Virginia is for paybacks

Virginia is for paybacks
only Jeremy came back to the track on Monday. Considering you got out of that place alive and got a little breathing room in the owner points, how was the flight home?

Jeremy: It felt pretty good. That was probably the best flight I've had coming back from a racetrack in a long time.

Shana: Imagine that -- the day I don't go to the track, he gets his best finish of the season.

Jeremy: What's that tell you?

Shana: Maybe that it hasn't been that great a season -- but it's a start.

Jeremy: But it was cool, knowing that we had a decent day. We fought all day to keep the car running good because we did do some damage to it.

It seems like during all the wrecks we went through the grass or slid the tires or messed the fenders up -- whatever. But we were able to still salvage a good finish out of it.

It's pretty cool when the best that you ran all day was the last lap, and you beat [Jeff Gordon] and [Elliott Sadler] -- those guys that were up front all day.

To end up ahead of them at the end of the day was pretty neat and a pretty good feeling.

What were you thinking on about Lap 9, when you got to the end of the backstretch and you saw what was happening?

Jeremy: Well, you're thinking it's awful early to be racing this hard -- but we're at Talladega and this is what we do, you know?

Actually, you're thinking, "Buddy, it's awful early to close your eyes and drive in there like an idiot." That's exactly what you think.

Then all of a sudden you find yourself trying to dodge the wreck and stay out of trouble.

That was something I had to do the other day -- finish that thing -- and I didn't want to see that, that early in the race -- the big one already getting started.

But it did. I kind of knew it was coming, because a couple of laps earlier than that everybody was getting pretty wild right off the bat.

I kind of had the game plan to lie in the back and ride around there for a while and to see what was going to happen -- and then to race towards the end.

So I couldn't believe that, that early in the race something like that would happen, but it did, and we found ourselves going through the grass and messing our nose up.

I hated to see that.

Shana, I know there were unique circumstances that led to you staying at home, but what was it like watching the race via FOX Sports from North Carolina instead of atop the pit box?

Shana: I don't want to be mean, but I'm not a big fan of their coverage, to be honest with you.

Now I see what the fans are talking about when they write in complaining about not being happy with the coverage they're getting -- I can see why.

But it was hard to follow, because there were so many commercials. I had Buster, our coach driver on Nextel and we kept going back and forth but it was hard to keep up -- especially there.

I won't ever do it again because I don't like not knowing what's going on. I had Live Leaderboard up on NASCAR.COM but that can only tell you so much. There was a little bit of a delay with the TV, so it was hard watching it.

I felt like I needed to stay home and get caught up on things, but of course I was sitting in front of the TV the whole time, for four hours, so I didn't get anything accomplished.

It was definitely a different feeling watching it here, from being there. It's like two different races, because at the track I have a radio and I can see everything that's going on.

At home, when there was a commercial I had to wait to find out what was going on or get Buster on the walkie-talkie so it wasn't very much fun watching it on TV.

For sure, it was hard to keep up on Jeremy -- but I knew he was OK when I saw him come across the start/finish line so that was a good feeling.

We don't want to get Jeremy too fired up, but after your experience Monday do you feel like Buster might have a career option ahead of him as a pit reporter?

Shana: No.

Jeremy: I think he did a great job.

Shana: I'm saying "no" because I'd call him and I'd say, "Buster, what's wrong?"

And he'd say, "Shugah, I don't know. I think his car is pretty good now, but I think they're going to take four tires and make a track bar adjustment -- but I'm not real sure."

So I said, "OK, Buster -- just let me know."

Jeremy: Then all of a sudden I hear on my radio, "10-4 Shugah." He was talking to her and he pushed the wrong button and he was talking to me during the race.

At any rate, when you got home, did you feel like getting out and doing some doughnuts in your SRT10 pickup?

Jeremy: Oh yeah. I think I did a burnout up the driveway when I did get home.

Shana: Compared to how we've been, that was almost like a win.

Jeremy: We finished 13th, and that was our first top-15 finish in a long time, you know?

Shana: Our first top 15 of the year, and that's pretty bad.

Considering the way things have been going, did a 13th-place finish ever feel so good?

Jeremy: Oh, it never has. It never felt so good. I was just glad to come out of there unscathed from the wrecks. Knowing where we finished was an accomplishment in the points.

Shana: It's wild to think of, because I never thought that our best finish of the season, so far, would have come at Talladega.

Jeremy: But it was last year, when we were fourth in that race. Obviously, it wasn't our best finish of the season, but it was at the start of the year.

Shana: That's true. I didn't think of that.

Switching horses, you Evernham guys -- Jeremy and your teammate, Kasey Kahne -- have got some new TV ads going on that are kind of funny. I didn't notice, but was that car of Kasey's that a tire smashed an Intrepid or a Charger?

Jeremy: You know, I don't know. I haven't really paid attention to that part of it. That looked like his new paint scheme, so it probably was a Charger.

We don't have any issues with those Intrepids, anyway. But there's no telling what it would cost to get that thing fixed. It would take a while to get that thing straightened out, but I'm pretty sure they fixed it.

I think that's the one he's going to run at Loudon.

Shana: It might be the one you're going to be running.

Jeremy: I don't think the bars are high enough for me to get in it, any more.

Does that give a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Take 2?"

Shana: Yeah.

Jeremy: I'd hate to have to do a second take on that deal, you know?

Shana: I'm sure that was a one-shot deal.

Jeremy: I'll tell you what was pretty cool -- for them to roll a tire off the top of a building, or whatever they did, and to have it land right in the middle of a racecar.

They must've had their wind direction judged just right. Imagine if they missed just a little bit? The thing would have taken off, rolling.

I think it was a die-cast car and they just made it look like a real car when they crushed it. I bet that's what it was with some of that trick photography or computer work that they do.

Hollywood.

How did you and Tony Stewart get involved in that ongoing series of ads for Nextel's direct connect?

Jeremy: Well, it started with Tony, because he's a big jokester. He made that piñata of me and I guess he was going to use it as payback and beat the hell out of it, back at his hauler.

So to get him back, I just got me a bigger piñata -- his whole racecar.

You got piñatas available on your souvenir trailer?

Jeremy: We probably ought to. That would be a hot seller, to get some piñatas out there so people could have something to bust apart and beat up and stuff.

If not, I think they need 'em. But I don't even know if our souvenir trailer is out there or not. I'll check on that.

If it is, it's on sale.

Speaking of second takes, how many times did you have to do that thing where you folded up Tony's No. 20 behind a hauler? That didn't look like a die-cast to me?

Jeremy: We actually did two takes on that [laughing]. We killed two of his cars -- two of 'em.

But actually, the first one that we did crushed-up better than the other one, so that's what they used. It was pretty neat.

The second one didn't crush that far, it just kind of bogged the truck down and made the guy smoke the clutch trying to get it crushed -- and it wouldn't do it, so that was it.

How hard was it to keep a straight face?

Jeremy: Well that was payback for the piñata for his niece's party. So I thought that was a fair trade, to just crush his racecar if he wanted to get a piñata made of me.

Really, I thought the guy had plenty of room.

Shana: Oh my God.

Jeremy: I don't know how much funnier it would have been if Tony had come along right after we finished his car off. Who knows, there might be another episode or two coming out.

Shana: Like a soap opera -- a different one every week.

Jeremy: I was just trying to help the guy out and to get him turned around getting out of the garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Hmmm. Lowe's? I wonder if that had anything to do with crushing a Home Depot car?

Well, it was a good thing they kept the camera on the car, because I pretty much was laughing my a-- off. The whole crew was laughing because they thought it was so funny, the way it all went down.

I'm sure if you could get a copy of the bloopers from it; that would be even funnier than what the commercial was. But we had a good time doing it.

They just wanted me to keep a straight face and to keep telling the guy to come on back -- but all the while I thought it was gonna come apart and pieces were going to hit me.

I hate to see Tony's racecar get torn up like that, but it was an accident. Just like some of that stuff that happened at Talladega.

But you talk about payback, and there's a come around to everything. So you're going to Richmond this weekend and they've got that motorhome lot out behind the track, and you've got to get a cart ride to the infield every time. What do you think the catcalls might be like, this weekend?

Jeremy: I tell you what; I've gotten a lot of response over it. I think it's been funny and a lot of people like it.

But you never know. You might get one bad apple out of the bunch who might think that was Tony's Richmond car, or something, and they might want to retaliate.

Shana: Then I guess I would just have to come out and whip the p--- out of them, right?

Word Association: Richmond

Comeback

Jeremy: Richmond. This weekend.

Shana: Pull a Mayfield.

Payback

Jeremy: It's coming.

Shana: Nobody's on our list.

Outback

Jeremy: Kangaroos. Nick Hughes.

Shana: Richmond's Motorhome lot.

Source: Nascar.com