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Jack Roush Teleconference Transcript (11/11/97)

12 November 1997

 
 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
 Jack Roush Teleconference Transcript
 November 11, 1997

JACK ROUSH (Owner #6 Valvoline Thunderbird) - HOW DO YOU KEEP MARK CHARGED 
UP FOR A WEEKEND LIKE THIS? - "My problem is probably the opposite of that. I 
try to maintain calmness and try to stay grounded so that we can look at the
bigger picture and not get all caught up in (this). The problem with that is
that I'm about as hyper as Mark is. Sometimes it's hard for both of us to
maintain the type of calmness that is necessary to make the most prudent
decisions all the time. We try to help each other through the weekend. I try
to calm Mark down and make him see this is not going to be a problem, this
will be fine. Maybe something has happened that wasn't expected and we didn't
want. And he'll do the same with me. He'll see my eyes start to cross and the
veins start to jump out of the side of my neck, he'll be telling me, 'It's
going to be OK, it's going to be OK.' And we just think about what we can do
to make the best of the situation. We don't have to wind ourselves up. We're
wound plenty tight as it is."

YOU'VE COME SO CLOSE TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP. IS THIS A POSITIVE BECAUSE YOU KNOW 
YOU CAN BE THERE, OR IS THIS A CASE OF MOUNTING FRUSTRATION? - "I have 
confidence in Mark and confidence in Steve and in Jimmy Fennig and, for that
matter in Jeff Burton and all our folks. If I didn't have confidence in a
person, I probably wouldn't show the kind of respect and approval that would
make 'em want to be a part of our deal for the long haul. Whether we win or we
don't, my confidence won't be shaken either way. It won't have any effect on
that. This is Mark and mine and Steve Hmiel's 10th year in Winston Cup 
together. I will be a little saddened that we didn't win, that we have missed
another opportunity. When we got to the middle of the year and we were as
close as we were, I was counting on the things that I could do and the things
that the engine shop could do and the things that the body shop could do and
the things that Mark could do and the things the pit crew could do to give us
the same kind of second half that we typically have. If we had gotten that, we
would have closed the distance, not withstanding flat tires and stuff like
that. If the 24 car winds up winning this championship, it won't be for NASCAR
rules and it won't be for any kind of luck. I sat here believing that they
have beat us and beat everybody else on the race track based on the way they
have run on an average day. That is just going to make me more determined to
go fix whatever small problems that I see that we can work on and get ready
for next year. We didn't have more than our share of bad things happen to us.
The guys did a great job recovering on days when we weren't great, or maybe
when we didn't take the right car, or the engine didn't run the way it needed
to, or something else. We recovered and we got good results from the decisions
that were made by Mark and Jimmy and by Steve. On an average day, we've got to
tune it up just a little bit. Saying that is not an indication that I'm not
confident that Mark can do it or that I'm not confident that I can do my part,
or that anybody else can. We've just got to take what we see and what's 
happened to us, and we've got to build on that by capitalizing on the 
positives and eliminating the things that weren't great for us going into next
year."

DO YOU THINK THE SEASON IS GETTING TOO LONG? - "I'm a pretty hard racer. I
have a little trouble figuring out what to do on a weekend when there is no
race. It's awful hard on the people. It's hard on people with families. It's
awful hard on Mark and the drivers. It's one thing for me to climb up on my
box or walk up and down pit road and be tired from my adrenaline drain at the
end of the day, but I didn't have to be out there in a race car when it was
130 degrees inside and I wasn't subject to the vibrations and the G-forces and
the noise and the other things that are fatiguing. I'm sure it's got to take
Mark and the other drivers a day or two to get their bodies back to
equilibrium. And when the races come every seven days, or the race track
experience comes every four days, that's got to be harder on the human machine
than it is on everybody who is watching and trying to help from the outside.
They are definitely pushing the limit on human endurance. And for the folks 
who are raising families and trying to maintain the kind of balance in their 
life that most people who look at and say that is what a person ought to do if
they are responsible, physically and for his family and for himself, there's
not much time for that."

DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS TO SHORTEN THE SCHEDULE? "With all the pressure
from stock car racing, there's room to do more with Busch Grand National
events, there is room to do more with the truck events and there is probably
room to do more with some of the other lesser NASCAR series. But some of the
places we go to, Rockingham and for sure Martinsville, it would be just fine
to go to those places just one time and to go some place else where all the
fans are having all this pressure. Rather than see the schedule get fuller
than it is, I would rather see us pick some of the low-attended, low-paying
races that have high expenses based on the number of tires they use and the
number of car damage that is generally done. I'd rather see those decreased to
only one appearance a year. But they need to make their business viable, so
promote the truck event or the Busch event to a great extent. I probably
haven't given you what you are wanting as far as saying we should go and run
two series, East and West. I know there is talk about all that, but it's not
clear to me that we are at that point yet. You see a big gamble there. People
are used to saying Mark and Dale and Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton and Terry 
Labonte, they are used to seeing those folks, and if you split that group in
half, there would certainly be a gamble there and maybe some of these race
tracks wouldn't get filled up. But going to race tracks once a year versus
twice a year would not diminish the number of folks who would come that one
time."


By Ford Motorsports Public Affairs