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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: CHEEZ-IT 355 AT THE GLENAugust 10, 2014Brian BurnsBrad DaughertyJodi GeschickterTad GeschickterWATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK KERRY THARP: Let's hear from our race‑winning team here today, the 29th‑annual Cheez‑It 355 at The Glen, and our race winner for the first time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career is AJ Allmendinger, and AJ is still out in victory lane, but we have his crew chief Brian Burns and team owners Tad and Jodi Geschickter and Brad Daugherty. I'm going to start with Brian Burns. Brian, congratulations on this win. You're going to be in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Has it sunk in yet? BRIAN BURNS: I don't think so. I'm pretty sure by the time I wake up tomorrow it'll hit me, but right now it's like watching a movie, and this is the good part. KERRY THARP: Jodi, you've been up here a couple times with the Nationwide races that you guys won. JODI GESCHICKTER: We've been up here with Marcos Ambrose before. KERRY THARP: That's right. You've won in the Sprint Cup Series, the highest level of motorsports. Congratulations. What does this afternoon and this win and everything mean to you? JODI GESCHICKTER: This win has been a long time coming. We've been in the sport for 20 years, and it's flown by, but you take it a week at a time and you hope and you pray that this is the week and you prepare, but you never really know what's going to happen. There's so many variables, and I try to explain that to some of the younger guys in the sport. You always have to be on your game, you always have to be prepared and be in a position to win. This week we were. I can't be any happier to have won here in Watkins Glen with Scott Products on the car and with AJ Allmendinger and our family up here with us. It's a wonderful place to win. It's a real blessing. KERRY THARP: Brad Daugherty, you've been in a lot of athletic contests. You've been at the top, but this has to feel right up there at the top today. Congratulations, and talk about this win here today. BRAD DAUGHERTY: Yeah, absolutely. It's so hard, this business, the racing business. So many talented people once you get to the top. It's very difficult. We're a smaller team as everyone continues to talk about, so it's a little bit harder for us. We felt when we went to Sonoma this year that we were going to win that race, and we did everything that was right and ended up having a bad day. When you're a smaller race team and you tell people, man, we should have won that race, they're going to‑‑ and you haven't had the success, they discard you. They say, yeah, you're just dreaming. I've been saying all along I thought we were a top‑20 race team, and we haven't been able to prove it. But with a glimpse of what we saw today, we didn't back into it, it wasn't a rain delay, it wasn't a caution, he got up on the wheel and beat a guy who I think is possibly the best road racer on the planet. Great day for us. We work really hard. A lot of people know Tad, and I'll tell you, I've never been around someone so dedicated to a group of group as Tad and Jodi. Tad spends six or seven days a week on an airplane so we can all come out and do this. He busts his butt. Jodi keeps the office pinned down, and me, I get to talk a lot. We all have our roles, but it's a great group, and it's a big day for the little guys, because like I said, we got a chance to kick the big guys in the knees today, and boy, we kicked them square in the chin. KERRY THARP: When I think of Jodi and Tad, I think of class. BRAD DAUGHERTY: Absolutely, best people. I'm so fortunate to be in business. I don't even feel like it's business. We're friends. We have a great time. We go racing. Jodi feeds us and makes sure we don't get too sick and do what we're supposed to be doing, and Tad hustles his behind, makes sure the lights stay on. We've got a true family atmosphere and we're lucky to have a young man like AJ to have an opportunity to have a driver of his caliber. Our crew chief Brian Burns, unbelievable job this year. He's coming into his own as a crew chief. He was texting me throughout the race to keep me from having a stroke up because I was questioning his pit strategy and about to lose my mind. He kept assuring me it was going to be okay so I needed the comfort. Great group of people. We're not the biggest and not the baddest, but we're the winners today. KERRY THARP: Tad, just your comments about today. I see you out at the racetrack every week and know how passionate you are about the sport and how much it means to you. TAD GESCHICKTER: You know, it's such a great sport. I've got such a belief in it as a marketing platform for brands. I believe in it with all my heart. First person that comes to mind is AJ Allmendinger. I've told him since I first got to know him that when he believes in his ability as much as God gave him the ability, he's going to be hard to beat. I think today he showed everybody just what a great talent he is. Great family, his parents and their support just means the world to me to see him get to this pinnacle of the sport. I think of just the 40 people, we always talk about sometimes the sling and a stone and great faith is enough to slay the giant, and they work together as a team every day and work so hard, and then I think we're really blessed to have sponsors that have stuck with us for 20 years through thick and thin. There have been some thin times, and I just think of them and what it means to bring them to victory lane. It's just gratifying. Q. Brian, you came and tested. Talk about the effects of that on today. BRIAN BURNS: Yeah, we know this is one of those races we put on our refrigerator on the calendar there that we have a chance to win, a little more than some of the other places we go to. Had a great car at Sears Point and brought that car out here a couple weeks ago. Was fortunate to test with some good cars, as well, to be able to gauge ourselves, the 78 and the 9 and a few others were there. Left that test feeling really good. AJ has been focused all week, showed up here feeling just as good about it. Wanted to make a long run in happy hour just to see where the car was going to go and he pulled off before 10 laps even in to it. And he's like, I don't need to go any more, I know we're good, go ahead and switch over to qualifying trim here, so he was just as confident as we were, and it showed today. Q. Brad, compare what this victory means to you to a victory that you got as an athlete. BRAD DAUGHERTY: Yeah, Kerry asked me that earlier, and that's a great question. The thing that's different is there's so much involved in this sport to have a perfect day like we had. Pieces, parts, a lot of different people, and playing pro basketball, if we were playing a team or whatever, I had a lot of control over what I could do, and if I was having a great game or any pro player was having a great game, you're in control. But this thing is so much ‑‑ just like you saw today at the end of the day today, all the cautions. Man, we were going. I was so excited, we were checking out. Just had to save a little bit of fuel, and boy, I'll tell you, my heart rate was great, and you're sitting there and you know the cautions are coming here. It's totally out of your control. The situation we were in got a little bit out of our control, as well. I think that's the biggest thing is you just don't have total control over it. When you have a moment you can seize like he did in those last few laps, you've got to dominate that moment. That's what really, really good professional athletes do, and that's what you saw AJ do today. Q. Was there a specific moment in your career as a player that you can compare to today? BRAD DAUGHERTY: Boy, I'll tell you, I don't think so, because as a pro basketball player or a college basketball player, I always knew that‑‑ we get to win every week. In this business we don't get to win every week. To have this opportunity is just‑‑ this is a pinnacle moment for our race team. We've had a couple opportunities, should have won Sonoma a few years ago, should have won it this year, but we didn't, so today is a huge day for this company, this organization, and just shows you what perseverance is all about. We're little bitty guys, man, and like I say, we got the big guys today. Q. Brian, you knew what you were up against having had Marcos in the equipment. What's your strategy at that point because you know you have the best guy going against the best guy. Do you just kind of put it in your driver's hands? BRIAN BURNS: Yeah, I think we did our own thing from the test, and I felt like they were watching us more than we were watching them, so I felt like maybe we were a step ahead the whole time. I felt good about that. You could hear them on the radio, what are they doing, where are they at. We had a strategy that we went with that was different than most of the rest of the guys out there. We went with a three‑stop deal, had to catch that caution right after our second stop, and it hit perfectly. We pushed it to the‑‑ I think it was lap 47 there and only had like a lap on the tires so when the caution came out we were fuel only and good to go after that. Kind of watching from the Nationwide race yesterday. And just being with AJ, anybody in that field I'd put them up against him, especially on restarts. I think that's his forte and everybody sees how aggressive he is, and he did that today. Q. Tad, you had to make a big decision last year to take Bobby out of the car and put AJ in. How hard was that, and what was it about that kid that you just knew that this was the right thing for JTGD? TAD GESCHICKTER: Bobby is such a great champion and a friend. He had done a lot for where we were at that point in our Sprint Cup development, helping us build out the team. Once he helped us get to that point and was at the end of his career, I did not know AJ Allmendinger until the first time we met in Richmond, but the more time I spent up against him, and Bobby broke his clavicle or whatever and we got to work with him, I knew he was the right guy for this team. We try and run it like a family and he was looking for a home. It's been a lot of fun. I consider him a friend, a tremendous talent, but a really great person. That's what I look for. Q. Brad and Tad, first of all, congratulations. Four races from now you guys have to change gears. AJ was in here yesterday or two days ago saying he might make the Chase but I'm not sure we're quite ready to contend for a championship. But now that you're in, you might as well go for it. What do you do? BRAD DAUGHERTY: We're going to have a meeting with Richard Childress first thing in the morning. We need a ton more horsepower. But the reality of it is, it was going to play out today, and it comes down to pit road. That first stop I really was watching because in order to compete with the bigger teams, at this racetrack you're going to have to have sub‑15‑second pit stops, and when we get back to running the oval tracks we're going to have to be in the high 12s. Our first stop was 14.4, and I was like, man, our guys have dug in. That's going to be the biggest thing for us. We go back to the mile‑and‑a‑halfs and start competing, it's going to be a little bit more difficult because the simulation software for all these race teams but with the ride heights and AJ's ability, if we can qualify the car well we're going to race okay. I'm confident in Brian, I'm confident in my pit crew. I think that we have more in us. We go to racetracks like Atlanta, we go to places like Martinsville, Bristol, he's good at those racetracks, I think we've got a chance. If the dominos fall correctly, we've got a chance. So we've got to put all of our eggs in one basket. We don't want to just be there as a back marker, we want to make some noise. TAD GESCHICKTER: For me, the mile‑and‑a‑halfs with a lot of grip, that's been our Achilles heel. Richard Childress brought the brand‑new approved chassis to Indy, and it showed really well, so we've got one of those in the hopper, and if we can shore up those high‑grip, high‑speed places, when you're slipping and sliding around I'd put AJ against anyone, if we can do our job on pit road, I think we can contend. Q. Former champion Tony Stewart wasn't here today because of a tragic event. Brad and Brian, your thoughts?  I know the racing community is a fraternity. Your thoughts on this tragic loss? BRAD DAUGHERTY: Obviously just a catastrophic evening last evening. Our sympathies go out to the family that lost the young man. And it's been a difficult day for the Stewart‑Haas organization. We all recognize that and we all feel like we're all family because we travel 36 weeks out of the year it seems like 100 years together. Our hearts go out to Tony, but specifically out to the family. It's a tremendous loss, and I thought that Stewart‑Haas and Tony and those guys did the right thing by showing the appropriate respect to the situation as well as the family ‑‑ more importantly to the family by not racing today. We'll see what unfolds of that, but our thoughts and prayers go out to that family. Q. You guys have been associated with a lot of different organizations. Can you tell me what RCR is bringing to the table for you guys and how you can expect in the next few weeks to build off of that? TAD GESCHICKTER: You know, there are a lot of these technical alliances out there, but Richard has been a mentor of mine since my first year in the sport and always taking the extra time to show us what everything is about. And the effort they put into the system so this engineering alliance works is second to none. When they said we'd be partners, I believed him, and he's gone above and beyond. Instantaneously in the garage if Ryan Newman changes a spring, we know it. He's put his money where his mouth is, and we appreciate it. We wouldn't have done it today without him. KERRY THARP: Thank you very much. Congratulations, and look forward to seeing you here several other times. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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