CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: ARE YOU PLANNING ON RUNNING A FULL BUSCH SERIES SCHEDULE NEXT YEAR? “No, I’m just tired because I got up late and because I was up late [laughter]. I’m not planning on doing both. It was a lot of fun this year. It didn’t really wear me down as much as a lot of people warned that it would and threatened that it would. I enjoyed it, especially the races where we went back and forth. We have one more coming up, Atlanta and Memphis, so that will be a lot of fun. I thought those just showing up in the Busch car and kind of winging it and going for it made it interesting.” HOW MUCH DOES KEVIN’S LEAD IN THE BUSCH SERIES FACTOR INTO THAT DECISION? “Well, obviously, that was a reason why I came back and ran the Busch Series again this year, chasing a championship that we got so close with last year. Other than that, it was the experience, the track experience of being on the racetrack before the big day on Sunday. It was a big help to all of us Raybestos Rookies. I think it was valuable information.”

DENNY HAMLIN, FEDEX FREIGHT CHEVROLET: HOW HAS YOUR LIFE CHANGED THIS YEAR? “I think that things changed a lot for me after the Bud Shootout. Before I could go anywhere and only people in the garage knew who I was. And then after the Bud Shootout it was one step to, I guess you could call it fame, and then it seemed like each of the Pocono wins added another step and I was noticed by a lot more people. It’s been a lot of fun so far this year doing all that. We’re doing what we need to do. I don’t mind sitting down for a few minutes and talking to fans because I was one of those people a couple of years ago. It really doesn’t bother me very much.”

BOWYER: “It’s pretty much the same thing. It’s amazing, coming from what we did, basically racing in the Dodge Weekly Racing Series hoping for a chance someday and finally be given that chance and just trying to make the best of that chance.”

HAMLIN: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO NOT FALL OUT OF THE TOP-10? “Last week was a prime example. We did all the safe calls. We pitted later than everyone and we took four tires. We’re taking the safe route from now on as far as pit strategy and all that. We want to compete for a win but we chance running out of gas. I feel like 12th and 13th have fallen back a little bit more so 11th is really what we’re looking at to try to beat. With that being the case, you’ve got to make the safe bet. You’ve got to do all the things that are guaranteed if you’ve got a top-10 car, finish there, don’t try to make a top-five car out of it as far as making mistakes on the racetrack. From that standpoint, I’ve tried to avoid disaster. If we can do that, I feel like we’ll have a pretty good shot at it.” IS IT DIFFICULT WHEN EVERYONE AROUND YOU IS SO AGGRESSIVE? “I think so. It’s a race in itself to be in the Raybestos Rookie class. It seems like it takes a top-10 run every single week to be the leading rookie. It’s really tough that’s where my main focus has been all year is trying to be the leading Raybestos Rookie and now we find ourselves in the championship chase as far as the Chase is concerned. We’re trying to get through these next four weeks with no problems and if we can do that I feel pretty good.” AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE, CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THESE LAST FOUR OR FIVE WEEKS HAVE BEEN LIKE? “We definitely were in an all-out mode two or three weeks ago and when we were bouncing in and out it definitely was a situation where we were definitely going for it every chance we got. Loudon was a prime example. We pitted and ended up running out of fuel on the last corner, luckily with not one to go, and ended up seventh. We’re on a pretty good string right now with four top-10s in a row and we’ve got to just keep doing that. If we can just top-10 it from now on we’re going to be in the Chase but you can’t count on that, especially with Bristol coming up and this racetrack here, I’m not sure how we’re going to run. We have our good car, which is good. That’s definitely a confidence booster, so hopefully we’ll have it for the rest of the races this year. I just want to get past Richmond. Whether I’m in it or not, I don’t care. I just want to get past it.

REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET DODGE: HOW HAS LIFE CHANGED FOR YOU SINCE YOU MOVED UP THE CUP SERIES? “It’s definitely been a little more busy now, that’s for sure, running both the Busch car and the Cup car every weekend. It makes life interesting. It’s pretty fun. You have two chances every weekend to run good and have a good time doing it. We’ve had OK years in both cars. We’ve had a pretty good last four races in the Busch car. In fact, we have some really good tracks coming up for us in the Cup car. You’re at the racetrack every weekend so your life is racing. You get here and you practice, qualify, and race for four days. A little bit more testing there was last year and two sponsors to try to keep happy. It just kind of doubles everything this year and next year will be a little bit easier about not running the full Busch schedule. As far as my life, I’m 20 years old. I don’t have a family at home to take care of so racing has pretty much took over.” YOU FINISHED FIFTH HERE IN JUNE. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU CAN PULL OFF ANOTHER TOP-FIVE? “We were horrible in practice here and then we did a bunch of stuff to the car Saturday night. It’s was pretty good in the race. We were running in the top-10 all day and I think that last pit stop we came in 11th. We feel that we can definitely get a top-10, I think. We brought a different car here. We brought the car that we ran seventh with at Chicago so we feel that a top-10 is definitely a goal that we can achieve here this weekend.”

BOWYER: WHAT IS THE FEELING AT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING ABOUT HOW STRONG THINGS THERE ARE? “I think the attitude is definitely awesome right now. Everything has turned around for the better. I’m so happy for Richard. He’s been in a slump here for the last two or three years and it’s been tough on him. I’ve been there two years and you could see it wearing on him.” But he never gave up. He kept digging and he kept his eye on the prize and got back closer to the top. By no means are we where we need to be yet, but I think everybody is working well together. The three crew chiefs all get along and helping each other move forward. The drivers, they’ve been a big help to me. We’re all just working together as a team and I think that’s been a huge difference. I think in the past they’ve struggled with maybe three drivers that really get along and want to work with each other and maybe crew chiefs as well. Everybody is pulling in the same direction. Everybody as a whole at RCR has really come a long ways in all the departments. It’s pretty cool.” COMMENT ON THIS YEAR’S RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CLASS AND ALL YOU GUYS COMING INTO THE CUP SERIES AT THE SAME TIME. “We’re all pretty much the same age and share the same interests so we all get along pretty good from that standpoint. We all probably keep an eye on each other and see how we do. Personally, I knew that Denny was going to be strong but he’s not the one I thought I’d have to beat for Raybestos Rookie of the Year. I thought that Truex would be a little bit stronger than he is and I think we all probably did. They just haven’t found it yet but I’m sure that when they do he’s going to be there as well.”

HAMLIN: COMMENT ON THIS YEAR’S RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CLASS AND ALL YOU GUYS COMING INTO THE CUP SERIES AT THE SAME TIME. “This year is some of what I expected. I didn’t expect to win. As far as the stats standpoint, with the top-fives and top-10s, that’s kind of what I expected basically from an entire standpoint, not so early in the season. It’s really been a good year. Three wins with the Bud Shootout, if it ended now and if we don’t do anything else, it’s going to be a great year. Our goals as a team was top-15. We didn’t feel like top-10 would be feasible or realistic from our standpoint. I learned last year not having a great car in the Busch Series, I just learned how to finish races. Do what I need to do to finish and that got us a top-five in points because by no means were we a top-five car last year. I just took that same attitude to the Cup Series and do the best to try to finish what my car is capable of and it’s gotten us to this point. There’s been a lot of races where I haven’t been leading rookie and one of these guys has a problem and I ended up getting it at the end. It’s just really tough. It’s tougher than what it looks like for sure. Every single one of us is with good teams. It’s just one of those things where you’re at the mercy of some of the other drivers out there. I don’t think that we get treated any different as a class, but we do get treated different from other drivers. Hopefully next year when the stripes are off things will be a little bit more on a level playing field.”

SORENSON: COMMENT ON THIS YEAR’S RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CLASS AND ALL YOU GUYS COMING INTO THE CUP SERIES AT THE SAME TIME. “It’s kind of cool, everybody moving up. I think every driver had a little bit different situation to deal with in each different organization. As far as myself, I have a Raybestos Rookie teammate and our team hasn’t won a race in four years now. We’re trying to build our organization where we can get top-10s and top-fives and then win races and we’re definitely getting a lot closer to that. Denny has somebody like Tony to rely on and he won a championship last year. We're just trying as an organization to get better as a whole. I’m lucky to have Casey Mears there. He’s been a great help and he’s ran pretty good this year. We’re just at a different point as a team than some of the other teams are but we’re definitely getting better.” WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES THAT YOU FACE OTHER THAN THE DRIVING? “As you can see, all of us are with some pretty good sponsors this year. You definitely have to keep them happy on and off the track. If you can keep them happy off the track it’s easier on Sunday to kind of take a little bit of stress off you and know that your sponsor is behind you 100 percent and that’s nice to know that they’re there. I actually just got back from a Target convention this week and they’re great. They’re real easy to deal with and had a lot of support for the racing program in both the Indy car series and NASCAR. They just keep telling us that when we win it’s going to be big because they’re going to have a celebration [smiles]. So we need to get a win before this season is over.”

BOWYER: WHERE DID YOU THINK YOU’D BE AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON? “We had the same goals it sounds like as Denny just mentioned. I thought we could run in the top-15 in points. We’ve been there. We’ve had a few bad runs here lately, got some bad luck and got wrecked, but we’re trying to get those points back and get back inside the top-15 and meet some of our goals. We have to work on consistency. We’ve had fast cars and for whatever reason, through the race we’ve missed opportunities on pit road and things like that and those have bit us. It’s a Raybestos Rookie team and we’re making some rookie mistakes with me on the track and them in the pits, but we can work on that and we’re getting better week in and week out.” DO YOU PLAN ON PARTICIPATING IN MONDAY’S CAR OF TOMORROW TEST HERE? “I have a teammate that really likes to stay up on everything with NASCAR and everything about NASCAR so he’s been hording that thing quite a bit here lately. I think Kevin has drove it once but for the most part Burton has been driving it.”

HAMLIN: DO YOU PLAN ON PARTICIPATING IN MONDAY’S CAR OF TOMORROW TEST HERE? “I’m not. I did the Charlotte test and I thought they were pretty fun. I’m going to leave it up to J.J. to handle this one.”

SORENSON: DO YOU PLAN ON PARTICIPATING IN MONDAY’S CAR OF TOMORROW TEST HERE? “I did the test at Bristol. Stremme keeps talking about how we need to test the Car of Tomorrow so we’ll let him drive it. I think they’re the ugliest car I’ve ever seen. I don’t even want to get in it. I’ll wait until they make us next year. They’re pretty ugly. The last time I drove it I got into the wall a little bit at Bristol and broke the piece of wood in the front. We had to go to Home Depot and get some more wood and fix ‘er up. Harvick said at Martinsville that the whole inside of his car smelled like a campfire [laughter].” COMMENT ON THE NEW HAT. “This is brand new, I just got it. I thought this was a cool hat until I realized that everybody else had the same one.”

BOWYER: “They tricked us. We were all excited last week about having new hats and we all showed up with the same exact hat on, everyone one of us.”