NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Ford 200

Topics:  Ford 200

Austin Dillon
Ron Hornaday, Jr.
Johnny Sauter
November 19, 2010

HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Our race runner-up is Ron Hornaday. He drives the No. 33 Georgia Boot Chevrolet, and joining him up on the stage shortly is going to be Johnny Sauter, our third place finisher. He drives the No. 13 FarmPaint.com/Curb Records Chevrolet. First of all, Ron, you won a championship last year and I know you had some ups and downs this year but some pretty strong finishes here for you down the stretch.
RON HORNADAY, JR.: We needed to end this way. The last three races wrecking, this just is a testament to my whole team, never putting their head down, working hard. One time in the race I looked up with I think there was 20 to go and there was five KHI trucks that Kevin sold, and that's just a testament to my boss and all them guys that work back at the shop.
It's a lot of fun, and I'm just glad this year is over and that we can start fresh at Daytona. I'm very proud of these guys, how much they changed on this truck from the first day we got here to this morning's practice. My hat's off to NASCAR to even getting the practice in for us.
A great crowd tonight. That's saying this Truck Series is really doing something good.
Waiting to for next year. We've got a lot of new teams coming out and a lot of new faces, and it's going to be a lot of fun again.
THE MODERATOR: Johnny Sauter, strong finishes for you over the last month or so in that 13 truck. Thoughts about your how you performed this evening.
RON HORNADAY, JR.: If he didn't have to pit it would be good.
JOHNNY SAUTER: He said that, not me. I'm in enough trouble for that stuff a couple weeks ago in Texas. I guess some people have feelings. I don't, trust me.
Anyway, our FarmPaint.com/Curb Records Chevy was good. We were good all weekend. We were P-1 top of the board last night in practice and actually felt like we were fighting handling a little bit and, Joe Shear told me he was going to have it right, and sure enough, this morning we were P-1 again and just missed the pole there.
But felt like we had the best truck tonight, there's no question about it. Especially on long runs our Silverado was phenomenal, and we lost a little too much ground on the pits and could never overcome it, and then the driver was a little overzealous, I guess, trying to get back that ground that he lost, and me and Kyle got together there a little bit. Kind of unfortunate to knock the toe out and all that.
Nonetheless, good rally. To be able to take the truck with as much damage as we've got and finish third and finish out our season, just carrying a ton of momentum through the winter here, and hopefully we can make a run for the championship next year.
THE MODERATOR: Also joining us at the podium at this time is Austin Dillon. He is the 2010 Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Congratulations to you, Austin. He drives the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Remington/Tracker Boats Chevrolet for RCR, and just a terrific first year for you, Austin, coming out of the blocks like that. Your thoughts about your first full season in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
AUSTIN DILLON: You know, it was great. I felt like mid-season we really hit a strike. I felt like the first race out and the last race out I really showed the stripes there. For some reason I tried to make it four wide at the end there just trying to make something happen. I felt like we had a good truck, just should have waited an extra lap before that move. All in all it was a great season for Bass Pro Shops and our entire team. Looking forward to next year and running for the championship.

Q. Ron, Kevin was urging you to take the outside on that last restart. Would it have mattered? You didn't seem so sure about it, but would it have mattered either way?
RON HORNADAY, JR.: No, not at all. If I would have picked the inside Kyle would have pinched me down. I tried to do it to him, and I don't know how he does it, but he gets up the side draft getting up into the corner. I mean, he leaned up against me at that point, and he turned down in there and didn't have enough room or they just shot him forward.
I'm going to learn that from him sometime. I'm going to watch closer. No, it didn't matter. We were just too tight up through the middle, and his truck was free enough where he kept the momentum going, and I just kind of wished Johnny kind of hit him a little harder when he squeezed him against the fence over there so he didn't have such a good truck to come back with to beat me.

Q. Johnny, can you talk about what happened there with Kyle, and also, did you really drop a cylinder there right before the end of --
JOHNNY SAUTER: All these years you've been following me you should know better than to listen to anything I say on the radio. I'm the most facetious guy on the planet. I didn't really lose a cylinder. Our PV motor ran strong tonight. Let's get that out in the open.
It was just close racing, and like I said, I was just overzealous, I guess, and trying to make up some of the ground I had lost and thought maybe Kyle would help me out little bit. I should have known after our conversation in Phoenix that there wasn't going to be any help. Nonetheless I thought I'd try to make it work, and he was there, I guess, and I squeezed him and we made contact, and unfortunately it knocked the splitter off the front of my truck and knocked the toe wing out and all that, so we elected to come down and try to get track position, get two tires there at the end and raise the track bar a little bit trying to overcome it. But just too tight.

Q. Ron, sounds like Germain is going to probably have at least three full-time trucks next year, one for Papis and one for Gaughan, I think. Would that make that organization stronger than what they are now?
RON HORNADAY, JR.: You know more than I do. I never heard nothing about that. Yeah, I mean, we've got half the field out there now, so a couple more trucks coming out of the cage ain't going to matter. I think Kevin has got like eight trucks out there now that we've been working on. My guys are talking about working until 10:00 at night for four nights in a row to get the 19 truck, Hermie's truck, there was like four other trucks up there, so they had actually nine trucks to get ready to come down here. So it just shows you how strong KHI is.

Q. He was asking about Germain, your old --
RON HORNADAY, JR.: Oh, Germain? That's good.
JOHNNY SAUTER: You mean there's a German team in the sport? Oh, he said Germain.
RON HORNADAY, JR.: I don't know if it's going to make them stronger. Hopefully it takes it away from them. I don't know.

Q. Austin, can you talk about being Rookie of the Year and just how big an accomplishment that is?
AUSTIN DILLON: It was a great year. You know, like I said earlier, the Raybestos Rookie of the Year is something that we went into the season wanting to win. That was our main goal, and to finish top 10 in points, tried to do that, and we were able to get top 5 somehow. Just a great year. We came out with two wins and a bunch of poles. Wish we could have had a few more wins with all those poles that we got.
I'm really excited about going into next year, and it's been a great year. What can I say, it's cool that Raybestos sponsors the rookie deal, and hopefully just keep going, and I guess I'm a veteran next year so that's kind of hard to think about.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, can't thank you enough for just an outstanding 2010 season. Ron Hornaday, you've been a super champion; Austin Dillon, congratulations, look forward to you racing in the future; Johnny Sauter, way to finish the season strong.