Quotes Page No. Two... More words from great drivers
RACER QUOTES Story and photos by Dwight Drum
© 2000-2007 Dwight Drum Web work by Larsen & Drum
More words from great racers, owners and crew chiefs. All quotes were acquired by RaceTake.com (formerly Zoomster.com) through face-to-face interviews, teleconference questioning, and motorsports press releases.
Answers selected represent the best thoughts of those who dare to push a motor to ultimate speed within the confines of a racetrack. It's no mystery that racers apply gray matter to asphalt and concrete routinely.
Fast thoughts from racers often describe the best about deep speed. The following words are just a few caught when wheels stopped and minds kept rolling.
"It's like being on a bullet. Being on a bullet you get punched, you get beat up."
Ralf Kelleners, Grand-Am Rolex Series Autometrics Motorsports ,describing what it's like inside a race car during a race.
"Speed is relative. Does it feel fast going 70 miles per hour down an eight lane highway? No, probably not, but I bet it does if you are going down some single lane dirt road. It’s the same in a race car. It depends on the track."
Kyle Petty when asked about feling speed in race cars.
"It's just all about opportunities, knocking doors down and see who answers."
Denny Hamlin when asked about giving advice to those who want to be race car drivers.
"If you think you've stopped learning, you're going to get lapped."
Robby Gordon was fast to answer if motorsports drivers ever stop learning.
"Way too much thinking for me."
Kevin Harvick when asked: Looking at how the Chase has sort of played out here and you're sort of talking about how maybe luck is going to play a big factor into it. Is it possible that you could sort of take maybe that factor out of it by points racing, take the luck factor out of it by points racing, and conceivably if you're points racing you'd probably be leading the Chase right now? Again, it might be easier said than done, so I'm wondering your take on that.
"For us there is no difference between second and tenth, it's win or nothing."
Denny Hamlin explains his mind-set going into the Chase for the Championship as a rookie.
"Hopefully we can bring the car home with more pieces than the last time."
Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya talking about learning to race stock cars and about the Iowa track where he crashed in an ARCA RE/MAX event.
"I was driving the car around the high groove and all of a sudden the wall jumped out and slapped the side of the car."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. talking about a SAFER barrier at Talladega that wasn't aligned with the track all the way around… "So, it kind of jumped out and grabbed me."
"I think we're our biggest competition. I think the racetrack's the biggest competition. If we go and race the racetrack and try to go around the racetrack faster than our competition, then that's the goal. I look at it as a competition between us and the racetrack because it's all about lap time."
Jeff Burton when asked who was his toughest competition.
I'm a straightaway guy - I only go around corners if I'm on fire, trust me. I love what I do, but I love all motorsports - Indy Car, Formula, all of that. But drag racing is my love.
John Force when asked if you would consider driving and owning in NASCAR.
"You can go from having all your stuff together and really feeling good about yourself to really figuring you can't run a lick."
Jeff Burton when asked if he had a veteran edge.
"The totem pole on our team is horizontal. It's not vertical. Everybody is on the same pole at the same time. Everyone is on the same level. Nobody is larger than the team."
Chip Ganassi about expanding his NASCAR team to three cars.
It's a high-speed, high-banked soup bowl. It's a monster. It's Bristol's Big Brother."
Kurt Busch about the "Monster Mile" at Dover International Speedway.
"It's go time. We need to score points, a lot of points, every race."
Jimmie Johnson about having a bad start in the Chase for the Championship
"The racing is no different if it is day or night except you see the lights and the sparks. You run the race the same. The day or night doesn't really affect the race."
Ken Schrader when asked about night races.
"Over the years I have raced on just about every type of surface, including an occasional unplanned excursion on grass, as well as a few other tracks that might make some of today's drivers reconsider their career choice. I've seen it all and done it all, with about the only thing I haven't raced on is mud."
Warren "The Professor" Johnson about track experience in his long drag racing career.
You can't buy or create it. It's just something that you have."
Jimmie Johnson. When asked about NASCAR drivers need to adapt and learn on the NEXTEL Cup level.
“They can look inside themselves and say, look, maybe I'm doing something wrong here and fix it.”
Carl Edwards when talking traits in good drivers.
“If you do this long enough, you get some pretty thick skin. Everybody has to realize that we’re going to be doing this for a long time and you have to appreciate today and tomorrow."
Doug Yates responding to the loss of Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler at Robert Yates Racing in season 2006.
"Well, dad was really aggressive, and Jeff wasn’t very aggressive. It seems like he’s getting more aggressive as he’s getting older. Jeff is really, really smooth, where dad was sort of barbaric with the race car. They were very different in their driving styles.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. when asked: How do you compare Jeff Gordon and your dad as race car drivers?
“I always have fun. I don’t really go without fun too long.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. When asked, are you having more fun this year?
“I think any driver that ever gets closed-minded into thinking ‘This is the way it worked last year, I think this is the way we have to keep doing it.’ I think they'll be left behind and shuffle to the back.”
NASCAR driver Scott Riggs when asked if a driver ever quits learning.
"I don't care how good you are, you have to have that feeling in your gut that you want to win every week when you go out there.”
Tony Stewart, two-time NASCAR champion, when asked about common traits of champions.
“Your stomach goes up in your throat. But you have to drive the roller coaster.”
Angelle Sampey, NHRA drag racer, describing what it's like to ride a Pro Stock Motorcycle at 190 mph.
"The most intense thing you do. Whatever makes you see stars. Whatever trips your trigger and makes you forget anything else that’s going on in your life. The ultimate roller coaster ride. "
Clay Millican, Top Fuel Dragster driver, describing what it feels like to race at 330 mph.
“I have to remind myself to breath. I have to remind myself to brake. I’m trying to see. I’m trying to hear. I not only smell it, but I’m feeling it. As it starts to shake, I’ve got to get off the throttle. I use all my senses in four and a half seconds.”
Hillary Will, Top Fuel Dragster driver, describing what it feels like to race at 330 mph.
“Your brain has never really caught up to what you are doing.”
Funny Car drag racer Ron Capps describing a typical 325 mph run.
"I do it because I love it. Whether I win or not, it motivates me to win again. When I lose it motivates me to win. ”
John Force, 13-time NHRA champion, after saying that winning isn't everything.
I'm not a robot; I have a personality and I have emotions. I have a humorous side to me and an angry side to me."
Jeff Gordon when asked about showing anger at the racetrack.
“I’m kind of quiet but when I put my helmet on, it’s like you flip a switch. I’m ready to go.”
Martin Truex Jr. when asked about the “way calm” part of his personality.
“The madder I get, the faster I go.”
Martin Truex Jr. when asked about what goes on inside him during a race.
“Hopefully the trees wouldn’t hurt me.”
Martin Truex Jr. when asked hypothetically about being taken to a quiet forest where the trees don't know him.
Addtional Racer Quotes available at MORE
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