Re: 1on1: Steve Addington

Q: How do you explain what has happened to the No. 18 team so far during the Chase?

Addington: We've just had some parts failures. That's something that we know no one in our organization wants to happen. [Engine builder] Mark Cronquist and those guys will continue to work on it and I'm sure we'll get things turned around.

Q: Are you just sick about how this has happened at precisely the worst time?

Addington: It hurts. We've had a lot of good racing luck this year. Getting Kyle in here this year brought this race team around to where it needs to be, and now we've just got to keep digging. If we can win some races and some of the other guys in front of us have trouble like we've been having, you never know what might happen. In these races, it can happen to anybody. I think we've pretty much proven that.

Q: Kyle said after Dover that he pretty much had given up on winning the championship. What were your thoughts after hearing that he said that?

Addington: We look at the points that we've lost, and it could happen to them. We're just going to go out and keep trying to win races, and if any of those guys stumble, we could be right back in the thing. We're down but we're not dead yet.

Q: But does it get you and the rest of the team down when your driver says something like that?

Addington: Look, he has a right to be down -- just because of the season he's had and now how the bad races come all in a row. But if you look at Jimmie Johnson in '06, he had some bad races at the start of the Chase and came back to win the championship. So we don't look at it as anything other than him just being a little frustrated at the time, which he has a right to be. You can't let things like that get to you.

Q: How was he when he arrived for the Charlotte test two days after that happened at Dover?

Addington: He came in with a great attitude. After we got looking at the engine stuff and got back up in the trailer, he said, 'Hey, I apologize for that. There was nothing you could do about it. Let's just go out and get back to doing what we've been doing all year long.'

Q: Have you looked at the math and how far back Jimmie was before he came back to win it?

Addington: I know it can be done mathematically. And we know that what has happened to us could happen to anyone. The bad part about it is there are four or five of those guys who are running really well -- between [Greg] Biffle, [Carl] Edwards and Jimmie Johnson. Those guys and some others are running really great right now. In the back of your mind, you're like, 'Well, all four of those guys running up front aren't going to stumble.' All you can do is prepare yourself and the team as best you can ... hope that you can win some races, and then maybe you can get back in this thing.

Q: Do you have to fight a little bit of panic?

Addington: I think there was a little bit of panic after Loudon. But after it happened again at Dover, the panic was over with. Now it's just like, 'Let's get back to doing what we were doing before and see where it takes us.' That's what we've always done. Take it with a grain of salt and keep coming out here to do the best that you can. That's all you can do.

Q: What went through your mind when you guys first started having trouble in that first race in the Chase at Loudon, and then again at Dover?

Addington: You just can't believe it. But the amount of time I spend with Mark Cronquist and them down at the engine shop every week -- we go down there and talk one-on-one about every engine part, and he feels as bad or worse than anybody. But there is nothing that anybody did on purpose. You've just got to take it. That's racing. If it was a perfect world, this thing would be easy. But it's not.

Q: Do you have to talk Kyle into not taking reckless gambles to try to get it all back at once, like a gambler who is way down and wants to eliminate all his losses with one huge bet that actually might make it worse?

Addington: I think at the beginning of the season or at the end of last year, you would probably see that out of Kyle. But right now, he's matured so much this year in my eyes, from my standpoint of working with him. He knows that we've got to take what a car gives us on these days. It might be frustrating or whatever even for him to finish fifth, but he understands that right now something like that would be a little step to maybe get us back in this thing. I think he'll be fine.

Like I've said, I'm not trying to change Kyle Busch by no means. He'll take his lumps and learn on his own. I look at it like I've got a son that age, and so I understand a good bit of what he's going through. I understand that he does want it all at one time -- but I think now he's learned that what we need to do is take little steps to get back in this thing.

Q: Does your own son think you're out of it, or does he think you still have a chance?

Addington: He don't care, I don't think. He's doing his own thing, going to college. He'll call me and tell me congratulations on a good race or whatever, but he's doing his own thing and I let him do his thing. I've never pushed racin' on him. I just let him do what he wants to do and live his life. He calls and talks to me, but he just never has ever really been into it. Now my daughter, that's a different story. She'll be here every weekend because she loves this. She loves being around me and being around what I do.

Q: Isn't it amazing that you can go through 26 races and basically not have any major problems and then all the sudden you get to the Chase and everything goes so wrong?

Addington: Yeah, but don't take this wrong: I don't think anyone expected this out of the 18 team, just because of the last three, four or five years. And the only thing that we added was Kyle Busch. We've been doing the same things that we've always done. It's been an awesome season. In the back of your mind, yes, if we don't finish it off with a championship, it'll be disappointing. But we've got a long ways to go and we've got years together, so I think we'll get our championship.

Q: So in your mind is this season a success regardless of what happens the rest of the way?

Addington: I think so, because of where we've been the past few years. We've had great equipment and we felt like we were putting great racecars out there, just basing off of our teammates. How can you say this was a disappointing season just because we don't win a championship -- when we weren't even supposed to be here?

Q: How dangerous would it be for everyone to count you guys out the rest of the Chase?

Addington: Well, we came in flying under the radar, so let everybody pay attention to all those guys in front of us and let's see what happens. Hopefully we can slip back in there. I hope it's really dangerous for 'em to count us out. Everybody has tremendous respect in this garage for other racers and teams. As much as we respect everybody else, I think we've earned that respect from them with what we've done this season. I don't think until we're mathematically out of it, anyone in this garage is going to count us completely out of it.

Credit: NASCAR.COM and Joe Menzer