More Notes:

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: “It’s about time. I was excited to come here this week. I thought we would be pretty good. We had a great car in spring race here, pretty good car at Loudon, pretty good car at Richmond, so it feels good to finally get a good run. We didn’t qualify good. I really thought we were pretty decent in practice so I kind of expected this.” YOU MADE THE CAR BETTER AND BETTER AFTER EACH PIT STOP TODAY. “It feels good. Give that car about 10 or 15 laps to get going and it would really take off. It felt like we were as good as anybody. It was hard to pass here and we were able to do it. It feels good to be able to run with some true champions of the sport. It feels good to be in the top-10, top-15 and racing hard like that, that’s what Penske Racing is all about and what Kodak is all about and what Jasper Engines is all about. It’s about time that we got it done.” HOW MUCH WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN RACING GUYS WITH MORE EXPERIENCE? “That was kind of cool. It seemed like I was around Mark Martin for a long time throughout the race. I just tried to follow his way through there and learn his line and see what he was doing. It was kind of neat to go ahead and make a pass on him late in the race. It feels good to run good and we felt like we were going to have plenty of these throughout the year. Maybe we have something on a roll and we can do it next week and start the next year off strong.” WITH THE STRUGGLES YOU’VE HAD THIS SEASON, IS RUNNING WELL EVEN MORE SPECIAL? “Definitely. I mean we started the year off pretty good. I think our sixth or seventh race we got a top-10. We led laps in the third race of the year and thought we were going to be just fine. We just hit a major slump and kind of lost our direction. We finally feel like the last couple of months we’ve finally got it back and know what we need to bring to the racetrack. Coming to these places for the second time we just feel much more confident and a day like today we’re finally able to show it.” DID YOU LEARN SOMETHING THIS WEEKEND THAT WILL HELP YOU NEXT SEASON? “For sure. To be honest with you, this is something that the 2 car learned at Loudon in the spring race and we were able to take it to places like Richmond and Loudon the second time and here the second time and it really worked good for us. I guess that’s what teammates are for and teamwork is all about and it worked out good for us today.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET SOME MOMENTUM ENTERING THE OFF-SEASON? “There’s been a lot of heat on myself and Shane [Wilson, crew chief] to perform and there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t be doing this or more like this every week. It’s a confidence boost for myself and my pit crew and everybody. I’m excited about going to the racetrack next week.”

SHANE WILSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS STRONG FINISH FOR YOU AND THE TEAM? “It’s what we needed. We’ve been working hard trying to get better and making everyone work hard. And when they get some results like this, that just feeds it and then they’re going to go back and work even harder. We really like our situation going to home. We’re bringing the car that we had at Texas. We were good in that race and we just missed a little bit at the beginning of a run. We’re going to work on that with our notes and teammates and just try to figure out what we can do there. We’re just finally starting to get ‘er going.” YOU GOT THE CAR BETTER AND BETTER TODAY. “I think we had a good car. A couple of times we just didn’t hit the track. This place is pretty finicky and the veterans are usually very good here. Kyle has raced here a lot, being from the west coast, and this place is hard to keep up with and we chased it a little bit today. All in all, we had a good racecar and just make a little wedge adjustment, a little track bar, a little air pressure and we got it to come around. We didn’t start so far off that we couldn’t get where we needed to be. That was the big difference today.” DID YOU TRY A TWO-TIRE STOP? “We tried two tires and it didn’t work for us. We lost a fair amount of track position and we were looking pretty bad right then but our car like four tires all day. And we liked four tires on a long run. Travis is doing a good job of taking care of his stuff and not over-running it so we have a good amount at the end. Now we just got to get a little better at the beginning of the run and we can start running with these guys every week maybe a little better than we have.” DID YOU FIND SOMETHING THIS WEEKEND THAT WILL HELP YOU NEXT YEAR? “For sure and some it is just laps for Travis and more races for me. Our team is getting better so that helps both of us accelerate. Our team is really strong, we just need to get myself and Travis and the engineer, and we just need to get it figured out. We’ve got a good pit crew, we get good support, and we’ve got a good crew at the shop putting these cars together. We don’t have mechanical problems, we usually have handling problems and that’s what we’re getting better at. We’ll be there once we get it figured out.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BUILD MOMENTUM FOR NEXT SEASON? “Especially with all the stuff going on, it’s always good to end up good so you don’t have to worry about a cut at the end of the year [laughs]. Hopefully that will help this and give the sponsors encouragement for next year to leave us together because it’s so hard to get some good teamwork going every year making a lot of changes. That’s what we need to do. We’ve all been successful in other series. We just need some time here. This is the ultimate competition in auto racing. We’re a little bit behind the eight ball right now but we’re getting better and we’ve shown promise most of these last 10 races so we’re happy with that.”

SELECTED KYLE BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE
KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “It’s great to be involved with such a great team like Hendrick Motorsports and Kellogg’s, CARQUEST, Delphi and everybody that’s helped us out this year. It’s been a great opportunity for me and to just carry on the tradition a little bit more. It’s kind of a funny thing, the first time I ever came to a NEXTEL Cup race was here in Phoenix the year that Terry Labonte won. If that doesn’t make for some weird circumstances, I don’t know what does. That’s pretty cool for me to be able to come here to Phoenix and win in my second start out and still be able to carry on the Busch family’s name here for both races this year.” DESCRIBE YOUR EMOTIONS TODAY WITH EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED. “Pretty high. Obviously being able to win the race. The only thing that I’m going to say is that I’m behind my brother 100 percent. What our deal was today was to go out and try to win with our Kellogg’s Chevrolet and we did that. I’m happy to be here and it’s fortunate with my situation and I’m ecstatic getting ready to go to Homestead for one more try.” WHEN YOU FOUND OUT ALL THE TURMOIL THAT WAS GOING ON THIS MORNING, HOW DO YOU AS A RACECAR DRIVER BLOCK THAT OUT AND GO DO YOUR JOB? “You just do. You just try to put all that stuff aside and deal with it another time. This isn’t the area for all that stuff; it’s not at the racetrack. It should be outside, done in different things. For myself, just being able to go out there and perform at my best is what I’m here to do week in and week out and there shouldn’t be any distractions, whether you’re on the rocks with your girlfriend or you’re doing whatever else outside the racetrack, you come in here and you get in that racecar and you’re focused and you’re down to one duty and that’s obviously to win the race.” YOU WERE PRETTY LOW AFTER YOU FINISHED SECOND HERE IN A BUSCH RACE LAST FALL. COMPARE THAT TO TODAY, WINNING A NEXTEL CUP RACE AT PHOENIX. “The experience level that I have now is definitely a little bit more than what I had here this time last year in the Busch Series race. I had a great battle there with Jamie McMurray and just wasn’t quite able to beat him. Today I had a great battle with Greg Biffle. We were both driving the wheels off our cars, maybe him just a little bit more so than mine. I had a little bit more rear tire left after the race and it was great for me to be able to prevail over him today. I had a great time racing with him. He’s a great competitor out there and I just want to thank him for being able to race me that way. We’ve always been able to race that way as well too. Everybody can have their run ins and stuff like that, which I’m sure everybody will every once in a while, but Greg is a pretty great guy to race with on the racetrack.”

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, No.5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “Our guys made some good pit stops and got some track position and Kyle got out front there and got the Kellogg’s Chevrolet in victory lane.” WERE YOU WORKING PIT STRATEGY TO GET YOURSELF IN THE LEAD OR POSITION YOURSELF MORE FOR THE WIN? “We were going more for the win. We don’t have much to lose right now. We’re not in the Chase and when we get an opportunity like that to do it, the way we had that tire problem that gave us the opportunity to be off sequence with the leaders so we thought it would be a good time to take advantage and go for the win.” WAS THE FINAL STOP WHAT GAVE YOU GUYS THE LEAD? “I think the biggest thing was coming in first there. They all came down and Jeff came in about fourth or fifth or sixth, and he got two to get his track position. Coming down first gave us the opportunity to get four and be in front of the guys with four so we were the first car with four tires and I think that was the key. Obviously, executing pit stops is a big deal. If you blew that you wouldn’t have had the shot so they did a good job.” HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS WIN LOOKING FORWARD TO THE 2006 SEASON AND YOUR TEAM’S CONFIDENCE? “It’s a big deal. We’ve have had real good cars the last couple of weeks and haven’t been able to finish the races out. At Texas we had a real good car, Atlanta we had a car that was leading, and that got us down a little bit so going into the off season we wanted to get back up and get the momentum going and get a win or at least knock out some good top-fives so everybody is on the upbeat on the off season and we were able to do that today.”