Chevy American Revolution 400 - Ford Friday Quotes

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 97 IRWIN/Sharpie Taurus, and Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus, held Q&A sessions in the Richmond International Raceway infield after Friday's NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series practice.

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 IRWIN/Sharpie Taurus - YOUR PIT CREW WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP ON MONDAY. "It was pretty special for our team to not even get any practice on Saturday night and then to come out there on Monday in an IROC-type competition, that's what I was real proud of is that the guys practice their stops at the shop and they go through all the motions of what you can do as a team to pick up a tenth here or there, but to do it with the same car that everybody else is doing it on and doing it in an unfamiliar place, that was something pretty special for the team. To get the $100,000 bonus is very special and we thank Tyson for putting that money up, and then to go for the $500,000 bonus and to come up just a bit shy - I would have had to match that $500,000 bonus if they would have gotten that award, which is pretty special for our team. Knowing that we won the championship last year and the way we started off this year, the team is doing really well with earning their bonus money over the wall and that adds to it. They've got a great trophy and I'm real proud of them."

WHAT DO THEY DO REALLY WELL ON PIT ROAD? "They're a group that if we come in third, we know we can come out of there in the top five - whether it's in the lead or fifth. Let's say we come in 15th-20th, we know we're gonna pick up spots. We get excited about that challenge of if the car is off a little bit, let's make an air-pressure adjustment so we don't sacrifice time in the pits, and then, boom, we jump up to eighth or ninth place and then we're able to race in a better competitive spot out on track. Teamwork is what it takes. You can't have one ingredient and be missing another, whether it's for the championship or the Tyson Pit Crew Challenge." DID YOU PUT UP THAT $500,000 BEFORE OR AFTER? "I saw that they had a legitimate shot when they went after it and they actually beat it in the front - a 14.1 in the front and like a 14.9 in the back, so it's tough to swallow it like that, but to have an opportunity to go for it was one thing and if they were able to get it, I would have had to match it just because of how special it was. We're actually going as a team to the Victory Junction Gang Camp up in Randleman in three or four weeks, in June, as a team to go up there - as a championship group - to represent to the kids and just have a play day with the team and to do the pit stops for the kids to have interaction and everybody is gonna have fun up there at the camp, so it's a great team atmosphere."

WHAT IS THE KEY TO ROUSH RACING RUNNING SO WELL? "What we have at Roush that not a lot of teams have are five teams of course, but within the five we work as one. When somebody goes and tests, I think the information is brought back 100 percent and then it's divvied up amongst the teams and utilized. So when Biffle comes here to Richmond and test, we get that information. And if we go to Indianapolis and test, we give them that information so it goes back and forth. We work together six days out of the week and we go to race on the seventh, and all of us get along. I think that's the key element."

WHAT WAS YOUR INTERPRETATION OF WHAT HAPPENED SATURDAY NIGHT? "Saturday was a frustrating night. To wreck on lap one and then to have the crew work on the car and go back out, and realize our potential with such a disappointing looking car and then it was disappointing to run those lap times 60 laps down. Our car was very competitive. And then there was a misunderstanding when a yellow came out to get behind the pace car, so I was frustrated at the time. They reacted, I overreacted, and then we talked about it in the trailer afterwards, which is the best way to talk about it. You can't talk about it over the radio. It's not a good trip to make to the trailer, so we went inside, we discussed it, and we got things straightened out."

HOW DID YOU OVERREACT? "I overreacted with, 'why am I going two laps down,' because I was getting behind the pace car, but I didn't do it in a timely fashion. So it's tough. You're 60 laps down. It's a frustrating day and it really didn't have any outcome overall on the race, but, yet, I'm not there to bend any of the rules. I'm there to abide by them and as the champion to represent the sport that day."

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE WATER BOTTLE? "It was a frustrating moment in the pits. We wanted to get on with our day. We were 60 laps down, so I talked to NASCAR about that and apologized, and we got everything set straight." DID YOU THROW THE WATER BOTTLE AT AN OFFICIAL? "Like I said, it was a frustrating day. When you're 60 laps down you're trying to make ends with just getting the race over and it was tough because what made it so disappointing was the lap times our car ran after we wrecked."

IS IT MORE IMPORTANT TO FIGURE THIS TRACK OUT FOR THIS RACE KNOWING IT WILL BE THE LAST ONE BEFORE THE CHASE IN THE FALL? "This is a huge race in every aspect, whether it's the final race of the regular season or it's the race leading up to the chase. In that time of season there are mind games going on and if you can win here, it leads right into Loudon, which is the sister track of this race track, so this place now has a special value to it because of the importance of the race - either making the chase or setting the tone for what can happen during the chase."

IS RIR MORE OF A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR THE TEAMS? "It's tough to say with this place being so close to a speedway, but yet it has a short-track atmosphere and background. Anybody can win at any track, but right now Hendrick and Roush have gotten the advantage and are off to a great start this season with the setups for the mile-and-a-halves and the two-miles. So don't be surprised to see a Bobby Labonte run well here. Harvick won at Bristol, he'll be strong. And then you've got your Dodges that ran so strong last fall with Mayfield, Kahne and Newman, who will probably be strong as well, so it's anybody's ballgame this weekend."

WERE YOU FRUSTRATED WITH THE FACT JEFF GORDON WAS BEHIND YOU WHEN YOU SPUN? "It's early racing and it's tough at Darlington to race early on, but yet you want to set the tempo with keeping your pace and running your laps at your speed. So the track challenges you to race other cars as well as race the race track. That early in the race, I made a big mistake on cold tires and putting it on edge that quick, so we slipped right underneath Rusty. It was good that I didn't collect those other two guys just because everybody was racing so hard so early."

ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW MUCH ATTENTION YOUR INCIDENT AT DARLINGTON HAS GOTTEN AS FAR AS THE PENALTY OR NO PENALTY? "Anytime you go into the NASCAR hauler, you don't want to go in there. It's a scenario where you listen quite often and you speak in very short words. You get your point across quickly because the mother hand is on top and by no means did we escape anything. It's tough when you go into the hauler. With us racing into the next week, we've got to put that behind us because Richmond is a great track for us to try to win and it's a similar type track to Phoenix where we won earlier this year, so we're on to the next race."

DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS INCIDENT IS A RESULT OF BEING THE CHAMPION? "That has its elements to it and with us being in such a weird situation with wrecking on lap one, that's not expected of the 97 to do that. So mistakes happen. We're disappointed that we had such a good car and that's what led to the frustration because we were able to run competitive laps with the Irwin Industrial Tools Ford looking like a hunk of junk."

YOU'VE WORKED HARD TO IMPROVE YOUR IMAGE AND HOW YOU HANDLE SITUATIONS, IS THIS A SETBACK FOR YOU? "It's frustration out on track and I think anybody is entitled to slipping and to showing their frustration. Being able to move on and to admit to it is the next phase and then you go to the next week with a fresh attitude to win the race."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus - YOU MIGHT BECOME THE FIRST DRIVER TO WIN A TITLE IN ALL THREE OF NASCAR'S MAJOR DIVISIONS. "I've got a couple of years to be able to get it done and it would be exciting to National Guard on the car and all these sponsors and win a championship for them. We were the first ones to win with any of these Armed Forces or military on a race car, so that's exciting too, but it would be neat to be the first guy to win all three different titles. Our chances are pretty decent this year. I feel if the chase started today, we're probably the strongest team in the hunt as far as the championship, but 20 races from now or when we get 26 in, it may be a different story. There may be somebody else who is a little better than us."

WHAT MAKES ROUSH RACING AND HENDRICK HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE EVERYONE ELSE? "I tell you what, the other teams are catching up quick. The DEI cars, Evernham cars, Childress cars - all those guys are running better and better - top 5s and top 10s - knocking on the door for a win. Kasey was at Darlington, so I think it's around the corner and we're gonna have a lot more company to deal with as far as races to win. But we were better at the end of the year and so was the 48 car and the 24 was very good. They finished second and third right there at Homestead. They started off the season just like we finished it, and so have all the Roush teams, so, really, if you isolate it and look at the end of the season with the wins Jimmie Johnson had in the final chase run, really nothing has changed from last year to this year."

WHAT DID YOU LEARN AS FAR AS THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR? "Just stay tough. Don't make any mistakes. It's really easy to make mistakes, especially at places like this. Short track racing at Richmond on a Friday or Saturday night, it's real easy to make mistakes and that's what we're trying not to do. We're trying not to make any mistakes, staying focused, and bringing the best cars we can to the race track and getting best prepared for next week as we can."

HOW DO YOU STAY EVEN KEEL ALL THE TIME? "You want to fight (laughing)."

HOW DO YOU HOLD YOUR EMOTIONS? "It is tough. I get a little hot inside the race car sometimes, but I've got the big picture in mind. I always race the race with you can't fix what's happened. If a guy runs you up in the marbles and you recover and you get back going again, well, pick up the pieces and get back going again. That's already done and happened and passed, so focus on the rest of the race and what you have left. That's what I had to do at Darlington. I just skimmed the wall a tiny bit coming off of two, leading with Jimmie Johnson closing on me and I just had to stay concentrated and stay focused - slow up a little bit. If your car is not as good as it needed to be, I can't overdrive. I was overdriving it too much. I needed to back down a notch and say, 'This is all I can do right now in order to continue this pace to get to the end of the race.' That's what you have to do here. You have to pace yourself. If you're not the fastest car right then, you're not. You need to back up a little bit, work on it on a pit stop and get better."

CAN YOU HANDLE LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE AND STILL HAVE FUN RACING GUYS LIKE JIMMIE JOHNSON? "It's fun. I had a lot of fun at Atlanta racing Jimmie. We traded the lead back and forth. He beat me out of the pits and I had to come back and race him for the position, so we had a lot of fun there. We have been racing each other a lot lately and I think it's gonna continue that way. He's fun to race with, especially on all these short tracks and all these races we've got coming up."

IF YOU KEEP WINNING IT WILL BE TOUGH TO REMAIN JUST A NORMAL GUY, WON'T IT? "Yeah, but everybody is like, 'Well, we didn't expect all this to happen, and who is this and who is he,' and all this. I'm just a driver like all these other guys. We're winning races and I think we're capable of that. I was just saying that people are trying to make these stories about this or about that and we're just all the same as all these other guys."

DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT YOU'RE NOT RIGHT UP FRONT LIKE SOME OF THE OTHER GUYS? "No, I don't think so. I'm not bothered by it, but I'm like, 'Let's talk about something else now.' Let's talk about winning more races or whatever than talk about what's happened in the past or where we're at today."

HOW WOULD YOU RACE YOURSELF? "Some guys race the heck out of us, but I try to be respectable on the race track. I think about all the races this season so far we've finished we haven't had a scratch on our car, except for Phoenix. We had a radiator sticking out of the grille, and that happened on pit road so I'm pretty proud of that. I haven't really had to move anybody out of the way. I haven't gotten my rear bumper knocked in, so we've been pretty clean all season and that's neat when you can come off the race track without any bumps or bruises 10 races in a row. That's saying quite a bit."

DO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE THE BEST DRIVER OUT THERE RIGHT NOW? "I don't know about that. It comes and goes. I would say we're probably the best team right now. If you look at our last however many races, we're probably the best team right this second. That could change tomorrow night. We could finish 20th a lap down and that's the best run we could have. We're certainly not the fastest car here, but we're about top 15 and that's about where I thought we'd be."

Native Virginians Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus, and Hermie Sadler, driver of the No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus, participated in a Q&A session prior to qualifying for Saturday's NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race.

HERMIE SADLER - No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus - CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR SEASON? "Listening to Robbie (Gordon) talk, it sounds like he was talking about our team. It's just a struggle, there's no doubt about it. It's hard to start a team and build people and build cars and get people and sponsors. The best point that I heard him say was the quality of people it takes to bring to a race team to make it that much better. The saying is that the good people already got a job, so it's really hard to get really good, quality people to come help with a start-up team, but we have started to make some progress and started to make some races and that's the first step is to make races so you can work on your stuff and make it better. We still have a very long ways to go, but it feels good to be able to race a little bit. That's the first step for us."

ANYMORE PRESSURE TODAY IN FRONT OF YOUR HOMETOWN? "I don't know how it could be anymore pressure than it is every week trying to qualify. These are tough races to get in. It's no fun having to focus on qualifying and having to do that and then when the race starts you're two hours behind on your race setup. One problem leads to the next. It's not easy, but it's rewarding when you have a little bit of success, so hopefully we can have a good run this weekend. This is a great race track. It's fun to race on and some of the things we may be lacking in, won't show up as bad here as they are at some of the other tracks, so usually we have good time here."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus - "Our season so far has been kind of crazy, really. We've got pretty good race cars all year, it just seems like I keep saying the same old thing. We seem to have been in more than our share of wrecks. We didn't cause any of them, but we sort of find the mess as it's developing and we seem to get caught up in them. But we've only had about three or four races that we've actually run and haven't gotten swept up in a wreck. I think one of them was a seventh-place finish at Martinsville, an eighth at Texas and then last week at Darlington - 13th. So what we're trying to do is, we don't know if we're good or bad. We just need to go out and run some races and kind of establish a baseline. Is the car inherently tight all the time or are they inherently loose? And then they can bring that same race car back to the shop in one piece and tweak on it a little bit and make it a better car. But the way it's gone so far is we have a different race car every week because we've had a lot of wrecks, so it's kind of hard to fine tune and get better. But if we miss all the wrecks, I feel like on any given day we're somewhere between a fifth and a 12th place car week in and week out. So it's not a total disaster, but I'm sure we've got some improvements to do."

DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT THE TRACKS COMING UP? "I don't really sit there and look at it and say, 'Man, this is gonna be a great track for us.' It seems like I did that and all the tracks that we went to we ended up getting in wrecks so I haven't done that anymore. We did have a good test here a couple of weeks ago. It seems like anytime we've had the good fortune of being able to test, our cars have gone back to that race track and run pretty well. I think we were third-fastest in practice today leading into qualifying and there are some reasons why that is and it's because we had a test here and we had a good test here a week ago. The car was very fast in race trim. It was mediocre for about three-quarters of the day and then right at the end of the day Fatback McSwain made some adjustments and really just took it over the hump and took it out of being like mediocre car to being one of the better cars here. So we sort of unloaded that way and it allowed us to maybe work on qualifying a little bit more today. Maybe normally, and Hermie is up against this, we've been fortunate most of the season to be 35th in the points or better. So normally we'll spend 95 percent of our time on race setup and five percent on qualifying trim. Because we had a good test, we were able to come down here today and spend probably more like 75 percent race time and 25 percent qualifying and it makes a difference. That's where we're sitting right now. We're hoping for a good run. If I stay on the race track and don't do anything stupid, we probably have an outside shot at a front row spot and maybe a pole."

PLANS FOR YOUR FUTURE? "I'll try to comment, but I really don't have anything to say. I don't know any answers to the questions that I was asked a couple of weeks ago. I think that anybody that's 40 years old or older, I think there are probably at least 10 opportunities a weekend they get asked when they're going to retire. But you get asked that a lot. I told the fella that asked me. I said, 'Hey, I don't really know what I'm gonna do. I've got three years with the Wood Brothers. This is my last year with the Wood Brothers. Out of fairness to these guys, sometime in the summer time they're gonna need to know some answers so they can either replace me or whatever they decide to do. They'll need some answers for their race team.' So I'd love to be able to finish the last race of the year and make my decisions on what I'm gonna do then, but we don't have that luxury of being able to do so. So whether I want to or not, there will be some decisions that will need to be made and some answers sometime in late summer. That way maybe you guys won't bug me until late summer. There are some real issues coming up that I've got to address."

MORE ON THE TIMETABLE AND IS FATBACK INVOLVED WITH THAT? "I'll be honest with you, they've been so busy fixing wrecked race cars and trying to get our stuff together right now so we can go out and do something that it's never really come up. It's not been discussed. The Wood Brothers are the greatest people in the world to drive for. They're very hungry. They want to do well. They're taking all the efforts they've got and everything they've got financially and throwing it at this race team right now. It's a good race team and I think right now the goal is to try to prove to the rest of the world that this is a pretty solid race team. All of the other issues are sort of back burner and haven't really discussed them to be honest with you."

COMMENT ON 850TH STRAIGHT START? "That's a lot. You get asked numbers all the time, but it just adds up. It doesn't seem like that long ago I was 18 years old and starting my first race at Rockingham. I think the next youngest guy at that time was probably 30-35 years old. I was kind of in this sport when young wasn't cool and you sort of felt like a fish out of water. Now I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I'm one of the older guys and I sort of feel like a fish out of water because I'm on the old side. I've seen it in both directions, but it's a pretty good honor to be able to know I've been in a sport that is so tough and survived in this sport as long as I have. It's been good to me. I have no complaints and no regrets on how things turn out in the future."

CAN YOU COMMENT ON MANUFACTURER STATUS AND THE CLIMATE TODAY? "The only thing I can say is the manufacturers are a part of every team's effort out here. They contribute a certain amount, whether it be financial, whether it be engineering resources, wind tunnel time and so on. They're a very big asset to the sport of auto racing. On the other hand, I think the France's are very smart people. If you go back way before I came along in the early seventies and late sixties, the factory support used to be a little different. It was sort of dominated by the factory teams and everything was about the factory this and the factory that. NASCAR really took it on the chin when they pulled out of racing years ago. I'm not very good on the history of this sport, but I guess it's well documented what happened during that time period. But I think it was a wake-up call to the France family not to depend on the manufacturers. Back then there wasn't as much corporate sponsorships, so I think I've seen it switch from that era, where the manufacturers were absolutely necessary, to a time now that, yeah they're necessary, but the sport will survive without them. We'll miss them, but it will survive without them if that was ever the case, but I don't think that's the case."

CAN RIR EVEN OUT AND STOP THE ROUSH-HENDRICK DOMINATION? "I think one of the big variables that you have in the equation of one team running better than the other is aerodynamics. A track like this, once you get running and all that wind gets going and everyone is hugging around this race track, sometimes two-wide, you take that element out of the equation as far as aero-push and things of that nature that you hear a lot of at other tracks. So the big things are chassis and aero. Well, you sort of eliminate aero, so now you're just down to chassis. So the chances of those guys being upset or beat are probably much better at a shorter race track."

WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL OF A GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED AND SOMEONE INTENTIONALLY CAUSING A CAUTION? "I don't know how to answer that. Desperate people sometimes get desperate and they do desperate things, but that's the first time it ever, ever crossed my mind. You probably bring up a valid point. If a guy is not gonna win it and has no chance, do you bring that caution out or does a team car bring it out. I have a hard time believing that would happen, but I don't know."

DOES THERE SEEM TO BE A GENERATIONAL DIVIDE ON THE TRACK? "I'm not sure I'm the right one. Maybe Dale Jarrett is the guy you need to ask that question. When Jeff (Burton) is in his car or Hermie is in his car, I've never looked and said, 'I've got to beat these guys.' It's kind of crazy, but I race the car. I don't race who is behind the wheel. I don't see Jeff's face in there when I see his 31 car in front of me. I see the 31 car and I've always done that. I know it's kind of a crazy thing, but I think in terms of cars and not really drivers. I will say that it seems like guys are racing awfully hard right now, and I don't think it's really a generational thing. I think it's just the level of competition. It seems like the intensity level is turned up to the point where maybe you used to race at 97 percent and now you race at 101 percent, and because you're at 101 percent we see a lot more accidents than we used to. That's probably the only thing I've noticed in recent years, and I don't necessarily think it's a generational thing. I think everyone is sort of created equal when they're on that race track. What happens in private lives and what guys do, I'm so far removed from hanging out with old guys or young guys, I've sort of marched to my own beat and hung out with my family, so I can't really tell you off track. But on track, I don't know. You've raced a good while (Burton). Do you see anything different? It's probably just more aggressive racing. There are reasons for that and I don't think it's generational. A lot of times a guy has five laps fresher tires than another guy and maybe they're equal speed, he knows he's got to make that move sort of out of desperation because he's got five laps to get it done before his tires go away, so there's a lot of that sense of urgency that's there just because of the nature of how the cars are set up and the way the cars handle and drive this day and time. You've got to get things done when you've got the opportunity because there might not be a second opportunity."

HAS ANDY HELPED YOU SPOTTING? "Real quick, when Andy Hillenburg - when I was at Hendrick back in the late eighties and early nineties, Andy Hillenburg was our spotter about 80 percent of that time. Andy has Fast Track Driving School. I look at Andy more like every profession - professional golfers, professional tennis players - they have a coach. You think, 'Gosh, you reach that level - you might win Wimbledon - but you've got a coach that's telling you how to play?' Andy, whenever I've got the opportunity and whenever he's available, I'll use him at any and every race I can. Most spotters help you miss wrecks, but Andy brings a different element to the table. He's able to watch it from a driver's perspective. He's able to see things maybe that the average spotter wouldn't see, like maybe move that groove up a foot-and-a-half in turn one. He can give you some information. Besides just spotting for you, he can give you some information that might help you drive the race track a little better at that particular time on that particular set of tires the way your car is driving. So Andy is a big asset. He sees things ahead of time before they happen. The average spotters wouldn't. There are spotters that do, but he's one of the better ones."

SCANNER TROUBLE? "How many people at home or people's laptop went on the blink on a particular given day. Is it supposed to do that in this modern world? Ninety nine percent of the time you don't have a problem, but now and then you have a glitch. The scanner deal, we had some trouble. Our scanner or radio that our spotter uses had trouble with it. Fortunately, he carries a spare radio with him, but things do go on the blink occasionally. For me, as far as anything electronic, you always need a backup plan."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE WE'VE IGNORED YOU AS AN OLDER GUY? "My deal was never addressed to the print media. I think a majority of the print media calls it like they see it. If I had your job, to me, your job is to report the race that you see to the guy that wasn't there in the stands, couldn't listen to it on radio, and you give him a play-by-play if your editor would allow you that much space. To me, as a journalist, that should be your job. I think 99 percent of you guys do exactly that. My deal was aimed at television that can be manipulated and around to create a story - a second story, a third story. Don't get me on this kick, but what it is about youth is when did the youth movement come to NASCAR? Would you reckon it was right about the same time the big TV deal got signed maybe? What I'm getting at, and it's getting better, but the first couple of years with the new TV contract - it was before a lot of the young guys were doing and excelling very well on the race track. To me, I don't care if you're 100 years old or you're 10 years old, do it like the print media does - call it like you see it. Don't create a story. If Bill Elliott is out leading the race and leading every lap, at least show him on television and talk about him. Don't ignore him. That was my point. I think Jeff unfairly got, I wouldn't tag that on Jeff, but that was my comment and it got kind of taken out of context. But, again, it wasn't aimed at the young drivers at the time, it was aimed at the way the television media was handling the situation at the time."

MORE ON THE ISSUE. "I think there was a transition period. For many, many years - like Jeff said - you didn't have that many young guys in the sport. All of a sudden, you get maybe two guys a year would trickle through. You go another year and two new bright guys come in and you went like that. Now all of a sudden you've got 20 guys at one time. Now you look at the top 10 in the points, and if you look at the age group, it's probably younger that's dominating it. I don't have any problem if I'm being skipped over and I'm not performing and I'm not running good. But my argument was, if a team is performing - and I don't care about it for self ego - I care about it for our sponsors. We go out and we sell a sponsor that we do well, we'll try to get you TV time, we'll do this, and I'm looking like an idiot if you're leading the race and they don't talk about you. Bill Elliott was looking like an idiot. Now I understand that game, but at that point during the transition period I had a little difficulty with it."