2006 Select Q & A

Zoomster.com selected some of the best answers to our questions in 2006 and arranged them for fan review. We hope you enjoy reading the thoughts of your favorite driver as much as we enjoyed asking them our quesitons.

NASCAR Nextel Cup Teleconference Moments

Jeff Gordon, Driver No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet

Dwight Drum asked Jeff Gordon:

Do you feel NASCAR drivers ever stop learning?
“I don't think any driver ever stops learning. Certainly not NASCAR drivers, even though we're on oval tracks all the time turning left most of the time, you know, every track is different. Every track changes, every year the tires change the cars change. There's just constantly new things that are thrown at you that push the envelope and push you into constantly learning.

“This has been my 14th year now, and trust me, a lot of things have changed over the years, and I know that, you know, this year has been one of those years where I learned a lot of things. We're changing our setups and how we run the cars and how we design cars and think of things in wind tunnels and simulation. Obviously the teams are constantly learning things to make our car go faster but as the driver, you've got to stay on top of that as well, so absolutely. Always."

What are your emotions on race day just before they say, “Gentlemen, start your engines”?
"I'd say my emotions have changed over the years. My rookie and sophomore years, I was nervous about the event and what was going to take place. But now that I really accept how long the races are, and know in the back of my mind that I've got four or five hours of work ahead of me, I enjoy the pre-race ceremony and the national anthem and watching the flyover and getting in the car and making sure I'm buckled in and all my safety stuff is right and the radio is on and all the gauges are right before I roll off pit road. It's more of a systems check than it is an emotional high like it used to be."

Debbie Speicher asked Kasey Kahne:

Your career has come a long way in a short time. What has impressed you most along the way?
“Obviously the cars, I enjoy racing. I’ve done that since I was little. Now I’m at a great spot in my career to race in the top series. I really enjoy that. Probably the things that have really made it neat are some of the other things that come along with it like recently starting the Kasey Kahne Foundation with my sister. Because of NASCAR and Nextel those are the reasons I can do that because of all the fans out there. To start a foundation like that to help underprivileged kids really means a lot to me. Those are the things that stick out. Hopefully we can keep doing it and doing better.”

Dwight Drum asked Matt Kenseth:

Can you feel momentum building up to a win, or does a win happen and then you feel momentum within your team?
“That's a good question. Sometimes it happens in the middle of it, sometimes it happens at the start of it, and sometimes it just happens and you don't have it on either side of it. That's probably not a real great answer for you.

“I can feel momentum a lot of times but not necessarily from wins. You can have momentum and do like we did at Chicago last year, get beat on two tires and not win the race and still have a lot of momentum. And then I think you can have times, for example, Dale, Jr., wasn't really having a great year last year and he came and won Chicago, had a great pit call that day and won the race and probably didn't have a lot of momentum before that race and probably didn't have a lot of momentum after the race, either.

“I think it can come at any time. I think you have a better chance of winning when you have some momentum and you're running good and leading laps and doing all that stuff, but I think it can really come at any side of it."

Debbie Speicher asked David Gilliland:

You must have learned a lot with the Busch win. Do you believe the driver learning curve ever has an end point?
"No, I don't. I think for me it don't anyway. Every time I race, I learn something. For instance, the week before, a month before, we went to Lowe's Motor Speedway and we missed the race. We missed the race, but we learned something and we took that to Kansas and we won. Every time you race, you learn. And that's what I like about racing against the NEXTEL Cup guys in the Busch Series is that it pushes you to learn more and it's made me a better driver, and that's why I race, to be the best driver I can be. So racing against them guys and learning every week we race, that's what it's all about."

Dwight Drum asked J.J. Yeley:

Can you identify some of the other significant lessons that you've learned so far in your rookie year?
"You know, the biggest thing is you really have to exercise a lot more patience. You know, the races are so much longer, you have so many more opportunities to work on your race car as far as pit stops, maybe early in the race if the car is not handling, to really not be -- not to go out there and switch the envelope, maybe overdrive the car, get yourself in a good position to wreck or get wrecked.

"You know, the Busch Series, after racing it for three years, the races are fairly short. You might only get two or three opportunities to work on your race car. You really have to make the most of track position all the time. The Busch race and the Cup race, you race them totally completely different.

"The other big thing is just the things you learn from racing with the veterans of the Cup Series when you are in the Busch Series, that training helps you make that transition to when you're going out there and you're 50 laps into the race, you know if you're faster than a guy, can you race him for a couple laps, he'll generally let you go because the more time you spend racing with each other, the more time you're going to lose on the racetrack. I guess just learning that respect and how it all plays out to your advantage."

Dwight Drum asked Steve Wallace:

What have you learned most from moving up to the Busch Series?
"I've learned a lot. Surely I come from racing short tracks like around the southeast, and I won a lot of big races and I kind of stepped up to this season where I'm returning mostly the shorter tracks like occasionally there's Kentucky and stuff like that but like short track racing is short track racing. I went to Martinsville and just drove like I usually do on all of short tracks. But definitely you learn a lot from like guys like Kevin Harvick, Kenny Wallace; the man is a legend, Clint Bowyer, all of those guys really help you out a lot.

"The Busch Series is like for surely not like - not like it has been in the past. There's a lot more competition. It's all NEXTEL Cup teams and stuff like that. It's definitely hard and when you're running up front and running good with those guys, you're surely showing something."

What traits learned or inherited do you believe helped propel you for the Chase for the Championship in your rookie year?
"Wow, I definitely would probably say my dad's impatience at times. He's probably the worst, most impatient person I've ever met. I can get that same way. I don't want to have to wait to be successful. I want to do things right away. I want to do whatever it takes to be successful. I think that's kind of helped me."

"And my mom, I guess maybe you could say driving ability from my mom. She is wide open on the highway. I mean, she is on the gas or on the brake constantly. It almost makes me seasick she drives so fast sometimes.

"Between those two, they definitely helped me out with the genes, that's for sure."

It's so difficult to attain a win. Does that affect your performance, your team's confidence?
"Yes and no. I mean, obviously winning heightens your confidence level a lot for every team, any team out there. But I will say another way to build that same amount of confidence is to put consistent top five finishes together. That's one of the things that has gotten us in the Chase, what really built our confidence prior to the Chase was that we put together a pretty good string of top five, top six finishes that to me were impressive.

"If you look at total points earned 15 races prior to the Chase starting, I think we were right there with Harvick, first or second among earning the most points. That in itself builds your confidence up just as much as winning.

"I think that's why it's so important to win early in the season. I think winning a race early in the season can really keep you going for a long period of time. Then I think you've got to do it again in the middle of the season to get that back and to carry it into the Chase. Of course, if you can get one in the Chase, then it carries you throughout the Chase. So wins are very important, definitely."

You and your team are known for rebounding. Can you compare the challenge of the task ahead of you now to past challenges?
"It's what the whole season's based on, is becoming the champion in our sport. We've got a huge challenge ahead of us. I don't think it's an impossible challenge. I don't think it's something that we're shooting for the moon on. It's something we're going to have to go out and work hard for. That's no different than anything else we've done."