Food City 500 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #8 Budweiser Chevrolet (Finished 4th)

We had a lot better car with 100 laps to go and we made some adjustments on that last stop. Got it sliding around a little bit. We held out and got a top 5 and I'm real happy with my team.

Scott Riggs #10 Valvoline Chevrolet (Finished 10th)

What a great finish for the Valvoline team. The door we've been knocking on is starting to open. We want to win races and we know we're capable of it. You have to start with these kinds of results. We're on the right track and we'll get there.

We had an alright car today. To be honest, we didn't have the car we thought were going to, but the guys on the team did an incredible job hanging in there and throwing changes at it all day. We fought a really tight machine throughout the race and just had to keep working and making adjustments.

We were patient all day, not too aggressive, and were able to end on the lead lap. Chris (Morris, spotter) did an awesome job of keeping us out of trouble. There was a lot of congestion out there and we were able to stay out of the messes. The most important thing is that we survived, and that's key at Bristol.

Dave Blaney #07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet (Finished 20th)

We had a really good car. We just had some clutch trouble in the pits. We finally got back to 10th and were running really good. We just got caught up in a wreck there-we were looking good. It was a really good car.

Bobby Labonte #18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet (Finished 22nd)

We're disappointed, but we're positive about the fact we were able to run in the top-10 until the accident. Steve (Addington) and the guys made some good calls to get us up front, and we were strong. Unfortunately, luck hasn't really been on our side this year, and we got caught up another accident. We've said throughout the year that we're going to remain positive and continue to work hard. We're disappointed with the finish, but we'll leave here knowing we can run strong and run up front. We'll try to get after it at Martinsville.

Tony Stewart press conference

Tony Stewart #20 Home Depot Chevrolet (Finished 3rd)

Yeah, especially you know we got into a situation where we got blocked into the pits on the first pit stop. I had a good car, I think we tore a reverse (gear) out of it and we just had transmission problems the rest of the day. But, I think we lost 15, 16 spots there and dropped out of the top 20 with one pit stop and kept having to work our way up from there. But, we had a good car, we just never got the track position we needed. I probably should have stayed out the last time I came in and got tires. You know, with that many guys in front of you pit for tires, you hate to have it bite and instead of going forward going backwards, so I just played the safe approach and came in and got four and didn't have good track position but just kept working our way up one car at a time.

ANY IMPACT ON YOUR CAR WITH THE SPIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE, AND WHAT HAPPENED? It folded the right front fender it, but I'm not sure exactly what happened other than the fact that we got hit by the #2 car and turned around. I don't think it was a deal where he was trying to crowd us. He probably thought he was giving me enough room and it wasn't enough room. So, we're just lucky that's all it did, lucky that nobody else hit us. Spun out and kept going and grabbed and a gear and gave us an opportunity during that caution to come in and make repairs on the car.

WHEN YOU SAW THAT GREG BIFFLE DROPPED BACK AFTER NOT TAKING TIRES, DID IT MAKE YOU FEEL GLAD YOU DID? Yeah, I think so. Zippy was a little hard on me after I went in and came in. I just said, we just came in and the spotter called the pit lane RPM and the guys knew we were coming in at that point. I told them we were coming in, so.and after we got the tires and got back out, I think he was giving me a hard time saying he thought we were going to stay out. You know, it's darned if you do, darned if you don't. In this case it actually worked out to our favor. We have good cars that were around us and if we hadn't taken tires, we would have had less laps on our tires than Greg did, still I think the effect of those tires showed up later in the run.

WHAT HAS IT BEEN ABOUT YOUR TEAM TO REMAIN IN THE TOP 10 IN POINTS? WHAT DO YOU THINK THE SITUATION IS WITH BOBBY LABONTE RIGHT NOW? I think Bobby's situation is about bad luck. You know, we haven't had a ton of good luck go our way either this year, but you know, I guess that's why we are in the top 10. We just keep plugging away and we may not get the top 10. If we don't get a top 10, we stay in the top 15 or top 20. We just get the best we can get out of it, where some of these other guys have had one really bad race that's taken them out of it altogether. So, just being able to keep putting those runs together..like I said, even if it's not a top 10, get something that's reasonable for the end of the day and keep making points that way.

WHAT IS THE KEY TO THOSE SAVES? Luck. I mean, there's only so much you have control over. The rest of it is just.your instincts tell you to do part of it, but the rest of it is just luck for the most part. We got lucky that we didn't hit the wall sliding up the race track, and as we were spinning around nobody else hit us, and lucky that when it did come around I got the wheels straight in time. You know, part of it you do is skill and part of it is luck. Nobody is going to come in here and tell you it's all skill and they practice that all the time and they've got it down to perfection. So, after you do it a couple times, I guess, you get better at it but you hope you don't have to do it.

RE: TIRES I don't think the tires.I think when Goodyear brought this tire here, they wanted it to fall off a little bit so you couldn't do that. I think that was the case. The hard thing was, on Friday when we practiced, really we could run 40, 50 laps in a run there and only lose a tenth or two tenths. So, I think guys had it in their mind that they weren't going to lose a lot of time. It's hard for a guy like Greg (Biffle).that's the toughest position to be in to be leading the race, get a caution and know that you can make it, but don't know about the track position to come in or not. It's really a disadvantage being in his position-being the lead car. Once everybody else reacts behind him, that gives everybody else.the first guy that reacts the opportunity to make their decision. At that point his decision is already made. I think he probably thought he had a good enough car, just track position would be good enough for him. I guess that hurt him worse than we thought. You know, he wasn't far away from a top 5 with it.

THERE WERE SOME BAD ACCIDENTS TODAY. HOW IS THE HANS DEVICE FITTING FOR YOU ESPECIALLY AT A SHORT TRACK LIKE THIS WHERE YOU'RE BOUNCING AROUND A LOT? It's perfect. I couldn't ask for it to fit any better.

WERE YOU GLAD FOR THE LONG GREEN IN THE FIRST PART OF THE RACE? I liked it. I mean, we still made ground I thought. Our teammate Bobby Labonte was right in front of us and was having a good run too. We were with guys like Elliott (Sadler) in that area, too. We were with a bunch of guys on the lead lap that we were comfortable with. I always like long runs versus short runs here. Eveyrbody's car drivers good for 25-30 laps and then once you get 30 laps on a set of tires, you start separating these guys. Anytime that we can get a long run here, I pray for it. I'd love to run 500 lap segments and be done with it. But obviously this style of racing, you're not going to get that here. I like it when we have long runs like that. It gives us a chance to get separated. You can really concentrate on what your car is doing and not overdrive it. Because if you got guys that have fresh tires behind you, their cars are really good for 10, 15 laps and then they go away.

DO YOU LIKE HAVING BACK TO BACK SHORT TRACKS? The only thing hard about back to back short tracks is that if you have a problem with somebody today, you're going to remember it next week there. That's about the only negative to it, in all reality. The schedule is the schedule; I don't think it really makes any difference. You get to this level because you're used to running different sized race tracks week in and week out. I guess, for the most part it's more fun to get back to traditional setups so to speak, where you're not worrying about aero latitudes.

JIMMIE JOHNSON DESCRIBED RUNNING OUT THERE AS RUNNING OVER BASKETBALLS. WHAT DID IT FEEL LIKE OUT THERE TO YOU? I don't know what driving over basketballs feels like; I've never done it. I don't know. It just was typical Bristol. I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. You know, it was pretty much just the same thing we do every year here. I don't think it was really any different from normal. I don't think the feel is any different so to speak, so I don't know what he was talking about. It's pretty much the same it's always been.

WERE YOU GOOD TODAY, OR JUST LUCKY? I mean, we were good, but we had some bad luck that got us behind there with the contact with Rusty. That put us from sixth back to 15th, I think. So, we had some bad luck there and then some good luck go our way when the #17 and #24 had tire problems. We were closing in on Jeff anyway before his tire went down, but closing in on Jeff and getting by him is a different story. Still, I think we would have finished in the top 5 either way. We got two extra spots and I got lucky and got those spots. I think the little bit of bad luck we had, we got it back at the end.

WAS IT CLEAR HARVICK HAD A DOMINANT CAR? I don't know. I mean, I didn't get a chance to see him a lot. You know that when you look at the board and you seem him running in the top 5, you know he's got a good car. He always runs well here, whether it's in a Busch car or a Cup car. Probably the most disappointing part of the day was the #2 car. He probably was the class of the field all day in all reality and just got caught on pit lane and then a piece of debris caused a caution. You know, he probably had the worst luck of anybody all day and then never was able to get those laps back. But I didn't think it was a big deal. You know, I think Kevin had a great car but I think Biffle had an awesome car, too. Once we lost Rusty on the lead lap, those two guys were pretty much the class of the field.

Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress press conference

Kevin Harvick #29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet (First win at Bristol, first win since 2003 Brickyard 400): Yeah, we had a great car all day. Richard was on me to keep the rear tires on the car. We didn't make any huge adjustments today. We were pretty good from the start, we were a little bit tight but all in all, starting from the back and everything that's happened-it's been a sweet, sweet day. In hindsight with everything that's gone on and Todd being at home and coming to Bristol where we've always run good makes it fun. You don't have to say a whole lot because the performance we had today speaks for itself.

Richard Childress RCR Team Owner RICHARD, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BACK IN VICTORY LANE AT BRISTOL? Well, it feels great to be back in victory lane anywhere, but Bristol is always a lot of fun because of the excitement on the race track. I think if you watch Kevin's performance today, he gets the credit for this. We had a good car, but at the end of the day, the driver has to know when to go, when not to and how to get through traffic. He did a great job.

IS BIFFLE A SITTING DUCK ON HIS TIRE DECISION? WERE YOU GOING TO GET TIRES REGARDLESS OF HIS DECISION?

Harvick:
We were coming to get tires regardless. I know that from the driver's seat and I know Richard wants four tires whenever we're in that situation. There's a lot of races that have been won here in the past and people have had good finishes. But after you get 40-50 laps into the run, they fall off and you had about 15-20 laps to take advantage of the new tires. It was no question in our mind whether we were going to pit or not, it was just a matter of who else pitted with us.

WAS TODAY TYPICAL BRISTOL OR SOMETHING EXTRA?

Harvick:
Well, you never know what you're going to get at Bristol. Some days.you know we had a 100 lap run today, we had a wreck right off the bat. It was kind of a day of mixed emotions, I guess, you could say as far as the race went. It started off pretty rough there right off the bat there with Leffler and three or four guys wrecked. We had the big pileup down here. We were fortunate enough earlier to have a good enough car where we stayed out on one stop with 16, 17 laps on our tires. I tried to hold my own and get on the same cycle. So, it worked itself out well. We kind of had both today. It was rough and it also had its long run too. I've been here before and not run more than 50 laps at a time. I think we had a 100 lap run and a 77 lap run.

YOU HAD A CONTROVERSIAL PENALTY THEN YOU HAD TO START AT THE BACK. IS THIS WIN SORT OF YOUR KIND OF WIN?

Harvick:
I think both of us have been beat down pretty far in our racing careers. You know, you have to learn how to get out of a hole. I think that's one thing that RCR has always been really good at, is recovering from being down. And they always come back stronger than what they were before. So, like I said earlier, it's a huge statement made by our race team today and you don't really have to say anything else. Our cars ran well this weekend and they've run well pretty much every week except Atlanta and you've got to give a big hand to our teammates Jeff Burton and Dave Blaney and all the crew chiefs. It's a whole different atmosphere since when I've been there. Everybody is on the same page. Everybody is working towards a common goal and I think that's what Richard was looking for when he put people together. During that red flag, Jeff and I were on the radio together talking amongst each other, talking about what we're going to do to get our laps back. It's a big statement and a big relief I think for all of us to know all the hard work that's gone into everything that we've done this year. We don't have one old race car. Every race car on this team is new from the ground up. I wish Todd could have been here today with all the hard work and effort he did. But to have Richard on the box and Scott with all the hard work he did, was pretty cool.

Childress:
Like Kevin said, we just kind of let his actions today do the speaking. I told the guys-we had a meeting-and I told the guys that it's kind of a negative we have to start in the rear on top of everything else, we don't have our crew chief here and we've just got to turn it into a positive. And that's what Kevin did. He turned it into a positive and won the race. But I've got to echo what Kevin says about Todd Berrier. He worked his butt off this winter. Like when we stayed back from Daytona and the other guys were down there doing that test and Todd was back doing a lot of testing.I think a lot of credit goes to Todd. And Scott Miller, you can't leave him out. He was the crew chief today. He gets all the credit that went on for everything in the pit box. These guys worked hard this winter and put together a good program and we're utilizing some of the tools we have now.

WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES A GOOD DRIVER AT THIS TRACK?

Harvick:
I think it's just having a knack for these types of places. I grew up on half mile, semi-high banked race tracks. It was nothing like this, but it's just a knack of something that fits your driving style. If you look back I think RCR has always had strong race cars here at Bristol and that helps a lot. It's something that since the first day we've came here, we've been competitive and racing for wins here and in the Busch Series. I think we've only finished outside of the top 10 twice.or once or twice in the Cup race. It's been a very good track for us.

WHERE WOULD YOU PUT THIS WIN IN THE TOTAL WINS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR CAREER?

Harvick:
I think at this point in my career and with everything that's gone on, it's good for a different reason. The brickyard was really big, but winning at Bristol.it's a short track. You have to have good race cars, dodge all the wrecks and do everything right for the whole day and keep everything together. There's a lot that goes into winning here. There's a lot that goes into winning everywhere but there's just something that I've always enjoyed about Bristol that fits my style and so it's really pretty cool to win here.

ANY CLOSE CALLS TODAY?

Harvick:
Right off the bat, that wreck, that was pretty close. Leffler came down on the track. But other than that, we had pretty good track position. The #48 and #15 wreck there, coming off of 2 and that was right in front of us. So, a couple of close calls, but that's probably the best our car has ever looked. It had one little dent in the left side and that was it. But it was a pretty good day for our car.

RICHARD, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE YOUR TEAM HAS WON. WE'VE BEEN ON YOU PRETTY HARD. IS THIS THE START OF SOMETHING BIG? I do appreciate you all being on our back because that gives us drive to go and that's your job when you have to do that. We've got so many good people that had to go back and regroup this winter and do a lot of things and had to redo our cars, our aero program, our engines. We aren't where we want to be yet, but this is a sign of accomplishment that we're on the way to being where we want to be. We're not there but we know we've got a lot of work to do yet.

RICHARD, DOES THIS GIVE YOU A PERMANENT SPOT ON THE PIT BOX?

Childress:
Probably wouldn't. I would be there if I thought we would win every week, but I'm going to be there the next two weeks.

Harvick:
You can't come down until we lose.

Childress:
I know. I'm going to be there for the next two weeks for sure, and then Todd will be back.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES FOR WINNING THE BUSCH RACE HERE TOMORROW?

Harvick:
Well, our car is really good tomorrow. You know, we have to start in the back tomorrow too. It worked out pretty good today and hopefully it works out the same tomorrow. It was good in practice and I think all three of our cars are pretty good tomorrow. We want to win, but even if we don't, this takes the icing on the cake here whether we win tomorrow or not. Our whole world goes around our Sundays and the #29 is what makes my world go around and a lot of peoples' world go around. We want to win tomorrow, but this is what we're all after.

WHO FOUND THE PUDDLE THIS MORNING AND WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION?

Childress:
Well, Danny Lawrence came and got me and he said, come over here and help us make a decision as to what to do here. He said, when it runs, it doesn't leak, but we think what it was that being really cold, the material changed and we just, as a team, made a decision to go ahead and change it. I said that somebody needs to tell Kevin. I think they told you at the drivers' meeting? We made that decision because we knew we had a really good car. The way that car was coming off the corner in practice and to hear Kevin's voice, we knew we had a good car. Just like on one of the pit stops, we had three lugs tight and the other two were on there, but they weren't on tight. But he came to me and said, I only got three of them. He came to me and said, I gave him three of them tight. I told Scott, we've got to bring him in. I hated to, but it was too good a car not to and Kevin took it right back to the front.

Harvick:
Yeah, I found out. Scott told me in the drivers' meeting.

YOU'VE THANKED BURTON AND BLANEY. HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE HAVING THEM? THEY ARE LESS VOLATILE TEAMMATES-WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR YOU

Harvick:
Well, the first thing I want to do is kind of set the record straight on Robby (Gordon). Robby and I, we got along great the last year and a half. I know a lot has been made out of that and we did everything we could to help each other there at the end. But, it's different. It's such a different atmosphere having guys that.especially with Jeff, he's won races, he's done pretty much everything you can do in the sport. He brings a different attitude. He approaches it differently. And that's really made me a lot calmer and lot more relaxed. It's not like, what do you think we should do and everyone comes to the #29 and everything is riding on the #29's back. Now it's the #29, 31 and 07. They all run good. If there's a week where one of them doesn't run good, you can go to the other two cars because one of them has probably run good. It's a totally different atmosphere. Everybody's got the same goal. I saw Dave after the race and he was pumping his fist as hard as I was pumping my first, so I think that's pretty cool. And I know Jeff is right there with us. It's really cool to have guys like that where there's not really huge egos. The first thing I do is step down and let your guard down. You don't have those guys out there running to prove they can outrun you. Everybody is there to try to win races. When one car win, it's win for everybody. So, that makes life a lot easier.

RICHARD, WHAT WERE YOUR DUTIES ON THE PIT BOX WHEN YOU WERE SITTING UP THERE? I really don't know! I really just wanted to show the whole team-Kevin and everybody-not just the #29 but the whole organization that I supported the whole organization. I wanted to be up there. I just talked to Scott some and I wanted to be there. This place-everything happens so fast and not having Todd, I said, if I could just make one statement I wanted to do that. We talked back and forth and you know, it felt good. I told Kevin, you're three seconds ahead, you're two seconds ahead. It just felt good to talk to him and sit on the box like that. It brought back a lot of old memories there.

DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE CAUGHT GREG BIFFLE EVEN IF HE HAD FRESH TIRES, AS GOOD AS YOUR CAR WAS?

Harvick:
He had a really good car, but I think we passed him once earlier in the day if I remember correctly. Richard was on me pretty hard to save the rear tires and I knew we needed to save the brakes. I just tried to find myself a hole and I could keep there and coming into the brake ducts and I could just try to save the tires. Because after 40-50 laps, the front tires would go and if you could get up off the corners, you could reel them right back in. I've been there a lot of times and wore my car slide out with 250 laps into the race and then you get to the end of the race and don't have anything for the end of the race. You have to take care of yourself and pick and chose when you want to go and I knew we needed to lead some laps. Rusty had a good car and I wasn't going to get in the middle of a battle there in the middle of the race. It was all about the end and we were in a right spot.

HOW IS TODD DOING?

Harvick:
I don't think you can really make Todd upset. Todd and I have been together since 1999. We are more like brothers than we are like work acquaintances or work partners. He knows what I'm going to do before I even do it. I don't have to be a part of a lot of things that he does because he knows what I like and when Richard decided to do that a couple of years ago, it was probably the best thing that's happened in Cup racing for me. So, I haven't talked to Todd. I don't know if Richard has yet. I wish he could have been here because he's the main reason this stuff happens and the main reason the #29 goes around in circles. It's really neat and that's the last thing he told me before I left, he said: Now look, the only thing we need to do is win the race and that's all that needs to be said. So, that's what we did.

DO YOU GET SICK OF NOT WINNING, DOES IT DRIVE YOU NUTS?

Harvick:
I think it wears you out in a lot of different ways. Sponsors start to look at you and say, why aren't you winning? You know, you start to look at each other and say, what do we have to do? We kept working at it and Richard has made a lot of changes and that's the biggest reason everything has turned around. Some people may not think, or know how much has gone on. But when you look at the rosters, our team is pretty much the same but you look at the #31 team, we brought Jeff in part-way through last year and he and Kevin Hamlin have worked well together. He came from a team that raised a lot of scenarios and has had a lot of success over the past few years. And bringing Felipe Lopez in.I could sit here and go on and on. But, yeah, losing sucks. Losing sucks bad.

Childress:
I think in this sport, it can humble you as quick as anything. You can be on top and win championships and be there. We went a couple of long stretches throughout Dale and my career without winning races. It makes you strong. You've got to have it in your guts and you've got to have heart and you've got to have a passion for winning. If you want to sit back and let it ride, you can but we owe to too many people not to go out and try our best and win and that's what pushes you to do it.

WERE YOU AS STUNNED AS EVERYONE ELSE WHEN GREG BIFFLE DID NOT PIT?

Harvick:
I was excited, I know that much. I told him on the radio that he was a sitting duck. It's hard to be in that spot, when you're winning the race and usually everybody does the opposite of what you do and then everybody follows suit for the last three or four guys on the lead lap. And then they pit and it mixed evyerhnig up. I knew when he stayed on the race track that he wasn't going to be one of the cars that we had to worry about because tires meant so much for the first 15-20 laps. He had a good car but we were coming down pit road regardless.

TALK ABOUT YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT THE PUMP PROBLEM THIS MORNING?

Harvick:
I mean, it's not anything you can get upset about. It's kind of the way the cookie crumbles. So, it light of everything that's happened in the past few weeks, it's something I told Scott this morning that hopefully it's the end of the bad luck. Hopefully we can go on from there and it seemed like it was the end of the back luck. We knew it was the right decision to change it. This is not one of those places where you can drive a car that is setup for power steering and not have power steering. So, it was the right thing to do whether we won the race or not.

GIVEN WHAT HAPPENED IN MARTINSVILLE TO YOU THREE YEARS AGO, ARE YOU HUNGRIER NOW FOR A WIN AT MARTINSVILLE?

Harvick:
I don't know if I'm any hungrier. I know that we've run really well there the past few years and led a lot of laps and been in contention to win the race and just had little things happen. We go up there with the same inspiration to win the race as we would every other week. Martinsville is definitely one of those places we've run well over the past few years and feel our chances are really good there, so we're excited and after you win a race and as Richard says, you get a little 'mo, or momentum, on your side, it's something that hopefully you can run with.

Mid-race quotes

Mike Wallace #4 Lucas Oil Chevrolet (involved in accident, Lap 333)

WHAT HAPPENED? We crashed the center link and everything. I saw the wreck happen and got it slowed up and got to the bottom of the race track. And then I saw a car come across the race track and hit me in the right front and got me into the inside wall. There's a big sewer drain down in turn 3 and 4 with a lot of angles down there. The Lucas Oil Chevrolet was running really good. You know, we were running 15th or 16th on the lead lap and it was going to be a good points day for us, but we'll try to get out and see what we can get.

YOU SAID THE CENTER LINK. WHAT IS THAT? The center link hooks both tie rods. The tie rods hook to the spindles, the center link hooks to the steering box and in relationship it all hooks to the steering wheel. It toes in or toes out the wheel, so you've got to get that sturdy so your wheels can go straight and you can drive good.

Richard Childress RCR Team Owner

YOU TALKED TO KEVIN ON THE RADIO ABOUT SAVING TIRES. DOES HE HAVE A BETTER CAR THAN HE'S LETTING ON RIGHT NOW? Well, you know, Kevin is a smart driver. He knows when to go and when not to and he's sort of pacing himself. When we get down to it, he'll be ready to go.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU'VE BEEN IN THE PIT BOX SINCE 2001, HOW DOES IT FEEL? Oh yeah, I'm just basically watching and letting these guys do it.

Jeff Burton #31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet (involved in the multi-car accident, Lap 362)

IT APPEARS YOU AND JIMMIE JOHNSON GOT TOGETHER. WHAT HAPPENED? It just seemed like it didn't have to happen. Jimmie's a great driver and I know he didn't do it on purpose, but you know I gave him a tremendous amount of respect. We had a great car today. The Cingular Chevrolet was fast. Instead of racing them I just got out of there way; you know, I raced the 16. But once he got by me I just got out of their way. He's got to be better than that. He can't be doing that. And I won't put up with it. I know he didn't do it on purpose, but we're responsible for driving these race cars, and when something happens the behind the wheel-it's his fault, I won't tolerate a lot of that.

Pre-race quotes

Dave Blaney #07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet

HOW DOES YOUR TEAM FEEL AFTER SUCH A GOOD QUALIFYING POSITION? We're feeling good. We had a really good practice on Friday and we feel good about the car in race trim. I think all the RCR cars are really fast. We're looking forward to it. We've just got to stay out of trouble and race all day.

Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowe's Chevrolet

YOU HAD A DAY OFF, SO HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BACK FOR RACE DAY? It was nice not being here, but it's tough when you come back race day and switch that switch back on and remind yourself that it's race time. You just kind of lose the rhythm, not only for the drivers but the crew guys as well. It's a different challenge that we're experiencing. I just sat home and it was nice and warm in Charlotte-it wasn't too rainy so it wasn't like the conditions here. The Lowe's Monte Carlo has been great. We qualified well and I have my primary car which is a big step for me at Bristol and if you get to the halfway point here with all the fenders on it, you're looking for a good finish.

Jeff Gordon #24 DuPont Chevrolet

HOW IS YOUR CAR TODAY? Well, we're going to find out. You know, the sun is shining today. When we were doing all of our race practice on Friday it was pretty cool and overcast and all of the rubber has been washed away. I think the track is going to change quite a bit here in the first 50 laps. We're just going to try to be patient and stay on top of it the best we can. But I can say that on Friday towards the end there we hit on some things and the car was really, really strong turning in the middle of the corner. A lot of other guys were struggling with that, so we're going to be patient with it on entry.

Kevin Harvick #29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet

YOU'VE DONE WELL AT BRISTOL. HOW IS YOUR CAR TODAY? Yeah, we've got a really good car. It's disappointing on one hand that we have to start all the way in the back, but it's good we caught it before the race starts. The GM Goodwrench Chevrolet was really, really fast in practice. We're just going to take our time and stay out of trouble and we'll be fine towards the end of the race.

WHAT FORCED YOU TO HAVE TO START IN THE BACK? The power steering pump was leaking. We don't know if the O-ring, or whatever, got cut or what happened. We made a pretty good puddle underneath the car and with the way the rules are now, anything you can touch you've got to go to the back. But, we'll be alright.