Inside the Garage: Zipadelli (cont'd)

Q: You've been with Tony nine years and know him better than anybody. How would you describe your relationship?

Zipadelli: This is our ninth season, so it's been a long time. Obviously we've had our ups and downs, but we've been able to be honest with each other and respect each other. First of all, I respect his ability to drive; and, you know, I think he respects me as a person, a big brother and my ability to bring him decent racecars to the racetrack with my group of people.

We've had some tough days, and we've had some awesome days. But that's what relationships are about, what you build on for the future. When we're all said and done and he retires and I retire -- two years, five years, 10 years from now or whatever it is -- I think we'll have built a relationship where we'll still be friends and still understand each other and be able to still hang out and be even more than what we are here. I think we've been able to work on that.

Q: Has he changed much over the nine years you guys have worked together?

Zipadelli: I think he's changed a lot in nine years. I think he's mellowed a lot. There's a lot less little things that are there. He has handled a lot of situations very well that people don't see or don't give him praise or a pat on the back for what he's accomplished and for the level of maturity that he's shown.

Q: He quietly gives a lot to charities, doesn't he?

Zipadelli: He gives a lot back to the community. He gives a lot of money back. He gives a lot of his time to raise money for things that he believes in. I'm proud of him for that, because it's easy for us to get lost sometimes in the success, I guess, and forget where you came from or what's really important.

Q: You recently broke a 20-race winless streak with the win at Chicagoland. Does a streak like that make you appreciate the good times even more?

Zipadelli: It's hard to understand or explain why we've had so many opportunities this year where we didn't capitalize. A lot of the things have been out of our control; some of the things have been in our control, one way or another.

But (we said) if we continue to do what we've been doing, we can turn it around. ... We just keep our fingers crossed. I personally try not to look back at numbers so much. We get paid to come here and try to put ourselves in position to win every week. So you do that -- and when you put yourself in position to win at the end of the day, then you try to win. We've done that a lot this year, but we haven't won (more than the one race). That's a little frustrating.

You know, you say you don't think about (a winless streak like that) -- but I think it wears on you. The more it wears, the longer it goes. The little things add up and seem like they become big deals. It feels like we're faced with adversity now every moment. Every time we go out it's something that may keep us down.

Q: Like the recent controversy with teammate Denny Hamlin? Could you talk a little about what you thought happened when Denny and Tony got together and ruined both of their chances in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 7?

Zipadelli: We had a phenomenal racecar. I really felt like we could have dominated that race like we have in the past, with the car that we had. It didn't work out. We didn't even give ourselves an opportunity to win that one. That's part of life; that's part of what goes on every day in this garage. And how you deal with it, how you work to try to overcome that is what I think is important.

Q: Is it hard to be patient when you have a car that good?

Zipadelli: I guess. I don't really have a whole lot of comments on that weekend. I just know it was frustrating for both parties, for both of our teams. Why and what you could have done different is tough to say ... I mean, you know, the 11 (Hamlin) slipped up and then we got into him. It's kind of no different than the 2 car (Kurt Busch) in the Daytona 500. That was kind of a racing deal. What made it worse was that as teams we didn't handle it probably the way we should have immediately. We've all learned from that. I think we'll be better moving forward because of the experience we've been through.

Q: You guys have always been a better team in the second half of a Cup season. Why is that?

Zipadelli: For what reason, I don't know. But if you look at our history, we've always won more in the second half than in the first half. I'll keep my fingers crossed and continue to pray that the good Lord gives us a good second half of the season again. I look back to last year and we missed the Chase by 16 or 17 points. There is one (entity) that has control over all that. I think that happened to teach us how important every race is, and how important teamwork is. As soon as we left Richmond, we went on a streak where we had a couple seconds, three wins, where we just dominated that last bit of the season.

And we didn't change doing what we were doing. We did the same things. We had the same racecars. We had the same people. When it's our turn again, it will be our turn. You just have to believe and you have to stay positive, and keep the people around you positive and working in the same direction.