Flamboyant Felix Final Farewell…..Not Hardly!
Cuban-born Felix Sabates, a lifelong
achiever of reaching seemingly insurmountable goals, believes determination,
hard work, and perseverance are keys to reaching the "American Dream"
we all strive to successfully reach.
Sabates, not only built one of his
companies, Top Sales Inc., into the largest Hispanic-owned company in the United
States, with sales exceeding $500 million, but he is also determined to build
the Winston Cup Team SABCO into an even better top-notch caliber organization as
well.
While recognizing his abilities as an
astute businessman did not necessarily insure a successful Winston Cup endeavor,
Sabates made the crucial and wise decision to sell 80% of the team to Chip
Ganassi this past racing season. He can easily continue to fund such an
operation while Ganassi can supply the racing expertise and a more hands-on
approach to the daily operation of the new Dodge team next season.
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates may
be a mouthful to say regarding the team’s new moniker, but it insures the
always flamboyant, sometimes controversial Sabates will stay in close proximity
with the racing action! Sterling Marlin, Winston Cup driver of the #40 Coors
Light Dodge, will indeed return to that familiar seat in the new season, while
the driver of the #01 BellSouth Dodge is yet to be named. Rick Mast seems the
likely candidate to receive the nod from the Ganassi team, but officially the
seat is still vacant.
Sabates has thrived on creating a positive
and rewarding environment in which his entire staff can attest to. His time to
devote to the racing team appears limited considering his corporate ties to
other projects worldwide, but his heart is firmly captured by his Winston Cup
teams and its employees. Sabates has high hopes the new team with its new name,
new cars, new driver, new majority owner, and new attitude will assure a trip to
Victory Circle in the year 2001! He plans to be around to finally bask in the
glory and much-deserved respect.
Q. How are you feeling today in
Atlanta knowing it’s your last race as the majority owner of Team SABCO?
A. It’s now called Chip Ganassi
Racing with Felix Sabates as you know and I don’t feel like it’s my last
race at all. I’ll be right back come February in Daytona. I’m not going
anywhere, not much is changing in that sense.
Q. I guess that tells me you feel good
about the 80% sellout of the team to Chip Ganassi?
A. I feel great about it! Chip is a
real racer and I’m not. I’m a businessman first and this team needs a
racing man behind it. I already see a lot of big, positive changes
happening. I’m pretty happy about it all. I’m still involved; my name is
still on the race team.
Q. Does that mean you’ll be involved
weekly with the new Dodge team you’re fielding next year?
A. I’m going to help the team with
whatever I’m asked to do. Whatever they ask me, I’ll do it!
Q. Talk about the switch to Dodge in
your opinion.
A. Oh, I think the Dodge is good. I
think it could be a struggle at first, but Dodge is so committed to this
project. I have my reservations early in the 2001 season because we’ve
never raced this car before, it’s a complete start-up project, but like
everything else in life, you may struggle in the beginning, but you’ll
reach your goal. I feel that by halfway through the season, we’ll be very
competitive, we may be even sooner than that, I just don’t know yet. We’re
dealing with a new car and new engines so there could be some struggle with
that, but we all look forward to the challenge.
Q. What is your relationship with your
driver, Sterling Marlin?
A. I love Sterling. He’s a breath of
fresh air every day! I love him to death. He’s going to do well next year.
I wish we could have done better this year. This year, he’s 19th
in points, but we’ve had several mechanical problems that knocked him out
of running as well as he’s capable of doing.
Q. Engines problems?
A. Hmmmm, well, we’ve had mechanical
problems. This part would break here, that part would break there, if it was
in the book, we broke it! Now that we’re going in a different direction
car-wise and engine-wise, it’ll be better.
Q. So, you feel Sterling and the team
should have had a much better 2000 season that what the end results show?
A. Sterling should have finished in
the top-10 in points and it’s our fault, not his. He drove his heart out
as always. We, the whole team, let Sterling down this year is exactly how I
feel. We didn’t give him the equipment he needed. We go to a place like
Talladega, where he shines as a driver, and we only had one decent race! The
car did not run well, would not suck up in the draft and the engine just
would not run. When you think of Sterling Marlin and he’s running in the
back of the pack in Talladega, it’s not his fault, but the car.
Q. Sounds like you are taking much of
the blame for some of the problems.
A. I’ll take the blame for a lot of
what happened and decided it’s time to step aside and let somebody else
take over.
Q. Do you have a driver for the #01
BellSouth you’d like to tell me about?
A. No, no driver named yet.
Q. Bobby Hamilton, Jr. is driving the
#01 in the Atlanta race this weekend, a one-time deal?
A. Who knows? We really haven’t had
a lot of talk about Bobby driving the Cup car more than once, but who knows?
(Laughs) Heck, I’ll put you in the car if you can drive.
Q. Oh, I can drive a car!
A. You can? Hey, there you go, problem
solved! We’d gladly put a woman in the seat just as quick as a man. Heck,
maybe you could get them all to wrecking and slide right to the front of the
pack. (Laughs)
Q. Ok, now that we’ve solved that
little mystery with the #01 car, please clarify that Ted Musgrave will not
be back with the team in 2001.
A. No, Ted will not be back. That’s
a done deal. He’s gone and I wish him well, good man!
Q. And the Rick Mast rumor?
A. We’re considering everybody, but
have nobody specifically signed yet. We’re waiting for Jeff Gordon to call
us, but I think he lost my telephone number! (Laughs)
Q. I’m attending Jeff’s press
conference shortly, would you like me to take the telephone number to him
again?
A. (Laughs) Would you? Yes, just drop
it off to him and tell him not to lose it again please!
Q. I can’t let you go without
mentioning that I’ve heard you can be somewhat controversial, outspoken,
and a few other choice descriptions, true?
A. Well, I’m not aware I’m
controversial, I am outspoken though, but not controversial, heck, I may be,
but I just like to speak what’s on my mind!
Q. Isn’t that a good thing? To speak
your mind?
A. Let’s just say I’m consistent.
I don’t have to remember tomorrow what I said yesterday because it will be
the same today and everyday, consistency!
Q. In other words, nobody could accuse
you of being a NASCAR pre-programmed robot with a patent answer to any and
every question asked of you?
A. No way! They’ve got enough robots
running around out there, they sure don’t need another one. I’m not a
robot for sure! If you ask my opinion, I’m going to say what I think,
simple as that. I might be wrong or all full of crap, but you’ll get
exactly how I feel about a situation.
Q. Thanks so much for your time. I
guess I need to go and find my new teammate Sterling Marlin and be the first
to break the news to him that you’ve found a driver for the #01!
A. (Laughs) Please do. Go over and add
your name to the list as soon as you leave here!