Daytona 500 - Ford Media Day Quotes

All eight Ford NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series drivers participated in media day at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday. Below are highlights from each driver.

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 TNT Taurus - THIS IS THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1979 DAYTONA 500 WHEN THE TELEVISION ERA FOR THIS SPORT BEGAN. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED WATCHING NASCAR ON TV? "I didn't realize this was the 25th anniversary, but me and my family were at a resort in Virginia snow skiing. The race was on a Sunday the way I remember it and we all went skiing that morning. I kept looking at the clock on the lifts and at about noon I said I was going to go to the condo. They said, 'What do you mean, you're going to the condo?' And I said, 'I'm going to the condo.' They thought somebody needed to go with me, but I told them I would be alright. So they skied with me and I took my skis off and they watched me go in the condo. I shut the door and I watched the race while they all went skiing. That was cool. To watch the Daytona 500 live was pretty cool and remembering that is pretty cool, too. I would have been 10 at the time." WHERE WAS IT AT? "At Wintergreen Ski Resort." THE IMPACT ON TV GETS BIGGER AND BIGGER. WHAT HAS TV DONE FOR THE SPORT AND DOES THE ROLE IT HAS NOW GETTING TO A DANGER POINT LIKE OTHER SPORTS WHERE IT MIGHT HAVE TOO MUCH INFLUENCE? "We talked about that years ago. I made the statement years ago that as this sport became more and more popular and was exposed to more and more media outlets that this sport would come under more scrutiny - just as the NFL does and just as the NBA does. Years ago, the media was made up of a bunch of guys that used to race or a bunch of guys that were race fans and it was like being in the good 'ol boy network. Nobody ever said anything bad about you. Nobody ever said, 'Boy, you just didn't do a good job of that.' Nobody said anything bad. Today, the media is coming much more from the outside looking in, rather than the inside looking out and that's a big difference. I think the early media did all they could to foster the sport and to grow the sport and didn't say things or report things that perhaps would get said or reported today. I happen to think it's better that the media is willing to scrutinize the drivers, the car owners, the sponsors and NASCAR itself because I think in order to be a legitimate, front-running sport in America it needs to be questioned. The negative to that is sometimes bad things come out about drivers, car owners, sponsors, NASCAR, but the good thing is it keeps everybody on the up and up. I happen to think that's been one of the things that helps separate and grow the sport. As outside media has come in more topics have come up - not just the good but also the bad." WE'VE SEEN WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE NFL AT THE SUPER BOWL BY GOING AFTER THE YOUNGER DEMOGRAPHIC. IS NASCAR IN DANGER OF THE SAME TYPE OF THING? "When a sport exposes itself to an inexperienced group of athletes that haven't been put through the ringer, so to speak, from a mass media standpoint you're in the position to have things happen that you otherwise wouldn't have happen. Mark Martin isn't gonna do things that a young driver who hasn't been exposed to this stuff is gonna do. I'm not saying the older you have to be, but the more time you have to spend in front of television cameras with the media, with the public and doing those things, the more you understand how to handle it. When you are a professional race car driver or a football player or a basketball player, people around you want you to believe that you're something more special than you really are. The more you go through, the more you understand that that's not necessarily true. You're gifted. God gave you that ability to do some things really well that other people can't do, but that doesn't give you permission to do things that other people can't do. I think sometimes younger drivers and younger athletes in general forget that. They don't forget it, they just don't know it. They also have a hard time separating that this is motorsports and this is everyday life. Not all of them, but some of them. If you treat your motorsports or any sport that you're in as you treat your everyday life, you're prone to be a pretty crappy citizen. You have to be ruthless. You have to be selfish. You have to be self-serving. You have to be everything that being in the general public says you shouldn't be to be successful in sports. But there are times to turn that on and times to turn that off. Some of the younger guys have a problem turning that off." IN DECEMBER THERE WAS TALK ABOUT YOUR FUTURE. DID YOU COME CLOSE TO LEAVING ROUSH AT ALL? "There was more speculation about what I was gonna do with my career from people on the outside than there was from me on the inside. When you're looking at your career and you've won 18 Winston Cup races and you've been doing it for 10 years and you're looking at possibly not having a sponsor, that certainly creates a situation where you have to look around and think, 'What if?' On the other hand, my experience at Roush Racing has been they've always been able to do what they say they're gonna do. They've always put forth the effort to do what they say they're gonna do and I believe that to be the case now. I trust in what they say. I believe in what they say. They say we're gonna be OK. Does that mean there's not a little bit of anxiety about it? No, because there is, but I trust Geoff Smith and I trust Jack Roush. They've always done what they say they're gonna do and they say they're gonna do this deal and find a way to make it happen, so I believe it to be true."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Taurus -ARE YOU EAGER TO GET THE YEAR STARTED? "I've been really antsy to get started actually - more so than any year I can remember in the last three of four years. I've been ready to get down here and get started and get to racing. We've got a lot of cool things going on at Roush. Our engine deal has changed around a little bit and I'm really excited about that. I'm excited about the rules changes with the spoiler and the tires and all that. I could be way wrong and we may not start off running very good, but I just feel like we have better equipment and the rules are gonna favor us, I think, maybe more than they have in the past with some of our driving styles and how we set cars up. I'm looking forward to the year. I think we've got a better chance this year to run better than we ever have before since I've been at Roush Racing. You never know what's gonna happen, but during the winter I've been really excited about what I've seen go on and I think we're gonna have a good shot at doing some great things this year." DOES IT FEEL LIKE MORE OF A FRESH START THIS YEAR WITH ALL THE CHANGES? "Maybe a little bit, but there are still a lot of things that are the same. It definitely feels different than it did going into any other year, but I've got a lot of reasons for that feeling different for myself, but it definitely feels a little different than it has before." DO YOU WISH YOU COULD CARRYOVER 100 POINTS FROM LAST YEAR? "Yeah, that would be cool to be able to have some of them left, but they would be erased after 26 anyway. I still would like to have that cushion to try to be in that top 10 after 26 races, so, yeah, that would be a cool thing. Maybe you should talk to somebody about that (laughing)." IS THIS POINT SYSTEM SOMETHING YOU THOUGHT WAS NEEDED OR WAS IT SOMETHING WHERE NASCAR SAID THE CHAMPION ONLY WON ONE RACE SO WE NEED TO CHANGE IT? "I don't know. That would be a question you'd have to ask them. We as drivers or teams don't really have anything to do with the rules or how they come about or what they end up being. I think it'll be alright. I think it'll be exciting. The last 10 races will be cool at least for the guys in third through 10th in points to have a shot at the championship. The top couple of guys, if they have a big lead, probably won't like giving all of those points back if they've had a great first two-thirds of the season, but the rest of the guys are gonna be excited because they're gonna have a chance at the championship at the end of the year. Our goal is to be in that top 10 so we can have a shot at it again." IT SEEMS IT WORKED ALL THESE YEARS AND THE PRIMARY REASON FOR CHANGE WAS THE FACT YOU WON ONLY ONE RACE. "I think they were looking to build more excitement at the end of the year. We have a really long season. It would probably be easy for the average sports fan at the end of the year to maybe get a little bored with the races with football coming on, especially if the championship was getting a little boring, so this will definitely spice that up and make people want to watch and be able to see who is gonna win that championship the last 10 races and see who is gonna have a chance at it before the 26th race and who is gonna make that top 10." WHAT CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT THIS. WHEN IT WAS FIRST ANNOUNCED YOU DIDN'T SEEM TO BE IN FAVOR OF IT? "It's changed a little bit. First of all, after something is done, it's done. Those are the rules we've got to work with and that's what we've got to go by and use, so that's the approach I'm taking. I wasn't anymore or less informed than the media was about it, so my first reaction was my first reaction. I didn't know about it. I didn't know what they were planning. I didn't know what they were trying to do and I was under the assumption they were gonna do something different. I thought the system was gonna be different, so when I first heard it, it wasn't what I was expecting and what I was prepared to talk about. Also, whenever you look at a change, you always look at it from the previous year. I know some people were real excited about it because they were in the top 10 and dropped out at the end of the year and they would have known they would have had a shot at it. I wasn't excited about it because after 26 races, we had a 400-and-some-odd-point lead and I felt like they would have been stealing those points from me. When I think about it, years like last year are few and far between and we might never have another 400-point lead in our lives after 26 races. So it's kind of cool to know if you're in the top 10 that you can have a shot at that championship. If you can just stay in that top 10, you're gonna be within striking distance of that leader and have a shot at it with 10 to go. If I look at last year and they year before that, it would have been a great rule for us in 2002 since we won two out of the last 10 races and would have had a shot at the championship. We didn't because we had some problems earlier in the year." WILL LEADING STILL BE THE PLACE TO BE WITH THESE NEW RULES CHANGES? "That's always important. It probably is gonna be slightly easier to pass and get around somebody, but you're still gonna want to be in front and you're still gonna want to lead laps. There are bonus points for leading like there always has been, so you're still gonna want to be up front and have yourself in a position to get away. It's still gonna be better to be in front of a car than behind them. You're still gonna have more air on the car. No matter how small they make the spoiler or how small you make the car, it's not gonna be as important to be in front but you're still gonna want to be in the front. It's still gonna be important to get the pit stops done and get your car out front." WHO DO YOU SEE AS THE FAVORITES THIS YEAR? "It's hard to say until the year gets started. If you looked just at the end of last year and based that on this year, which isn't always a great baseline, but Jimmie Johnson was super-strong at the end of last year. I'd be looking at him and Ryan Newman, obviously, is very fast. He won a lot of races and a lot of poles, so he's a guy to look at but you never know. There are 20-25 guys and teams that could come out of the box and be strong and be the guy to beat."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus - WILL THE NEW RULES HAVE A BIG EFFECT ON THIS RACE? "I don't think so. I think it's still gonna be the great race that we put on each and every season. Everytime NASCAR comes up with a rule, we figure out a way to get around it and make our cars perform the best they can. I don't think rules are gonna have an effect on the race this year. I think the tires are gonna be the big unknown right now. Goodyear has changed the tires a bunch. We learned a lot from testing, but until you get in racing conditions that's really the big unknown going on right now." WHAT'S THE BALANCE BETWEEN DRIVER AND AERO IN THIS RACE? "I think all the engineering and everything comes out in testing - getting the car handling as best you can and finding out all the aerodynamic stuff you need. It's not hard going around here by yourself wide open. I think you all could do it just as good as I can, but when it comes to putting those other 42 cars out there, then the game changes a bunch and the driver has to step up. It's like a chess game. You really have to see the move happening before you make it. You've got to be a very patient race car driver. I've had a lot of success here at Daytona. I really love the race track and I love the game of drafting because it's just a big chess game. You've got to know when to play it and know when to make your move. I've been lucky with it so far, and I just want to make that one last move to try to get in Victory Lane. We got so close here two years ago and I was running third last year when our battery box went out, so we've got great equipment. We've got some good motors and good cars. We've taken care of the aerodynamic part and the engineering part and now it's up to Elliott Sadler to try to put it in motion here." ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO RACING UNDER THE NEW SYSTEM? "I am. I think it's great. I think once the fans and everybody understands what's going on, I think everybody is gonna like it. It gives 10 drivers now a chance to run for the championship, instead of two or maybe just one. It keeps you from going into a fourth quarter prevent defense. It makes you have to blitz every now and then. That's just the kind of parallel and similarities we're having now. I think the fans will love it because there's a better chance that one of their favorite drivers will be running for the championship. I like it. It keeps everything close and keeps everything where you've got to race hard and you've got to take chances to try to win this NASCAR NEXTEL championship, and I think it's a great decision." HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS ONE-TEAM FORD CONCEPT? "Everybody knows Robert Yates and Jack Roush have joined forces on the engine program and the reason we did that is because of Dodge's concept and we know Toyota is coming in in a couple of years and is gonna try to blow people away with money and a one-team concept, so I think it's very smart for Ford and Jack and Robert to get together and put all of our entities together and start doing that now because we don't want to be overwhelmed by any other manufacturer coming into this sport and just steamrolling us with that type of idea. I think it's smart for those guys to look ahead and it's been working well. It's pretty neat now to come into the garage and have Jack and Robert both working on your engine and trying to learn stuff to try and help all of our teams. I think Ford has done a great job with trying to get everybody to work together now. I think after they've seen how successful Dodge has been with it, I think Ford has definitely stepped to the plate getting everybody under one umbrella."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus - WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CHANGE THIS YEAR? "I don't think I could ever remember this many changes in going into a season. Obviously, having a new title sponsor in NEXTEL -- changes to the cars, a pretty big change to our point system - yeah, there are a lot of changes. I think it's gonna take a little getting used to with everything, but I don't know that change is all bad." YOU'RE PROBABLY HAPPY TO HAVE A CLEAN SHEET OF PAPER TO START THE YEAR? "Yeah, I don't know that there's anybody out here that appreciates starting over and having a clean slate as much as we do this year. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to make amends for what was just a terrible season at Robert Yates Racing last year and hopefully we can do that." DOES IT TAKE THE OFFSEASON TO STOP THAT DOWNWARD TREND? "We thought at times we kind of had our ship righted last year during the season, but we've totally overhauled everything. We have a lot of different people. We have a different person in charge and Mike Ford is that person who is totally in charge now, but we're doing things completely different. I don't think we could have made these changes during the season last year because they're so different. It takes ending one season to get to the beginning of another to make that big of a change." THE TIRES ARE ANOTHER CHANGE THIS YEAR. "Yeah, there are so many things that are different. The tires are gonna be an interesting situation to see exactly how that plays out as we get to some race tracks here at the beginning of the season. You have one with our second race at Rockingham where it's just brutal on tires and see how that works and how everybody goes about handling that, but it's gonna be interesting to see. Again, we have a lot of changes within our race team and a lot of other changes outside of that, but it's still racing. You still go out and you've got to perform on the race track." CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE BUD SHOOTOUT? "I enjoy the Bud Shootout. I think it gives you an opportunity being in that race to get that first racing opportunity out of the way and get you back into a drafting mode and what it takes there. As far as myself, the two years that I've won the Bud Shootout, I've gone on to win the 500 so I think it's pretty good practice to get ready."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus - DO YOU THINK THE FINAL 10 RACES SHOULD HAVE ALL KINDS OF RACING REPRESENTED? "I don't think that's important really. I really don't. I think it's more important to create a stir and an atmosphere. I think it's more about entertainment than it is whether or not you need to have a road race or a restrictor plate race. To me, that's not at the top of the list. NASCAR is trying to make it more exciting and dramatic for the fans and I don't think it matters what size or shape the race tracks are nearly as much as if they can create that excitement." WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT RACE AT RICHMOND WILL BE LIKE? "I think Richmond will be a little bit different, but I don't think it will have to do with it being the deciding race. That's one of a multitude of races. You can't say one race makes or breaks anything. It doesn't. In the old days, they wanted to act like the last race was everything. The last race was nothing. The last race could have been the first race as far as the results go. It didn't matter in that way. The change in Richmond will be that it's new pavement. Yes, it will probably be a different race, but it won't be based on the point standings or setup." HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE POINTS CHANGE? "I haven't changed the way I feel about it, I just realize that it doesn't matter how I feel. What's important is to go and race the system and try to take advantage of it. It's a waste of time for us to concern ourselves about what we do or don't like about it. What we need to do is figure out how we can win." DO YOU HAVE OPTIMISM FOR THIS SEASON? "We have a lot to look forward to with the Viagra team. We have better cars, a new Taurus and the Ford power is gonna be awesome. Everything seems really good right now with Pat Tryson and my crew. They're fresh and excited and we have a lot to look forward to. There are no guarantees on these results, so we'll have to see how that all plays out." MATT WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP. DOES THAT GIVE YOU GUYS A LIFT THAT IT CAN HAPPEN? "I don't think so. I'm happy for Robbie Reiser and Matt Kenseth and especially happy for Jack Roush, but that doesn't score points for us. We have to go and get the job done and it comes down to how potent our race team can be, how good the stuff that I drive is and how much luck we have on the race track." THIS IS ONE RACE YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET ISN'T IT? "Obviously, yeah but all races are that way. I have never really put this race above any other race. You try to win them all and if you don't, you're a fool. We put every effort into this one and as soon as this one is over, we'll put every effort we have into the next one. That's how we do it week in and week out. I'd love to win this thing. It's a big trophy and a big check. It's something you could remember forever, but if you don't, you did your best and there's no use in crying about it." WHAT DO YOU DO TO GET READY FOR THE SEASON? "I don't know what the other guys do. I do the same thing I do every year all through the season. I train physically the same as I do when I'm racing and we work all the time. Getting ready to take care of our sponsors and take care of our team and getting all the pieces of the puzzle in order. That's what we do every year." HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET TIME IN THE CAR DURING THE OFF SEASON? "That's not important at all. What's important is when you climb in that car how good is it? So therefore, it is sometimes important to get some track time to find out how things are working that you've been working on for the last eight weeks. Sometimes you work on stuff that really produces great results and sometimes you work on things that don't produce such great results and you need to find that out in January. But practice, I need no practice. I need a fast race car. Give me a fast race car and no practice and we'll have no problem. Give me all the practice in the world and a slow car and we've got problems." HOW LITTLE CAN THE CHANGE BE TO TURN THINGS AROUND? "Very small. We've only had some real small changes within our team other than Pat Tryson. I love working with him. I'm excited about it. The other small changes we've had in our team really have made big differences. I see great pit stop practice, a great feeling of how everybody is excited and charged up for the season. We have better race cars than we had last year, better engines and right now our pit stops are better. That may not be enough because everybody else may have better stuff, too. We've made gains, but we have to put it out on the race track to find out how it really stacks up." THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CHANGES THIS YEAR. "It is a bigger change year than most and anytime there's change that means there is opportunity. There is opportunity to either do better or do worse, so I like it when there's opportunity - when there are new race tracks or changes within the rules because it's your opportunity to excel beyond the competition, but it's also an opportunity for you to fall behind, too."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus - IS THE TEAM ALL SETTLED IN THE NEW SHOP? "I think that's more of an Eddie Wood question, but from just observing it looks real organized. When I go in the shop I see guys have their areas that they're working in and I haven't seen where they've really missed a beat at all with the move. Looking at preseason testing, the performance has been very, very good. If we were gonna show a weakness, it would show up on the on-track performance. To the contrary of that we've been very good." WHY SHOULD THIS BE BETTER? "Really to sum it up, the closer alliance with Roush Racing, which came with the move, was they have an assigned engineer in our camp that reports back between the two teams was never there before. That has never been in place. We've had some interns, an engineer that was basically assigned by Ford as an intern who was a great person, but needed to be tutored by a larger engineering group. So the big key we're gaining is the technical information that comes from the Roush camp that did not exist a year ago. I was sort of thinking that was gonna be a closer relationship and it didn't materialize, but that's the case now. There are agreements where Roush does provide all the technical support for us, so with the move comes a closer tie to the Roush camp. With the move comes a better access pool of technical people that work on race cars - not just the fabricators or mechanics, but the technical people that are involved in the sport are based in the Charlotte area. They would not move to Stuart, so you've opened the door to a lot of people. I hate to say better people because we had good people in Stuart, but you didn't have enough guys and you didn't have specialists like you have in the Charlotte area. So they were able to strengthen the program from the inside by making that move." DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF NEW PEOPLE? "We have quite a few new guys. Some of the guys didn't make the move from Stuart and some of the guys did. If you ever wanted to expand the team to two cars, you were really stretched to get people to come to Stuart to begin with. Now all of a sudden you're gonna have double the personnel and you just really could not make that happen in Stuart." HOW MUCH DOES SHARING WORK? HOW DEEP DOES IT GO? "I'm kind of new to the multi-car team concept. I ran it before with Hendrick years ago and then Yates with the 28 and 88 cars. With the new alliance with Roush, I know we came here for winter testing and we were the best Ford and actually the best race car in winter speeds. That car went back and it went to the Roush camp. It was there for them to look at and diagnose and measure and do whatever they wanted to do, so this time it worked for the Roush camp. A lot of times it will work for us. The Vegas test is a good example. We were out there testing and the other Roush guys were over there and we were exchanging all the computer data between the teams, so we can look at things. We can see how their ride heights work around the race track and if we're off the pace, we can see what we've got to do. That information is flowing both directions, which is the way it should be. It's working pretty good." HOW MANY ENGINEERS DO YOU NEED? "We just didn't get the engineering support we were supposed to have gotten and there are some reasons for that. I'm not pointing any fingers, but that never materialized. If you don't have that technology - when I had my teams I had one engineer. Like a Roush or Hendrick operation, Hendrick probably has 30-40-50 engineers on staff. So even if you have your one engineer assigned to you that's not enough this day and time. Now you've got guys that are specialists. You've got an aero engineer. You've got a mechanical engineer. Everything has become so specialized and now these guys run off in the various areas they're assigned to and they just come back with more information at a quicker pace and that's really what we're fighting is a technology race off the track as much as we are on the track. What you see on the race track is a result of who is winning the technology game." YOU EXPECT TO BE MUCH BETTER THIS YEAR? "Oh yeah. Eddie Wood wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to relocate if he didn't see positive things coming from the move. It was not the easy thing to do. It was hard for them to do it, but already we've seen benefits. The proof is sort of in the pudding. Now we've got to go out and prove it to the world that we're a better race team and the way you do that is you go out there and you run up front and win some races -- at least you run consistent top fives and top 10s, which is something we were sporadic in doing last year." BILL ELLIOTT IS RUNNING A LIMITED SCHEDULE THIS YEAR. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO? "I don't know. I'm gonna sit back and see how this goes for Bill and see how this works out. I see Bill kind of taking the role as more of a driver development guy - a trainer who will probably work the radio on race day to help the young guys and basically do a lot of thinking for them. A lot of the young guys go fast when they first come on board, but they don't have the years and years of savvy that comes with a lot of time on the race track. I see Bill probably moving into that role for Kasey Kahne, so there is probably a group of us sitting back watching to see how it works out for Bill and if he's happy doing that. The biggest thing is doing something you enjoy doing and we'll have to wait and see how it works for Bill." WERE YOU IN THE 1979 DAYTONA 500? "Yeah." HOW DID IT WORK OUT? "We broke. I remember we broke somewhere and I was on the way home when the big fight broke out. I didn't see it. It sounded like a wrestling match was going on, but it was pretty big. I know a lot of people still talk about it. They don't remember who won the race, but they remember the fight." DO YOU GET JUST AS FIRED UP FOR THIS DAYTONA 500 AS THAT ONE IN 1979? "Believe or not that's what really motivates me coming back. If I didn't have that desire, I wouldn't be here standing. I would have quit a long time ago. It certainly gets a little bit tougher with the demands on your schedule, but I still get just as excited - not just for the Daytona 500 but for each and every race I go in to. I get pretty excited. The butterflies are flying every morning and it really hasn't changed. To me, I think I get just as nervous and excited about racing today. Even though I've been in this thing for probably 25 years at the 500, I still get just as excited about it." ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT ALL THESE CHANGES? "The way I look at it, it's not affecting us right now today, so my tendency is to sort of block it out. I can't control it. I look at the things I can control and that's on-track performance. I have something to do with that. What happens with the television schedule, what happens with the point system, I can't control it so I've learned over the years not to worry about that. The chips are gonna fall as they will. I do think that we need to look at it a little bit differently. I think we need to look at it as if it's a 26-race schedule to begin with and if you get to the final 10, approach the final 10 when you get there. The key is you've got to get in position in the first 26, so I think people will tend to treat it that way and I don't think we'll be by ourselves in that area." WHAT ABOUT THE ARGUMENT THAT IT DOESN'T GO TO CERTAIN KINDS OF TRACKS IN THE FINAL 10? "I'm not gonna concern myself with that because it is what it is and we'll just deal with it. I'm sure some people will be happy at the end of the day and some people will be upset. Will there be more people upset than before when they didn't get in the top 10 at the end of the points year? I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. It is different, but I'm gonna go into very optimistic instead of with a defeated attitude and see how it plays out."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Sharpie/Irwin Taurus - "Winning races gets you attention whether it's positive or negative. Embracing it in positive ways helps obviously. The fans come from all different directions and that's what makes our sport - the fans. Being perceived by them one way versus another is something that holds value to you. You have your job as a professional and have to overcome any type of obstacles in your way to achieve the results that you're expected to." HOW MUCH EMOTION DO YOU NEED AS A DRIVER? "You have to be yourself. That's the easiest person to be. Sometimes when you're involved with a race, like Darlington, where everything is out on the line. It's Ricky Craven and I battling back and forth. You're caught up in the race itself. Are your tires better than his? Is my power-steering beginning to fail? You get caught up in the emotions of your car and now it's the last lap. It's what you dream about as kid - racing door to door. It was such a great race to be involved with and the emotions really set you into a different mind set." WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE KNOWN AS A YOUNG GUN? DO YOU RESENT THAT AT ALL? "No, not at all. I think they perceive us a group that wants to go out and charge hard and to win races. We've all been given opportunities at a young age to drive. Obviously, we're older than 16 but it's been fun to be at this level and to be young and help this sport grow and blossom and to take it to another level." WHY ARE SO MANY YOUNG DRIVERS GETTING CHANCES AT THIS LEVEL? "There are many different equations and answers and a lot of different views on how things are perceived. I believe one of the key elements is the tenacity that a young driver brings. It can help propel a sponsor or it can help propel a car owner into making dollars. It can work both ways. The driver makes dollars as well, but I think when you're able to come in as a young driver, car owners give you an opportunity because the sponsors want to have a long-term deal. If you find a driver that's 40 years old, you don't know if he's gonna be around for five more years or 10 more years. Some sponsors want to come in for that longevity and when you find a young established driver, then they want to stick with him and build a marketing campaign around them." DO YOU LIKE BEING ABLE TO SHOW THE KIND OF PERSON YOU ARE AWAY FROM THE CAR? "There are two personalities that a driver has to have and the two can go together or the two can stay separate. This is to kick off the season and this is to get into the feel of Daytona. This is what it's about for us. There is a lot of media and a lot we have to do for our sponsors and then we get to jump in the car and practice. We go from race mode to media mode and back to race mode. That's what Daytona is about and that's the challenge of understanding the complexity of this race." YOUR BROTHER, KYLE, SAYS YOU ARE MISUNDERSTOOD. WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY THAT? "I believe it's a lot of understanding the difference between a race car driver and then a personality. There are differences between the two and I'm an easy-going guy that likes to have fun and smile and work hard. I make mistakes. I've made mistakes in the past and maybe I don't fess up to them as quick as I should, but there has been a lot of things that have been misconceived but that's just part of the challenge of Winston Cup and now NEXTEL Cup of understanding where the sport needs to go, where a driver needs to be and when you need to race hard and when you need to race smooth." ARE YOU GOING TO BE THE SAME OLD KURT BUSCH? "There are a lot of things you have to change with the new point structure and with the value of last season. I'd like to see things more like 2002 when things were smooth and when things went our way." HAS ANYBODY TALKED TO YOU ABOUT CHANGING THE WAY YOU ARE OR ABOUT CONTROLLING YOU EMOTIONS? "There are things you have to do on the track that you change and there are things you have to do off the track. It's still a matter of getting that car into Victory Lane. Whether it's a Sharpie car one weekend or an Irwin car the next, we're still gonna try to do things the same but yet change it all around." DO YOU FEEL SOME OF THE VETERAN DRIVERS WENT THROUGH THE SAME THINGS YOU HAVE? "Oh yeah. There are so many comparisons to drivers from the seventies to the eighties to the nineties to today and it's all just a revolution. It's not a changing of the guard, it's just that you've got guys that are in that age bracket and you've got the guys that are in the other age bracket. All of us are out there to compete. We've got a great fraternity of drivers that all blend with one another. They have that camaraderie, but yet they all want to beat one another on the same given day." DO YOU THINK THE GRIND OF THE SEASON BENEFITS A YOUNGER DRIVER OR DOES THAT EXPERIENCE OF A VETERAN BECOME MORE VALUABLE? "That's an interesting question because it can be viewed in different ways. Whether you're the veteran of heart and you know all the tracks and know what types of setups each track needs, or you're the young guy that's a bit unfamiliar with circumstances and not knowing what to expect, it could fall into your hands. So there are many ways that a veteran driver can out-do a young driver and there are other ways a young driver can out-excel a veteran driver."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus - WHY ARE YOU RUNNING FULL SCHEDULES IN THE BUSCH AND CUP SERIES? "I love to race. One of the reasons why is I didn't want to run 20 or 25 races and be that close in the points race and not run the other - there are actually five or six conflicting races. Last year I ran the Busch Series and they asked me to run on my weekends off - Milwaukee and some others. It just so happened that was an off week last year, but it didn't line up the way it is this year. It was something like that. But I was volunteering. I mean, I'm gonna go home and sit on the couch. I want to go race St. Louis over at Gateway and race Nashville or whatever, so really it comes down to only five or six races I'm not gonna race and I could be in a title race at that point. So, in my opinion, why not do them all. I might as well do it while I can. I've got the opportunities. I've got the sponsors. I've got the ambition. I've got the drive to do it and I want to do it." WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH SOME OF THE RACES THAT ARE LOGISTICALLY DIFFICULT? "A fast, fast jet. Something really fast." WILL YOU GET WITH SAUTER AND KAHNE AND WORK SOMETHING OUT WITH THEM? "Yeah, I need to talk to them about it definitely because it's gonna be an issue. If we can put all of our money together, we could certainly get something faster and bigger." HOW DO YOU ADDRESS THE CONDITIONING ISSUE? "That's something I'm gonna have to keep up on constantly. I'm gonna have to keep hydrated and I'm gonna have to eat right and stay in shape. I've got a plan set forth that's gonna keep me in shape and keep me down the right road as far as nutrition goes and I'm ready to do it. I think I can stick to it. I haven't had any problem running two races before in the past. The only time I could tell I had a long day was when I ran the Charlotte Busch and Cup race. I won the Busch race and had to race the Cup race that night. Your adrenaline from winning and all the media and then I had to go out and sign autographs at the souvenir trailer, and then I had to go to Grainger hospitality and everybody wants to talk to you. So your adrenaline is going and you're excited for several hours and then it's two hours before the race and you're trying to calm down because you've got to go race another 500-mile race." ARE YOU DOING MORE THAN BEFORE FROM A TRAINING STANDPOINT? "It's pretty much gonna be the same. I'm probably gonna watch what I eat a little bit more. I really didn't have a specific diet, so to speak. I ate kind of healthy, but I'm probably gonna have to cut out a little bit of the stuff I eat and eat a little healthier - stuff that keeps your metabolism up and your energy level. I've learned a little bit about that." IS JACK OK WITH THIS? "Yeah, Jack thinks it's great. Any of his drivers that want to race, he's a racer at heart so he's the guy that's full steam ahead on it, too." HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING BACK TO DAYTONA AFTER WINNING IN JULY? "I feel really good about my chances. We've got a really fast race car. The guys have worked really hard on the National Guard/Subway car and I think we've got an opportunity just like 42 other guys do. It's gonna be the right place at the right time again. You're gonna have to get some help from teammates or other race cars out there. You're gonna have to set yourself up pit strategy-wise to be in the top 10 or top 5 toward the end of the race. If the race is strung out a little bit, you're certainly gonna have to be in the lead draft to have a chance at it. I think we've got the opportunity to win, it's just a case of if it presents itself to us this time or not." THERE IS AN EXTRA 100 MILES IN THIS RACE FROM THE 400 AND MORE FUEL STOPS. HOW DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY? "Not at all, it's just gonna be a couple more pit stops than what we had done in the past. We were putting tires and fuel in it before. It was kind of unique how we got set up into that pit window. There was about half the field in that same window that couldn't make the end of the race, so we just happened to be the fastest car and up front when it came down to it. We work the end of the race backwards to find out where we have to full of gas at and what's the next place we have to be full of gas. We'll just work it backwards and make sure we've got ourselves in the hunt at the end." WAS THERE A BIG INCREASE IN YOUR FAN BASE SINCE THE WIN? "Oh yeah, it's been a huge increase. It's exciting the amount of fans that are so supportive of you. They want the Dale Earnhardt, Jrs. to win and the Bobby Labontes, but they're so excited when a new guy has won because they can share the excitement that we have as winning for our first time. I think all the fans get excited about that as well."