He was one of those guys that right away, you knew he was gonna do a lot more than sweep the floors. I knew five years ago that Steve would be a crew chief. I didn't know if it'd be with me or some other team. But I always hoped that it would be for me.
I was just telling Steve that I think we're going in the right direction here. I just reminded him not to let any of the outside stuff bother him.
I've worked with Steve for more than 10 years and we already communicate extremely well, both on and off the track. The team has a ton of confidence in his abilities, so we're looking forward to the last 10 races of 2005 and getting an early jump on next year.
I've known Steve for a long time. He has a lot of talent and we're excited about where the team is now.
I don't know if we had to go win a championship in February, if that was the final event, that we'd be ready for that. But I really believe just in the last 10 races of last year, what I saw in Steve was unbelievable, and that really has me excited about getting this season started.