Here are some of the best quotes from today’s media luncheon at the 2015 FVP Knoxville Nationals featuring Brian Carter form the World Racing Group and Wednesday night’s feature winner Shane Stewart.
Brian Carter on what is new and exciting for 2015: “For the first time in about 10 years not a lot of new, drama, or excitement. Nice and steady. That’s good for the spot I believe. Really optimistic as we talk to sponsors, bring in people, and expose our sport to the world it’s in a pretty good spot right now. Optimistic about 30216. Great dialogs with great marketing problems that can help us grow hwat we love so much. Nothing new and exciting, but a lot of great progress and lots of things to look forward to. We have great backlog, a wonderful group of tracks. Tom and Carlton really orchestrated and incredible schedule so hese guys can get up and down the road. All the states we do with 90 plus events. In that perspective its very nice, looking at a great backlog of tracks for nextg year. Looking for a very similar schedule. Couple of little tweaks here and there to make it easier for the guys on the road.”
Stewart on his retro Jeff Gordon car: “It’s as actually Kendra Jacobs idea. She came up with the idea several months ago. Everybody as soon as they saw the car they were on board. Of course I was on board because the history part of this sport is really special. Just to commemorate what Jeff has done it really special for me to drive that 16 car, and extra special to have Kick-It on the side of it. To be a small part of that organization and what it’s achieved the past four or five seasons being associated with me. The icing on the cake was being in victory lane last night with Jeff in town, all of the Eneos people, Just and Kyle together, that doesn’t happen very often. So everyone to be there to enjoy that makes me feel special because they work really hard to make my job easy and give me a fast hot rod on a daily basis. With the throwback car it’s really cool, it looks good on the race track, and the suit. Kendra had the idea of going to a suit Jeff wore from when he went to Australia. I got a lot of complements on that as well. “
Stewart on beating Donny Schatz and his opportunity with Larson Marks Racing: “I haven’t’ done it enough. I’ve run second to him eight or nine this season. The thing is the group of us beat ourselves up because Donny and that team are so fast on a daily basis. He’s been fast at tracks he’s normally not fast at, so that gets into your head. Then you start thinking, ‘what am I doing wrong?’ Then it becomes a point where you have to forget about him. You have to concentrate on your program, and that’s what we have been able to do. We’ve been pretty consistent. Being the first year full time back on the World of Outlaw tour since around 2005, this has been the best opportunity I’ve had. I just tried to take full advantage of it. My career hasn’t gone the way I’ve wanted it to go, but I think all of the hard work and dedication I put into it is starting to pay off a little bit. A lot of great car owners I drove for along the way that taught me different values of trying to appreciate where you are at in your career. Justin and Kyle are no exception to that. They have been great car owners. They do not micro manage us, they let us do our job. At the beginning of the season Justin told me, ‘don’t worry about the points. Just try to race day to day. If you have a bad night, just try to focus on the next one.’
Shane Stewart on his good luck at Knoxville Raceway: “A lot of it is good luck. I just really like coming here. I love this week, I love the fans, I love doing stuff like this. I wish we could have more events like this where we can actually park our motor homes, get setup, actually put our own awnings out, relax for a minute and enjoy the week. Its always special. Always have a lot of friends and family that come and enjoy the eek weith me. This year is a little more special and because I have Nixon with me and be able to have her with me all summer, so that’s really nice. We’ve been saying as a tgropu Nixon has been our good luck charm. Hopefully that works on Saturday. ”
Shane Stewart on how fatherhood has changed him: “As a person a lot. The driving part of it puts everything in perspective. When you have a bad night, its not as bad anymore. It’s a juggle at times. She’s seven months and she’s starting to get pretty busy. I’m kind of late in the game as far as having kids, all my buddies have had them already, and everything they told me about how fast they grow up, how much they change, it’s no lie. Any time I’m away for a couple of weeks, the Facetime has been nice to have, but to see her change in front of me and not through the phone has been really cool. She’s been a joy, a great baby, and we’re already starting to talk about #2, which is kind of scary. ”
Stewart on losing his World of Outlaws ride in 2005 and having to put together various rides after that: “Actually thought I’d be back the next year honestly. It seems like the guys that are out here and get associated with different car owners and crew guys, it seems like those guys stick around. They don’t really go away. So I thought something would pop up and it didn’t. The best way I can put it is I wouldn’t have traded any of it because it made me a better person and want to work harder because I wanted to do it full time, but I wanted the right opportunity. After the Beef Packer deal fell apart I told myself I wasn’t going to come out here until it was a good, solid ride and felt like I could take advantage of the situation because there is nothing worse than being out here on the road and getting beat up, bad results. It just brings you down mentally and physically, it’s a grueling schedule. When the LMR deal got brought up I was thankful enough to become good friends with Kyle Larson because Justin was kind of green on the sport and relied on Kyle to know who to hire and Kyle said he would like to have Shane Stewart drive the car. So thank God for that and thank God for this opportunity because it’s been a joy event last year just running 50 races we learned so much and it helped us be successful this season.”
Stewart on being locked into Saturday’s A-Main: “Sign of relief when you know you are going to be in the A_Main. It’s a hard race to make I say every year the 12 laps between qualifying and the heat race are the 12 hardest laps of the whole year. The way they invert the field, the way the competition is, we knew if we did qualify good it was going to pretty tough to pass in the heat race last night. Of course Donny and a couple of guys were able to get through there and get to the front, but it was tough on them. Of course we didn’t qualify like we wanted to, but we were able to take advantage of a front row spot. To keep my consecutive streak of A-Main starts alive makes me happy. “
Winning: “Everything. It’s something you dream about growing up. You see the names on that trophy .When I won the Kings Royal I forgot about all of the cool people that had won that race, to get that trophy home and look at the plaque and see all of the cool names on that trophy. It’s no different than that one. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. I think everyone here and the people I’ve talked to are ready for a new champion, I’m hoping it’s me. The best thing about Donny and him personally they make you work harder and harder. He’s going to be tough to beat once again, everyone knew that because he’s had a heck of a win. For me to win it would mean a lot, it would mean a lot to my family. The sacrifice to get into the sport and starting racing professionally. I’m not a spring chicken anymore. People forget I’m getting ready to turn 40. I don’t look 40, but I’m getting ready to turn 40 and have been doing this professionally for 15 years, so I’m very fortunate.
Stewart on competition across the country: “I think it gets tougher every year. The competition level at a local level or a series lik the All Stars or ASCS even, every series is tough. They always have their two or three big guys. We have seen it the past month or so. The outlaw guys haven’t been beating up on Donny, it’s been the local guys. That makes it though when you roll into Pennsylvania we all know as a group we have to get our elbows up as a group because they are so good at those race tracks. Their equipment is good as ours, their engine program is good, they race full time, so honestly those guys could come out and run on the outlaw tour and compete with us on a daily basis. So we know when we roll into those different regions we are going to have our hands full. I think the competition level with us on the road, if you take away the 15, its cutthroat every night. You see it in qualifying all the way through the dashes.”