TERRY LABONTE, NO 44 and NO. 96 CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

AFTER DALE EARNHARDT'S CRASH HERE, DO YOU THINK EVERYONE TOOK A MUCH QUICKER LOOK AT SAFETY? "I think everybody probably did, I think everybody probably looked at it and said 'Oh Man'. A lot of the technology that we have now wasn't there. They were working with the safer barriers; there were so many crazy ideas out there. People were coming up with and trying all kinds of different things, just trying something just to try it. They had to test all of these ideas out, trying to get the right feel and something that would work. That is what they did and now every track has safer barriers. They implemented it fast and got it working."

DOES THE MEMORY OF DALE EARNHARDT STILL POP UP EVERY ONCE AND A WHILE? "Sure, it is pretty obvious when you drive through any race track and there are #3 flags around everywhere and still fans with hats, shirts and jackets. We are constantly reminded of him."

YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO PROVE IN THIS SPORT, IS IT JUST A CASE OF STILL HAVING THAT ITCH YOU NEED TO SCRATCH? "We are running a limited schedule and we would love to go out and run good in every race we enter. That is definitely what our goal is. Last year we had a few good races, but never really have one good one from start to finish. We have worked on trying to get our team a little bit stronger on pit road. It is really cool driving for Rick (Hendrick). I get to pick the races that I want to run. I am probably the only part time guy going to Pocono twice. I am probably one of the only guys that likes Pocono. I like Pocono. It is a neat deal to pick the tracks you want to go ran at.

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT GOING FOR JUSTIN (LABONTE) THIS YEAR? "We don't have really anything going for him this year. We basically dropped the ball on that deal. It is probably my own fault because I was told we had the sponsor for like three months so we let a couple of other opportunities go that came along I didn't pursue because I took somebody's word on it and it wasn't at all the case. I told Justin that I messed him up a little bit, it was no one's fault but mine and I feel bad."

IF YOU WERE TO WIN THIS DAYTONA RACE, DO YOU HAVE A PLACE IN YOUR HOUSE SOMEWHERE FOR THE HEISMAN TROPHY? "Roger (Staubach, team owner) told me he was going to give me his Heisman trophy if I won the Daytona 500. I said 'Cool, I'm going to take it', for at least a couple of weeks. What has really been funny is all my friends have called and offered me their bowling trophies and things like that, so if we win, we are going to have quite a collection of awards around the house.

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO FINISHING UP YOUR CAREER THIS SEASON? "Yes, I am. Someone asked me the other day if it was kind of sad and I guess it could be a little sad if you think about it. It is different knowing that this is my last year, but I am fine with it. So it might be kind of sad for a few minutes but then after that, it isn't. I had actually set this year in my mind a while ago and said to myself that I wasn't going to race beyond this year. And this is this year."

IF YOU THOUGHT IF THIS TEAM COULD BE IN THE CHASE, WOULD THAT CHANGE YOUR MIND? "That is so tough to do. Yes, it would probably change something. But that is hard to get in the top-10, look at the guys that missed it last season. That just shows you how tough it is out there. If I thought I had a 90% chance of being in the top-10, I would run all the races, you know what I mean. The commitment on the drivers is the easy part. It is getting all the right people in place and getting them working well together. I have run a long time, won a couple of championships so this is my final year. My final race will be at Texas Motor Speedway in November and I am not coming back and running trucks or anything like that."

HOW WELL DO YOU THINK THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU AND TONY (RAINES) IS GOING TO WORK? "I think it is a great opportunity for Tony. I met Tony several years ago when I raced against in him the ASA, the only one I ever ran. It was in Topeka, Kansas. I finished second and he won it. I have always thought Tony did an awful lot with some teams that didn't have so much to work with. I think it is a great opportunity for him."

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE WITH ABOUT 10 LAPS TO GO IN THE 500 NEXT WEEK? " You always want to be first or second or third if your car is good enough. You never know how it is going to play out with caution flags, strategy and tires, but if your car handles good and is strong enough, you want to definitely be up in the top-five. This place has a tendency on long runs to spread the cars out more than Talladega."

HOW IS THE CREW WORKING TOGETHER? "I think they did good at the test. They seem to be working together well. That is a big part of it, I think they have a lot of good people. That is the hard part of putting together a new team. Everyone is experienced but they have never worked together as a team. Everybody is really quiet on the team, I mean everybody. I thought I was quiet, I am quiet, but around the team, they are quieter than I. Philippe (Lopez, crew chief) hired everybody; you can really see that in the whole group of people. He has no loudmouths, no one that is not going to fit it. It looks he did a good job of picking people who will fit in together. Not to say they will always be in agreement about everything, but everyone is there for the team and not for themselves."