Clarie B. Lang interviews Tony Raines

Each Wednesday for the remainder of the season, host Claire B. Lang will have a member of the NASCAR competition staff on her radio program, "Dialed In", which airs Monday through Friday from 4pm-7pm ET on XM Satellite Radio.

Claire B. Lang

Claire: I know that a lot of you have said "What's the deal going on with Tony Raines?" and I called him up because I also want to know more than what is being portrayed and that is that team owner Roger Craven announced today that Mike Garvey will be behind the wheel of the 37 Dodge this Saturday night in the Cup Series at Charlotte. Garvey is replacing driver Tony Raines who is taking a two week leave of absence from the team.

Now, Raines is going to be racing in the Busch Series the 33 Outdoor Channel car, and that is of course Kevin Harvick's car, and he will be racing in Busch but he's on a two week leave of absence from the 37. As you know, his name has been swirled around as the driver, or one of them being courted for the Hall of Fame racing team. So let's see if we can get to him now. Tony, I appreciate you taking my call cause I just gotta know what is the story, you're ok aren't you? I wanna make sure you're alright before I hear you're on a two week leave of absence. It concerns me, big guy.

Tony Raines: Yeah, no no, we're good. Everything's good with me. Y'know, it's, Charlotte, to be honest, part of the thing was we just weren't really ready at Kansas with the Cup car. They've had a lot of things going on in the shop the last couple weeks. It wasn't fair to the owners, it wasn't fair to the crew guys, it wasn't fair to me and we just had a real mess on our hands at Kansas and it's real discouraging and disappointing to me and with what's going on at Charlotte, with what I got going on with the other stuff, I just felt like it was in their best interest and mine not to try and do both at Charlotte.

Last couple races even in the Busch car we haven't run like we feel like we should and I just thought it's a good time to catch a breath and to focus on one thing. And usually at Charlotte you have a bunch of family and friends coming over anyways so that might be a little bit of an excuse but a lot of it was just so disappointing at Kansas that I felt like some changes need to be made there and some of my friends have gone over there to work on the car and the car I'm sure is going to be a thousand percent better when it shows up at Charlotte. Roger and John both asked me who I thought could get the job done.

I know Mike's from the Georgia area and I know they probably, if they don't know each other they will shortly. I think he can do them a good job cause I like them guys a lot and I know they have a lot going on with that sponsorship and when we started that it was something that they asked me if I can help them out and I said I would do everything in my power to help them out. We made some races and ran good and it's so tough on the Cup level that I just didn't want to run bad with this other stuff that's going on.

Hopefully this week will be big for me and I couldn't do Martinsville anyway because the Busch Series goes to Memphis so I thought, just for their interest they get somebody to do it for a couple of weeks and then after Memphis, depending on how things go this week at Charlotte I'll know whether I can race it some more, or whether I'll not be able to race it some more.

Claire: Well, I was thinking that of course your car wasn't ready at Kansas because your crew chief failed the substance abuse policy and what, did you not have a crew chief? And, did stop working on the car right before you came to Kansas? I mean, sure even if it was everything you needed on a team the crew chief is not there, what do you do?

Tony Raines: Yeah, all of the above, to be honest with you. I know that he got himself into a situation that he didn't expect and he shouldn't have been in but unfortunately it ended up affecting the owners in a large way, it affected me, it affected the crew guys, it was a large letdown. And y'know, when something like that happens you get pretty disgusted.

In 2 hours of practice I had 5 laps on the racetrack and they weren't laps trying to make the car get faster, they were trying to piece it together. And I don't operate that way, I don't like, y'know it's not fair, you can't even get a fair chance to make it a good attempt at making the race. I was pretty disgusted, so it's no reflection on the owners or the sponsor because they're all good people and the fact that what all had happened prior to Kansas was just a bad turn of events, but I don't want it reflected on me either.

I thought if I take a week or two off and they get all their stuff straightened out and things are better, I might be willing to come back in there and try to make racing cause I love racing on Saturdays and Sundays. And they've got great engines, they get their motors from Ganassi, and they're John Carter and Roger Craven, they're both from Georgia, they're awesome guys.

And I feel bad for them that Kansas was as bad as it was, but they're the owners and they have to address that and they've been up here all week trying to get things turned around and I hope that it works out for them because, like I said, maybe after Memphis I might get back in and race it again and I might not. Y'know, if I get the job at the Hall of Fame and have that opportunity then, obviously it wouldn't, they probably wouldn't let me do that but if I don't get that, then I want to race as much as possible.

Claire: What do you know for sure about the Hall of Fame racing? It makes a lot of sense, if things are kind of falling apart for now it would be a bad thing to tie your horse to that wagon and you know you're being considered to the Hall of Fame. How strongly are you being considered for that, and when might you know whether you are the racer for the Hall of Fame?

Tony Raines: Well, I think it's a strong consideration and I think that they're going to make a decision in the next day or two. I know they're coming in this town, into town this week. They're having a press conference tomorrow. I think, I think it's mostly about the race team and the sponsorship itself so I think that will all kind of come out and I hope Friday, to know myself.

But I think that, I've heard that they plan on making an announcement at Texas as far as who the driver's gonna be. So, hopefully, the sooner the better because I would love to be able to race at Charlotte in the cup race, but like I said with things, I believe the owners on that 37 car were gonna do everything they could to get it right by Charlotte, but I just didn't want to take the chance and go to Charlotte not be a hundred percent ready like we were at Kansas and it's just, it's real disappointing because I've never been in that bad a situation in my whole career of racing and it was very disappointing.

So it takes a little while to get over that, but I know they'll address that and I know they'll fix that and it was y'know, something that wasn't directly in their, in their power to fix at Kansas or within a day or two. It's going to take a week or 10 days, it might even take longer than that, but like I said before, not being able to do Martinsville, I just felt like, somebody can come in and do a couple of races and that might help them run a little better at Charlotte and Martinsville.

Claire: Yeah.

Tony Raines: I hope it all works out for them, but if not, I could be back in it, and if this other deal works out, which would be an awesome opportunity, they've aligned themselves with Joe Gibbs racing so, y'know, either way hopefully I'll be racing Sundays pretty soon.

Claire: I know that Philippe Lopez is over there and a lot of people think a lot of him. What do you know for sure about this Hall of Fame racing? A lot of people were like "Oh that has been around for a long time" but then when Philippe associated with them, it was like man, another Joe Gibbs racing shop. What about that team? What do you know for sure? I know that you've had meetings over there.

Tony Raines: Sure, I have that. I had several meetings but, I think they've been around for awhile because they weren't just trying to jump in, they wanted to get their ducks in a row so to speak. Y'know, they want to have a team that they could feel comfortable with, aligning themselves with, have engines, have manufacturer's support. All those things that you need. A shop. I mean, it takes a long time, and there's a lot of people involved in running an operation of this size.

So, I think they've been working at it quietly behind the scenes and like you said, when they hired Philippe y'know, obviously to me that was when they open the door and they're really getting serious about getting started. Now there's a lot of work to do before next year. But, they're not way way ahead of schedule, but there are a lot of teams that are not as far along as this team is probably, so I'm hopeful that I'll get an opportunity.

I've worked with Philippe before and I have a lot of respect for him, he has a lot of experience. He's been around awhile. I think I've got just enough experience to know what I'm supposed to do, but still hungry enough that I want to go out and prove that I'm worthy of a ride like that and capable of running up front with the best of drivers out there.

Claire: Before I let you go, what do you think we'll see in Charlotte? I have had people pull me over and whisper in my ear and say "Aren't you a little concerned about Charlotte? The speeds will be very fast, what about the tires holding up?" Some have told me that blown tires might be, if you listen to some of the radio calls, even from last weekend, that losing the tire could be the Chase. That could be the story of the Chase in the next couple races between Charlotte and on to Martinsville and whatnot. What are your thoughts about what we'll see at Charlotte?

Tony Raines: Well, I was fortunate enough to test the Busch car there, which was about the first test I had this year, so I'm kind of anxious about that, but the way I described it after the test was that it's just stupid fast.

Y'know, it's just unreal. We ran from 3 o'clock til 10 o'clock that night and we had 50 laps on our tires and we were running 29.40s in race trim. And it's just super, super fast. If somebody does cut a tire, blow a tire, their night's going to be over because the car's going to be destroyed I think. I just don't know if it's going to get a whole lot better as the night goes on. I think as the rubber builds up it might slow down some, but it's just going to be so hard to pass where you used to pass off of turn 4.

It's so fast now I don't know that you can come off there two abreast. So it, it's going to be interesting to see how the track takes rubber. I know they've been working on it really hard. From what I heard about the Cup test to when I tested a week later in the Busch test the track was a hundred percent better.

Claire: Right.

Tony Raines: Y'know, it was, there were no issues for us, but like I said, the best way I can describe it was just stupid fast. It's fun to drive because it's really really fast.

Claire: Is that dangerous fast? Do you think that it is a scary situation headed into Charlotte?

Tony Raines: Uh, I don't know. I wouldn't say that because I think, Charlotte's always been fast. But it's faster now. Whether that makes it more dangerous or less safe, I don't think it makes it any more or less or worse than it ever has been in the past. It goes back to the whole thing at Talladega.

When you have drivers out there there's two pedals in there, there's a go pedal and a whoa pedal. You just have to use your head, you know, the race doesn't pay until it's over. If you need to run around there at eighty percent to make sure you get to the end, if tires are an issue or if traffic's an issue, I mean, we have the option to do that.

But qualifying oughta be super exciting and I think the races will be both exciting at night Friday and Saturday. But I liked it, I really did, I thought that it was a better race track. Whether or not there'll be two grooves there? I'm on the fence on that, I don't think that all the work they've done to the track has really changed that aspect of it. I think it's just going to be faster on the bottom and if you try to go around somebody on the outside it's just going to be difficult to pass anyway.

Claire: So what you think is, if people keep their heads on straight it won't be dangerous, it's if people get a little crazy early on and the speeds are fast and as you said, accidents will be hard and they destroy vehicles, and championship hopes might be over or race hopes for other folks trying to win the race.

Tony Raines: Yeah I think if you crash though your race hopes will definitely be over. But, y'know, somebody will test this. It just always works that way. When they're trying to qualify and everybody wants to be fast or fastest. During the race, there's always somebody that, it's hard to make an entire race with 43 cars everybody be perfect. Somebody's going to make a mistake and something's gonna happen and that's just part of racing.

But I don't think that anybody can go into this weekend and blame the track for anything because it's the same for everybody. So I think if some driver comes out of there complaining about the track y'know "it's not this" or "not that" I mean, it's kind of a waste of time because it's the same for everybody and everybody has the same opportunity they have two hours of practice to figure out how to make their car more forgiving, make it run well, and handle well.

And it's the same contest that's been going on for 50 years but I think you'll see the numbers will be a little better for qualifying and the race might get over a little quicker, but to me it seem like the same ol' Charlotte to be honest with you. It just, the harder you run on the bottom, the faster you went.

Claire: I appreciate it because I'm going to take that clip out and there will be people, as they always do, complain about the track because there's been so much talk about it and then I can just replay, and it's interesting since you are not racing the Cup race, that you don't have a dog in that fight at least on the Cup side. We'll pull your clip out and play it should anybody complain about it afterwords. I think you set that up exactly right. And I'm also glad to hear...

Tony Raines: Yeah, it'll probably be me complaining. (laughs)

Claire: (laughs) Yeah really. Yeah, you'll get out of the Busch car "That dang racetrack" then I can play it back to you Tony, how's that?

Tony Raines: Yeah that would probably, I'd probably shut up real quick. But, I really think, I understand what Humpy is trying to do, he's trying to make the track better. Cause the second groove's always been treacherous there in the past. But it's got more grip now and the speeds are faster but only time will tell if there is a second groove in turn 1 and 2.

There's always been 2 grooves in 3 and 4 but you gotta give Humpycredit for at least trying to make it different. I mean, he coulda just said "to heck with it I'm not going to worry about it, let em race it" but he's a promoter and he's trying to make the show better for the fans even if the drivers don't like it. He's more concerned about the fans, not to say he's not concerned about the drivers cause I know he's definitely an advocate for safety, but he wants to put on a good show for the fans and they deserve it.

Claire: I gotcha and I also want to add that I'm glad you're ok cause when I heard "two week leave of absence" I was like "what's that about?" So I appreciate you clarifying that you're a-ok. Thanks for coming on today Tony. I'll see you at the Busch race ok?

Tony Raines: Alright, I appreciate it.

Claire: And when you find out about that Hall of Fame thing you just shoot me a call on this line, ok?

Tony Raines: I'll give you a call, yeah, you bet.

Courtesy of XM Satellite Radio