CHAD KNAUS
"I think if we ran 25th every week, we wouldn't be getting this much attention."
Q.
WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT JIMMIE AND THE PEOPLE QUESTIONING HIM, DO YOU WANT TO SAY TO THEM THAT THEIR PROBLEM SHOULD BE WITH YOU AND NOT HIM?
CHAD KNAUS
"Absolutely. Jimmie is a race car driver. Jeff Gordon is a race car driver. They show up and drive race cars. They don't build them. They don't go through the inspection process. You don't see those guys fixing the car when it doesn't meet the templates during the inspection process and stuff like that. You see the teams and crew chiefs doing that. Jimmie shouldn't be going through any of this. I hate it that he is. I've said it numerous times. I apologized to him one-and-one. But it's something we've got to deal with as a team and move on. If it gets bad or ugly, which it won't, it would hurt us in our championship bid. And that's not going to happen. I'm too big a person and Jimmie's too big a person and this is too great of a team to let this be anything more than a four-week suspension and then move on and go win the championship."
Q.
WAS THIS TOTALLY NEW TECHNOLGY OR WAS IT USED ON THE CAR LAST YEAR AND TOTALLY OVERLOOKED BY NASCAR?
CHAD KNAUS
"We got in trouble for the template not fitting the race car properly after inspection this year and that it really it."
Q.
SO NO COMMENT ON WHETHER IT WAS USED LAST YEAR?
CHAD KNAUS
"No, it was used last year, we got in trouble this year. If it would have been wrong last year, we would have gotten caught with it last year. That it is plain and simple. Their inspection process is very thorough. If we had done something wrong, we would have gotten in trouble last year if we had it and we didn't"
Q.
DOES HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS PLAN TO APPEAL THE PENALTY? ANSWERED BY MARSHAL CARLSON, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS
CHAD KNAUS
"No we do not plan to appeal the penalty."
Q.
HOW HARD WAS IT FOR YOU TO WATCH IT ON TV?
CHAD KNAUS
"How many kids do you have? How did you feel the first day they left for kindergarten the first day they rolled out? Did you cry, were you upset when they were rolling out? Were you sad? I can tell you right now that throughout that whole race, I have never been prouder of my guys. They went through all the kindergarten years, they went through all the high school years, and they went through all that stuff with me the last four years. They have all become great leaders, independent leaders of their own departments.
