the car. I wanted to race it once, and I did. 

I'd run the number before in this series, so I didn't really put a lot of stock in the fact that the 3 was coming back like a lot of people did. I didn't approach it that way mentally, where everyone else was thinking, you know, 3 is back, Earnhardt's 3 is back. 

But when I started hearing all that, you know, how everybody was making such a big deal about it, I was like, Shit, man, this is like pressure, man, this is a big deal. So I was a little nervous. 

But I don't know if I'd have liked that or not. Regardless of whether I did or not, I made my life pretty much driving that 8 and now the 88. It doesn't make sense for me to do this again. I think in the Nationwide Series, it makes enough sense, and I really wanted to do it, and I've done it. 

I don't ever want to do it again. And I'll never change my mind, ever. 

Q. Junior, you won not only in the 3 but the first race with the new car for the Nationwide Series. Joey was in here talking about how similar the new Nationwide Series car is to the Cup car. What are your thoughts on the new Nationwide Series car? Are you happy with it? Would you want to drive this version of the car again, not the 3, but obviously for your own team or somebody else? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Would I drive the new COT again? Yeah, sure, I'm gonna, I guess. I mean, I'll probably drive next year. My sister won't let me off the hook, which I enjoy. I enjoy working with my employees. I don't want to run in the Busch Series over six times a year, more than five times a year. I enjoy running a few races and working with my team. 

It helps me kind of know where we are as a company. But, you know, other than that, I mean, it's so hard to be competitive in the Cup Series that every time I drive a lap in something else, I feel like I'm cheating my team and cheating everyone who's trying to get me where I need to go on that side of it. I'm just shorthanding them people.

So my focus is there, and that's where I want it to be. There was times this year where our company could have benefited from me running the car instead of maybe Jamie and a couple other people. But I want to focus on what my goals are in life, and my goals in life are not to win more Nationwide Series championships or races. Those aren't my goals. My goals are to win Sprint Cup races, win the championships in that. 

Really I don't think I answered your question (laughter). But this car was nice. It did drive like the COT. My car was. If you got toward the back, it was a little bit tough, but still drove really similar to the COT. I didn't think so in practice, but the track really improved or something with all the rain and it getting cooled down and running late. We hadn't really run at night yet. 

I'm really happy with what NASCAR did first time out with this car. They will work on it, improve it, learn a lot from it. But the first go-round I think was a great success. 

Q. For Dale and Tony, with all the publicity and buildup of the car, you guys being back together and everything, was the pressure any different for you guys to win this race today? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: It wasn't for me. It wasn't different than it always is. And I work with Tony, Jr. He wants to win. Anytime you work with a Eury, the whip's out, so you better be on top of the sheet in practice, qualifying, it don't matter what, and you're working till the damn red flag comes out. 

But he let me off a little easy this week. I guess he's getting old and soft. But I enjoy working with them. But there's a little bit of pressure because our company needs the boost. Our company needs to finish well. I was worried about tearing up cars. I knew we was going to get late cautions, which they were legit, but I knew we was gonna get 'em.

I was just like, Damn, I hope we don't leave this racetrack with three tore-up cars and be another $600,000 in the hole. We're just happy, you know. I mean, there's always pressure driving with that car, that sponsor. To everyone outside this room, maybe some of you guys here, anything less than a win was pointless. What did we do this for? Did we even honor him by bringing it out and running fifth? What the hell. 

So I felt a lot of pressure to win. I didn't know if we could pull it off. But we were very lucky and very fortunate to have made some of the moves we made, and we had some great luck. It just all worked out. I feel lucky. 

TONY EURY, JR.: I mean, I feel the same way Dale Jr. does. You know, when we come to a speedway race together, you know, I look at it as I better have my A game on because I know how good a drafter he is, I know how good of a driver he is. So when I come to these tracks, it's like it's more emphasis on the car being fast, you having the car ready. 

You know, I put a lot of, lot of effort into these cars, just every nick and nanny that I can think of. It kind of shows in qualifying. That's why you got guys that earn top five, because they're doing every little thing that you can do to get that 10th of a second.

You know, like he said, I've got a new group of guys. I mean, this is the 5 guys, the 7 car. Those guys there, they haven't won a race in probably two years. So to see their face today and bringing them to the point that they are where they just won this race with Dale Jr., it's big. It's like he said, it's like you didn't want to come out of here running third or fifth, you know. That's not what we come here for. 

So, you know, we put our best leg forward. Like he said, a lot of stuff worked out for us. You know, the story ended like it should. 

Q. Dale, you said I think last year how you really had started to treasure wins because you never really know when your next one's gonna come. All the pressure of the 3 car aside, what kind of relief is it just to get back to Victory Lane and to win a race, and to get Tony, Jr. back to Victory Lane with all the crap he's taken over the years? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, you know, tonight I couldn't even -- you know, I didn't have the typical reaction I guess I normally would from a victory. There was so much relief and just pure satisfaction. I didn't have the jubilance, just the explosive excitement that you really have when you win because, uhm, I was just happy for everybody else simply. I was happy for Tony, Jr. He's worked so hard this year, so hard. I tell him he don't need to work that hard. 

I'm trying to make you an owner. They're not supposed to be under the cars. But he can't help it.

I was happy for Richard to have been a part of this and allowing us to run this number, and Teresa and my sister for all they did putting it together, all the things they went through. You know, my team, all the fans that this made happy. I was just relieved. 

But I told somebody out there, Victory Lane, when you're a little kid, you got a treehouse, or you and your buddies got a clubhouse in the woods or whatever, that's what Victory Lane is to me, and I like going there. You miss it really bad. But you know it's there and you can get back there again if you try really hard. It's not gone, but it's very difficult to get into. 

Yeah, every time I win, I mean, I just really soak it up like a sponge because, you know, we've had such a trying time over the last several years.  Sure, I'd like to get back to where I could win multiple races a year, but that's not where I'm at right now. So we just got to be happy and feel lucky and blessed for how it's going right now and keep working hard to get better and do more. 

Q. At this stage of your life, Dale, at this stage of your career, does it mean more to you at all to win at Daytona? Is this a more special place to win? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I like winning here. I saw where daddy had two more Nationwide wins than I did, so it meant something to get closer to him there. He's at the top of the list in the record books. It would be cool to tie him or surpass him, which I still have a good opportunity to do. Chances are Kelley will still have me running some of these races here. 

Now, if I can get Tony, Jr. out from under the car, he might be in a position to persuade me as much as she does.

Winning anywhere means a lot, sure. Daytona is a special place to me because of, you know, my father dying here. I'm totally a part of this place for the rest of my life, regardless of the history of the track. Just this area, this place. I used to come down here as a kid and hang out. I got to be good friends with Jamie Foster, ran around town with him, clubbing and carrying on with him in my 20s. I've seen every corner of this place. I love it as a town. And it ain't changed much to me. 

And the track just has such a beautiful history, so many great things have happened here. To me it's 'the' track in our series, it's the mother of all racetracks in this sport, in NASCAR racing. Everything about our sport leads back to this place, to me in my mind, so it's very important. 

Q. Dale, two things. Can this give you any kind of a boost on the other side of the garage? Who actually owns this car now? Would you have any special plans for it? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, I do believe this helps me tomorrow because the COT or the Nationwide car now kind of drive similar. This helps my confidence. You know, every time you win and do good, I just think it will. I told Rick I had another tank in the bus for tomorrow and we'd bring it out. 

I don't know who owns this car and I don't care. I think I'll take it and give it to Winston Kelley and let him have it for a few months and then maybe send it up to Richard and let him keep it for a little while. Hopefully it ends up back in my hands eventually one day. But it's just nuts and bolts.

You know, I think Winston Kelley said in Victory Lane he would love to have it. It would be an honor, one helluva honor to put it over there in his place at Charlotte for a little while. 

Q. Dale, if you are willing to take on the burden that you've talked about with this race, driving this car with this sponsor, with the win or it's not worth it attitude, should anybody question your commitment on the Cup side if you were willing to take that kind of burden? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I don't think that they should. I think people can stop questioning my commitment, whether I care, whether I have the passion anymore, enough passion. I have worked my ass off to get back just to subpar. Are we right? No, I'm still wrong (laughter)? Anyways, to be above average, I have busted my ass. I mean, I can't drive and work any fucking harder than I'm working right now. I can't. This is all I got. And I'm doing it hard, man. I mean, I cannot work any harder. 

You can't do this half-assed. You can't do it 90%. You'll get eaten up. It will be obvious to everybody around you, your team, your crew chief, everybody who builds your motors, builds your cars, they'll still stop giving a shit because they know you're not giving a shit and you won't go anywhere.



So you can't go half-assed. I tell myself every year, I go, you know, Am I working hard? Yeah, I can't work any harder. And I've asked myself, you know, maybe people are right, what more can I do? 

But this year, I mean, we've wore it out trying to get back to where we need to be. I'm not burnt out. I still got a lot in the tank. We got a long season left. But I got the passion, man. I want to win. I want to be here for a long, long time. 

But I guess, you know, people will question that until you're done. I mean, not just me, other drivers, too, I'm sure. I shouldn't take it so personal. But, man, when you work so damn hard, I mean, you guys know how it is. You're working your ass off to try to get somewhere, do the best you can to do your job, whatever it is. For anyone to ever wonder whether you're giving it all you got pisses you off. But that's just the way it is. 

Q. Tony, can you talk about how hard you see him working. 

TONY EURY, JR.: You know, it's hard for me to sit back. You know, I think when they split us up, that was the one thing that probably bothered me the worst is because I know how hard he's working. I know that it takes one slip-up, whether it's one lug nut, whether it's the guy missed a tire pressure, whether the guy put a half-around the wrong way on a pit stop. That one thing can take you out of a race. 

It's not a one-person team, you know. It's everybody on that team. There's 18 guys here every Sunday. Every one of those guys has to be busting their butt. And I know how hard he works and I know what kind of feel he's got. And it starts on Thursday. I don't just start on, hey, Sunday when they drop the green, this is where it goes. It starts on Thursday when we land here.



And everybody has to do everything. You have to have every minute of practice. You have to get everything tried. And it can't be one screw-up. And the communication's got to be there. Nobody's head can be somewhere else. 

You know, Jimmie and Chad are great because they're doing that, they're clicking right now, you know. And I know Dale Jr.'s got it in him to do it. It's just a matter of getting every little piece of the puzzle. 

It kills me, like last weekend, to go to Loudon. I'm sitting there watching him. He's following Jimmie right up through the track. I'm sitting there working. I get out, Jimmie wins. I look, he finished 10th. 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I finished seventh.



TONY EURY, JR.: I said, What happened? You know, Walked by the computer screen and you was here. He's like, Well, I don't know. 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: When I got to seventh, I stayed there and he kept going. 

TONY EURY, JR.: Yeah. So, I mean, you know, it's hard for me because, like I said, I want to see him do especially good, and I'll do anything I can for him to make it better. 

You know, that's kind of where I think Rick seen that side of it, where I was getting too ate up into it, and it was killing my personal life, and I was getting unhappy. You know, so we decided to go a different route.



You know, I'm perfectly happy with what I'm doing. I think he's in a good route where he's going. Him and Lance are communicating good. Just to see those 88 guys out there in Victory Lane with us tonight, that's going to pump them up for tomorrow. He's pumped up. You know, hopefully tomorrow night when I'm sitting there cooking my rib-eye, he's leading the race. 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yup. 

Q. Just on the subject of the cost of these cars. I saw Pop in the garage area. I said, How about tonight, Pop? He goes, All three cars came in without any problems. So that's what he was excited about. My question is, Dale, is it possible that you like overdo it, overthink things? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: No. 

Q. Anything like that? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: No, sir. I mean, look at my beard. I don't really overthink too much. I grew the beard back because I've been running better, y'all. Have y'all not matched it up? We had those first 10 races where we hauled ass, then I shaved, we ain't running worth a damn. Then I grew the beard back. Also I started drinking beer on Monday.  I don't know. The beard ain't got its own personality. The beard does have a Facebook page, but it's not a real person, it's just a beard on my face. 

But I quit partying so much. I drink beer every Monday and I grew a beard back. Those two things seem to be helping me. So really those two things deserve the most credit (laughter). 

Q. Tony, the criticism that you've taken for God knows how long, this must be a lot off your shoulders. And for Junior, what did the comment mean when you said over the radio, We shouldn't have won that damn race? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I meant because Joey had a pretty good run down the back straightaway. I was really shocked that he didn't get on the outside right rear quarter of our car. I'm not real exactly sure what was going on behind him. But from what it looked like, when he peaked out, the 6 wasn't having none of it. The 6 was going to get up there behind me. So he said, Well, I'm not gonna get shuffled to fourth or whatever it was, I'll just get back in line and see if I can get back up and get a run off of three. 'Cause he still had a good opportunity between three and the checkered to make a pass. 

You know, I'm just as shocked as everybody else, I guess. I guess everybody was shocked. I don't know if everybody expected us to win this race, but I sure as hell didn't. I mean, I knew we had a fast car. But shit, man, it's such a lottery.



You know, everything worked out. Tony, Jr. and the motor was great and everybody did such a good job. I'm like 5% of what it took to get into Victory Lane with that car. So many other variables made it fast, got it here. Body men building a good body, getting through tech, not having problems with that. All kinds of little things. You just go on and on. 

But I thought Joey would try that. I've tried it before and it didn't work. You just get shuffled to the back. So maybe that's what he thought about when we got back in line. But his run wasn't very big, but it was good enough to get on the quarter panel and slow me down a little bit. 

Q. Is some of the shock just the emotional weight you've been carrying just leading up to this week, too? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, I wasn't really shocked about anything else. I was just pleased. We needed a win as a company. We needed to prove that we are still -- I mean, Brad Keselowski, an amazing racecar driver, he's gone on to a different race team this year and is doing so well. We've struggled as a company really to put together consistency. 

It's a good feeling to know we're putting together cars that are capable of winning. I was so proud to see Arpin up there battling with us. He come over to the bus before the race and was asking me, What do I do if we're around each other? What am I supposed to do? I said, Hell, if you can pass, go, win the race. So he did. He was racing on up in there. I enjoyed watching him.



So I don't know, you know. It was just fun. I had a blast. Like I said, all the cars get tore up. Even if you win this race and you tear just one damn car up, man, as an owner, it's so hard. It just breaks your heart. Breaks the bank, too. So we feel pretty good to get out of here in one piece and one of 'em's in Victory Lane. We're really lucky. 

Q. Tony, could you talk about the decision not to come in the pits there on the last caution, keep the lead. 

TONY EURY, JR.: Uhm, I mean, yeah, we had -- when it come down to that, I mean, you're basically sitting there with a green-white-checkered. The last couple times that they've had 'em, it's just been a crapshoot and things happen on the last lap. So we knew that there was a lot of cars on the lead lap. 

You know, I figured, okay, 15th on back is going to pit. Because the guys that are running 20th, they got nothing to lose.  They're going to stay out and get the position. We just decided to stay out. We figure if you run one lap, just make it back to the caution, that's where you're going to finish. Four tires in one lap, you're not going to come from 13th. I think that's where Kyle come out at, like 13th. I don't know where he finished. I'm sure in two laps, he didn't get too far.


But, you know, it's just one of them deals where it's like a no-brainer, just go. If it had been 15 laps to go, you had that many laps on your tires, it would have been a totally different story. But there you just had to kind of roll with it.  

Q. Dale, I know you said beforehand this was a one-shot deal, and now you've made it really clear that you'll never drive again. With all the pressure, if you didn't win, do you think maybe you'd think differently? 

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: No. I just think it ain't in the cards. This is it. I just knew before the race, and I said it. I felt 110% sure before the race, regardless of whether we finished or even started the damn race. So, yeah, I'm so glad we won. It means more to me now knowing that I won't ever do it again that I won. 

You know, we can all just remember this, squash it, finish our lives, you know, do what we got to do, what we need to do, till we get too old to do whatever we want to do. 

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations and thanks for your time.



DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Thank you. 

TONY EURY, JR.: Thanks.