IN A PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY, WAYNE TAYLOR (SURREY SPORT LLC COMPANY) AND SUNTRUST RACING ANNOUNCED THAT JEFF GORDON WILL CO-DRIVE THE NO. 10 SUNTRUST RACING PONTIAC IN THE 45TH ANNUAL ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA, JANUARY 27-28, 2007. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CONFERENCE:

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS

"For me it's a real honor to be a part of this. I've been thinking about this and talking about it for many, many years to run the 24-hour race here. Especially over the last two or three years it's been more and more becoming a reality and a lot of it has to do with Wayne Taylor and his quality group of people he has put together. Every time I've been in a race car and I've had success it's because of being involved with a great team. That was so important to me. The first time I've ever had to be actual teammates with the same car then teammates with different teams or drivers in other cars. This is going to be a very unique opportunity for me. I'm really excited about learning things from Max (Angelelli) and becoming his teammate as well as Wayne and going out there and having some fun. These race cars to me, they look like a lot of fun. I haven't had an opportunity to get behind the wheel but of course I do love the road courses and I'm really excited about getting out there and getting some lap times in a car that's really built for that type of racing. It's all about winning for me and this is an opportunity I feel like that we can come in to the Daytona 24-hour race and actually have a shot at winning. I'm glad this has finally come together; we've been talking about it for a while and now we finally get to make it official and it couldn't happen at a better time for me, coming off last weekend's tremendous win and the momentum we've got right now for ourselves coming into Daytona. I'm looking forward to the race tonight and certainly the one in the last weekend in January. So it's going to be a lot of fun."

WHAT MADE YOU SAY 'I CAN DO THIS NEXT YEAR?' "A lot of it has to do with Jim France, really, the way he's retuned this series and the Daytona Prototypes are cars that I feel like I can get behind the wheel of and learn hopefully, fairly quick. I've talked to a lot of the other guys, Jimmie (Johnson) and Tony (Stewart) and got an idea of what it's like to drive these cars and they all rave on how much fun it is and how great the cars are.

I think that this is something I've always wanted to do but I guess it's something I thought would happen later on down the road when maybe I was retiring from full-time Cup series. A good opportunity only comes along ever so often and there's a friend of mine who helped build race cars, a guy named Ron McMann who works for Bill Riley (Riley Technologies) who really kind of made this introduction and a lot of this sort of come to my attention. That opened up the conversations with this team and of course watching their success it was pretty much a no-brainer who I wanted to be involved with. The fact that it's General Motors as well plays a big role. Like I said, this is something that for the last three years I've been talking about working on and just trying to figure out how to make it a reality and then finally we were able to do that."

DO YOU ENVISION SEEING MORE CUP PARTICIPATION IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS? "I think we've seen a trend that's been steadily growing over the last few years. I got invited last year as well from a couple different teams and just couldn't make it happen. I think it's how the guy's schedules work out. To me the most important part was always that when I want to do something I want to do it 100%, I want to be able to test the car and get plenty of laps with the team and get comfortable. I was trying to figure out far enough in advance my schedule to be able to get enough time. That's where Wayne's guys have been so great. They're like 'hey, when we're at a test come any time. If we're not at a test and you want to then go run some laps, let's do it.' I think that's why we're making it official so early, that I can work with Max and Wayne and start getting comfortable before we get here and also make sure that I have on my schedule the time that it really takes. I don't take for granted the competition out there and I think that no matter what I've done in the past in a stock car doesn't really mean much until you get out there in this type of car because it is quite a bit different but I look forward to the challenge and I'm glad that I was able to make it work in this schedule, to give 100% to the team because I want to come here and win. I've been able to pull into victory lane at Daytona several times and it's a very special place and I'd like to do it then as well as this race."

IS THE MINDSET THAT YOU, JIMMIE JOHNSON AND DALE EARNHARDT, JR. ARE ABOVE THE REST OF THE DRIVERS APPROPRIATE? "Well, I would throw Tony Stewart into that mix as well as far as some of the more dominant guys that that lead a lot of laps and are up front on a pretty consistent basis. But it's restrictor-plate racing and anybody can win this race so it's really hard for me ever just pick two or three other guys but if you look at the stats and the consistency and their teams, those are certainly guys that I feel like we're going to have to race. The July race is a lot different than what we had at Talladega and what we had here in February with it being hotter and slicker, you have to have a good-handling race car. I think you might see us give up some speed qualifying.

We've been on the front row here and we qualified pretty good at Talladega and I think that you're going to see us really give up some speed for qualifying to have a good-handling race car. Last July we were fast qualifying but we weren't really fast in the race. I told the guys last year what I was hoping for us to be able to pull off this year in July and of course I have Superman on the car so I got a lot to live up to there."

WHAT IS THE BIG DIFFERENCE WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST SEASON? "I love how things change so quickly. A week before Sonoma it was 'you guys aren't in the Chase and you're struggling.' Now we win one race and all of a sudden we've turned everything around. I've steadily seen a turnaround and we've been getting better. I think Michigan was a sign, I think our run in Charlotte was a sign as well. There's been times where we've been better on the mile-and-a-halfs then we were last year and there's been some times this year where we've had some failures that have unfortunately gotten us outside the Chase. We were pretty consistent and up there solidly at one time and just were working on performance. Then we have some glitches and some problems and all of a sudden we're having to get the performance up and get those finishes together. I think last week what that was, is us taking advantage of a good opportunity. Road courses are good tracks for us, we stepped up our program and we had a fast race car. Luckily we came out of there with a win and a lot of points. Got ourselves back up in the Chase. We've got to take advantage of that momentum and keep it going. This is a good track for us and we've got to take advantage of this opportunity and just keep it going. The biggest change for us is that we made a lot of changes at the end of last year. We started changing how our cars are built, new crew chief, new pit crew. It's taking some time for everybody to gel but the team has been phenomenal. It's just the performances need to step up a notch and we're starting to make headway in that right direction. I've always said from the beginning of the season, it doesn't matter who's running good early, it's about who's got momentum with about five races to go before the Chase. Whoever that team is I think that's the team you're going to have to watch out for once you get into the Chase."

DOES JIMMIE JOHNSON HAVE AN ADVANTAGE IN RESTRICTOR-PLATE RACING? "I think that you've got to give Jimmie credit and that team, they've done a fantastic job. Our restrictor-plate program is as strong as it's ever been in Daytona here in February. Me and Tony got together and it could have ruined our day, made a comeback, were in the top 10 and then got up in the wreck there late with Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch, somebody like that. Factor that out and we weren't even there. Then Talladega, Jimmie made a great move, I tried to make a move for the win and it really. hindsight, looking back on it, not only did it cost me the win, it cost me a lot of positions and if I had to do it over again I probably would have been more patient and settled more with a top five instead of just trying to get the win. That one cost me.

That was the risk I was taking and it's usually the risk I take at the end of the race and Jimmie took advantage of that. As far as restrictor-plate tracks go, we're as strong as anybody out there. Jimmie has done a fantastic job of learning the plate tracks, the draft, know when to make the move, using that momentum. I'll take a little credit for that because I feel like he and I have talked over the years and he's a great, great student. He's gone from student to teacher in a very short time."

"I learn from every race I've ever been in and all I learned from Talladega is that my teammate Brian Vickers was leading the race and I had a run on him and he blocked me, and I had to make two decisions. Either wreck him or let off and give up the position. I think I made the right decision not to wreck him and it cost me. That's where teammates can hurt you because you get down to the final lap and you want to win the race. You've got to make a move and it's no longer teammates, it's now time to be a competitor and win the race. In that situation being teammates kind of hurt me a little bit. I look at it as 'what would I have done different'. But at both Daytona here and February in Talladega we had no doubt that we had a car that could win both of those races. I hope that we're in that same position this weekend. To me it's not about how many laps you lead, it's about leading the right one. If I've got a car that's capable of leading I'm going to put it out there. I'd rather be leading at the end than be the guy trying to pass the leader."

ANY CHANCE OF SEEING YOU IN ANY OTHER ROLEX SERIES RACES? "I'm not so sure about that. I'm letting these guys make the call on that. I've never run a 24-hour race in my life. If they ask me to run four, four-and-a-half hours straight I can do it because I can do it in our cars. I don't know, we haven't even talked about it. I'm going to follow the lead of these guys and their experience. As far as other races, we'll take it one step at a time. We'll see what happens here in Daytona next year. I've definitely had the itch for Watkins Glen when we're there racing and I see those guys racing around there having as much fun as they are. It makes me think about it. One of the reasons why I don't run in the Busch series is because of the commitment that I have for the Cup series. On a race weekend I prefer not to take too much focus away from that. I don't know how physically demanding the cars are and I'll learn a lot more about that in late January next year."

DID YOU GIVE THE ROLEX RACE THOUGHT AS YOU WERE WINNING AT INFINEON? "No, not at all. It really didn't come to mind. A couple days later when I realized that there was a nice tie there, coming off of a road-course win, this announcement and it just sort of solidified why I would want to do this. I really enjoy the road courses and I feel like I've been able to have success on them but in a totally different race car.

I try to be careful with comparing just winning a road-course race in a stock car with anything that's going to happen here because they are such different competitors, different race tracks, different race cars. There's going to be a steep learning curve for me. I really wasn't thinking a whole lot about it until maybe yesterday. I've been testing in Milwaukee for the last two days so I'll be honest, it's been a crazy, hectic week. I haven't even had a chance to reflect on the win let alone the tie from that to this."

MORE ONE-ON-ONES WITH GORDON:

HOW MUCH PRESSURE CAME OFF YOUR SHOULDERS AFTER YOUR WIN LAST WEEKEND? "A huge amount, you know. A win is a win no matter where you get it. It's nice to kind of change direction when the focus has been when are we going to win. We haven't been winning and now we got that out of the way. It's just funny how things change because we go from not being in the Chase and haven't won and that being the focus to now 'Oh boy, they can win back to back. They can get some momentum and be a threat for the championship.' I laugh at it on both sides because to me I know the reality of what it takes and it's going to be a lot of hard work. We're excited that we got that win. The team deserved it. They worked really hard for that win and we've got to work equally as hard for the next one."

YOU HAVE TWO OF THE YOUNGEST TEAMMATES IN THE SPORT. HOW MUCH WORK HAVE YOU DONE WITH THEM IN TERMS OF COUNSELING THEM ON HOW TO ACT ON AND OFF THE TRACK? HOW MUCH PRESSURE IS THERE FOR YOUNG DRIVERS? "Is it unrealistic? No. It's a reality. It's a part of it. It's the way the sport is. When you have young, talented guys like Kyle Busch and like Brian Vickers, they're going to have pressure and expectations. I obviously have spent a lot more time with Brian because he came on first. He and I became friends early on and so through hanging out as friends we've talked about a lot of things. The last several weeks I've been in the garage area next to Kyle Busch and I think he's a tremendous talent and I've wanted to get the opportunity to spend more time with him. Rick Hendrick and I have talked about trying to get more time together. I think they maybe even talked to him about it as well. It's just been kind of working itself out and working well and I've been enjoying it a lot."

HOW WILL A PLACE LIKE DAYTONA MAKE OR BREAK YOUR CHANCES OF STAYING IN THE TOP 10? "Things can happen anywhere as we've proven this year. We're just really looking at the positives about being at a restrictor plate track. We're strong at the restrictor plate tracks and putting the best race car out there that we possibly can this weekend. Sure, things can happen. We've just got to do our best to make sure we stay far away from that if happens and make sure we have a solid race car all the way to the finish. The rest is going to take care of itself."

ON JIMMIE JOHNSON SAYING HE TAUGHT HIM ABOUT RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING AND JIMMIE GOING ON TO WIN THE PAST TWO RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES: "I taught him too much, didn't I? I think so. If he starts beating me on those road courses, I've got a problem. No, I think Jimmie is just a tremendous talent and he's so willing to learn and be open to new ideas. He can get it from so many different ways whether it be on the track racing or asking questions. I think he might be giving me a little bit more credit than he should because I've just seen him on the race track improve. We've talked about certain things but until you get out there and experience it, it doesn't matter how much you talk about it. He's really become a great restrictor plate driver and I definitely look for him to be one of the guys to beat."

ON THE RECENT DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. WOULD YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE CURRENT CHASE FORMAT? "I have no idea (on Brian France comments about a possible change to the Chase for the Championship). I've been a plane all day. Well the good thing is, once you make a change then you can kind of make the change all the time if you want. It was getting that initial impact from the change from a point system that had been around as long as it had. I love today, I did read in the paper where the PGA now is going to a Chase type system. I think that's obviously should make NASCAR feel pretty proud that even a sport like the PGA is following their lead. I've always felt like they pay points back too far. I feel like past 25th, 30th position, I think it should pay the same amount for everybody from there on out. I think that keeps us from tearing up race cars and having to repair them and put them back out there. We've gotten past that. We've got so many cars on the lead lap now that it's not necessary. I also think that we still could maybe bonus winners or the guys up in the top 5 to top 10, maybe spread those points out a little bit more to make it more important to finish first, second or third instead of just finishing 10th, 11th every weekend and still being able to win the championship."

SHOULD THEY ALLOW MORE PEOPLE IN THE CHASE? "Shoot, I don't know how to deal with nine as it is so I don't know how you could deal with more. I think it would keep it extremely exciting but I don't think it would necessarily change the outcome. I really don't. I think maybe they're looking at things this year. You've got (Greg) Biffle and you've got (Carl) Edwards and some guys that have had trouble early on that have risks of not making it in there that are guys that probably could be in there. This particular year, if there were more guys in there, it could change the outcome."

HOW COMFORTABLE WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN LAST YEAR IF THEY SAID DRIVERS OUTSIDE OF THE TOP 10 THAT WON A RACE DURING THE SEASON COULD BE IN THE CHASE? "Obviously I know we would have finished a lot higher up the points than we did. They don't need to go too far off of what they've got none. If you start making up stuff like that and then we're out here in a circus. I think that we need to keep racing at a certain level of competition and professional. If points are what they are then we need to know and plan in advance of how we're going to be racing. It took enough adjustment to get over the initial shock of the Chase. I think just letting guys in because they did this or did this, I think that's getting a little bit silly myself but we're all speculating right now. I don't even want to be commenting on speculation. Let's see what they decide to do. Now I know that I'm going to give Brian (France) a call and talk to him a little more about what they're thinking. I'll never forget when they were going to do the Chase I said 'Hey, I heard something about changing the point system up. Are you serious about that?' (They said) 'Oh yeah.' I thought 'Nah, they're not going to do that.' A week later they announced it and I was like 'Oh my goodness.' You never know what could happen."

ON GETTING CLOSE TO MATCHING THE NUMBER OF WINS POSTED BY DALE EARNHARDT: "Man, the way it's been going here prior to this past weekend, I thought we were close to him at one time and then it seemed like we were miles and miles away so you just never know when you're going to get that next win. Accomplishing anything that Dale Earnhardt accomplished is something that you have to be very, very proud of. I still to this day feel like he's the all-time great as far as anybody I've raced against so it would be a huge honor for me. It's already a huge honor for me to be this close to him."

ON SEEING A RECENT QUOTE FROM HIM SAYING THAT HIS NEXT WIFE WOULD GET A BETTER GUY THAN THE FIRST ONE DID. WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT? "I hope she does. I feel like that I'm older. I'm more mature. I think I have a better idea of who I am and what I want out of life and who I want to spend my life with. I think that in my opinion is a better guy. Maybe not necessarily to other people but I think that when you're young you have so many things going on in your life. When I got married the last time, and I have no regrets. I wouldn't have done it or seen it happen any other way. It happened that way for a reason but I will say that there was a lot going on in my life and I was constantly evolving in my career, in my life and I feel like I'm a lot more stable now in those changes. I came into the relationship being me and knowing better who I am and I think she knows me a lot better than probably anybody ever has because of that."

WHY A GAME OF CROQUET? "Number one is we've been engaged for a month. What we did was announce it to family and friends last week. I think there was a little bit of misconception and by the way we didn't meet on any movie set either. It's been crazy this week. The media, not just you guys but outside of all this stuff going on, I didn't know this was going to be so important. I've been doing this event out in Sonoma for the last two or three years.

It's really one of the few times in the season I get a lot of my friends and family together at one time to just relax and getaway. It just happens to be a dinner where we also play croquet. I'll tell you what. Don't knock croquet, man (laughs). It's challenging and I would challenge anybody to some croquet."

HAVE YOU SET A WEDDING DATE? "No."

ON BEING BACK IN THE NEWS: "I made a great decision in my life that I'm excited about and I can't control what comes along with that. I hope it's good but it should be because I'm happy."

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT DURING THE RACE FROM YOU AND YOUR TEAM? "I expect a strong performance. I expect us to have a good handling race car and a fast race car and to be a threat. I definitely expect for us to be a threat. Until I get out there on the track and drive for the guys I can't tell you how much of a threat we're going to be but based on past experience and our restrictor plate program this year, I feel like we're going to be competitive."

DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD A CAR CAPABLE OF WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 AND TALLADEGA? "Oh yeah definitely. I felt like we had great race cars at both those events but I will say July is a much different race. This might be the same race car we had at Talladega but we've cut it up and done a lot of things to it. This is definitely a different race than it is here in February."

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT? "It gets hot and its slick and you've got to have a handling race car where in February handling is not near as much of an issue."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS:

Note: Burton crashed in practice and will go to a back-up car, which is his 2006 Daytona 500 pole winning Monte Carlo SS:

HOW GOOD IS YOUR BACK UP CAR? "It's the car we ran in the (Daytona) 500 and it's the car we ran fourth with at Talladega so it's a good car but the car we planned on running had quite a bit more downforce and we built it especially for this race. We'll do what we can do. This is a great race team and they bring good race cars. It's an unfortunate break. We just cut a left rear tire. This is a great race team and we'll overcome it."

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH YOUR SEASON SO FAR? "Yeah, I think we've run very well. I look back on some of our other races. I look back on the Daytona 500 and we didn't run very well. I was trying real hard to make something happen there at the end and ended up getting in a wreck. We just had those three races in a row, with really no fault of our own (that we finished poorly). We were running really well at Atlanta and had a problem that wasn't our fault. We had wrecks two weeks in a row that weren't our fault. Those were big races and I wish I had those back but every team out here could say the same thing. I think our performance has been good. I feel like we are a top-10 team for sure. I think you could make a case that we're a top-five team. When you look at speed, I think the 17 (Kenseth), 16 (Biffle), 9 (Kahne), 20 (Stewart), 48 (Johnson) have been a touch better than we have and we've been right there with them putting the pressure on. In some cases we've been better but for the majority of the year I think we've been a touch off of them but as the year has gone on I think we've gotten closer to them. It's just a matter of us continuing to improve and trying to build better cars and do a better job with them. If we can continue to do that, maybe we can continue to get better."

ON THIS BEING A 10-RACE CHASE IN ITSELF RIGHT NOW ESPECIALLY WITH SEVERAL OF THE DRIVERS BEING CLOSE IN POINTS: "I'm not telling you exact numbers but if you look at where we are, we're sixth in points, and you can't tell me we couldn't finish third or second, third mainly. But you also couldn't tell me we couldn't finish 15th or 16th. It's really close and there's no time to let up. There's no time to breathe. We are in the midst of it. Certainly (in) these next 10 races a lot is going to happen. What's gotten us here is just paying attention to every race one race at a time and that's what we're going to continue to do.

We can't change anything other than work hard and keep trying to make our cars better and try to do the right thing with them and that's what we're just going to try to do."

HOW DOES ONE TRYING TO GET INTO THE CHASE GET THROUGH THIS NEXT STRETCH OF RACES ESPECIALLY WITH IT BEING SUMMER AND IT BEING HOT?" I think that conditioning is really important. If you are worried about conditioning this point of the year, you're three months too late. I think that having a good state of mind is good. I think being there and (having) done that is good and understanding that is physically draining and it is emotionally draining. As long as you prepare for that and understand it, it's nothing you can't deal with. For me personally, I think being able to step away from it every now and then and catch a little bit of a break is a good thing. In the summer I'm able to do that a little bit more. Really staying involved to me has as much to do with it as anything. I find the more that I'm involved and the more that I'm in it, the better that I tend to stay emotionally in it. I think being in shape is really important and getting over the bad days. When a bad day happens (you) walk away from it and go on to the next thing and also when a good day happens. Getting over that for me personally is all about going on to the next thing. Whatever you've done is done. It's over. (You) learn from it, take from it what you can and then go to the next thing."

ARE YOU FEELING ANY PRESSURE? "The pressure of being in the top 10 and trying to continue to go up in points is the kind of pressure you want. There's a lot of different kinds of pressures in life and for me pressure is when people don't consider you a threat. That's way harder than when they do. I really believe if the Chase started right now today, we would have a legitimate chance to win the championship. What that means to me is that we have to continue to improve. We have to continue to put ourselves in position to get ourselves in the Chase but we would truly be one of the favorites based on the way we've run. There's no guarantee that's going to continue. We have to make it continue. We have to go out and make it happen and take advantage of this position we've put ourselves in."

JEFF GORDON, JIMMIE JOHNSON AND DALE EARNHARDT JR. HAVE REALLY SEPERATED THEMSELVES FROM THE PACK HERE. HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO THAT? "I don't know. We've worked really hard on our plate program. We didn't race very well here in February. We did finish fourth at Talladega. We come to this race with different stuff than we were here with in February that I'd like to think is better. If you'd ask me after Talladega where we are, we're not as good as they are. We certainly have some to grow but we've tried to do that between then and then."

HOW HAS CHICAGO TREATED YOU IN THE PAST AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GOING THERE? "I'm excited about Chicago. We've worked really hard on our program this winter trying to make that program better. I feel like we've done that. I think we've made huge gains with the fast 1.5 mile tracks. Certainly Chicago is one of them. I look forward to it. I look forward to getting there and seeing if we can continue to run well at that kind of race track."

IS THAT TRACK A COOKIE CUTTER TRACK? "I do know that a lot of tracks look alike hence the phrase cookie cutter but they all drive totally different and Chicago is its own race track. There's no question it requires different setup. It requires a different driving style than other race tracks that look like it. For us even though they do look like cookie cutter tracks they're really not."

ON RACING IN ATLANTA: "Atlanta has some of the best racing of anywhere we go. It's a great race track. It provides a lot of side-by-side action, a lot of really close finishes. It's a fun race track to run on. It's extremely fast in qualifying trim. I think that track changes more from qualifying to racing than anywhere we go. It's a very, very slick demanding race track in race trim where in qualifying there's so much grip you can't believe it. There's a lot of change between qualifying and racing there."

YOU'VE HAD A LOT OF TOP-15 FINISHES. OBVIOUSLY CONSISTENCY IS IMPORTANT BUT ANOTHER KEY IS RUNNING FIRST THROUGH FIFTH. WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM? "I think if you do go back and look at the races, if you go back and look at Charlotte, we had an honest legitimate chance to win. If you look at Dover, we had a legitimate chance to win. If you look at Pocono, we had a legitimate chance to win. We've put ourselves in position to win more races over the last two months than we had in the previous two months. Richmond we had a great chance to win and we had a problem. I think that we have been a team that's put ourselves in position and really we've had a lot of races where we've had finishes way worse than we deserved. We've had more of those than we've had of the other way around so if you watch one particular team, you understand more of what they're dealing with than if you just look at finishes. I honestly believe that if you look at the problems we had in comparison to the 17 (Kenseth), 48 (Johnson), 9 (Kahne), 8 (Earnhardt Jr.) and the 6 (Martin), we've had way more bad races than they've had yet we're behind them in points but not that that far behind. I think that all those things add up to be giving me a lot of confidence that we can succeed and that if we get ourselves in position we will be a threat."

BRIAN FRANCE TALKED TODAY ABOUT POSSIBLY MAKING SOME ADJUSTMENTS TO THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. IS THERE A CERTAIN WAY TO EXPAND THE 10? "I don't know how to do it. I'm just making some arbitrary numbers but I personally like the idea of allowing 20 teams into the Chase based on points with 15 races to go. Then with 10 (races) to go, you whittle it down to 10. With five (races) to go, you whittle it down to five so it's like a play-off system. You let more in but you continue to eliminate them. I think that's not a bad idea but again I think it works really well the way it is right now. I do know that there's more teams that have a chance to win the championship today than if we were in the old system. I think that's good for the sport. I think it's good for the fans and I think it's good for the sport."

AT WHAT POINT DO YOU GET OVERKILL WITH TOO MANY PEOPLE? "I don't know. Ten is tight, I'll tell you that. From my perspective this year, we're not far behind fourth; by the way we're not far ahead of 15th. It's really tight, really close. This is a performance-based business. The results are really the only thing that matter but if you go through and look, why does the 31 deserve to be in it anymore than the 5 (Kyle Busch)? Or, why does the No. 6 (Mark Martin) deserve to be in it any more than the No. 99 (Carl Edwards)? We've all run very similar but it is a performance based business and finishes are really all that count at the end of the day." ON HAVING A POSSIBLE WILD CARD SPOT FOR THE CHASE AND IF THAT'S FAIR: "I don't know. I just haven't thought about it at all. I would need a little time to think about it. This is the first time I've heard just five minutes ago that there was even a conversation about changing it so I've put no thought into it."

ON BRIAN FRANCE SAYING HE WAS SURPRISED THAT MORE DRIVERS DIDN'T GET IN BASED ON BEING WITHIN 400 POINTS OF THE LEADER: "There should be no surprise because if you go back in history and look, all you have to do is go back and look. If you looked in the past with 10 races to go how many people were 400 points ahead there should be no surprise there. If you go back and think about it when all that was said, the 400 points was explained to us as 'Well that's not really ever going to happen but if it does they deserve to be in it.' I don't really think he's as much surprised. I think what happened in this thing and I've heard a lot of fans talk about it, once the teams learn how this works there will be more that get in it. That's crazy. The way it works is finishing good no matter what the point system is. You can't manipulate something based on what the points are. If the point system was like it was last year or three years ago, would anything be different today? Would anybody be in any different position in points? They wouldn't. The racing on the race track is the same. The points are what you earn based on where you finish and everybody does their very best to do the best they can and then they look at the points. It doesn't work the other way around. The Carolina Panthers don't say 'Hey we're going to get in the Super Bowl because we're going to go beat 14 teams' and then just go do it. You've got to earn it. You got to go do it. It's crazy to think that just because we know the rules that we can find a way to manipulate it. It doesn't work like that."

ON THE EMPHASIS BEING DIFFERENT ESPECIALLY RIGHT NOW IN THE HEART OF THESE RACES: "The importance of being in the top 10 with 10 to go is more different than it used to be but how you get those points is no different. The way you get those points is by finishing races and finishing well. If you said to the 9 car 'The points are going to be back to where they used to be.' What would they have done different? They would have gone to every race, prepared the same. There's nothing you can do different. We're here to race and get the best finish we can. That's all you do. I don't think it should be a surprise that no more than 10 are in it because that was the whole case when they first did it. I think there was only one person over the last 10 years that would have gotten in so I don't know why it'd be a surprise."

IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW BRIAN FRANCE WAS THINKING ABOUT MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO THE CHASE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND ANY CHANGES? "I think that everything is always able to be improved. I do like initially more teams in. I also like more teams being eliminated. The cool thing is the Chase for the top 10 has made the racing this time of year really, really, really important. If it were backed up another five races or seven races and it was a race for the top 15 or 16 and then six races later it was the race for the top 12 and then six races later for the top seven, you'd have three of those which is what's really cool about the NFL playoffs where you get "X" amount of teams in and then after the first week the wild card teams. Some advance, some don't. The next week some advance, some don't. It makes the level of intensity really high and what makes fun out of sports is high intensity levels. The athletes having to be intense and having to fight hard is what makes it fun to watch."

THE NFL IS A FIVE OR SIX WEEK TOURNAMENT. YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT 20 TEAMS OVER 15 WEEKS. "Again, forgive me a little bit because I just now started thinking about it so my numbers are skewed but just allowing more teams in I think would be a good thing. Again, a second and maybe even a third elimination period to whittle it down would keep the intensity level up throughout the whole year. It's just a thought. I don't know. Again don't lock me on my numbers. You let 18 teams in with 20 races to go. Then with 15 races to go it's down to 12 teams. Then with eight races to go it's down to seven teams. With four races to go it's down to three teams. I don't know. I'm just making something up. But if you just keep eliminating people I think that could be very exciting."

DALE EARNHARDT JR. HAS SAID THIS TRACK IS TOO BUMPY AND THAT THEY SHOULD RESURFACE THIS PLACE. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT? "I don't care what they do. If I were a stock-holder I'd say no, why spend the money. It is bumpy but so what. It's the same for everybody. The character of Daytona is the bumps in (turns) one and two. Would it be better if it were paved? Yeah, it'd be better if it was paved. Would it put on better racing? Probably not.

At the end of the day the quality of the race is really all that counts. The fact that it's hard on us to get the cars handled, that's not what matters. What matters is the quality of the race. I think that the quality of the race can be there with the way the track is right now."

DALE EARNHARDT JR. SAID IN AN ARTICLE THAT HE'S BEEN INJURED FROM RACING HERE WITH ALL THE BUMPS. IS IT DANGEROUS? "He should have raced the way it used to be with the big shocks and all that. His back would have been injured. These bumps today are nothing compared to what we used to do. We have bad bumps at Pocono. We have bad bumps at several places and I can't imagine somebody getting hurt with these bumps. I don't see that."

HOW EXCITED ARE YOU AND THE REST OF THE DRIVERS ABOUT THE CAR OF TOMORROW? "There's a lot of excitement and skepticism about the Car of Tomorrow. There are a lot of people that are pretty close-minded about it. I think the Car of Tomorrow is an advance in safety. I think that it has potential to be an advance in performance as well. Right now today if we could race cars like they are today and have good racing and I think that after we spend the next six months refining it even more that the racing will be even better yet. I think the quality of racing has the potential to go up and certainly the cars should be safer."

ARE YOU A SKEPTIC ABOUT THE CAR OF TOMORROW RIGHT NOW? "I'm an optimist about it to be quite honest. I think it's going to work very well. I think having the Car of Tomorrow is going to be a good thing for the sport from a competitive standpoint as well as a safety standpoint. So right now I'm a proponent of it."

YOU'VE HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. CAN YOU ASSESS YOUR CHANCES GOING THERE? "I certainly have high hopes going there. I'm real comfortable with the race track. We worked pretty hard at a Richmond test and did not run well at Phoenix. We ran very well at Richmond. We've tried to step up our program and build even better cars for that kind of race track so I go into it optimistic."

HOW IMPORTANT WILL THAT RACE BE? "Obviously as the races get closer to two or three to go before the last 10 we've got a tremendous amount of emphasis put on it however we can't forget that they pay the same amount of points for the third race of the year as they do for the 25th race of the year. So all the work that we've done up to that point is what matters and every race by itself matters a great deal but the emphasis will be starting to be put on races but at the end of the day it's an accumulation of all the points you gained in the first 26 so it really doesn't make that race any more important than any other."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRACK IN NEW HAMPSHIRE - THE PASSING, THE SLICKNESS OF THE TRACK AND THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE THERE? "The fact that the turns are so flat and the grooves half-a-lane off the bottom. The track has continued to gain grip through the years. It used to be real easy to spin the tires and we didn't have any rear grip but today it is actually pretty good with rear grip. Getting the car to turn is your biggest battle in New Hampshire where it used to be getting the rear wheels to hook up. Today it's getting it to turn. A good turning car could run really well there."