Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS

Opening Remarks
"I appreciate everyone coming out so we can get this kinda over and done with so we can move on and start racing like we have always done. It is great to be back, obviously, I have been looking forward to coming to Bristol probably for the first time in my career to be honest with you, it is going to be kind of exciting.

"I want to say that I am really proud of what my guys were able to accomplish, Darian (Grubb), Ron. When those guys came to the race track, they came with a goal, that goal was to uphold the integrity of the team, show everybody out there what this team was capable of doing and they did that. I could not be prouder of that. Each one of these guys I have either hired or worked beside the last four years and to see those guys go to the race track, on their own, step up and do the jobs they have been trained to do, desired to do their whole lives to the ability and stature that they did was incredible. I am really excited about that.

"It something that we had to go through because obviously, I made a mistake. I went out there and did something that wasn't to NASCAR's liking and had to stay home for four races because of that which was probably the most painful thing in my life. You guys know, most of you know me and have known me for a long time. There is nothing in the world that means more to me than this race team. I have been part of it since its inception. Some of those guys were just barely out of high school when I hired them. To see them go there on their own and run those races without me being there was very very painful. It was extremely painful. But it was also very cool at the same time.

"I am glad to be back. I think that we have a jump on the season, just like we did last year. I think it is going to be another great successful season. It is funny; we are 10 points further ahead than where we were last year at this point. I think that is pretty incredible and it shows the strength of this team, and shows what this team can do without any one person. Because it is not always the leader when you go into battle but the soldiers you have fighting for you and those guys fight. I mean they fight hard. I think it is going to be an exciting season.

"Shoot, we always say how many things this team has overcome. One of the things everyone always talks about is how the 48 team always seems to excel when the chips are down. Whether we lose an engine, we crash in practice and have to pull out a backup car or whether we have a tragedy like we had at Martinsville two years ago. The 48 team always jumps up. I just think this confirms that and says it one more time.

"Thank you; ask away because as soon as I walk out of here kids, we are done with it. We are moving on, we are going on to try and win this championship for Lowe's, Hendrick Motorsports and everybody out there. I hate it that everyone is going through this. I know you guys have wasted a lot of ink and a lot of videotape on something that I wish you wouldn't have had to. I am sorry the fans, Lowe's, everybody. But it is part of it. The sport is changing and I have to change with it because I am going to be here a long time.

HAS EVENTS OF LAST FOUR WEEKS CAUSED YOU TO LOOK AT THE STRUCTURE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION AND MAKE ANY CHANGES?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "No, not really. One of the things that is very very ironic is Mr. Hendrick, Jimmie (Johnson) and I sat down over the off-season, we were coming into this season with a new plan. It was good. Ron Mellick and I had a long discussion over the off-season. I told him 'Buddy, you are going to have to take on more responsibility, you have to be more than just a mechanic. You have to be a leader to the guys. You have to go out there, hold them in check, hold them in line, and hold them accountable. Because I don't want to have to do that because there are other things that I am trying to do with my future. The engineering side of our team is developing. We are bringing in new people, making it stronger so really, all that happened was all that stuff happened a little sooner than we planned because I had to stay home for four races. We didn't want that, we didn't expect that to come about but we were grooming those guys to step up and take that challenge. Now, in the future, things are going to change. I am still going to be the crew chief, don't take that wrong, this is something that is not going to be taken away from me but my responsibilities are going to change and those guys responsibilities are going to change. It is going to be a good thing."

DO YOU THINK NASCAR WITH SCRUTINIZE YOU IN TECH MORE THAN OTHERS NOW AFTER THE INDICENT AND NOW THAT YOU ARE BACK?
"Absolutely not. Shoot, they have been tough on everybody. I haven't been at the race track but I have been hearing about people being late to qualifying, late to the races and all that kind of stuff just because they have been tight on everybody. They have got a very good inspection process. We all know that, that is how people get caught. I don't think they need to try to be any harder on us, I don't think they want to be any harder on us. They know that I went out there and I did something they didn't like, they put the penalty on me. We took it, we bit it, we dealt with it and we are moving on. In my eyes, they are doing it the same way. I don't think they would hold a grudge against anybody."

DOES IT PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOU COMING BACK TO THE TRACK LEADING THE POINTS AND HAVING ALREADY WON TWO RACES?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "Fortunately or unfortunately, we have been in that position since 2002. At some point throughout every year, we have led the points, won the most races, and had the most top-fives. We have been in that situation as a team ever since we began. So it is something you are always guarding against, you don't want that to happen. That isn't what our goal is this year. Last year we wanted to lead the points, we pushed and pushed and pushed. Every week it seemed like we were leading points and we were always in a barrel. Then there was a new competitor coming up trying to knock us off whether it was the 20 car, the 99 car, the 16 car. Every week someone was in second, trying to knock us out of first. It was tough and that is what hurt us last year. This year, that isn't what we are worried about. If we fall down right now and we go back to fifth, sixth, eighth, tenth, it doesn't matter. As long as we get in that final 10 and by the time we get to that final ten, that is when things have to be kicking strong and I think we will be there."

JIMMIE JOHNSON RESPONSE - "Just to add to what Chad had said, I think we have learned some lessons as he explained. It is a long season; we know there are going to be up and downs in a season. We have gotten off to a start that is so hard to keep that pace, and so hard to continue what we are doing. We are just going to ride the wave, work hard to try and make the final 10 and transfer in and hope for our best 10 at that point. We aren't fools, we know that we are only four races in and there is a lot of racing left. When you start out this strong, you are going to have a low spot in the season at some point. We are going to show up, do all we can and see what happens."

WHEN THS SUSPENSION FIRST CAME DOWN, YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T GOING TO PULL ANY PUNCHES WHEN YOU CAME BACK AND YOU WERE GOING TO CONTINUE TO WORK HARD IN THE GRAY AREA. TALK ABOUT THAT.
KNAUS RESPONSE - "The pulling punches comment really got used out of context quite often. The deal is, I get paid by Hendrick Motorsports to go out there and build the best race cars we possibly can for Jimmie Johnson, for Lowe's and for all of our fans. And that is what we are going to continue to do. We can't pull back. We cannot not try to deliver the best product out there. If we do that we are going to get beat and if we get beat, I am out of a job. We have got to continue to do everything we can to build the best race car for everybody. That is what we are going to continue to do. There are rules and regulations, we are going to follow those specifications and we are going to abide by that and we are going to do everything we can to stay within NASCAR's bounds. But we have got to build the best race car out there.

"Everybody is evolving. The sport is evolving. This is a much, much different sport than what it was 12 years ago when I first got here. It is a much much different sport than it was five years ago when I first became a crew chief. The thing about this deal is you have got to evolve as an individual within the sport. Otherwise you won't be part of the sport any more for a multitude of reasons. We are going to adjust to it, I am going to adjust to it and we are going to press on"

WHAT WERE YOUR EMOTIONS WATCHING RACES ON TV AND WHAT WAS YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH THE TEAM?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "It was tough, it was very, very difficult. When you are sitting there on the couch and you are listening to 'Track Pass', you are hearing the drivers saying this and drivers saying that, you just jump up and down saying out loud 'Pull some air pressure out of there', you just want to say something to somebody but there is no one there to listen. It is tough. Man, it was tough. But it is what I had to deal with.

"As far as the communication level goes, it has been spoken a million times. They would be driving through the drive up at McDonald's and I would be on the phone with Darian (Grubb). He would be up two, or three hours later and I would call him and give him a wake-up call. At Atlanta, I woke him straight up out of bed, he was a little mad about that. We would talk in the morning and we had a plan. We had a very in depth plan before we left to go to the race track. We did everything we could to prepare to take those guys into battle. They fought a great war and that is really it."

HAVE YOU AND DARIAN (GRUBB) TALKED ABOUT HIM GOING BACK TO HIS OLD ROLE AND IS IT HARD ON HIM?
"I don't know. I sat Darian down last week and we had a talk. He is obviously a good friend of mine, he has been a co-worker of mine for three years now and I have a lot of respect for him. I ask him, 'Dude, what do you want to do? Do you want to be a crew chief? Do you want to go back to what you were doing before?' He told me he had a taste of being a crew chief and he enjoyed it and said that maybe one day he would want to do that. But right now, I want to do what I was doing. I have a wife, I have yard work to do, I want to go home, I want to do those kinds of things. Right now, he said he didn't have a life and he didn't want that. He said he didn't want to live my life. He said it wasn't any fun and he understands that. He has a new wife, and maybe after it settles down, he will want to get out of the house, I don't know (laughs). All I know is he did an incredible job for us and he is by far a great leader, well respected at Hendrick Motorsports. He has a huge role at Hendrick Motorsports that is growing. He is not only going to only be the guy that is there with me on the pit box, which is a great thing and somebody that has been there for a long time. He is taking on more responsibility throughout the company, he is working with all the engineers. All the guys that are engineers on the 5 car and the 25 car and throughout the organization. He has a full plate, and I think he really enjoys that."

HOW MUCH CREDIT DO YOU THINK YOU DESERVE FOR WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR THIS SEASON?

KNAUS RESPONSE - "Boy, I don't know. I worked hard. We worked all winter long and it wasn't just me. It was all of us, it was a combined effort. When you see a product that comes out of Hendrick Motorsports, isn't a product of me. It is a product of the 24/48 race shop. It is a product of the 5/25 shop and all 516 employees we have got there. We all work very hard as a group, as a team, to put the very best race cars out there. So when those guys got to the race track, it wasn't as difficult. I don't know how much credit I deserve, you will have to ask him (nods at Jimmie Johnson). I had a hand in it. That is really about it. We have 75 people that work under our roof. If I was to say that deserve any more credit than anyone else on that team, that would be wrong. I don't think that is true. Because I don't build the cars, you don't see me with wrenches in my hands. So the guy that bolted that control arm on probably deserves a little more credit than I do because it didn't fall off. It depends on how you look at it."

HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO BE AT HOME WHEN YOUR TEAM WON THE BIGGEST RACE OF THEIR CAREERS AT DAYTONA.

KNAUS RESPONSE - "The Daytona 500 is tough, tough, tough. I will be honest with you, it was tough. I claim two Daytona 500 wins in my Cup career that I wasn't actually at the race track but I built both cars that actually won both of those races. So to not be there again was very very difficult. I am not going to lie to you, I had a tear in my eye. I was sitting there like everybody else out there, all the big Jimmie Johnson fans that were jumping up and down out there and were all excited and I was right there with them. I obviously had a little more at stake than what those people did. Probably a lot more involvement and to sit there and watch it, that was tough, it was very tough. It really was.

"They were trying to get me a flight down to Daytona on one of the planes for the victory party and I said no, I am not going to Daytona, somebody might get mad at me. So I stayed home and went to be."

TALK ABOUT YOUR EMOTIONS ABOUT CHAD COMING BACK THIS WEEKEND.
JOHNSON RESPONSE - " I am really excited to have him back. He started this race team, he has worked so hard over the winter to get everything prepared and ready. He has trained myself, Ron Mellick, Darian Grubb - these names we keep referring to. We really want to drive that point home, how really prepared this team was before the season started. Chad's fingerprints are all over that. It has been his influence, his ideas, his designs. He has really been gracious in not accepting a lot of the responsibility, but from my standpoint, he is very responsible for the success this team has had since the start of the season. I have been looking forward to having him back. I know it was tough for him at home. I feel that we have all grown in our positions, we have all learned a lot more and we are going to be a stronger and better team starting this weekend and moving forward

DID YOU SEE SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN THE RACES YOU WATCHED AT HOME THAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE THOUGHT OF OR SEEN IF YOU WERE AT THE TRACK?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "Yes, absolutely. But if I told you that might not be smart and they might make a new rule. I shouldn't have made light of that, I am sorry.

"Yes, I did learn a lot, I really did. One of the things that I did early in my career was to start studying the races, really watched them. You know how it is, you are in the job, it is the routine, you go through the paces, and maybe you aren't paying as much attention as you used to.

"But these past four weeks, the fireworks went off in my head because that is all I did for four hours or what ever length of time it took, was watch that race. It brought a lot more things to detail that I may have been letting slip a little bit, so it has gotten me re-fired up again to take this role. To get back at it with the excitement and the drive that I had back in 2001 and 2002 when I was working with Stacy Compton. Because that is what I took it to and it has opened that back up."

WHEN YOU ROLLED OFF THE GRID THESE PAST WEEKS, DID YOU FEEL THAT CHAD WASN'T THERE?
JOHNSON RESPONSE - "It was a sense of him not being there. During practice and race, we had a plan in place and it is very hard to have things play out as planned. We worked very hard on the front side to have a plan in place, but once practice started and then the race, it was between Darian and myself to communicate and then the other guys in the pit to work with Darian to share information and talk to one another to come up the ideas.

"I have to admit that Fontana was a big stress for all of us going into it. We didn't know what to expect, we didn't know how it was going to unfold. As the mid part of the race ran, the car wasn't handling like we needed it to, we made the right adjustments and rallied back to finish second. From that point on, I think Darian and mine confidence in ourselves and in working together in our new roles stepped up and we made the most of it and went to Las Vegas and had the success we did there.

"Every weekend more confidence was built in the team at the race track. We all knew going into it that it was going to be hard to follow a plan. Things change, tracks change, what the car is asking for changes, we were really on our own, making the most of it."

WILL ANYTHING CHANGE THIS WEEKEND?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "Nothing is changing, it is going to be right back where it was when I was at Daytona. The roles that everyone is playing is the same. You have to realize that the roles were the same, just I wasn't there. Darian stepped up and was calling the race and tuning the car with Jimmie. Ron Mellick was heavily involved in that, our shock guy was heavily involved in that. That is kind of what was happening so it really isn't going to change any. It is going to be about the same. That is what I am so excited about because we are just plugging in another guy that is going to be part of the team that is already out there doing it. It is pretty fortunate you know. The thing you have to realize is, Darian did an incredible job, Ron did an incredible job and they are the two guys getting the hype which they well deserve. But there were three or four new guys on that race team that got thrown into the mix of this deal, I mean WOW. Those guys stepped up. We had guys in new roles that stepped up. This team has done something that you just don't do in this industry. Everybody wrote us off, over the winter, because we had so many new guys, there were about four of them. They were saying this team is going to struggle, they aren't going to run out and win races, they are going to have to adjust and learn each other's tempo. I guess not, obviously the depth and the leadership we have in this organization can pull those guys out and make it happen. As far as my role, it isn't going to be any different than it was before. I am going to be pulling in more input, just like we discussed, stuff we had talked about during the off season and that is what is going to happen."

JOHNSON RESPONSE - "Just to add to what Chad is saying, we were talking the other day and I found that I didn't realize in full detail that before the season started and we were racing then things changes, that we had a game plan over the off season about how we needed to let Chad be in an area as crew chief to overlook everything and have the available space and time to look at all things. To make decision from a high vantage point, we never had a chance before to put than play. We did that in a way, because of the suspension because the other guys came up in their roles but I think what Chad is referring is we had a game plan when the season started and we are working to get back on track with that plan. I think moving forward, that is the role for Chad we all recognize and we have all been talking about. Today, hey, the crew chief doesn't need to be over the tire guy making sure he the sets of tires, they are all measured, they have all had the depth measured. He doesn't need to be hovering over the top of everyone like crew chiefs have had to be in the past. The role is ever changing and I think Chad pointed that out earlier, as a crew chief, as engineers, it is changing. We made a change over the off season and now we finally get to live it as we intended to rather that how we were forced to the first four races."

DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE THAT YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "Yes, I did. If it doesn't fit the template at any point in time, it is wrong. It is wrong, I hate that, I regret it. You know sometimes you just push too hard. There are procedures that you follow in our industry. As a competitor, you try to evolve with that, and try to find an advantage on your competition. That is what I did and they didn't like it. So I watched TV for a while and read your papers."

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO CHANGE IN YOURSELF?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "I am my own worse enemy. I really am. You guys know my passion for this sport and how deep it goes, how critical I am of myself. I am probably my worst critic. What ended up happening last year and it really hit home was we were in such a dog fight trying to continue to lead points and be there at the end and be the dominant team and do all that other stuff, I had done it before, I got tired, I got worn out. By the time we got to Loudon last year, I was spent. There was no more of me to do what I needed to do. I was too busy looking at the body, I was too busy looking at the chassis, I was too busy trying to figure out the pit calls, I was too busy out - 'ok, we are going to get rid of this guy during the off season, we will get this going, we have the car of tomorrow coming, we have a new engine coming in a couple of years' - I was spent, done.

"So what I have to do as an individual from not only my professional stand point, but my personal standpoint as well, is I have to be able to pull back, take a day off. Because just like everybody else in the world, I do need a little bit of rest. That is something I never did. Last year, all year, I was seven days a week, every week. I have to take some time so that means those guys have to take some responsibility. Then when I come in the next day after I have had eight hours of sleep, I am going to be better, our team is going to be better. I realize that, it took a couple of slaps in the face of not winning that championship that we probably truly should of won. So that is the approach we are taking. "

HOW HARD IS IT TO FORCE YOURSELF TO DO IT?
KNAUS RESPONSE - "I hate to say it, but I was forced to learn it. The first four weeks. I hate to say it, but I have already learned it. Now it is a matter if I can keep it going. I had to do it. I have had a couple of days off. I mean they were out in Las Vegas freezing their butts off and it was 80 degrees in Charlotte and I was out riding my dirt bike. It was good, I was sending pictures to them on my phone. That is way it is. I have learned that already and I am going to do my best to make sure it happens. It is Jimmie's responsibility, Ron's responsibility, Darian's responsibility and everybody else on my team's responsibility as well as Mr. Hendrick's to make sure I do that. We will be better and maybe we will win the championship if I do that."

"The people who don't like me, won't like me no matter what we do. If they don't like me because we got in trouble for something, they won't like me if we win races. I can't win that battle so I will try and be as friendly as possible and move on."


Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS - Currently ranked 6th in points

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON CARL EDWARDS?
"I don't think there's anything negative you can say. It's only positive things about Carl. I think he's got a lot of excitement for the sport. I think he's a great talent and he's got a great personality as well. If I was a team owner over there at Roush Racing, I'd be very happy to have him on board."

AFTER THE POINTS OUTCOME IN 2005, HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE START OF THIS YEAR?
"I'm happy with the start (of the season). I want our momentum to really be going strong this summer. I want that to be where we really start to just get to our full potential. Yeah, I wanted to win the Daytona 500 but in a way I'm kind of glad that we've started the way we have where we've just built on our performance every week. We've learned from things. We've had adversity thrown at us and we've had to react to that. All the things that we're going right now are building blocks and lessons that are going to make us a better race team and by the summer and by the time that Chase starts. Obviously the last two weeks have been rewarding. We haven't shown all we've got yet. We still have more to go. I'm looking forward to these next two weeks of short tracks."

HOW STRONG ARE YOU IN COMPARISON TO LAST YEAR?
"I think that we're a stronger team effort. We've got everybody on the same page feeling good. We also know we've got room to grow with me driving some new set-ups and feel like I'm getting that comfort and that excitement going to the race track, even the mile and a half's, and I'm starting to feel what it is we need to Steve Letarte (crew chief) and engineers and all the guys. We know how to set-up the cars and what we really need to compete with the top guys. Our pit crew saying the same thing saying 'we're getting better every week. We're going to compete with these guys.' I guess it's one of those things where we're OK with admitting we're not the best team on the race track right now. But knowing that, I think we have a chance at being the best race team before this season is out and hopefully as we're leading into that Chase."

HOW IMPORTANT IS PRACTICE IF WE DON'T GET ONE IN HERE?
"I always like to get practice in. We've been very strong here in the past. Because of things that we've been learning that since Steve Letarte came onboard, we've got some ideas and some things we want to try out there. We'd like to get out there on the race track. I think that if you want to look at percentages, I'd say we're in the top 10 percent of cars that would be OK if we didn't have practice."

ARE THINGS ANY DIFFERENT AT HENDRICK WITH CHAD KNAUS BEING BACK?
"I wasn't in Charlotte this week. I think there's excitement, nervousness, all the questions of getting Chad back at the race track. It's better for it to happen at this point in the season than happen at another time in the season. Those guys have time to really build back on chemistry that they really have and take what they've learned over the last three or four weeks that have been successful for them and incorporate those things into Chad being back. I know there's a lot of anxiousness. I think we all recognize where the focus is going to be this week. I'm surprised you guys are even standing here right now."

IN LIGHT OF 2005, HOW WOULD YOU MEASURE YOUR DESIRE THIS YEAR?
"My level of desire has been incredible ever since we had to refocus things. Last year when the Chase was happening, by being able to change cars and bodies and go do some tests, we were able to learn some things and get me more comfortable. Ever since then, we've run good at Homestead and Phoenix and (we) won at Martinsville. I've been excited about getting this season started. I think Steve Letarte brings a lot of that excitement to the table and a lot of the newness that we have in the race team. I guess it's getting 2005 behind us and focusing on 2006 has been something that's kept me excited for a while. It's hard to be motivated and excited when you're not a car capable of being in the Chase and you're not a team that's capable of winning the championship. It's easy to get down. Once this season starts back over and you feel like you've made positive changes or improvements, it's also easy to get excited again."

HOW MUCH ARE YOU IN CHARGE OF YOUR OWN DESTINY AT THIS TRACK?
"I would say it's 60-40. Sixty percent of it you're in control and 40 percent you're not. You've got to have a good race car. You've got to have a car that's capable of running the speeds that you need to run up front. That doesn't guarantee you're going to stay out of trouble. We've seen things happen anywhere in the field from being the leader in lap traffic to being in the middle or back of the pack as well. There's no place that's necessarily safe here. I will say that your chances are a whole lot better if you have a good race car."

IF THERE'S NO PRACTICE, NO QUALIFYING AND NO PREVIOUS TESTING HERE, HOW DOES THAT AFFECT THE START OF THE RACE ESPECIALLY WITH SO MANY DRIVERS THAT HAVEN'T BEEN HERE BEFORE FOR A CUP RACE?
"As long as they've had some laps here in a Busch car or have run races here in a Busch car, I think they'll be fine. Here a Busch car and a Cup car are probably closer to one another than they are anywhere else that we go to. I think that just having laps is important. Obviously those guys would like to get all the laps they possibly could but you also have to understand that while they're getting laps, so are we. I think it really doesn't make a big difference."

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN FRUSTRATED AT THIS TRACK WITH PEOPLE THAT ARE EDGING OTHER PEOPLE?
"At a place like this, I feel like aerodynamics doesn't play as big of a role. It's usually somebody using their bumper more so than anything else. I'll be honest. At a place like this, every situation is an isolated situation. But here if you're not fast enough to stay ahead of the guy and you run about five or six laps and you're in his way and he moves you out of the way, then you deserve it. That's my opinion. If a guy moves me because I hadn't gotten out of his way and I've been holding him up, then I'm expecting it to come. I'm usually trying to let that guy go before it happens. The situation that happened in Vegas is totally different. There wasn't even a one lap. It was a half of lap and Kasey Kahne had just passed me and I felt like it was a lack patience. I showed by displeasure by getting him loose (Greg Biffle) as well.

WHEN YOU COME TO A TRACK LIKE THIS, WILL WE SEE SOME SHORT TEMPERS?
"We're going to see a lot of it. Not everybody shares that same philosophy that I do. Some guys think that that's your real estate on the race track and that you own that and if somebody else takes it away, then shame on them. Ever since I've been coming to Bristol, and I've been fortunate to win five races here, I must have something that's gone right over the years or we wouldn't have had those victories. I try to live by that every time we come here. You avoid incident at all cost until it comes down to time to go. If you're not good enough to pull away from the guy behind you, then you might want to consider giving that position up to be there at the end and make adjustments and have other pit stops and put yourself in the position to win later."

WITH RUSTY WALLACE GONE, WHO ARE SOME OF THE OTHER DRIVERS THAT ARE STRONG HERE?
"Matt Kenseth was incredible the last time we were here. I'm looking at him as the guy to beat. I think Tony Stewart runs well here. I've seen (Dale) Junior run well here at times. Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick - there's a bunch of guys, it's hard to pick one or two."

ON KURT BUSCH AND RACING FOR THE PENSKE ORGANIZATION:
"I guess I did expect for them to (be strong). I'm not saying they're not. It's still early to tell. Anytime you go to a new team, it's going to take some time for you to adjust. I think they're going to be good and successful this year. If there's any surprises that Ryan Newman has to deal with. His experience in being with the team. At times they've shown a lot of strength. I guess the biggest surprise is that they haven't come out of the box better than they have."

DO YOU PUT PRESSURE ON YOURSELF TO BE THE DOMINANT GUY?
"I would love more than anything to live up to those expectations and numbers. All I know is that we just try to make our team the best we can. I try to drive the hardest and best that I can and the smartest that I can. The results they come because we put that effort out there to make those results happen. There were times we were setting numbers and statistics that are hard to live up to every single year. I don't put those type of expectations on us. I look at what we're capable of, what the competition is capable of and how strong our team is."

ON TRANSITION POINTS IN HIS CAREER:
"The good thing is that I feel like I've experienced transitions throughout my career. You go through highs and lows. You don't regret any of them. You just learn from them and try to get back to where you know where you can be. You can only know that there is light at the end of the tunnel if you've been through the good times. If you experience what it's like to win, then you know what it feels like and what it takes to be there. You know that you have to put all those ingredients back together. When you go through the tough times, that's what pulls you through it. I've been fortunate to experience a lot of good times. But I've also experienced enough of the down moments to only make us better and learn from them. I think 2000 was the year that went through a lot of that. I'm going to look at 2005 as another one of those years that reminds me a lot of 2000."

ON THE COMPETITION:
"I think people constantly underestimate the competition and how competitive it is. I don't. I never have. When we won 13 races in 1998 and I was shaking my head every time we pulled into victory lane not believing it. You guys laughed at us like 'yeah right, like they can't believe they're in victory lane.' But it's true. You have to really appreciate a year like that and you have to appreciate wins because they're not easy to come by. Whether you have the fastest car or the best team, it doesn't guarantee anything."

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS WEEKEND?
"I'm excited. I think our expectations are pretty high. We run well at Bristol. Obviously I like to qualify because we qualify very well here. But Bristol was not a highlight for us last year even though we had glimpses of being really strong. We want to rebound and get back to our Bristol style that we've experienced in the past and being one of the cars to beat every single lap you're out there."

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO RUN BETTER AT TRACKS THAT YOU STRUGGLED AT LAST YEAR?
"Everything is relative. If you go to a track like Texas and you've never won there before and only had a few top fives and you finish 15th or 20th, then that's a bad day. When you go to Bristol and you've won five races and you know you're capable of top fives and you feel like you're capable of top fives just about every time you go there and you don't finish in the top five, that's equally as disappointing. We're making huge gains in a lot areas. I'm actually really looking forward to going to Texas. Not because I think we're going to be awesome, but because we have things that we're really anxious to try that I think are going to be improvements. Here in Bristol we have some areas we can improve on as well that we learned from last year. Those are small things that we're going to learn. Those tracks like Texas, Chicago, Kansas - those are big and we're obviously still putting most of our effort into."

A"No, definitely no. Until we go and win one of those races, I don't feel like we are. I think we've made big gains. I think we're much better and I think as a team we're together more than we've ever been. If we're not great, we're able to fight through some of those moments to at least pull off a decent finish. Right now what I like is the consistency. I think we finished on the lead lap in every race. We've been able to finish every race. When we do have trouble, we fight and get back into the hunt. That's got me more excited than anything else not to mention the two top fives back to back."

HOW DIFFERENT ARE THESE CARS TO DRIVE SINCE THE EARLY 90's?
"Some guys drive off the right rear tire. I've never been one to really like to drive off the right rear tire. I think that's been some of our downfall the last couple of years. We tried to adapt to what other people are doing or other driving styles instead of sticking with what I know, what's comfortable with me and trying to get the cars to work around that. That's the thing that I really commend Steve Letarte and this DuPont team on is that's what they're focused on. (They're focused on) what does Jeff need to go fast. They still believe in me. You've got to have that. They believe in finding the ingredients that work for our driver. It's been fantastic. I think that's one of the reasons why we really picked up. Yeah, the cars drive different. We're a lot faster through the corners than we've ever been. With the downforce, you can be a lot more aggressive. Not so much here as the mile and a half tracks."

DO YOU AND JIMMIE JOHNSON HAVE A SIMILAR DRIVING STYLE AND SET-UPS?
"We've taken a different path this year. I honestly can say that I'm not sure if we can give as good as information this year as we've been able to in the past because we're doing things different. Not only are our set-ups different, our bodies are different. Just because we followed a trend and it got us in trouble. I think we finally came to the realization that we have to get out of that and get back to what we know and what makes me comfortable. I think that's where some of our biggest improvements have come from. We still have good information because we know what we're going and we give that to the teams. I don't know if that works for them as well as it did in the past. I would say '03 was the last year when we were doing it our way. A lot of it was because young, new driver Jimmie Johnson came on and was doing some things and Chad Knaus being new. They started trying some different things that were working for them. We said 'they're going to fast. It's working for them. We have to do the same thing.' I just don't think that really worked for us."

ON DOING IT YOUR OWN WAY AT BRISTOL:
"I think that's why we still excel at the short tracks and the road course tracks. Those tracks that's not a direction you feel you really go into at those tracks. We know and we're comfortable enough with our set-ups in our cars for those types of tracks where we haven't gone off in a different direction. We pretty much have been close to what we've always had here. Those tracks where you need the body, attitude, angles and front air dam sealed to ground and big rear springs and all that. That's what I'm excited about this year. We're getting the car to do those things but we're going them in a little bit different way than what our teammates are doing. That's just because I'm old and I can't do it that way."

ON CARL EDWARDS AND THE ESPN MAGAZINE COVER:
"I was at a news stand and I did come across that. The first thing I said was 'Wow, he's brave.'


Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS - Currently 8th in points

WHAT DO YOU DO ON A COLD, RAINY DAY LIKE THIS AT THE TRACK?
"Well, not much to do. I will probably stay in the coach, play a few video games or watch a movie and then watch some basketball. It is tough when the weather is like this because a place like Bristol, you really want to spend time on the track."

HAVE YOU AND YOUR BROTHER SHARED NOTES ABOUT HOW TO GET AROUND BRISTOL?
"We don't share notes about what is in our cars, but he has talked to me about how to get around here because it is a place he has really figured out. It isn't as bad as I have heard it described. I have heard people refer to it and putting fighter jets in a blender and turning it on or other things like that, but it really isn't like that. I haven't had the best finishes here so I need to talk to him as much as I can."

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS THE SECRET TO BRISTOL?
"Patience is definitely the big thing which I haven't shown a lot of on this track in the past. You have to be content to ride around here for a lot of laps to put yourself in the right spot to be there at the end.

"The one thing that I was told before I ever came here was you have to check your temper at the gate and load up on as much patience as you can.

"But you don't always see patience. Particularly the guys starting closer to the back, they want to move forward to as not to go a lap down and they start pressuring and moving people too early in the race. There are 13 to 15 or more cautions here, so you have all those chances to get the lucky dog but that is hard to remember sometimes. "Track position is important at Bristol so it affects your thinking even early in the race."

IS BRISTOL A PLACE THAT THERE ARE PAYBACKS WITH DRIVERS YOU HAVE HAD TROUBLE WITH IN THE PAST?
"I wouldn't exactly say paybacks, but you can leave here not liking someone as much as you did when you came in. It is a short track, it makes for close racing and some guys are just better at getting around them better than other guys."

HOW DISAPPOINTED ARE YOU ABOUT THE SLOW START WITH YOUR BUSCH CAR?
"It is certainly not what we would have wanted or thought when we made the decision to run both series. We aren't completely sure what isn't going right with the team but we will continue to work on improving."

HAS THERE BEEN ANY DISCUSSION ABOUT CUTTING DOWN THE SCHEDULED RACES FOR YOU IN THE BUSCH SERIES?
"We haven't discussed as of yet, but if we continue to maintain our points position in the Cup series, it wouldn't surprise me that on the weekends where the Busch race is at a different track than Cup, we might not run the Busch race in order to concentrate on our Cup performance."


Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS - Currently 7th in points

ON THE SEASON SO FAR:
"I don't really have much to say. The year has been pretty good. If there's anything that sticks out, I'd like to have my speed penalty back from Vegas because we had a top 15 going there. If we had been able to get that top finish, I'd think we'd be sitting really good right now. I'm really happy with how things are going. That was probably the big negative that sticks out right now. The car has been handling great. It's been driving great every week. California and Vegas we had the cars driving better than they had there in the past. Obviously we'd like to be up in the top five races. It looked like we were racing for the win. I think we still made some great improvements from the past there. (It was the) typical Budweiser Chevrolet in Atlanta. It was fast all day. We had a lot of setbacks that never gave us an opportunity to race for the lead. We had a great car. We ended up getting a great finish. I'm just real proud of my team. Here we are at Bristol. Pretty much you can have the best car out there but you still got to be very careful. It's a very difficult place. It can be like road course racing where at any corner, any lap you can make a mistake or someone else will make a mistake that can cost you a good finish. I've just been preaching patience to myself all week along about the race this weekend."

ON BEING UNDER THE RADAR BUT SITTING IN THE TOP 10 AND WHERE HE STANDS THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST YEAR:
"We're definitely better than we were last year. I feel like I'm a pretty good judge of character. I think we're better than we were in '04. The competition is different and better. But my cars are better and the way they're better is to me there's a lot more confidence going in to building them. We're putting cars together now with a lot more confidence in the shop. That just shows in craftsman ship and how good they look when they roll off the trailer. There's a lot of confidence in what Tony Jr. (Eury, crew chief) is doing to the cars. The calls he makes from the pit box - there's a lot more confidence in his mannerisms and how he goes about the race weekend. There's a few things that are noticeably better or different in a good way from '04 when we had our good season and won six races. I feel a lot more excited about each weekend, each race, about the rest of the season. I'm just looking forward to getting in the cars every weekend. The big difference in how they drove the last several weeks compared to the first four to five races of '04. I'm not really using last year much as a comparison. A lot of times when I ask myself questions about the team, it's always compare to '04. I think we're definitely better then when me and Tony Jr. were together. We sort of have a better package overall with personality concerns. We're making some good strides in the engine department. Unfortunately I'll be the last one to get the goods. They'll obviously go to the 15. They'll test all the stuff with the 15 like they've been doing for a while. Then Martin (Truex Jr.) and those guys will run it for a while before they put it in my car. That's the decisions they make. Things are just a hair better than they were in '04. We had a great season then. I think we can win races. We're going to have to get the breaks that we need to win races. We had a winning car last week. I know there was more than one winning car in the field but we had a winning car and we didn't get the brakes we needed together to win. There was definitely an opportunity missed last week. But we still have to happy to get the points that we got. I think that we can put those type of runs together more consistently, consistently enough to be in the Chase so I'm really excited."

ARE YOU REALLY MORE LOW-KEY THIS YEAR?
"It's considerably more low-key that it has been in the past. The first four years in the series was pretty wide open. Last year sort of took a lot of spotlight off us and put it on some other drivers that were coming into the series. In a sense, it's kind of fine with me. At the same time you want to be as successful as you can in the sport. We definitely want to get back to our form on the race track. I think everything else will take care of itself."

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR FAITH IN TONY EURY JR. AFFECT YOUR PERFORMANCE AFTER BEING BACK WITH SOMEONE YOU BELIEVE IN?
"That's a real touchy subject. Not between me and him. It's just you want to be careful about whose feelings you're walking around there. He had a driver last year that he really enjoyed working with in Mike (Waltrip). They had a lot of bad brakes and also some great finishes. If they could have gotten those great finishes, I don't think they would have called their season such a disappointment. He's excited to be back with me and me back with him. I was looking forward to it with 15 to 20 races left last year after we started talking about it. It's really a great feeling. To have sort of put that nasty stuff that had come between us aside and really not see that anywhere around us now. You can kind of tell when you work with people if that's still going to be a problem. I don't have that feeling at all. I've changed and he's changed. It's really, really a good feeling to get in these race cars. I've always felt that his race cars were great cars. It's great to be able to get in there and drive it like we did last week and like we had this year. For him to get out and say that was an improvement or that was one of the better races I've seen you drive and to go out there and perform and make him appreciate what he sees. He puts so much into it. There's people in the sport that obviously are more dedicated than others. He's one of those guys and probably in the top percent that spend every day of their life thinking how to make things better. If they're not thinking, they're actually doing it. He expects the same thing when he puts me in that race car. When I go on track he expects me to give it everything I got. I've been able to do that this year and he's appreciated it. It's been a great reunion. We started at the end of last year and got to work with each other a little bit. It's kind of like an All Star race every week. There was really no big deal about points and no big pressure on where we finished. It was all about how we ran, what kind of lap times we put together, how the car drove, how it felt. We had some set-ups I hadn't ran on before. We got to work out all that stuff. The mental part of it is very important between me and him. Between any crew chief you've got to have that comfort and that belief in them and them believing in you. We've really got that."

HOW OFTEN DO YOU GO TO DALE JARRETT? WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU TALK ABOUT? WHY IS HE A GOOD PERSON TO TALK FOR YOUR GENERATION?
"When I won the race at Daytona in 2001 in July, I was standing in the bus lot and there were a bunch of people standing around talking. Me and Michael Waltrip were talking about the race and how cool that was and how it hadn't sunk it. It was just friends of mine and Michael's camp and I looked to my right and Dale Jarrett was standing there right next to me sitting there with a cool beer listening to everything we were saying. I was like 'What are doing here?' and he goes 'Man, I wouldn't miss this for the world.' He said that was the neatest thing I ever saw. We hadn't really talked much before that that I can recall. We just spent a lot of time over the next coupling of months talking to me about my dad, what he thought about me, what I was doing, what I could be doing better, what he appreciated about me, those type of things. We just got to have a great friendship. Every time I see him, it's sort of the same I used to do with my dad. When I see him I start running through my head everything I got going on. Is there anything to ask him or anything I need help with real quick while he's here. I like to talk to Bobby Labonte a lot because he has a real square head on his shoulders. He has his priorities in order in my opinion. He's a good guy to get information like that from if it's personal or business or whatever is going on in your life. (Dale) Jarrett has always been genuine and always cared about helping me make the right decision."

ON HIS TEAMMATE, MARTIN TRUEX JR. AND TRANSITIONING TO THE CUP SERIES:
"He knows exactly how tough this series is. Obviously he's run a couple of (Cup) races last year. It's different when you get in a Cup car. It seems like everything happens faster over a longer period of time. There's just a lot of endurance that does into it. The drivers are qualifying every lap during the race. He sees that. He's definitely capable of handling that change. His team struggled a lit bit getting the car driving good throughout the race. I'm too worried about because I've seen the bright spots being that close to it. I've seen when they've gotten it right."

"I think it'll just take for them to understand what they're doing with the cars where Martin can drive fast all day long. He had a couple of times where he was progressively moving forward in the race in Atlanta and then they dialed him right out with a couple of decisions they shouldn't have made. They know what they did."

WHAT'S THE ART OF RACING BRISTOL?
"In your gut it feels like a crap shoot. It's very tough racing to run and stay out of trouble. There's always a lot of action going on. When I say action, it doesn't have to be a guy getting backwards or spun into the wall. You can be getting side-by-side with somebody and knock the tow out. Nobody (watching) television will see it. Nobody will notice it but there you are with the tow knocked out or knocked in and the car ain't driving right for the rest of the race. It can be just a small little incident like that that can really ruin it for you. I've had some great cars here over the last couple of years. You can never really be too careful. I choose the line that I like to run. I choose the speed that I like to run it. I just consistently do that lap after lap after lap. I'm not really focused on the guy in front of me and catching him. I'm just staying focused on putting together consistent laps every time. A lot of guys race off the back bumper with the car in front of them and just trying whatever they can to get there to get under that guy or around him. They continuously make mistakes. If you try to be consistent, it's easier on your tires. Your tires will last longer. Your car will be driving better 60, 70, 80 laps into a run. That's how you start to get by people. It's so hard to pass here the first 20, 30 laps into the run unless you've got a superb car. It's best to maintain your track position for a while and be easy on the tires and hopefully you've got a better long run set-up than most of the other guys."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'VE MATURED AS A DRIVER? "You get smarter. I've always drove as hard as I could drive. I may not have always made the smartest choices on the race track. Not that those mistakes are behind me. You just get a little bit smarter. Every year you season as a driver. When you first come in you run as hard as you can and bounce off a lot of stuff. Hopefully as you get more races under your belt, you bounce off less stuff. I pride myself in not being bad on my equipment. I pride myself in finishing a race where all they really got to do is pressure wash the car for the next one. It's important to me that when the race is over it was evident to them (my team) that I drove as hard as I could ever lap. That's it."

ON HAVING A DOMINANT WEEKEND HERE IN AUG. 2004 AND WHERE THAT RANKS IN HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN HIS CAREER:
"It's way up there. Obviously not many people have swept races here. It's not the impossible or nothing like that. I'm not really putting up there like the Daytona 500 or anything. What's cool about winning here is the history of the track. I remember when I came in here in either '84 or '87. I can't really remember how it happened. But I remember Daddy spun out on the front straightway and all his tires were flat and he got lapped. It just drove me to tears because it's such a hard track and he was so fast and it's a hard race to win. I came here year after year after year wanting to victory lane at Bristol as a kid because it was a track he won his first race at. He had such dominant cars so many times and something would happen or I'd be at school and not be here when he did win. It's just an awesome track. There's tracks on the circuit that are important to me - the Daytonas, the Atlantas, the Charlottes, the Bristols and the ones that have been there years and years and the ones that have continued to grow with the sport. As the sport has gotten bigger the tracks have gotten bigger as far as seating capacity, press boxes. It's maintained with the sport but it's still Bristol. It's still that high-bank half-mile short track where anything can happen. When you've won a race you feel like you've successfully navigated a mine field. It's half elation and excitement and the other half is relief. To have swept that weekend was just amazing to me."

HOW HAS LAST SEASON AFFECTED YOUR LEVEL OF DESIRE?
"I was pretty happy with last year as far as the effort I put in. I was able to finish the season and not really go home and tear myself up about it because I put forth the best effort I possibly could. I was happy with the people that were around me and the effort that they were giving me. When there's 43 guys on the race and everybody is doing all they can. There's only one winner. We didn't put it together like we wanted to. We didn't get the finishes and runs we wanted to. But I learned a lot about myself personally and I learned a lot about my relationships with the guys I was working with. I never really had been in that situation before or had a season like that where we finished poorly time and time again. It definitely sort of brings you back to reality and how the other half lives. I was really excited going into this season. I wanted to get it back to victory lane as soon as I could. My goal was to come right out swinging as hard as I could to try to get in to victory lane and win races and make the Chase. I guess my determination and my willpower and my imitative is hard to gauge. There's a lot of people that question my determination. This is all I've ever wanted to do. Just because I don't look like I've got the killer don't mean that when I'm on the race track I don't drive like it."

"I found there's a lot more inside of me as a driver than I knew about. There were times last year where I had to dig a little deeper. It was there when I didn't know. There was more to me than I knew about personally. I come here with a lot more confidence as a driver and I'm definitely determined to get back to where I need to be."

ON HIS BUSCH TEAM AND HOW HE'S BEEN AS AN OWNER:
"It's been an experience. The schedule is very difficult on the team. That's probably been the hardest part. We're in a small shop. That shop that I'm working in now is Jimmy Horton's old shop. That was their original shop. It's the same size as it was then. I'm in the middle of looking at a building that I can buy that's a little bit more money or add on to the one I've got that's old, for about the same amount of money. We're thinking about moving but it's been tough. The hard part about it is it's a small shop, everybody is together around each other. I've got my uncles who have been doing it this way a hundred years and then you got this 21 year-old and 18 year-old here and this 30 year-old right there on top of each other. Most race teams have everything sectioned off where all the personnel do their own things and don't have but heads with any other department. With this Busch team it's been difficult to keep the peace amongst the shop. There's a lot of mistakes that are made. That's granted. I'm making mistakes. Everybody is trying to do what they can do since this uncharted territory for all of us. I'm really happy with the performance. We maybe should have run better but to be where we are in the points this early in the season with a team that basically came out of the ground over the last three to four months - the cars, the people, the shop, everything. I'm real proud of it. I hope that it does great things. I think it will be a lot fun doing it with the people that I have if we can succeed."

ON THE CHANGES AT DEI AND IF HE AND TONY EURY JR. ARE GETTING WHAT THEY NEED TO CATCH UP TO A TEAM LIKE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
"There's not a team in the garage who wouldn't have loved to have crawled underneath that car last week. There were times in the race where we had the field by a half of a second for an entire run. On four or five occasions Tony Jr. told me I had three tenths if I needed it. Then there's races where we'd like to go crawl under Greg Biffle's car. You have to give Jack Roush a lot of credit for what he's been able to do over the last several years to position himself to where he is now and having cars competing consistently every week in the top five. That's truly phenomenal. I think him and his entire organization should be commended for how they've been able to get so competitive. There are Chevrolet teams that as a whole are right now consistently stronger. There's two types of mechanics. There's innovators and there's duplicators. There's guys that come up with the cool stuff and guys that see cool stuff happening and start doing it. Tony Jr. is definitely an innovator. Not that he does things he shouldn't, but he's definitely a Chad Knaus and a type of crew chief that continues to bring the new technology into the sport. Chad and a could of other guys were the first ones to really get the rear springs and get the front springs and all the things that are happening right now that you would have shook your hood at three or four years ago. Tony Jr. is that type of guy. That's the kind I want to be with. In my mind, he's one of the best and will be recognized as one of the best. When you got people like that you'll be in good shape. We've got a couple of other guys on the team that are also innovators and definitely come up with some new stuff all the time. Those are teams that are strong. The teams that struggle are the ones that wait for this technology to come to them six months down the road once it's been out there a while. We're definitely not that type of team. In my opinion DEI is getting stronger. I think it's progressing. We've made some commitments to build, add some space, hire people. That is going to make us a better company. Where we stand, it's hard for me to say. We're definitely getting better. That's all I can ask is to continuously work to get better. I'm really happy with the current situation right now."