from a Team Chevy Driver(s) Press Conference Transcript, in part. Both #24-Jeff Gordon and #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. were asked about the incident between them at Bristol Motor Speedway last week when the #88 got into the #24 which cut down a tire and crashed late in the race:
Q) DID YOU TALK OR TEXT WITH JEFF (GORDON) AT ALL ABOUT LAST WEEK (BRISTOL RACE)?
Earnhardt Jr,: ‘We talked and I feel pretty good about how that went. We should have no problem going forward. It was an unfortunate situation, especially for him. I ‘m sure it stings a little bit for him and the team. We will just see.’
Q) WHEN SOMETHING AS ‘FREAKY ‘ AS THAT HAPPENS, DO YOU LOOK BACK AT THE REPLAYS AND SEE WHAT IN THE WORLD DID THAT? BECAUSE YOU SAID THE CONTACT WAS NOT THAT MUCH.
Earnhardt Jr,: ‘It was just a freak situation and you kind of got to remember that, you know, and not really beat yourself up too much about it. Jeff (Gordon) has a good reputation in this sport. I ‘ve got a lot of respect and enjoy being his teammate. I ‘ve learned a lot from him even before we were teammates, just racing him over the years. He has been here a long time and I think we will be able to race each other without any problems. I think he respects me and I respect him. We will be able to move forward without any problems.’
Q) HAVE YOU SPOKEN WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR. FOLLOWING BRISTOL AND WHAT WAS THE CONVERSATION?:
Gordon: ‘You know, he reached out to me. It was just a strange situation that happened where we were racing hard, racing for position after a restart and he definitely got into me, but you could do that 100 times and go on about your business, but in this particular case the tailpipe just lined up perfectly on the left rear. Really to me that is the much bigger issue than the contact between me and Junior. I don ‘t understand why the tailpipes are even capable of getting to the left rear tire. If that happens at a big, fast speedway then that’s a much bigger incident than what that was. I ‘d like to see that addressed. We talked and I ‘ve got respect for Dale and I know he has that for me as well. We enjoy being teammates and we I think learned a little bit from that situation about when the time to race hard is and when it isn ‘t.’
Q) DO YOU LOOK BACK ON LAST WEEK AND WONDER WHY THAT HAD TO HAPPEN WITH YOUR TEAMMATE?:
Gordon: ‘Yeah, I mean when you ‘re at Bristol, especially on the restarts when there’s a big difference in the handling of cars at the beginning of a restart. Some guys ‘ cars take off good, some are better five laps into a run, some are better 25 laps into a run and my car was one of those cars that was better the longer that we went. Junior’s was pretty good on the short runs right then. To me, that’s when a lot of us would get side-by-side and I think that you ‘re always questioning why one person is racing you at that point as hard as they are. Sometimes you ‘re racing hard to protect the position because you think your car is going to come in and other times you ‘re racing hard because you know your car is really good right then and you want to get the position. That’s all it was. It didn ‘t have anything to do with teammates. We were just racing hard for position. I think it got a little bit more attention because it was teammates and for us, looking back on it and it makes our Tuesday meetings a little more interesting. I think if that’s for the win or for the position at the end of the race then hey, we get it. I think we both agreed that it wasn ‘t probably the best thing to do as teammates that early into a restart with 200 laps to go.’(Team Chevy)(3-24-2012)
