ON KOBE BRYANT:“It’s kind of bizarre because I wasn’t really a huge fan of Kobe Bryant. Obviously I’m a fan of the game, but looking back and seeing all the videos, I’m still watching videos to this day, of what he’s done in-game and post-game after he retired and seeing how big of an icon he was and how big of an impact he had on everybody, I’m sure he touched everybody in this room when he passed. To see somebody have that big of an impact, you can only hope to leave that sort of impact when it’s your time to go. Man, seeing how he was as a father and a player, it’s like all right, I want to line yourself up to follow that path and it was a huge loss for the sports world and just for the world in general. To have that impact globally speaks volumes to how he was as a person. I think I’ve got to change up a few things to have that sort of impact in my career. So, we’ll start right now.”
ON HIS CREW CHIEF, JERRY BAXTER:“It’s good. Jerry has been one of those guys. The longest we would go without talking to each other was probably a month; whether it was picking on each other or hey man, good luck in your race day. I’m talking your boat out. That’s what he would send to me because I keep my boat at his house. So, it’s free-reign when he wants to take it. It’s cool to have that friendship off the track and be that guy that you can talk to about anything and now he’s moving into the crew chief roll again for us. And he’s doing a heck of a job so far. It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve only had a handful of laps on track together, but I feel like we’re going to shape up to be a good duo and lead our team to a lot of success this year.”
HOW DO YOU NOT LET YOUR FRIENDSHIP RELATIONSHIP GET IN THE WAY OF DOING YOUR JOBS?“At the end of the day, we all know it’s a business. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to be competitive and get the job done first. So, we won’t let this dampen our friendship or anything. It’s good having that relationship with each other to be able to attack the problems that we may have in our future together and then try to come out with a solution to give us the best possible outcome.”
IS IT GOOD TO HAVE HIM BACK ON THE TEAM?“It is. It gives you a piece of mind, for sure. One thing that we were lacking last year was just the leadership role. Everything else, Derek (Stamets) did a great job, a tremendous job, stepping up to the plate; because that was kind of thrown on Derek last year. He’s been in the sport for a really long time, so we always got our cars super good to race with and maybe a handful of races that we didn’t. But when it came to just hey man, go out there and deliver and do the best that we can, he missed that aspect from Derek. And, so I wanted to bring Jerry in to bring that leadership role to the team.
“I tossed a bone out there and said hey man, would you ever go Cup racing? For you I would. All right. He really loves trucks and he really loves having Sunday’s off to go out on his boat. I told him like five times, hey man, no more Sunday’s off. You get like two. And it’s a long season. Are you sure? He’s like yes. All right. I texted him when we flew down here on Thursday night and said hey man, if you’re scared, don’t get on the plane (laughs).”
ON NEXT YEAR’S SCHEDULE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?“I hear there’s a bunch of road course races. If that’s so, I’m out. I’m not very good at road courses. No, I don’t know. Whatever they have to bring is fine. More short tracks would be good.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE?“It doesn’t matter what I like. We just get to the race track and go racing. If we’re going to a short track, all right. We’re going to a speedway, all right.”
MORE RACES OR LESS RACES?“Maybe we should shorten-up the season. That would be good. One time at each track and get it over with. Unless it’s our best venue (laughs).”
WITH THIS BEING THE START OF JIMMIE JOHNSON’S FAREWELL TOUR, WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE JIMMIE STORY?“Maybe partying with him after his last championship. That was pretty cool. Or, jumping in the #43 filling in for Eric and here at Daytona in the July race it was under caution and I was driving right next to the No. 48 and I’m like all right, this is pretty cool driving right next to Jimmie Johnson on track. Last year at Texas 2, we were under caution. We were having a terrible race. I looked up on the pylon and he was like fifth and I’m like hell yeah. I just happened to look over and he’s right next to me so I pulled and I get close to him and I gave him a thumbs up and he comes back and revs it up at me. So, he was pumped. I’m a huge fan of Jimmie. I said it earlier at Media Day in Charlotte. Everybody in the field wants to compete against him but all of us are pulling for him. I know I am; to get back into Victory Lane and go out and win the championship. That would be cool.”
DOES IT AMAZE YOU THAT MAYBE HE DOESN’T GET THE CREDIT OR RECOGNITION OVERALL THAT OTHER PEOPLE DO THAT HAVE DONE SUCH AMAZING THINGS?“Oh, yeah. When they say seven time champion, they say Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. And then they’re like oh, and Jimmie Johnson. It’s like what? I’m right there with them. I guess that’s just Jimmie’s persona. He’s cool, calm, and collected and under the radar. I don’t think I’ve done anything to make him really mad like Blaney did at Watkins Glen. But, I held him up in Qualifying, I guess, at Bristol; but I got held up too. He come down to me and hey man, what’s going on. What are you talking about? That’s another story. Jimmie is an all-around great guy. He knows how to get done on the race track. I’m not sure why he doesn’t get the credit. Maybe he needs to put his foot down. I don’t know.”
WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE NORMALLY VERY OPTIMISTIC? HAS THIS CHANGED YOU?“No, the sport has brought me to be more realistic than optimistic in life, in general. I don’t get excited about much anymore. Its just part of it.
“I get excited in the moment. Don’t get me wrong. I get excited about racing. I had a dream, was it last night? I had a dream that we won the (Daytona) 500. That was good. I think it was last night or the night before. I still dream about that stuff. But, and then I’m like damn, that was a dream. That’s unfortunate. But, I still get excited about things. I don’t want people to think that I’m just walking around like Debbie Downer.”
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DREAM? WERE YOU IN VICTORY LANE OR WERE YOU IN THE CAR?“I don’t know. I say I won the race and I should remember. I think we crossed the line and I’m like hell yeah….we just won! Cool! We made the Playoffs. And then I woke up and that was it.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 U.S. AIR FORCE CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Daytona 500 Media Day Highlights:
