PIR DRIVER QUOTES

Source: RacingWest.com/Janet Peery
Date: 11/03/2004

Join in as we continue to add quotes from the drivers.

What were your initial thoughts of coming to PIR and what are they now?

• Thomas Martin :The very first time I had no idea of what to expect. I talked to Matt Crafton and he gave me a visual on that track with regards to what it would be like. It was one of the most incredible experience of my life with the speeds and everything the track had. Now it is almost 2nd nature, although I sometimes think I did better back then (laughing), you know what to expect, but it is almost a false security.
• MK Kanke: Honestly? I was young and dumb the first time I came out here. I was like 19 or 20 years-old and it was at the Copper World Classic. There were a lot of good guys racing that gave me plenty of room. I think there were 60 some cars and we qualified 9th and finished 9th. We were lucky, too. I learned that this track deserves respect. Rookies have work cut out for them when they come to PIR.
• Brandon Riehl: My first thought was I was a bit nervous, but with the safer barriers it makes you feel better.
• Craig Raudman: The first time I can hardly remember. I was intimidated, the track was really fast, and I was apprehensive. I was fortunate enough to come with Dan Press and he drove me in a rental car a lot and got me used to it. We did a lot of laps. Now, even though I have had some hard wrecks here, I feel I am in control and the race track is not. I am able to get the car comfortable and know what it needs to do which equals to my having the confidence to run a successful race.
• Darrell LaMoure: I felt the same then as I do the 11 years I have been coming. It is so exciting, it is big, every thing is big -- the stands, the desert, even the sky. It is always a rush the first day you arrive.
• Greg Voigt: Very unique and different biggest track I had ever been to. I am more comfortable now and enjoy coming here now.
• David Gilliland: The first time I was a little intimidated it looks narrow but after racing on it, it is one of my favorite tracks now and I look forward to coming to it.
• Nick Lynch :I was way over my head the first time, because it is so fast, but once you get confident in yourself and car it is like another short track. I love it because it has multiple grooves and you can race clean. It is a lot of fun.
• JR Norris: My crew chief has been coming here the last 10 years and has knowledge of track and we have talked to a couple people, so feel good about it.
• Brett Thompson: First time in 2000 we came down for practice to get some time on a big track and I worked all day on just by driving, just made laps and didn't change a thing on the car. Now I have more confidence in the track, myself and the set up. It is a fun track, you can race, not very often you get taken out, you can race the guy you are trying to pass and if you are in lap traffic you can find a way around them.
• Danny Burson: Confidence mostly, I am more comfortable now
• Eric Holmes: The first time here it was a little spooky. First time I went out I felt I was doing well, warming up the car when Hornaday and Carelli flew by me once at tremendous speed. Now I am used to the speed and I got comfortable. A lot has to do with car. If you have a good car that handles well it is as easy now as driving a car on a freeway.
• Burney Lamar: I was fortunate enough that I had Phil Perry to crew chief for us and before qualifying we knew we had to lay down a lap to make a show and we turned a great lap that put us 10th out of 78 cars in the Copper world. Every time we come back to PIR I look forward to coming and I am hoping maybe we will be getting our first win tomorrow.
• Auggie Vidovich: The first time it was unbelievable fast and I was a little uncomfortable with it. But there are so may tricks you pick up as you go and talking to the veterans helps. Now everything has come a long way and it doesn't seem so monstrous now that I have been on it a few times.
• Rip Michels: 1st time I didn't know what to expect, tech was an ordeal, track was huge, it was nothing we were used to. I felt comfortable coming back the next time. I have a comfort level with it now.
• Jim Pettit II: Any time you do something with experience you improve. The first time at Phoenix was overwhelming. We had only done short tracks. But I enjoy coming to PIR now.
• Jeff Jefferson: Now I feel comfortable it's like you have to have respect for this place. It is one of my most favorite tracks. I would be crazy to say I wasn't nervous and intimidated my first time here. You learn so much when you come out here; every time you come you learn more. I cannot wait to come back here next year
• Zach Niessner: Completely different. I was intimidated and was shaking in my boots the first time. Phoenix isn't huge but compared to the short tracks I was familiar with it is faster and gives the car a different feel. I have come to like the place and feel confident we have a good car. We just haven't had the finish we would like. What were your initial thoughts of coming to PIR and what are they now?
• Dan Holtz: The first time I came here it was so intimidating. You always hear how tough and scary it is, so as a driver it is a big moment in your career to get to race on what you have heard so much about. You are pumped with adrenalin and once you get through the nervousness and after a few times of going out on it, at this point it becomes fun. It is a favorite race track. I am in love with this place. It is one of the best tracks we go to. It has a lot of room.
• Nick Joanides: It was intimidating; I was used to short tracks. This place was huge. Now it is second nature. Been here enough times that I am comfortable now.

How do you feel your season has gone so far?

• Thomas Martin :Disappointed, we ran well but haven't finished well. I feel we have to finish races stronger next year.
• MK Kanke: Pretty bad in the beginning then Junior Joiner and Victory Circle built me a new car and we didn't give up. Our Sears Point finish we had a top and were going faster than anyone we had some problems during the race but they got be back up front.
• Brandon Riehl: Not the best, I was dumped 6 times, I used to be the dumper and became the dumpee (laughing).
• Craig Raudman: Had a good year. Felt we dropped the ball in the last few races, it frustrates me, it wasn't a lack of effort, but more a lack of luck. Jim has been on the game every race, so that allowing to get behind part I am not real happy about, but overall it has been a good year.
• Greg Voigt: It has been up and down. I am proud we have put a finish together. We ran well just not finish well in the beginning. It has all come together now. I did my part and they did they part and we got there.
• David Gilliland: Good. Nothing but positive and learned a lot very successful we have won 3 races; we accomplished all our goals this year.
• Nick Lynch: Rough up and down. Have good runs but couldn't get the finishes. I am ready for next year to start.
• JR Norris: It went pretty good, I wanted to win the whole thing, we had a little bad luck I am not disappointed in the season, it was the first time I ran in the Elite division.
• Brett Thompson: Up and down. We started off with down notes, not sure we would be able to race at all now we are feeling positive and looking forward to next year.
• Danny Burson: Not very well, had some hard luck, some we created for ourselves, it is our 3rd season, but didn't have a lot of experience with these cars. We are still learning.
• Eric Holmes: Competitive but had a lot of bad luck. Cajon was my first DNF in two years, and then Tucson was the first time I crashed in 2.5 years. I had intentions of winning the championship, but I had an up and down year. We have been competitive, we have 2 wins, 2 poles, but we are disappointed with points position.
• Burney Lamar: I feel that our season has gone great we have had a really good year. Everyone has given 110 just haven't had as good of luck as the other competitors.
• Auggie Vidovich: We didn't run a full schedule because of finances, but the last 4 races with Rich Fountain and Mike Harvick everything is going good and today we had a good car and great qualifying run. I am happy.
• Rip Michels: Little bit of everything, we did what we thought we could do. We have a shot at top ten in the points and we are a contender for rookie-of-the-year, thought we might have a shot at a win, the learning experience has been the biggest thing this year. We learned a lot.
• Jim Pettit II: We have had a good year that is for sure. Could not have asked for many more things. We have 4 wins 11 top tens out of 13 races. My team made great strides my guys take a lot of price in what they do. It is a whole team effort and I think it shows for the great year we have had.
• Jeff Jefferson: Excellent. We had two bad races, got ourselves in a hole and never gave up. We got the most poles, the most wins, and the Northwest championship. Everything went great.
• Zach Niessner: We have gone a long way. I only raced a few races this season. I raced one Southwest Series at Irwindale Speedway, the ASA at Nashville and the Southeast Series at Lakeland, Florida. We won at Nashville and Lakeland and had the pole at IS.(If this is incorrect it is my typing, not Niessner's wording).
• Dan Holtz: We started off this year to run for points, but had five flats in five races, pulled out of the points race, just kind of many adapting to new things and to different techniques. Trying to change over to making a big change, over the winter and we hope to come out early looking strong. We are stuck with stuff right now that is a little wrong for what people run today, the geometry wrong. Looking forward to a good start next year.
• Nick Joanides: 2nd half has been great, but unfortunately our season started out rough, we caught on fire first time at Phoenix, so it put us behind the 8 ball.

• Thomas MartinWe are doing more of a race set up because we have a provisional that we can fall back on if we have problems qualifying.
• MK Kanke: We run Junior Joiner set ups, don't really know until qualifying what we are going to do.
• Brandon Riehl: Race set up. We are not that familiar with the track yet, we just want to learn and be there at the end.
• Darrell LaMoure: A number of teams will work on two set ups one for qualifying and one for the long runs, the long runs very critical so I would be working on both. And we are working on a used tire low fuel set up.
• Greg VoigtWe are going to try to set it up for qualifying. We have not done that in the past. We never had a good position on the track. I think we can finish higher up, we were 11th last time and I want to improve on that by getting a better starting position.
• David Gilliland: We set it up for qualifying and at happy hour we will work on the race set up.
• Nick Lynch: We just focus on race setup and hope we get it so it handles best in the middle to late run. We do not do a qualifying set up.
• JR Norris: It depends on my crew chief, usually we made an adjustment for qualifying, but not a setup for qualifying.
• Brett Thompson: Usually when we come we focus on race and if we feel we are good enough for pole we might focus on that
• Danny Burson: We pretty much work on car balance and if she has good balance she will do well all the way around as long as the balance is good short or long you can get a good finish.
• Eric Holmes: Basically we have a few things to qualify, nothing major, and we will try our new tires. We practice so early it won't help for race set up, so we will have to wait for happy hour to work on that. We are hoping the car will run like it did last month and last for the race.
• Burney Lamar: We don't set the car up for qualifying as we would rather win races. We have a balanced race car and it worked for qualifying.
• Auggie Vidovich: We set the car up for race and the last run we tried some qualifying stuff, some things that some teams throw at the cars for qualifying would cost too much money, but we changed some springs.
• Rip Michels: I think this trip we are looking to get out with good notes, get comfortable learn stuff for next year, not worrying about qualifying. We just to learn for next year and get out to the Shootout.
• Jim Pettit II: We set it up to race. We do well at race time we need to work on our qualifying deal better, we qualified decent here and Tucson, but we set it up for our race set up to be good at the end.
• Jeff Jefferson: We came here with the set up from Pikes Peak. We struggled all practice, happy hour, and qualifying. We decided to switch back to the set up we used here before. We are going to be cold turkey on this set up. It is kind of a shot in the dark.
• Zach Niessner: We qualified with race set up and have a car good on long runs 2nd quick yesterday on old tires. Going to save tires. We have a top-5 race car.
• Dan Holtz: We had to change a motor we had engine failure before qualifying and had a cracked head. We just went out and made an attempt at qualifying. We had 5 minutes after we got the motor in until we got to track. We think it is a better car than showed in qualifying, maybe a top-ten car, but not a winning car.
• Nick Joanides: We run race set up.

What one track would you like to see added to the schedule?

• Thomas Martin: Willow Springs, Laguna Seca or a another road course
• MK Kanke: I would like to go back to LVMS Bullring.
• Brandon Riehl: SIR
• Craig Raudman: Las Vegas Bullring is a great track to race.
• Darrell Lamoure: Big restrictor plate track at Las Vegas
• Greg Voigt: Pikes peak looks like a fun place.
• David Gilliland: Pikes Peak
• Nick Lynch: Rocky Mountain Raceways at Salt Lake City
• JR Norris: Richmond would put on a real good show -- and Bristol.
• Brett Thompson: Pikes peak we raced there in the Tour, it is another good race track where you can race. And the Vegas big track. We need more big tracks, especially in the West Series. That used to be the draw to the West over the Southwest-- might as well run Tour cars at the tracks we are going to.
• Danny Burson: Albuquerque
• Eric Holmes: Las Vegas Bullring
• Auggie Vidovich: Pikes Peak and Big Vegas
• Rip Michels: For sponsorship, I would have to say Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. They are great markets, provide a good venue and realistically great places for us to go to.
• Jim Pettit II: All the places we go are awesome, I am not familiar with the Northwest tracks and I can't think of another track in the Southwest that we need to go to.
• Jeff Jefferson: Pikes Peak
• Zach Niessner: Pikes Peak nice facility great trip
• Dan Holtz: More Mesa Marin races. That is my favorite track. They used to have 3 events there. I would love more events at Mesa Marin, maybe run 3 or 4 times there.
• Nick Joanides: Pikes Peak or either of the Vegas tracks.

What rule change would you like to see?

• Thomas Martin: I would like the only testing at tracks you race at the day before the race, no open testing on track that we race at.
• MK Kanke: The reason I drive these car is because of these cars. It is a fun car to drive. I would like to see them soften the tires, put it back into driver's hands.
• Brandon Riehl:
• Craig Raudman: Nothing comes to mind really. Softer tires make a better race. And I have raced with a team with a budget that could test, but no testing will be fine with me too.
  Rules have escalated right down to the late models. When you have late model guys buying a 25k motor and Penske shocks, it has got out of hand. With the cost of living, all that extra money is not there
• Darrell Lamoure: I don't mind the rules so much; they are a fair set of rules. Enforcement of them is questionable.
• Greg Voigt: That I get to have more horse power than everyone else. I honestly don't know. Softer tire, so it puts it back in the driver, maybe.
• David Gilliland: I am happy with everything.
• Nick Lynch: Really everything is pretty good. We don't have a lucky dog rule, but I like how things are.
• JR Norris: They have good rules. I don't have any complaints on the rules. They do a good job of keeping it as even as possible.
• Brett Thompson: They do a pretty good job. Cant think of any. Would like them to just stick to the rules.
• Danny Burson: Something to get cost down. Not one rule.
• Eric Holmes: I am happy I wish they would quit changing rules. There has been so much changing the last couple years, I can understand the safety, but it gets expensive. I am happy; it is just the travel and purses that is what makes it tough. The travel is more expensive than the price of running a car. Fly 8 people with rental cars and hotels and there is no way around it if you want to take care of your teams. I don't like being here for 3-4 days and don't think it is necessary.
  A different tire might make the car more fun to drive. This tire is horrible to qualify with it is sad when we go to tracks where we are slower than we were 10 years ago. I would like to see better tires. With the tire we have now can we can abuse it all night. I like to save it to the end.
  Testing is ridiculous. The way it is now everyone tests almost every track. Eliminate it completely or give 3 or 4 tests.
  Don't like Friday, another day off having people off week. Limit it to four tests a year.
• Burney Lamar: NASCAR does a really good job. Would like to see less rule changes. Happy as it is right now.
• Auggie Vidovich: Nothing, really.
• Rip Michels: Not any one rule, if there was a way to make the series less expensive, but I don't know what that rule would be.
• Jim Pettit II: End testing to make it fairer. If you eliminate the testing it doesn't put small teams to a disadvantage. Eddy McKean came up with an idea to practice the night before if you want you can but the time if you don't want you don't have to. The concern would be tracks would fear they might lose money they are making now.
• Jeff Jefferson: Everything is good. Invert should be four or six. Starting fast guys at 9th or 10th makes it tough for them to win.
• Zach Niessner: A softer tire would be better. As far as testing. I am against the elimination of it. I feel if teams have money they should be allowed to do it. I would like to see uniformity in the application of the rules. It would be nice if all the series teched more or less the same. I have run two series this year and before ran 4 series, and every series is different. Wish all the NASCAR series were the same. It would make it easier for drivers to run the different series like NASCAR wants. It is not fun to have to spend your day working on teching the car.
• Dan Holtz: I have no problems with the rules. Basically real happy with everything.
• Nick Joanides: More wearable tire, get rid of private testing

Any 2005 plans you can discuss?

• Thomas Martin: Start off on Tour and work hard on the off season to find money so we can keep it going.
• MK Kanke: Building for 2005 with the relationship we have good relationship with Victory Circle and they do a good job.
• Brandon Riehl: Waiting on sponsorship and stuff like that.
• Craig Raudman: Everything is up in the air. Basically my deal comes to if I win a championship or not. Any other year we would have been to races ahead in this championship deal.
• Darrell Lamoure: This is my last full time event. I am semi retiring. I want to go back and have fun. Enjoy it again, like I did the first several years.
• Greg Voigt: Tour again
• Nick Lynch: Nothing official yet.
• JR Norris: Right now our plans are to run the Elite again, maybe some truck races, whatever comes along.
• Brett Thompson: Would like to go full time in the West Series.
• Danny Burson: Don't really have any plans yet. I am pretty sure we won't run the Tour. Maybe running the ASA for 2005.
• Eric Holmes: No plans yet. Probably run a little of everything, including the Midwest, maybe the West Series, travel around to different places.
• Burney Lamar: Putting a lot of feelers out there in the Truck Series or we would like to move up to the West Series. If someone would give me an opportunity I could get the job the done.
• Auggie Vidovich:
• Rip Michels: Come back and hopefully raise our team to a top five contender and run the whole Tour and a couple Super Lates at Irwindale.
• Jim Pettit II: Hopefully run this deal and if we get the championship come back and get another championship next year.
• Zach Niessner: We have our feelers out there looking for a full sponsor for the Elite, Hooters or ASA, The economy is tough. If nothing comes up we might take a year off racing. Enjoying racing is the important part.
• Dan Holtz: We should have a competitive year, but may not run full season.

With a possible NW/SW or MW/SE combination what are your thoughts on the pros and cons?

• Thomas Martin: I would personally like it. It should lead to stronger overall fields, as for me, it is more centrally located because we are up North. For the cons it will hurt the overall division and some tracks will lose dates. We will lose some places we compete and gain others.
• MK Kanke: Go back to '85. I liked it better having 60-70 cars than the 30 car fields we see now, bigger fields bring in better quality drivers, I feel the drivers, that are running fast have the experience and we can get through race comfortably. It is something you need to respect.
• Brandon Riehl: Positive is we would race more tracks and there would be more good competitors, the negative is that the NW cannot afford to do it all.
• Craig Raudman: Being able to race different tracks is a positive, but that is a lot of travel that would be tough on thee teams. NASCAR needs to do something they don't have car count, I don't' know if the teams will all have the budget to race.
• Darrell Lamoure: I would hope they announce it quick. My sponsor Racing for the Missing's plans were to go nationwide and we were going to hire 4 teams, one for each of the four regional touring series. If NASCAR is removing 2 series, I have a commitment to my sponsor to inform them of this. This is the wrong thing to do at last minute. If there was a big a change as this, they should be telling us this all year long.
• Greg Voigt: I just heard about the possibility so I haven't had time to think about it.
• David Gilliland: Only pros to it, it will make for a stronger series and better racing.
• Nick Lynch: Pros would be the competition, lots of cars and good competition between the Northwest and Southwest. The cons would be the travel distance and expenses.
• JR Norris: The only con will be so much traveling for everybody. The pros are bigger car counts, tougher field to make, better drivers, and get to go to more tracks. I am hoping they add some new race tracks and not stick with what they have got now.
• Brett Thompson: It gives the serious guys a chance to travel to different places and it is good for sponsors. The negative side is teams that cannot afford to travel, but I think there will be more pros than cons and it will help the local late models and should beef that back up.
• Eric Holmes: I wanted them to do something like that for a few years, but go to tracks that can pay the purse we need, if we can go to $7,000 -$9, 000 to win and $1,000 to start, I don't mind going to Washington. I spent $6,000 to go to Tucson and won $500 and everyone knows that tracks can't afford more. My owner Alan Beebe got $11,000 back in 1992 at Sears Point, this year the same race paid $7, 500. The purses are lousy, if the purses were up we would be all for it.
• Burney Lamar: I would love to race the beautiful Northwest. In such a green climate and travel around. The downside would be the more travel the more it costs. It would be a great thing if we could travel and NASCAR would up the purse a little bit.
• Auggie Vidovich: The positive would be bigger car counts and different tracks. But there would be a lot of travel and expense. It would be interesting to see what would happen. I really don't know what to expect.
• Rip Michels: If it happens and if it makes the series bigger and better and raises the series, I would love to race and bigger and better venues but if it is small tracks that is a different story. Also when we race midweek like this, not all my guys can go. How many teams can afford to travel and how many team members can miss work? On my team everyone has a job so not everyone will be able to go unless the money and the TV is there; if it is not there is no reason to do it.
• Jim Pettit II: The good thing is that the Northwest is struggling with car count and they have great competitors. If that is what it takes to make them OK I can understand wanting to help. . The negative is they need to step on the contingency program and travel money so if we go to the Northwest we can afford it. Those are pricey races to go to.
• Jeff Jefferson: Cons are lot of the Northwest teams will not be able to make every race and compete for a championship. Pros are a lot more variety. It is a chance to be looked at by NASCAR and hopefully NEXTEL Cup Car owners and other divisions will look at the series, because it will be highly publicized.
• Zach Niessner: No pros. One reason is racing is so financially tough. The NW does not have the people and resources that they have in the SW. The NW would fold up. There is no reason for those guys to spend that money when they could stay home and race late models. Venture to guess it would hurt every series. Don't see anything good coming out of it.
• Dan Holtz: Pros are I am a fan of more races, if I were running the full season I like more tracks. But, it drives up cost, which is already an expensive field. There will be less cars running for points, but there will be an opportunity to hit more events. I would love to run it if I had a sponsor and funding. That is the one complaint I have now, I would like more racing, at least 20 races. The pros are there could well be 18 races if it happens, but funding will be tough.
• Nick Joanides: Cons are financial part of it, a lot more expensive, for us on a budget it would knock us out. Pros are it would provide a quality field, diversity of track, and improved car count.

Why are car counts dropping and why are fans disappearing from our Short Tracks?

• Jeff Jefferson: There has to be a way to make it cheaper to race, to make it more economical. Everyone is maxed to get to the track to race. The local tracks have to come up with a way to make it easier on the pocket books.
• Zach Niessner: I think it is the expense. Everybody struggles to find that money to go racing. It comes down to giving something up without changing the way you live and putting your business at risk. There are ton of cars on jack stands that aren't racing. Economy and cost is way up in racing now. That is why we scaled back. It would have put a financial strain on family.
• Dan Holtz: I think it is cost, it costs so much to run a series (speaking of the Elite Division), and to be competitive it is really, really tough. You almost have to pay to get a good crew chief, and even with fantastic people that you have to pay it is hard to get the equipment fast enough to be competitive. The ones that have the money and have help are the ones that are most likely to run up front. It is disappointing to see that come into our series. If you can't be competitive it is tough, and it is difficult for new people up against these obstacles to break in. The same can be applied to the Short Tracks. It is cost.
• Nick Joanides: Cost. One of the reason I race the Southwest Series is the cost for a Super Late Model is the same as Tour. As for fans, promoting, I don't see ads for tracks. Promotion is everything.
• Rip Michels: There is a track in Virginia that charges fans $5 for a ticket but does not allow coolers in. The stands are full.
• Craig Raudman: Rules have escalated right down to the late models. When you have late model guys buying $25-30,000 motors and running Penske shocks, it has got out of hand. With the cost of living, all that extra money is not there. As for fans, if you get in to a track, but it costs $5.75 to buy a coke and nachos for the kid, it is too expensive for a family to go.

See Also .:

• Phoenix International Raceway Track Page

News Index | E-mail to a Friend