Time: Preseason 2007
Place: Daytona International Speedway
Event: Preseason NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Testing

Quotes

"It's a constantly moving target and the minute you can get your finger on it, try and keep it on it for as long as you can because that sucker keeps moving."
Greg Biffle

In the world's eyes that's still such a small dot on the surface."
Ricky Rudd

"You just got to get everybody pulling in the right direction." Ken Schrader

"You just got to treat them like you depend on them."
Kasey Kahne

"It's something that you just have."
Martin Truex Jr.

"I think it's a little bit of both."
Brian Vickers

"You're really born with that."
Jamie McMurray

"They handed me some before I came to the Daytona."
Casey Mears

"I think the rest will take care of itself."
Elliott Sadler

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup drivers and teams enter 2007 DIS Preseason Thunder Testing with hopeful thoughts, equal points and new equipment. Driver brings their history with success and a constant focus about the future. The success varies from driver to driver but the focus seems common.

Success usually follows focus in the competitive motorsports world and when drivers are asked about either they have varied responses. Sometimes a puzzled look precedes a response, but if they can't define it at first thought they soon find a way to talk about causes and reasons.

Two questions, one about success the other about focus were asked to a dozen drivers that have arrived at the top level of racing. They must perform to stay and their thoughts run deep into the reality of premiere stock car racing.

SUCCESS

Questions & Answers

Kasey Kahne

Success seems to come in bursts at this level. Do you have any methods with your team to achieve it, maintain it and retrieve it?
"I don't know. I think that the biggest thing is to make sure they realize that as a driver you know how big of a team sport this is and how much you rely on them. Just do things to show them that you are proud of them and happy to work with them. Be thankful for the hard work that they do. Just do that kind of stuff and other than that I don't know. You just got to treat them like you depend on them and you rely on them."

You mentioned handling adversity, what's the best way to handle success?
"Just realizing that it could change tomorrow. I think that's the biggest thing. We win at Charlotte and I have the funnest time I can have either that night or the next day. After that it's right back to business and not going into the next weekend with your head thinking you're better than anyone else, because it can change so quickly. Racing is the most humbling thing that I've ever been involved in. I can go out there and think I'm a king right now and then the next day you go to test and you back the car into a wall during a test. You got along ways to go. It's so humbling. There's no reason to let it take advantage of you even when you win. When you win it's great for a couple days and fun to talk about, but you can't let it get to you at all."

Is there anything special with your team you can do to duplicate your past success?
"Success comes from really, really good race cars - really fast race cars - as good as or better than everybody else. That's where it comes from. I try my hardest every week. We're gonna go to California and try and win at California. If we have a race car that we can win with, we will win the race. A lot of it depends on the car, really. You take these top 20 drivers, like Denny Hamlin at Pocono. He wasn't just light years better driver than all 43 guys. Yes, he did a fantastic job driving those cars, but their car worked very well at that race track. They brought the same car back and won both races. There's something to the race car itself, along with the driver and the combination of it all, but it certainly takes that race car to handle well, turn, have plenty of downforce and all of that. That's what all of us work on all the time - all the teams - and if we can hit on something that makes our cars handle and get down in the race track and run well, that's what it takes to win five or six races.

"Kasey Kahne's team hit on that last year. They hit on something that was working for them and they perfected it and kept working on it and the results showed. And then Tony Stewart did as well in the chase. They won those mile-and-a-halves just bang, bang, bang and got a combination that was working for them. It's a constantly moving target and the minute you can get your finger on it, try and keep it on it for as long as you can because that sucker keeps moving. That's what it takes to win races and championships."

Carl Edwards

There's not a lot of extra effort left to tap at this level. How do you plan with your team to retrieve the past success that you have had?
"Our cars just have to be a tick faster and we can't make any mistakes. I learned a lot last year about you know about how to race for points. It showed up at the end of the year. We gathered a lot of points the last 12 or 13 races, so if we can just apply what we have learned and have a little bit of luck and our cars are just a tick faster, we'll be great."

Ken Schrader

Success is really hard to grasp in this sport and you've had a lot of it. Is there any way you can explain how to work with a team?
"You just got to get everybody pulling in the right direction. You still got to have the equipment and the budget to be able to pull it off. Without that you're in trouble. You can take a lower dollar team with a bunch of guys with a lot of 'want-to' and run pretty good."

Ricky Rudd

What's the best way to handle success?
"It comes with the territory. You have success and you have a lot of days where you have no success. You just got to put things in perspective. I guess I've always looked at the big picture. When you're having success here and you're winning races that still in the world's eyes that's still such a small dot on the surface. I've tried never to lose touch with reality. Just cause we're great race car drivers or won races doesn't really make you better than the next guy. So you know always keep that in check.

"I talk about doing stuff around the house like cutting grass and stuff. That's always my way of staying in touch with reality. You go, go, go and you're caught up in the media all the time, you kind of live in a false world. I've always tried to keep my feet on the ground."

Elliott Sadler

You've had success in the past. Is there any special way to help you and your team repeat the past?
"No. If I show up and do my job I think the rest will take care of itself. I have enough trust in my race team that they are going to take care the things they need to take care of and I'm going to take care of the things I need to take care of. We're going to go racing. This is a tough sport. It's a team sport. A lot of different elements go into it. For the first time in a long time I feel like I'm actually showing up for a gun fight with a gun, not with a knife. Ray has given my team the tools to go and perform and do well. My guys are making the most of it. I'm going to make the most it and I'm going to make the most out of the driving part of it and do my best and we're going to go from there."

FOCUS

Focus is one of the keys to exercising ability. If racing is a mental sport then focus is at the point of the frontal lobe. Racers can't always define what mental abilities they have or have fine-tuned but they all seem to have an idea what helps them use their mind to overcome other minds in machines.

Martin Truex Jr.

Focus is important. Do you think you learn focus or did you bring that with you?
"I don't know. I think it's something that you just have. I mean obviously when you race you get better at knowing what you need to focus in on during a race, but when you start racing you pretty much know what's going on."

Brian Vickers

Focus is so important. Do you acquire it or bring it to the racetrack?
"I think it's both. It's like the nature verses nurture question. I think it's a little bit of both. Some people are better at than others. And I think as you go along, anybody can improve themselves. Anybody can get better at certain skills or many skills."

Jamie McMurray

"I think that you're really born with that. I think that typically there are kids that is a dodge ball team is a pretty good athlete his entire life and is focused and dedicated. I think that's something that you bring from you're upbringing."

Casey Mears

"You know I didn't have any focus but they seem to have it over here at Hendrick Motorsports and they handed me some before I came to the Daytona test…so…I'm just kidding. (laughs)

"I don't know. You definitely got to be focused on what your job is and I don't know to what extent to really how to answer the question properly but I'm very focused this year on doing well for sure. I'm paying attention to detail and doing my job right."

Ward Burton

"I think focus in anything that you really enjoy and you give your all and set your heart at, it's something that comes really easy. I have a hard time focusing on some things probably most things, but if it's something that I'm really interested in and really enjoy I have no effort at all to stay focused. I guess that's why the teachers were on my case so much when I was growing up."

Kenny Wallace

Focus is so important. How do you maintain focus and timing with all the other stuff that you have to do?
"There's a lot of different things. A lot of people ask me. The difference between synergy and focus is way different. Synergy is when a stays together and believes in each other. Focus is knowing what I got to do. The twin 150's on Thursday. I know that a top 10 might not make the race. I got to get everything I can get. I'm excited about it. One thing we've got to make sure that we don't start wrecking each other until the last lap. If we wreck on the last lap going for that position then that was one hell of a race."