Q & A with Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie Jonson: It's going to take a little while to sink in. I think as tomorrow unfolds, putting the car in the museum, on the way to New York, I just found out I guess I get to go to New York, be on some great shows, be a part of everything up there. That's when it will start to sink in.

Right now I just have so much pride in my race team, what we have accomplished today with the circumstances we've been through. This is a well prepared team, a team that was very hungry and wanted to make a statement today. We stepped up and got the job done today and I'm very proud of my guys.

Q: Do you know how Chad [Knaus] enjoyed this experience. Where was he?

Jonson: I'm not sure where he watched the race. I talked to him briefly in Victory Lane as I was doing the hat dance. I look forward to talking to him soon.

He was pretty emotional on the phone. Very proud of this team, very proud of what we accomplished today.

Q: Do you feel like this victory has any sort of a mark attached to it in any fashion, any sort of a black mark, given what's happened in the last week?

Jonson: Not at all. This is the opposite of that. If you think about what we overcame, and the pressure that's on any team, in any sport, if they were faced with something like this, this is a huge, huge statement, something that I'm very proud of.

We play within a set of rules. Chad broke the rules. He's admitted that. He's in Charlotte watching the race today. He missed the event. We're serving our penalty. We're doing everything we can do. We stepped up today and won the biggest race in our sport, and it is something that I am so proud of.

Q: This morning when you were talking to the race fans, you had a note in your pocket. What was that note and what was your word of the day for the team?

Jonson: The biggest thing today for us was patience. Chad actually faxed down something he wanted me to read to the guys in the transporter today in our meeting beforehand since he couldn't obviously be there. I read his statement to the guys.

Anyway, I really just read something that was from Chad to the crew today, just telling them to do their best job, just the normal stuff to give everybody a shot in the arm, get them excited, get them fired up for the race, something from his side saying, "I believe in you guys, I've trained you well, do your job today," and everybody did.

Q: Jimmie, last year in restrictor plate races, you were often the focus of attention for maybe the wrong reasons from both your point of view and our point of view. It looked like it might start out that way again this week with what happened on Sunday. Is it vindicating that you can kind of fly under the radar in this race, sort of come up late, take a win like that, not have all the normal controversy?

Jonson: You have no idea how proud I am to be sitting here as the winner of the Daytona 500. There's been a lot of hating on the 48 team over the last year with some restrictor plate issues and an that issue I caused at the second Talladega race. There was some stuff before that that I didn't think was unfair, a lot of criticism on this team, me personally for driving the car, and then what took place this week with this team.

We keep talking about someone's curious if we feel there's a black mark next to this win. I think it's the complete opposite. There's a black mark next to qualifying. But the race, with the circumstances we've been through, and the situation that we're in, we overcame everybody against us I mean, every single media person, every single crew member. We deservedly had it. We were wrong in qualifying. We came back through all of that and won the Daytona 500. That's something I am so proud of.

We looked as bad as we could ever look, and we stepped up and got the job done.

Q: Ryan Newman brought up that he felt there was some conflict in three of your last three wins or three of your last four involving rules. Any concern over just your image being associated with rules violations?

Jonson: No. I kind of view it as jealousy, and he doesn't have a crew chief in there working hard enough to make his cars as good. If you look at what took place last year, we had an appeal overturned, which has never been done in the sport. We were complimented for the shocks that we built and designed at Dover. So it just depends on how you look at it.

This team has worked way too hard to even have those kind of comments thrown at them, and I'm going to be very defensive over it. This team works way too hard, all the teams do in the garage area. I'm disappointed that Ryan has to come in here and make some different statements and try to tarnish what we accomplished today. I'm very proud of this team, and we've worked very hard for what we've got.

Q: You did not put a mark on your race car, and your peers seem like they hit everything but the Florida lottery out there. How difficult was it not to get caught up in all that aggression?

Jonson: It was tough, believe me. Today was one of the hardest races for me mentally because the racer in me wanted to push and wanted to be aggressive out there. There were so many times I just told myself to stop, "Don't get caught up in this. Sit here on the bottom. Let these guys pass you. You have a good enough race car, you'll work your way back through here. Pit stops are coming up here, you'll have a great pit stop. Once again, come out towards the front." So I really did a lot of talking to myself, learned some lessons today.

Ultimately, I hope that I learned something today that will help me win a championship. In my eyes, I wonder if I've been trying too hard, this team's been trying too hard. If we just sit down, be calm and relaxed, do our job a hundred percent, not at 105, 110, if we do our job at 100 per cent, that we will accomplish what we want to, and that maybe at 110 per cent that we've been making mistakes along the way.

Q: Are you superstitious? At the start of the week, did you realize it was a good omen that it was the 48th Daytona 500?

Jonson: You know, Chad mentioned that before we came down, thought that the numbers may bring us some luck. Then the way the week started, I completely forgot about that, didn't pay a lot of attention to it until I talked to my dad in Victory Lane, and he reminded me of that on the telephone.

I don't think there's really a lot to it, but it's pretty cool it's worked out, being the 48th running of this race, and we're the 48 car.

Q: How did it change what your input was today, how did it change your role in this? How did you have to step up in Chad's not being here?

Jonson: Chad is such a leader, spends so much time really being around the guys, not only putting a setup underneath the car, but really keeping the morale up, keeping everybody focused on what they're doing.

I had a small piece of that, trying to be at practice as early as possible, around as much as I could be, to build confidence in the guys, tell them they're doing a great job. When the driver's around, the crew guys really just feed off that, take things a little more seriously.

Just being around, trying to be there for those guys, support them, talk to them, make them realize, "Hey, we're going to be okay. We've got a great team. Let's just do our jobs and do what we need to do and we'll be okay."

Q: Can you talk about how the chemistry and communication was over the radio between you guys today? Was there ever any instances where you weren't on the same page just because you don't have a lot of experience working in this role together?

Jonson: No, the great thing about the decision we made with Darian [Grub] to come in and crew chief this was his involvement with the team for so many years. He's worked alongside Chad as our race engineer, and was involved in all the conversations when Chad and I would talk about. You know, the handling of the car, the different things that I communicate to Chad, Darian is right there in the window with him documenting things and a part of that conversation.

Then the race strategy from the box, Darian's looking a little more in depth at everything because Chad has so many things to look at on top of the box. Darian and Chad communicated about calling the race and what needed to take place there.

So really to put Darian in was, in my eyes, the best thing to do for this team because the communication has already been started. We've been working together for three, almost four years. We know each other. Darian has a lot of respect inside the 48 team. So it really was the best decision.

We have some other great crew chiefs at Hendrick Motorsports that could have stepped up, been involved, helped the 48 team out, but we just felt that it would be easier and better for the race team to have Darian step up without this experience as being a crew chief because we already know each other and have that working relationship.

Q: Jimmie, even with the problems Jeff had, you spent a good deal of the race with two teammates right with you up front. That was all gone by the end of the race. I just wondered how you managed to hold on, how concerned you were when you had the Dodge drivers behind you when the end came down.

Jonson: Yeah, my teammates did an amazing job. I saw where Jeff and Tony kind of slid up the track and got into the wall. I was surprised to see the 20 back so soon, really kind of working his way through the field. I knew the 24 had some damage, unfortunately was probably going to affect his race. But the 5 and the 25, those guys were doing a great job. Kyle really worked with me and helped me get some huge pushes to work the outside lane and get to the front.

There at the end, I was behind Brian. I worked with Brian throughout the race. Brian was doing a great job. I'm so proud of him and the effort he put up. His driving abilities tonight, he really proved a lot to me. His car was probably the only one that was really loose out there. That thing was dead sideways at times. Vickers was wide open, hanging onto it, driving his butt off trying to win his first Daytona 500. So it was nice to have him up there. Once I think I got to his outside, I saw the outside lane coming, I moved up to block it, and got ahead of him right when the caution came out.

I felt very good having him behind me. But once I was in front of him and dirtied the air up for him, I could see him getting real loose behind me. I kind of felt like Ryan was going to set him up at some point and get underneath him because Brian was real loose up off the corners and couldn't hold it down and that happened. I wish that he could have been up there and we got a one, two finish. Like I said, he did an amazing job tonight.

Q: Were you happy to see Newman pull out and try to go with you? They had no momentum at that point, you could just take off.

Jonson: When he pulled out, I was nervous. Once the 42 got inside of him and they stalled out side by side, at that point I felt pretty good about the victory. Trying to understand what Ryan was going to do, he was trying to get me off the bottom so he could take that spot. I was trying to block him to a certain degree, but not leave the inside open. So it was pretty nerve wracking at that point. I was just waiting for his move looking in the mirror. He made it. The 42 stayed with me.