NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Ford EcoBoost 200

Topics:  Ford EcoBoost 300

Jerry Baxter
Cale Gale
Eddie Sharp
November 16, 2012

HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA

KERRY THARP:  Let's hear from our race winner of tonight's 17th annual Ford EcoBoost 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race here at Homestead Miami Speedway.  And our race winner for the first time in his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career is Cale Gale.  He drove the No.33 Rheem Chevrolet.  He's joined up here by team owner Eddie Sharp, crew chief Jerry Baxter.
I don't know if I've seen a more exciting finish than I saw here this evening.  As an aside here, I've always wanted to say your name in victory lane, Cale Gale.  It's terrific, so congratulations.  Talk about that win here this evening.
CALE GALE:  Well, obviously I've been very fortunate to run full‑time this year for Eddie Sharp and Eddie Sharp Racing and with a great sponsor with Rheem and great team behind me all season, and to come down to the last race and win, after the up‑and‑down year we've had, and I've learned a lot all season, it's just a dream come true for me.
This is all I've ever wanted to do is drive race cars for a living.  I've done it my whole life, and to be able to win in NASCAR is a dream come true for me.
KERRY THARP:  Crew chief Jerry Baxter, talk about some things that went on today in pit road that allowed you guys to get that win.
JERRY BAXTER:  We worked all day long on trying to have our truck good at managing tires because tires are so important here, and my thinking all weekend was that we had to be the last one on pit road to get them fresh tires, so we tried saving everything we could today to have that chance, and it worked out great for us.  I've just got to say over the years, I've worked with a lot of these kids, from David Reutimann to Trevor Bayne and Scott Speed and Ryan Truex, and the list goes on, and this is pretty big, it's a pretty big deal right here.
KERRY THARP:  And Eddie Sharp, congratulations on this win.  What a way to finish out the season.  Maybe just talk about how this impacts your race organization and also what it means for a driver like Cale Gale to get to victory lane.
EDDIE SHARP:  Well, it definitely impacts our organization.  Everybody kind of knows the story what we've been through and what we've done, and I took a lot of leaps of faith, and when I did that, a lot of people took leaps of faith with me.  Jerry came on board to a team that really had yet to prove themselves, and we got a great opportunity.  Rheem believed in what we were trying to do.  They obviously believed in Cale, and they came to me as a package, and I take this very serious.
And so I knew what our mission was.  You know, we got a chance to visit victory lane with my 6 truck earlier this year, and everybody kind of woke up a little bit, and I like to kind of think this puts the exclamation point on it that we're for real.  We're looking forward to the future, we're going to continue to grow, and whatever the future holds, we'll just keep working hard.
It's about good people, and to give Cale, someone who's worked so hard all his career, that opportunity and to be part of his first win is‑‑ you never forget your first.  I'm just honored to be part of it and have‑‑ just be surrounded with great people.  I'm just one guy, and without them I'm nothing.  I'm part of a team.

Q.  Cale, could you just describe what you were thinking and feeling over that green‑white checkered, particularly off the last corner when I guess you felt him pull up a little bit on the outside?
CALE GALE:  It's not my style, but I was‑‑ I knew that if I could pinch him a little bit that I could get the advantage, and pretty much that's about what I was thinking at that point.  But all in all, it was‑‑ like you said, the green‑white checkered, the red flag, I was just thinking if I could win this race how big it would be and how much it would mean to me and obviously everybody that surrounds me and worked so hard this year, my team, my sponsor, my crew.  Everybody has worked so hard.  I've won in everything I've ever raced, and I don't know if I could have lived without winning a NASCAR race because it's all I've ever wanted to do.  And to be able to get that chapter knocked out of my life is, like I said before, a dream come true.

Q.  Cale, I don't know if it mattered to you who you were going to race there at the end, but you made a comment there in victory lane about how you knew it was Kyle Busch.  Did you expect more from him in return?  Occasionally he gets in a situation where he can return that kind of a contact back.  Did it matter that it was him or would you have raced anybody that way trying to win?
CALE GALE:  Anybody, for sure.  It was just a‑‑ a guy like me, that's my first opportunity to come down to the checkered flag in a NASCAR race.  I mean, Kyle is a racer, he's been in the same position I've been in, and we've all seen, all hungry racers get an opportunity they're going to take it, and that's what you have to do in this sport.  He owes me, but I mean, I seen the checkered in the final race.  That's all I can say.
It's not my style.  I race about as clean as anybody, you can ask anybody out there, but when it comes down to the final straightaway to win at Homestead in the last race and your first NASCAR win, I believe anybody would do it.
KERRY THARP:  Cale, Jerry, Eddie, I can't think of a more exciting finish here to start off this weekend.  Congratulations.  Enjoy this win, and I've got a feeling there's going to be plenty more to follow.