Transcript of the interview with Eddie Johnson after the veteran driver of the No. 57 Chevrolet finished third Saturday in the Danville Toyota 300 at South Boston Speedway:
Q: You said before the race all you had to do was be patient, stay out of people’s trouble and be there at the end. Didn’t quite get the caution you needed there to get the win, but third place today. How good does that feel?
A: “It feels really good to start off the year with a third-place finish here and collect a fairly nice paycheck. … All the guys worked awful hard on the car and my son, he’s done all the setup on the car. He had a really good car and deserved to win, but who knows? I saved it for him. This car is going to be his car for Southside this year, so I’m sure he’s pretty happy about that.”
Q: You said that you kind of had a time where you’d think you would go. Do you kind of wish you had maybe gone a little sooner and maybe had a shot to win this thing, or was that your game plan and you were sticking with it?
A: “Well, you always can go back and wish you had done this or wish you had done that. But, we’ve got a third-place finish, the car is all in one piece and we’ve come here with a third-place finish with the competition the way it is, we’re pretty happy. A few more laps, we could have had second and if we could have had a caution, maybe we’d have won. Who knows?”
Q: The top three finishers today typically run well at Langley. How does that bode for going into the next stage of the Triple Crown?
A: “Well, when they first come out with the Triple Crown, I looked at it and said, ‘Well, I might not have the car or the money that other people have and win it, but second and third sure looks good and that’s some decent bonus money for you at the end of the year. We’ll surely be looking forward to it. The main thing is to be able to go down to Langley, be able to finish that race and then the third thing is qualify for Martinsville. That’s probably the toughest of the whole Triple Crown deal.”
Q: Does it bode well for you that the top three run well at all three tracks and this finish gives you a leg up on the rest of the field?
A: “We’re in third place right now. (Chuckles) Everybody else is chasing us and we’re chasing two of them. That’s all we could ask for. We’re in the hunt.”
No comments:
Post a Comment