'Quicken Loans 400' Post Race Interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Steve Letarte

The following are excerpts & quotes from a post-race interview after the Quicken Loans 400 from Michigan International Speedway!

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The interview is from race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. who drove the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew The Dark Knight Rises National Guard Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports to victory..  He is joined by his crew chief, Steve Letarte.

In the interview, Dale Earnhardt Jr. touches on this being his 19th win, on the challenges the team faced with the tire change-up late in the race weekend, & on his peers being happy for the team.

He also touches on comparing this win to his last win four years ago, on his trust and faith in his crew chief, on how they won the race, on Rick Hendrick, on how late they might have partied that night, and there's general overtone, that no matter what the question, you get the feeling this team is not just running races, but planning, plotting and seeing a plan come together slowly but surely, with this win validating that plan, and validating the team as a whole.

Dale Jr. touches on the faith of his fans and oh, yea, Steve Letarte pipes in, touching on knowing his driver still has the urge to win, and a few other points!

The Interview with Dale Jr.:

On his 19th Sprint Cup Win

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  We had some tough things to overcome this weekend with the tire issues and they made some changes and ... I wasn't very confident after the practice last night.  Steve felt pretty good.  ... I was a little nervous when the race started, the car was not quite where I needed it to be.  We were not in too big of trouble.

I worry whether he (Steve Letarte) knows exactly where I'm at or what I need with the car... But I guess he knows me well enough, because he made the right calls, and the thing took off flying.

Then, he made some pit strategy choices that put us toward the front to where the car could respond, and if we had a fast car it was going to happen, and it did.

From there on, did everything we had to to keep ourselves in the top five to stay in the clean air, because it was definitely difficult in traffic, especially from 10th on back.

He did a great job putting the car toward the front and the car responded when we got there.  I was running around behind people and learning about what my car was capable of doing, and pushed my car a little bit harder each time we ran around the corner and found where the car was comfortable and fast, and just tried to maintain a good pace.  I was worried about tire issues and stuff like that, even late in the race because our car kind of started turning better, and I was thinking, man, I'm going to work the right rear a little harder.

I saved a little in my pocket in the last 50 laps and ran only as hard as I thought I needed to, and at the end of the race, this thing was a rocket and I couldn't slow it down, it was so fast.

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STEVE LETARTE:  Yeah, it's been an eventful weekend.  I think it really started back in Pocono.  We had some concepts and some ideas in the race car we took there and it showed speed so we were excited to get here.

We were pretty comfortable with our car on Thursday and on Friday we were disappointed to see the tire trouble because we thought we had good speed but understood the situation and what needed to be done.

I can't say enough about our guys.  It was a long day yesterday and they left with as much energy as they came in with and were ready to go this morning.  The engineers put a tremendous car together and Hendrick engines stuck together.  We went over our laps, for sure, in practice; and to be able to run 200 strong laps today was a total team effort.

We had to make adjustments on our car today, we made them early and then worked really hard on our pit strategy.  Just kind of all worked out.  It was great.

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On the new tire combo on race day:

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  The car was a real handful, especially being around other cars, -- when they change the tire, it takes away a ton of mechanical grip.

So the car really relies a lot on the aero grip from that point on, and when you get around other people, you lose that.  So when you have no mechanical and no aero, the car is a real tricky thing to get through the corner.

Then we were thrown into a deal where we had about an hour to figure it out...  but we only had 25 laps on our motor.  Our motor tuner would not let us run more than that,

I was desperate in that last practice to get something to work and when it ended, I still wasn't really sure if we were where we needed to be, and I woke up this morning just antsy not knowing how this was going to play out.

We had done so well up to this point, cognizant of the Top-10s and the laps we have ran and how steady we have been all year and I just want to keep that going each weekend.  I felt like we might be getting ready to have a difficult race.

we'll probably have to tire test here again and figure out something a little bit better than this, because this definitely ain't the answer.

...I would I have hated to see anything happen to anybody or even myself with a tire failure or something like that at this speed.

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On his peers thinking they could win the championship And being happy for them:

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I guess it means I'm an all-right dude.  (Laughter) When people are happy for you, they want to see you do good.

I feel like we are getting stronger.  One of the things that we did last year throughout the season was kind of maintain, and -- even though I was happy as hell to be with Steve and be able to run well and be competitive, I was a little disheartened that I didn't progress through the year really.

This year, we have gotten faster throughout the year.  We started off pretty quick and we have gotten quicker, and quicker, especially these last couple weeks.  So that's been a thrill for me.

I don't know really where we stand in the competition level and what-have-you, where we are, as far as being a threat to win the title.  I think that's a great compliment from Matt (Kenseth).  ...We just kind of kept our nose to the grindstone to try to win a race.  We'll just try to keep doing that and win the next race and see what happens.

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On Looking Back at his last win four years ago, compared to today:

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I was so nervous in the last few laps of that race four years ago, and today, this was the worst -- that's the worst feeling riding around there with 15 laps to go wondering what's going to happen or how you were going to lose (laughing).

I was just thinking, man, those laps could not go by fast enough.  I was like -- I've got a big lead, I'm going to take it easy -- no, I want to run it hard, get it over with. 

I kept thinking about Steve and the team and how hard we have worked and how we deserved to win, and how we should win, and was hoping it would happen for everybody.  You know, that was -- but that race four years ago was a fuel mileage race, and today we just whooped them really good.  So that felt good.

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Dale Jr. On Steve Letarte:

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  It has.  We have been doing some great things.  He's hard to compliment, because he doesn't take it very well.  But him and that team, they can have all the credit -- my engineers and Steve sit in that lounge every weekend and make the car go.  ...They make it whatever I want it to do.  If I ask them, you know, this is my problem and this is where we are hurting, they get together and they fix it.

That's amazing to me.  ...it wouldn't have mattered who was driving it today.  That car was going to be the fastest thing out there and going to win the race.

Steve is just really sharp.  He called a great race.  I trust in him to do that every week, and I know he will.

...you can see how this team is as good as it is just by being in the shop and watching him sort of dictate and move pieces around like on a chessboard.  He's really sharp.

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Steve Letarte on Dale Jr.:

STEVE LETARTE:  I ...never in a moment or a day did I ever question his desire to drive.

We sat down kind of when the whole deal came together.  We spent some time that off-season.  We went to Vegas for the banquet and a couple other things and I laid out what I thought would be a good plan to approach the season, no different than I would for any of the other years.  And he was completely on board, gave his opinion on things which were great.  Any time you can get an opinion of a veteran driver, a guy that's won that many races, that only makes your team stronger.  We went to New Smyrna to make laps, and from day forward, we have been all steam ahead.

One thing I can say, we have had bad runs, good runs, disagreements, agreements, but from the day we started working together, I hope he's never questioned my desire to improve the team and to run well and I never have questioned his desire and where he stands as far as the team and what our goals are when we came in here.

You know, that's hard.  It's a long season.  There are weeks you are cranky to come to the racetrack.  There are weeks they change the tire on you after you've worked two days, and you know, what else possibly could happen, and I could say, you know, it's not always been peaches and cream.  We have had disagreements.  That's great.  That's healthy disagreements.  But I can say really the devotion and desire was never questioned by me at all.

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What this win means to them:

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Yeah, there's a lot of things.  We're in the All-Star Race next year, so we don't have to grind it out in the shootout.

We are back on the Winner's Circle Program which is a big deal, to the company, as far as income and revenue.  ...I've never had bonus points for the Chase (chuckling).  So that's neat.

... I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.  We have to go to Sonoma and figure out how to get around there and how to get my first top-ten at that place.  We have a lot to accomplish this year.

I got moved into that shop a year and a half ago, and that shop's got all the trophies and got all the wins with Jimmie and Jeff, and they are used to success.  So it feels good to be able to bring those guys what they deserve, all the employees will get bonuses or what have you from this win.  So the whole company sort of gets to enjoy the effect of this.

We have got this victory bell that I get to take around for the first time since we built it.

STEVE LETARTE:  That's right.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  And ring the hell out of it... I'm going to ring that damn thing as hard as I can.  (Laughter).

So it's a big deal for me.  But I like seeing... on everybody else's face. 

It's so awesome to see how many other people it affects and how many people are affected by that kind of what happened today.

STEVE LETARTE:  The only thing I would say is what today does is solidifies decisions like last week, makes them a lot easier one way or the other.

You know, we had confidence in one another to make that decision because we knew the goal.  We had discussed the goal.  We know what the goal was.  The goal was to get as many points as we could to get out of there, and that's every week to, run as good as we possibly can.

...When you're down seven or eight runs in the ninth inning, bunts are not going to work.  You have to start putting guys on base.  This proves to us that our strategy is correct.

If you bring fast enough race cars, you don't have to get out of your comfort zone too far and you don't have to get super crazy with your pit strategy.  We say it all the time, you just need to put in hard work, hard work every Sunday and this helps us understand that we are not crazy; that our goals and what we have been trying to do has been working.

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Q.  What did Rick say?  And secondly, Tony Stewart said it's not a national holiday?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I do.  For me it is.  (Laughter) I'm sure his running second for me won't be a holiday, either.

It feels good to win, and I'll enjoy it, and in a day or two, I'll be thirsty for the next one.

...I told him that I had to thank him for sticking with me and getting me back to victory lane and he went through hell and high water to make it happen and he should enjoy, enjoy the win.

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Did Dale Jr. think about his dad as the laps wound down?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  No, sir, as much as that would be a good story, I had not really thought about much even being Father's Day and I wished a lot of opportunities to wish everybody a happy Father's Day.  It just slipped my mind pretty much.  But it is Father's Day.

So I'm happy for that fact due to the circumstances and it makes it mean a little bit more to have won on Father's Day, and you know, get the opportunity to just come here and sit down and wish everybody a happy Father's Day after it slipping my mind all day long and missing it through all of the other interviews I've had to do.

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On the victory party running late?
STEVE LETARTE:  Not one day, I can assure you.  (Laughter).

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I'll probably lead by example, but I'll probably just see what everybody else does and just kind of jump in the pool if the water is warm.  ...I don't want to get carried away.  We have a great thing going.  We want to be sharp and I want to be sharp when we go to the next race.  We have a tough one at Sonoma and we have a got like a chip on our shoulders to go there and run well because of struggles I've had at that place.

We will enjoy this and I cannot wait to go home and see my family and my friends.  I know that they are dying for me to get there.  So we'll have some fun tonight and you know, Steve will probably get home a little too late for this evening, but it's whatever.  We have got a couple of days off.
I have a promotion to shoot with Clean Coal on Wednesday so I need to get my ship righted somewhere around Tuesday morning to be sharp for them guys.  That will be that.

...We have a conference meeting on Tuesday with all of the drivers and crew chiefs and that will be a thrill since we won, but we have got to start talking about the next race.  We need to keep our eye on the goal...

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Q.  Are you more relieved or excited?
STEVE LETARTE:  Excited.  I think a little bit of both.  I think if it would have happened last year it might have been relief, because I don't know if we had the speed last year.  We had some good runs and we had some good cars, but we had some consistency, but nothing like this year.

I'm a true believer in statistics, and I don't think it's luck.  I think you make your own luck.  You get bad breaks along the way, but if you have a strong enough race team, and strong enough cars, then even the bad luck can't hold you down forever, and I think this year, we have earned this win.
...When you start to have winning cars, and then you finally win, it's excitement.  I don't think it's relief.  Because now you have winning cars and you know that the hard work is paying off.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I would say the same thing.  I thought it would be all relief but it was no relief at all; it was excitement.

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Q.  ...At what point did you feel the fans?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I would imagine they were into it, I came off of turn four for the checkered and they were pretty excited all the way down the front straightaway.  And I felt good for them because they had -- my fans had went through a lot to stay dedicated and they stayed loyal...

...I felt the fan base.  I felt the excitement and the emotion from them immediately, almost immediately.  As soon as I got out of the car, that was my initial thoughts was about how many people were in their living rooms screaming at the top of their lungs and running out in the yard or whatever they do (Laughter).

I just wish I could see it all at once.  That was the one thing I kept thinking about.

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Q.  I believe out in victory lane, NASCAR president Mike Helton said, "I think Dale Junior declared today that he's the guy to beat this year for the Championship."  I know you already talked about contending, but what does it mean to hear that from him?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Mike's an awesome dude.  You know, between him and Rick, it doesn't come any better when it comes to having it all together and being a sharp person.  I trust him all the time for guidance and advice and leadership, because he's so awesome at it.

So it means a lot coming from him to say that.  I hope we can prove him correct and we'll just keep working.

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The man asking the questions was Kerry Tharp, transcript excerpts were from "Fast as fast ass FastScripts by ASAP Sports ..."