BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS:

Q. How do you feel about it now?
It's a track I've always enjoyed coming to. It's just the first road race of the year is always tough on everybody. Getting in the rhythm of things, right when we walked in, I think most of the drivers were comfortable with it, the crew chiefs are comfortable with it, and we're really ready to start road course racing. So I'm one that's lobbying for more road course races.

I love being out here. I don't have the results to really show for it, but I love the racetrack, it's really challenging, and hopefully I can turn that around this weekend

Q. Can you win here this weekend?
I think so. We've worked really hard on our road course program, we struggled in practice a little bit with a few things. At the end, really started getting some grip back in the car and gaining on it. So tomorrow is going to be an important practice.

But the way we've been able to run on road courses in general, I feel we should be a threat.

Q. I guess that was one of the things you said you'd like to cross off your list, being able to one on a road course?
Yeah, it's one of the few things I have left that I want to accomplish. There's lots that I want to accomplish, but this year I set out it ?? I've been able to win on short tracks, intermediate tracks, Pocono, which is kind of an odd place, and the next thing is a road course win. Hopefully I can do that.

Q. Obviously with your points situation, you want to come out of here ?? what's your goal to come out of here on Sunday?
As many points as possible, whatever that is.

Q. The top five guys in points right now haven't really fared well with road courses. With that in mind, how do you race this weekend with the big picture in mind?
I think it's the same each week. You just try to get maximum points. I think that the guys in the top five in general I think will be a little more cautious. It's a race where you can look at it one of two ways, either you can gain a lot of points or lose a lot of points.

Where I am doesn't matter in the Chase too much. I've got the approach I can gain a lot of points, it's a place where I can win and I'm going to push real hard to do so. I'm not sure what other people's strategies are, but this is a place I'd love to win at and I'm going to charge hard during the race to try to get that done.

Q. This is the biggest sporting event in northern California. Are you guys as excited to come here as drivers as the fans are to see you?
I think there's a handful of drivers that are really excited to come and then the majority wish that we didn't come. But I have to say, everybody is getting a lot better at road course racing. If you get set back into the pack, if you have a bad pit situation or make a mistake and you've got to come back through traffic, it's really tough to get through traffic and everybody has improved their game as a driver and I think everybody is taking the time to really build specific road course cars.

The competition is definitely getting stronger and stronger, and I think the drivers may be enjoying it more.

Q. How do you guys stay cool in the cars when it's upwards of 90, 100 degrees outside, let alone much hotter inside?
We have two air inlets to the driver on our race cars. There's a three?inch inlet on the left side that just blows on me, and then the three?inch inlet on the right side that goes through a cool box that knocks I think 10 or 15 degrees of temperature out of the outside air, and then that splits and half comes to my back and the other half goes inside my helmet. So there really isn't a lot of air coming in.

Q. Is it specially done because the road course there's a lot of slow corners?
No, it's the same cooling system that we have at every race. The big thing for me is the fact of getting dehydrated, so making sure I'm drinking all the Gatorade and waters that I can, and also the in?car Gatorade drinking system that I have. That thing is a life saver.

Q. How much does it help having the expertise of Jeff Gordon on your team?
It really does help. It helps the crew chiefs, it helps the drivers, just across the board I think makes things stronger for all of Hendrick Motorsports.

Q. Has he been telling the team how to win here?
No, he just has so much knowledge in general. Just whatever your question may be, he has an answer for it. It doesn't matter what part of the track or what's bothering you, he has an experience that you can pull from.

Q. Do you see this as a track that can help Jeff get back on track? He's been kind of inconsistent.
I think so, and I think his practice speeds show that he's ready to do that. He smoked everybody today in practice.

Q. Do you follow him at all?
I wasn't out on the track with him. We were working on race run stuff and he made very few laps today, solely working on qualifying, so I didn't have a chance to run with him.

Q. In general how good is Jeff on these road courses?
He's one of the best. If you look at his stats, his stats show that ?? last year, he's still been in the top three, so I think there's been a lot of hard work to make our cars a little bit better, and I think that's probably ?? working on our cars and making our cars better along with his ability to road race I think is what had him so far ahead in practice today.

Q. Next week Daytona, can you go three for three?
I feel very good about my road racing program, but I feel even more comfortable about our plate program. I know it's strong. I've won there at the 500 and looking forward to coming back. Really excited to go back.

Q. What's the hardest part about this track?
The track itself or in general?

Q. Both.
The braking zones are tough, but in general the hardest thing is just to understand all of what you dealt with on a lap and know how to adjust to that. There's so many different turns, so many different situations. We're used to working on two halves of a track and there's a lot less to worry about, and adjustments kind of work similar from one end of the track to the other end of the track. Here, there's 11 different corners doing 11 different things. So to be able to retain all that information, describe it and be able to make the right adjustments to it, it's really tough.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about Tony and his broken shoulder. When we went to Pocono, when we went to Michigan, the physical strains weren't as great. Can you compare the physical strains he'll go through here on his shoulder compared to Pocono and Michigan? This is one of the toughest tracks we run on.
It's going to be hot this weekend so that will make it harder on everyone from a conditioning standpoint, but with his situation and the shoulder, we don't shift on any other race tracks like you do here, so that may be something that aggravates him. I think he's had enough time to heal. I know he's been working on his shoulder and should be fine, but I think Monday morning when he wakes up, that shoulder area is going to be pretty tight.

Q. How much of a threat for the win here is he, say, compared to last year?
Oh, I don't think that his broken shoulder is going to take away from his of his performance. He's still going to be one of the tough guys to beat. I don't think he was able to put up a qualifying lap. I know they were trying to make a qualifying run when we were and the track shut down a little early because somebody spun, but he's going to be a threat for the win, no doubt.

Q. What about Jeff Gordon? How important is it for a guy like him, your teammate, to have a good run this weekend?
I think it's really important. I think we all look at different racetracks and say, hey, this is a place where we can go in and count on a win or really look forward to a win. I think Martinsville, the speedway races, the road courses, Jeff really starts drooling when he looks at those races, and knows, hey, here comes ?? I've won a lot at Sonoma, won a lot at Martinsville, and he really looks forward to those races.

So coming in here, this is a race that he can really gain a lot of points, points are important right now, he's outside the Top 10, so it's a big weekend for him and hopefully he's able to capitalize on it and make up some ground.

Q. I think the last year and a half some guys looked at Jeff as beatable, which is not how they looked at him three or four years ago when he was absolutely on top of his game at road course racing. Right now, where do you see him at road course racing?
I see him near the top or at the top. It's really tough to tell until we get back out there racing this weekend and see what happens. We felt like the 20 car had a little something better than we did as racecar, especially compared to Jeff. Tony was kicking our butt pretty bad here last year and at Watkins Glen, so we've been working hard leading up to this race trying to make our car a little better, and I think we did make some gains.

So with Jeff's experience and knowledge on the road course and a little better racecar, I think he'll be up there racing with Tony.

Q. Why in particular have you gotten better at road course racing over the last couple years?
Just knowing where I need to be on the track, how hard to charge certain turns, the grip level of the racecar, and you don't learn those things until you get laps, until you make mistakes and blow turns, until you spin out and find the grip level limit of the racecar and the braking ability of the car. So it just takes time to really get in those different situations and learn the potential of the racecar. I think experience is really helping me.

Q. How about your confidence? Has that confidence level changed over the last couple years when you've come to a road course?
Without a doubt. I used to sweat coming out here, and we haven't had a finish here so show where I think we should have been, but I used to be pretty nervous coming out here, now I'm looking forward to it.

Q. How do you look at it now?
Excited. I've been pumped up about it, we've been testing, getting ready for it. I've been really excited to come out here and get to work.

Q. Any nerves anymore?
We didn't have the best practice, so you're only as good as the last time you're on the racetrack. Semi?nervous, but I think we're going to make some good changes and pick it up a bunch.

Q. Are you confident about the transmission, whether it'll go the distance this year?
We are very confident with this transmission because it is not the one we used last year. It's one that we used in years previously, so we're in good shape. We shouldn't have any problems. The transmission didn't break last year, the gear selector had an issue, and it was getting hung up between second and third gear. We came back with a completely different transmission and selector for the gears, which is fine.

Q. The only time you guys haven't really been strong here or had trouble is when you don't finish, and the other thing was the transmission a couple years ago. Are you guys pretty confident that the whole car is ready to go the whole distance?
Oh, yeah, definitely. The only problem we had was that transmission problem, had some bad luck and I made some mistakes and that's kept us out of the Top 10 a couple times, but we should be fine.

Q. What sort of differences do you notice in getting around the track?
You just lose grip, and then definitely it's hotter inside the racecar. Also, the braking zones, the brakes don't have a chance to cool down on the lap when the temps come up, so you continue to overwork the brakes. You just have to start adjusting your braking points, as well.

Q. Looking at the way some of the turns have been reconfigured over the years, and I don't know if you were here in the old days when they had the track longer, but maybe talking to Jeff or experience, was there any major changes that you can see yourself that could hurt you or help you out, any passing points that have been passed on to you that has helped you through the last couple years minus the incidents with the transmission?
No, and they repaved the forward grip and it improved quite a bit. Now the track is aging and the grip level goes away a little bit. It's not a bad thing, it's just what happens after a couple years. I see it doing that again and heading in that direction, so it was a little more forgiving on the racetrack when we came back after the asphalt, and now it's going back that direction and slipping and sliding.

Q. Have you beefed up your cooling system or is it pretty much the same standard cooling system?
It's the same thing. We'll just adjust the tape on the nose to get some of the airflow to the radiator.

Q. You don't see a lot of trash on this track so it shouldn't be too bad with things getting clogged up on the front end. Have you had any problems here at this track with that?
No, no problems with that. The biggest problem you have is if you go off the road and start bouncing around you knock the radiator out of it, so you just stay on the road and you should be fine. I had a jackrabbit take out my radiator one time, too, so stay away from him and I should be fine.

Q. How about the driver heating system? The temperature is higher than normal for this year's race.
Yeah, it's really, really hot in the cars. The temperature just escalates that issue, your conditions, your hydration, and then being able to drink enough fluids inside the racecar, that's going to be really important.

Q. Do you start that routine earlier for this track or is it the same schedule that you normally have?
For me it'll be the same schedule. I'm pretty good with that stuff. But inside the car, I think I'll drink more than normal. I think the in?car Gatorade drinking system, that thing is a life-saver. I'll just force myself to drink and drink and drink so as your body is sweating to cool yourself down, I won't get dehydrated.

Q. Do you eat any granola bars or anything, as well, just for the food factor, or is it just purely fluids?
I eat during the race. They chop up bars and hand them to me, but that's, again, at every racetrack. It's something I've brought into my deal inside the car to keep me mentally sharp inside the car.

Q. Do you lose a lot of weight during a race like this?
Your goal is to not lose any weight. Your goal is to drink as much as you're sweating out, but that's virtually impossible. On some of the hotter summer days last year, I would still be down five or six pounds, and that was after drinking three liters of fluid. Three liters passing through and what your total weight would be, it's quite a weight loss. Go home, eat a pizza and eat some cheeseburgers and life is good.

Q. What about all the work you have to do? Tony Stewart was saying there's about a second and a half between turn 10 and turn 11; the rest of the time you have to work your butt off.
That's true. That's the only take you take a breather, or maybe between 4 and 5 or 4 and 7 might be the only other time you get a breather.

Q. Do you feel like coming here Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are always the drivers to beat just because they're so good at a road course?
There's stats that show that. You can't argue with that. Those guys are always up front. I look at Mark Martin and I also look at some of the road race guys coming in that will be really strong, Robby Gordon being one of them, kind of being a regular but still a course expert. But I think that Jeff and Tony both have done a great job of keeping oval track guys up front.

Q. Have you done anything like to prepare like taking classes like a lot of other drivers have to get a little better on a road course even though you come here only two times a year?
Yeah, I've been through that. This year we had quite a bit of testing before the race so I didn't feel it was necessary to go out and get any more road course experience. We'll do anything we can. These races pay the same amount of points for any of them, and depending on where you are in the points, this race can be really important, so everybody is taking it seriously.

Q. Do you like being on a road course or are you one of the drivers that likes to get this weekend over with?
I love it.

Q. Do you like being out here in wine country in California?
I do, and I would enjoy it a lot more if I didn't have to race and could enjoy the wine and the food.

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS:

With so many complaints from the drivers, why do they even have the two road course races on the schedule?
I don't know. I guess the fans just really like us coming into town. If they built an oval track next door, we'd probably race there anyway."

Is this a Merlot crowd?
We're just real popular for some reason. I guess it's real exciting to watch."

Where do you expect to qualify this car?
I don't know.

Was it that rough out there for you in practice today?
We just tried some stuff on the front end and it just wasn't working. So we didn't have time to change it and get some laps in so I don't know what we've got.

When it gets this hot, does that make a difference on the track?
It's frustrating. Hot is no fun no matter where you are?

How competitive do you expect Tony Stewart to be at this track?
He'll be fast. He's got the track figured out and they've got a great set-up. They keep bringing it back every year. They don't seem to be trying to reinvent the wheel. They set a great example for a lot of teams in the garage.

Who do you look to for help in road course racing?
Boris Said.

Has he been able to help you out?
I haven't had a chance to talk to him today. But if I need to, I will.

What type of physical pain is Tony Stewart going to have to endure during this race?
It ain't that tough physically. You run at it hard, but you can make so many mistakes. It's a lot of judgment calls -- every shift you make and every braking zone and every time you get in the gas there's all these judgment calls. There are a lot of mistakes to make out there. It's more than four corners, you know. There are 11 or 12 corners. You'll never have a perfect lap. You'll always have a corner you could have done better in. It's frustrating."

There was a story the other day about you getting the rights to your name. Can you talk about that?
I want to own my name. And I think that's important.

Where are you with the points? How concerned are you about this race right now?
Oh, we'll be all right. It's just frustrating because I don't think we'll qualify really well and this ain't like an oval track where you can qualify bad and try to make it up in the race. It's just really frustrating. Tomorrow will be a different day. We have a pretty decent day, but it's a long day when the race starts. We've just got to sort of relax and let it go, I reckon. It's real frustrating. We didn't test this stuff and we didn't have a chance to test it. And I don't think it was a wise choice to bring it. And here we are. We dug ourselves a really deep hole.

Do you think you have a big disadvantage here?
Tomorrow we'll have our car like we ran it last year and we should be okay. Where am I going to qualify today? Probably at the back. And you can't just make up that time. There is no real place to pass. It's frustrating. I want to come out here and be the fastest and qualify first and win the race, you know what I mean?

There aren't many places to pass here, are there?
No, there aren't a whole lot of places to pass. But there are a lot of places to run into people. You just have to try to make your positions on pit road and maybe some kind of crazy pit strategy. These races are so weird, sometimes, you know?

The fans seem pretty knowledgeable?
"Oh, yeah. There is a lot of racing going on year round here at Sonoma. All different kinds of racing. Yeah, these guys definitely know what they're talking about.

What kind of racing are you running as far as keeping the big picture?
"I'm just running every lap as fast as I can possibly run it without crashing. That's about as technical as I get."

When you get past this road race, are you feeling pretty good about being in the Chase?
"Yeah, I feel pretty good about it. We're in the Chase. We're a professional race team. There is a lot of opportunity. We just need to make the right choices and do the right things. I think we'll have a fine year."

On restrictor plate races.
I just get in it an tell them whether it's slow or fast. I don't really know what they change to make it better. We've got some gains to make at the plate tracks.

With things going better for you this year, you must feel better about this race, don't you?
No, that's not the case. We had a real fast car here last year. Today, I don't. Last year I was very excited. Right now, I'm very frustrated.

What is the hardest part of this track?
I seem to be having trouble over the corners that turn to the right. I don't really know the numbers of the corners. But any corner that's over the hill and to the right, is where we are having trouble.

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS:

Do you feel you're in position to pull off a string of wins like you did last year?
I don't know. We have to do it one week at a time right now and not worry about what we did last year.

How physically demanding is it on you in the car?
This is one of the places that you don't get hardly any chance to rest during a lap. You're working almost all the way around here, and if you do get a break it's a second or two at a time, and only in a couple of spots on the track. It's one of those places that's really busy to get around.

What is it about these tracks that is so hard for the young guys to learn?
It's hard for us to know. You're asking us to be inside their heads and we don't know. It's hard for us to say. Some guys come in and are really good right off the bat, some guys struggle right off the bat with them. It just shows the diverse talent we have in this series.

What was the hard part for you to learn on road courses?
We pretty much had success right off the bat, and it's never really changed from that. There have been races where we struggled and missed the combination, but for the most part we've always been a contender at these tracks whether we won or not.

It's forecast to be in the high 90s - how much of a factor will the temperature be?
I was actually hoping it will be in the low 100s. That's what I'd like to see in the forecast. We'll be fine in the cars, we're all conditioned for heat. It doesn't matter to us, but it will make you guys with the makeup sweat more.

How much of a concern is the shoulder with shifting?
This is going to be the last time that we talk about our shoulder because it is 100 percent healed. It's not an issue at all now finally.

You're going to race at Matt Kenseth's track next week; is that a chance to get away from it all?
It should be a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure Matt's going to kick my butt up there because he has a lot of laps around that place. That's where I met Matt, in the ARTGO Series, running that type of cars. I remember how good he is because when they said "Leader coming," that was him when he went by. I picked up about two-tenths a lap that night just following Matt around. It's going to be fun. We took him up to Eldora last year and he enjoyed the dirt. We kicked his butt on the dirt last year so I'm sure it's revenge time.

How do you see the head-to-head competition between you and Jeff Gordon when you come here?
I don't know that it is head-to-head. There are still 42 guys out there and neither one of us is on the pole, so I don't think we should worry about each other, we better worry about the guys who are ahead of us right now.

How do you feel going back to Daytona?
The same as I did when I went last year, I guess. You go from this week to next week, so nothing we do this week pertains next week. We go back there and pray that we have a night like we had last year at this time.

What are the biggest changes to the car that benefit the driver?
I don't know what changes he makes to be honest. My relationship with Zippy has always been that I know my strong point and that's the steering wheel and pedals. His strong point is making the car do what I want it to do. We've always worked really hard on saying this is the information that I've got about what the car is doing that I don't like or what I need it to different. The setup stuff is up to him.

How hard is it to turn right?
It's not hard, and if you don't figure it out you're going to crash. We do it all the time in street cars, it's not like we can't figure it out in race cars.

What's your favorite turn here?
All of them. I love this race track. Every corner is different, every corner has it's good and bad spot. This is one of those tracks that every corner keeps you on your toes.

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO:

Q. Physically, will this be a tough race for (injured) Tony Stewart?
Well, I think every week that goes by, he gets probably closer and closer to 100 percent, if he's not already 100 percent. The way he was throwing that hammer around last week, it looked like he was fine. Certainly I think this week it's more the heat that's going to affect every driver, not just Tony. Every time you have an injury and it's hot like this, it's only going to make it that much more demanding on your body and yourself throughout the whole race.

Q. Is this track like your home away from home?
I love coming here. It's a great track. I love the road courses. It's fun to mix it up. I'm a huge fan of the wine country, Napa Valley, Sonoma. I have my own wine now made here in Napa, so that's also exciting. For me it's about family and friends that I don't get to see that often.

Q. Would a win here jump-start your season?
Well, I hope that it does get our season jump started. This would be a great place to do it. We have a lot of fans that pull for us here. This can be a good track for us.

You know, no matter what road course you're going to, I'm excited, but when it's where I grew up, it makes it even that much more special. It's very, very cool that they recognize me and put me on their wall of fame. It's a real honor. This place has been good to me, and I am proud of what we've accomplished here. The fans that pull for us here and everything, it makes this a special weekend.

Q. Last year you walked away from here with a disappointing finish. What was that like for you?
Last year we were leading the race when we had the problem with the transmission. I feel like on our bad days when everything is working correctly and we make it into the race, we should be in the top five or six here. We don't ever want to give that up. We gave up that and possibly a win.

Q. How critical is it to step it up this weekend and do what everybody expects you to do?
Well, the thing is we expect it as much out of ourselves as anybody does. I think really the pressure is more on Tony. He set the bar here last year, and on the road courses last year he was so successful and dominant. I'd say there's more pressure on him to keep that going. Now it's for us to really get back into sort of the form that we've been in before, and I think we're capable of doing it.

Q. How close are you to that form, the form where you were dominating on these road courses?
I think the way the car is feeling. We had a great test at VIR, and I feel like we've made gains and so far practice has gone very well. I'm certainly looking forward to qualifying. But then tomorrow is a whole other day getting this car ready for a race.

Q. Is Robby Gordon one of maybe five cars that can win the race?
Yes and no. I think every year guys get better and more comfortable and learn more and somebody might surprise you. But it is ?? the road course definitely separates the competition more so than any other place we go to just because of the challenge that comes along with a road course. You've got braking conditions and shifting conditions and left and right and a lot of areas that you can get yourself in trouble, and the guys that are comfortable know how to attack the right areas and be conservative in the right areas, and the guys that aren't comfortable can easily get themselves lost or off the course.

Q. Do you feel there are a bunch of guys that have lost the race before they ever walk in the gate?
I think that's what you have here, not just in the difference of competition on the racetrack, but you have that coming in where you have five guys or six guys that go, man, I can't wait for that road course, we're going to go out there and have a shot to win, and then most guys or a lot of guys out there are saying, man, I'd just like to stay on the track, something in the Top 10 would be a blessing. That in itself separates the competition before we ever get on the racetrack.

Q. Do you try to spend more time maybe taking lessons and stuff to try to learn how to drive these courses?
I think the guys that put more effort into their road course programs and making sure that they don't lose something when they get here, that they don't come into this thinking that they're already behind, and the only way you're going to do that is to get comfortable on road courses, maybe go to some driving schools, and then the team has got to step up, as well, with what they're doing to the racecar to get the guys comfortable.

Q. How much do you look forward to coming back here year in and year out?
Well, it's a fun weekend for me. Yes, I get to see a lot of family and friends that I grew up with or friends of mine that went to elementary school with, not to mention it's fun because enjoying the wine country. Girlfriends and wives and everybody just looks forward to great meals. I don't get to enjoy much of the wine while I'm out here, but I just love the atmosphere that it offers on top of just enjoying the road course.

There are huge fans around this area, and I think as a kid growing up, I recognized that racing was big to a lot of people in the bay area, Sacramento area, and maybe at that time it was sort of more of a kind of club?like thing where only the guys that were into racing knew about it, and now it's just reaching out there and going beyond that.

Q. On the NASCAR West Series:
I think we've got the Winston West Series is something that's really taken off and really is a great training ground for drivers to come to the Cup Series. I think there have always been racers out here that maybe NASCAR wasn't the direction that they thought they were heading in.

I know when I was growing up in California, I didn't know anything about NASCAR. I never even knew that NASCAR came out here. They were coming out here before I left.

It's funny because I'll talk to family members of mine, like an uncle of mine that says, oh, yeah, I watched NASCAR. I never even knew it. I was into racing but it was all about Indy, open?wheel cars, anything open?wheel. Now that's changed. It's about stock cars and NASCAR.

I may have been from California, but I was more of an Indiana guy when I went down south. I made the partial move, and I felt like just the type of racing that I was doing, it taught me a lot and it opened up doors for me just because I was racing ?? winning races on TV and getting recognized. When I went down south, even though maybe some of the fans were a little hesitant and maybe some competitors might say, oh, he doesn't know how to drive a stock car, he's been driving open?wheel cars, I think car owners realized, hey, we just want a guy that can drive the car, and maybe that's the best driver we can find.

I think that's one of the things that helped NASCAR so much is that the owners and even the sponsors looked for talent to drive the race cars to get the win before they start thinking about, well, which guy is going to bring the most money to our race team so we can have a business.

Q. How important would it be to get the first victory of the year in this victory lane?
I think it would be very cool. Obviously we'd like to have a win anywhere. It doesn't matter where we get it, but knowing that we haven't won yet this year, we're certainly looking for that first one, and it would be great for it to happen here.

Q. This is the third consecutive year Jimmie has been leading the points coming into the race. Can you just kind of put that into perspective, how much of an accomplishment that is?
Oh, I think it's a great accomplishment. I know how proud I am of Jimmie and that team, what they've done from their rookie season until now. It's impressive. I think the only thing I would mention is to cap it off and put the icing on the cake at the end of the season. I know how bad they want it, and they're a great team, and Jimmie is a great driver.

Q. Is this year a really tough year for you?
No, not at all. I'd say we were far less competitive in 2000 and we've had some failures this year that have kept us outside the Top 10. The difference is in 2000 they didn't have the Chase. Now you're not in the Top 10 and it's like you don't exist. We realize that we've got some points to make up, and this is a good weekend hopefully to help us get that going.

Q. How confident do you feel coming into this weekend?
Well, you never know if you're going to go to victory lane. Last year we had a great car and a great team and we had a failure. I feel like we've probably got the best car and team that we've had here in a long time.

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS:

Q. It's going to be a little warm this weekend.
Yeah, it is going to be warm, but that's what you get paid to do. You get paid to be in shape, so I don't let those things get in the way. Certainly road course racing is very hot: The brakes are hot, gears are hot, transmission is hot and that all transfers to the driver, so you have to be in shape if you want to do this.

Q. How good does this year feel for you right now?
Well, we certainly feel like, you know, we've done a nice job to this point in some areas and there's also a lot of areas we need to improve in. So we're not really paying a whole lot of attention to what we've done. We're trying real hard to pay attention to what we need to do in the future.

And, you know, there's great examples of people coming here and being very high in points and not getting into the Chase, and there's examples of people not being in the points that get in the Chase. We have 11 races to go, and that's what we're focusing on. We're working hard to be better. We're not just sitting still. We're working hard to be better and that's a good place to be.

Q. Understanding that, is there some satisfaction in proving to the people who said Jeff Burton is finished up?
Well, I mean, you know, I have an ego just like everybody. I take a lot of pride in being competitive and I feel like I'm good at what I do. Of course, everybody does. Certainly what I think of myself is more important to me than what other people think.

But when your peers recognized your abilities and the fans recognize your abilities, certainly that means something. If you gave me my choice, that's the way it would be. But at the end of the day, it matters most to what I think of myself and what the people closest to me think of me, and you know, I work hard to make sure that they are always in check.

Q. Have you had to change the way you drive? For a long time, you said you weren't feeling the new tires and so forth.
I wasn't saying that. That was other people saying that. When you're driving cars that don't go around the corner, then you're trying to do to do everything to get them around the corner and when you're driving stuff that does, then you're able to do that. So for a lot of reasons, and some of which I place squarely on my shoulders over the last three years, I haven't driven a car that could go around the corner the way it needed to. That's just a fact.

So, you know, part of coming to RCR was putting myself in a position where we weren't building something and knowing we weren't where we needed to be but felt like we could get there and build a program that would work. Again, we're not 100% there, but we're gaining on it.

Q. You played havoc last year on the transmissions and a lot of the engines. How does the team feel, how do you feel with it being about 102, 103 degrees this weekend about the car handling and about yourself physically?
This track is very slick. It's a very slick racetrack, and the hotter it gets, the more slick it gets, and handling is going to be a premium as it always is. But the slicker it gets, the more important that is. And from a hardware standpoint, the hotter things get, gears, brakes, engines ?? the reliability ?? which the drivers, too, the worse they are on being consistent. So the driver part of it, we could be table to take out of the equation ?? inaudible ?? if you take care of yourself and you can be in good shape. The other two issues, we just have to make sure we do a good job and we take care of it all we can.

Q. Do you use extra protection on your feet for this weekend?
I wear all I can every week and I do the same thing every week. So if we go to Michigan and it's 70 degrees, I've got the same heat protection as if we go here and it's 110. We do the same thing.

Q. So the heat doesn't have a lot of meaning for you in the car then?
Oh, it has meaning, but it won't be what prevents us from getting done what we need to get done. It's certainly something you need to be prepared for but that preparation came months ago, it doesn't happen this weekend.

Q. What's your comfort level at this track for this year?
My record here is horrendous. My performance here has been good, and the thing that we need to do is leave here this weekend with a good performance, and a good record. That's really all that counts at the end of the day, so the thing I'm nervous most about is getting caught up into something that we don't need to be in, braking apart, getting run over, me making a mistake. That's the thing I'm most nervous about. We've been highly competitive here and have run very well and fast and have run very well.

I hope and expect to do that again. But we've got to prevent what we've had happen a lot here and that's a really bad thing.

Q. Are the drivers that don't have the experience the guys you stay away from if you're running behind them?
I can get run over by somebody that's been around for a long time. A lot's made about rookies but to be quite honest, rookies tend to be respectful -- they tend to be good on the racetrack. It's more when you get a comfort level and you think you know everything, that's when you get dangerous.

Q. Can you talk about the NASCAR switching to unleaded fuel and what you think the timetable is?
I think from a mechanical standpoint, I can't speak about the feasibility of the timetable. I will say that the sooner we go to unleaded fuel, the better, for health reasons and for ecology reasons, obviously, but mainly health reasons. We certainly need to get there as quickly as we can. I applaud them for doing it. We need to accelerate it all that we can.

Q. Can you talk about how important it is at this stage going into this race and Daytona and where you are in the standings?
Well, I mean, you know, I think that Infineon, Daytona and Watkins Glen have potential to be really big races in the point in time. It's extremely tight. From tenth to 14 to 15 is pretty tight. You'll see some people that are not in the top ten today get into the top ten before the Chase and you'll obviously see some people that aren't in it be out of it. Every race is important, but those three races in particular are volatile because they don't have potential for taking out a bunch of people. You just go back and look at history in this race -- it has potential to get ugly, too. They are three very important races.

Q. How do you feel about going back to Daytona; you were pole sitter the last time?
Well, we didn't run very good in the race. In qualifying, we worked exceptionally hard to make sure we qualified well and we were able to do some things that because we were not ?? we won't be able to do this time. But we're taking back a different car, a car that we believe drives better in an effort to make sure the car handles well, and I really don't have an opinion until we get down there and we see what we've got.

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH TERRY LABONTE, NO. 96 DLP HDTV MONTE CARLO SS:

Are you as good here as you ever were?
No, I haven't been good here since they took that big part of the track out. I didn't realize how good I was in that part. I like the old track better, but we're not bad here. We're running decent, but it's always hard coming out the first time with these guys who have been here.

Are you starting to think ahead now to the last roundup?
Not really. I haven't given it a lot of thought. I've got seven or eight races to go, whatever it is. I'm good with it and have no thoughts of changing my mind. That's for sure. I'm looking forward to some of the tracks that we're going to.

With the crazy money that's being given to drivers, does that ever make you think you should stay in this another year? I'm not sure that some of the numbers that I hear are real accurate. I find that hard to believe. It's hard enough to get a $15 million a year sponsor to run a whole team, much less pay someone that much. But I'd have to consider it for that much money!

How bad is the heat going to be on Sunday?
For whatever reason, this is one of the hottest races we run all year. There's just a lot of heat in the cars from the brakes and everything. It's a tough race and it's going to be really hot this weekend.

Is there anything you can do to your cooling system to make yourself more comfortable?
Make sure it's works all day and stays hooked up. Last year a hose came off about the fifth lap of the race and I wanted to stop and have them put it back on. I could tell they really didn't want to do that, so I ran the rest of the race with no air blowing into my helmet. It gets awfully hot when you do that.

How was the car handling as the temperature built up?
We weren't as good as we needed to be so we're looking at that and we'll make a determination on what to do for tomorrow. We had a lot of practice time, and got in a good practice. We'll try to get a decent lap in qualifying and work on our race setup in the morning.

Any advice for the new team?
It's so hard for a new team to start out because everything works against you. In the beginning of the year, a new team has no points. You go to inspection and you're one of the last cars through. Then you miss the first part of practice because you're still in inspection when practice has begun. It's pretty difficult being a new team. These guys have done a good job. I realize how tough it is, if you look around out here, points are real close. The biggest thing they have to work on is their consistency, and that's hard to do. Once you get consistent you can run better. They can run good one weekend and then have trouble the next weekend. I think it will come over time, and the second half they'll be a lot better than the first half. They've learned a lot. We don't have a notebook full of notes on what we ran here the last time. They've done a good job for starting out at the first of the year only having four or five cars in the shop. So they've done a lot in a short period of time.

Do you feel like a rookie having to start at the back of the line, or do you just take it as it comes?
Just take it as it comes.

What are your plans after this season? Will you be an owner?
God, no! That's the last thing I'd ever do.

Can you talk about this road course and making right-hand turns?
I've always enjoyed the road courses. We had a good run out here a year ago and I always look forward to coming out here and running. I've always like the road courses because they're different. It's definitely different than an oval track.

Are the fans here really knowledgeable about NASCAR?
I'm sure they are. You can tell by the crowd and all the motor homes parked around that it's a big event. They've supported this event very well since we first came out here.

Have you popped open a bottle of wine?
Yeah, probably a bottle of Ravenswood.