Heard and overheard on Wednesday at Daytona 500 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway:
Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson after talking with Paul Menard about their backstretch accident in Sunday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash: “I could have given him a few more inches. That way, when he came down there was a bit more margin for error. So, there’s always lessons to learn, going back and looking at the tape, talking to someone about those things. I think where he and I stand — sure, he wasn't happy, but he knew it wasn't intentional. Maybe a couple more inches would have been good to leave between our two cars. But you’re racing.”.
Former driver Jeff Burton as Harrison Burton, his 18-year-old son, approaches his first full-time Gander Outdoors Truck Series ride: “I absolutely love most things about racing. For good or worse, racing has made me who I am. But I just didn’t want either of my children (Harrison or Paige) to do something because their parents did it. I didn’t want them to have the pressure of, ‘oh, my dad did this’ or ‘my mom did that so this is what I have to do.’ I wanted them to have their own thing. Anything worth doing is hard, and (NASCAR racing) is really hard.”
Former Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 winner Jamie McMurray when asked how he’ll rate his seven-victory career after Sunday’s 500, presumably his final start: “I don’t know. I’ll let you do that.”
Chase Elliott addressed the issue of whether people expected too much of him before he won three times last year: “Not really. Regardless of my age at that point, I’d done a lot of racing to get there. It was certainly a time where I needed to figure it out. If you get to this point, you either know what you're doing or you don’t. I want to earn my spot here. I don’t want to be given an opportunity, regardless of what my name is. I want to feel like I belong. That’s as important to me as anything.”
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