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

ON JUAN PABLO MONTOYA COMING TO NASCAR NEXT YEAR: "It will be pretty cool I guess. It will be kind of cool to see how he does."

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE LIKE FOR HIM TO ADJUST TO THIS STYLE OF CAR SINCE HE'S NEVER BEEN IN A STOCK CAR BEFORE? "I've never been in a Formula 1 car so I don't know what he's up against really."

JEFF GORDON COULD TIE YOUR FATHER IN CAREER VICTORIES THIS WEEK. WHAT WOULD THAT MEAN TO YOU IF THAT HAPPENED? "It'd be a very good accomplishment for anybody. I'd have to shake Jeff's hand because anytime you tie my daddy in anything it's something to be proud of."

HOW WOULD THE FANS REACT IF THAT HAPPENS WITH THE RIVALRY? "I don't know."

HOW'S YOUR CAR TODAY? "It's all right. I mean it's OK. It's sort of frustrating trying to get it to where it will run good in practice."

WHAT'S THE KEY TO HAVING SUCCESS AT THIS TRACK? "Turning in the middle about like everywhere else."

HOW DO YOU COMPARE YOUR FATHER AND JEFF GORDON AS RACE CAR DRIVERS? "Well dad was really aggressive and Jeff wasn't very aggressive. It seems like he's getting more aggressive as he's getting older. Jeff was really, really smooth where dad was very sort of barbaric with the race car. They were very different in their driving styles."

WHY WAS THERE SO MUCH RETALIATION AT THIS TRACK LAST FALL AND DO YOU THINK WE'LL SEE THAT AGAIN? "I can't even remember what happened here last year."

THE INCIDENT WITH ROBBY GORDON AND THE HELMET AND KYLE BUSCH: "That seems like two or three years ago than now."

DO YOU THINK WE'LL SEE THAT AGAIN? "I don't know. That sort of stuff ain't characteristic with the race track. I don't know. We'll just have to see."

YOU LOOK PRETTY FRUSTRATED. WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YOUR RACE CAR? "I'm just hot as hell man. I don't know. They've got this air cooler box that ain't worth a darn. It won't work. When we qualify they take all the stuff that dissipates the heat in between the exhaust and the chassis off the car so it's just frustrating. We're not real fast. It's just frustrating as hell. I just wanted to run better. (I'm) not (frustrated) at anyone just that darn race car."

DID YOU GET EVERYTHING YOU WANTED OUT OF THE INDIANAPOLIS TEST? "Well it was raining real hard and I told Junior (Tony Eury Jr., crew chief) when I got up in the morning that if it was raining that I'd come pick him up but I was going home. We had a pretty good day on Monday. Junior felt good enough about that to cut the test short because it didn't really look great for Wednesday either."

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE LIKE FOR DANICA PATRICK TO RACE IN NASCAR AND TO HANDLE THE MEDIA ATTENTION IN NASCAR? "It'd be tough for her but it's doesn't really have any bearing on her decision (with) whatever she wants to do in life. If she wants to drive stock cars, if that what she wants to do, no media pressure or anything like that is going to deter her decision. Obviously she's got a good idea what it's going to be like because she's probably had a lot of pressure on her so far as far as from the media. She'd probably have a tough time with the schedule because of their schedule being so short. I think she's already commented on the schedule as being a turn off and it is to pretty much everybody else. I think she'd have fun. She'd probably have a better time or an easier learning curve than Juan (Pablo Montoya) would but Juan with his experience and his vast knowledge of race cars and over the years all his success, he's not going to have any trouble but he's been in a different world. I think what Juan is probably going to face is the change in the culture itself, obviously he's lived in the states but sort of the culture within this garage."

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

Q. What do you think about Juan Pablo Montoya coming to NASCAR?

I'm excited. I think that our sport today is the biggest sport out there. It's even rivaling racing like F1. Everybody wants to be a part of it, doesn't matter if you're a driver, team owner, sponsor, team member. I'm really excited about it.

Q. Talk about Juan Pablo Montoya.

It's going to be a real big adjustment for him. Just the same as if a stock car driver went to the Indy world or went to F1, I think that says a lot about what Tony Stewart has been able to do coming into our stock cars and having the success that he has.

Jeff Gordon went and drove an F1 car and was really good in it and had some opportunities and some things out there, some interest, something he's always been interested in, but at this point in his career he did not want to take the three or four years to go learn those vehicles, and I think it's going to be the same for them, maybe even a little harder, going from a car that is so forgiving with so much downforce into a car that has very little grip, very little downforce, way too much horsepower and small tires. It's going to be really tough for those guys. Juan is a very talented race car driver, and I think in time he'll learn these cars and be competitive.

Q. A couple years ago you really found the key to this place. I don't remember those days or how hot and greasy it was when you swept New Hampshire that weekend, but talk about this year and the conditions here.

I feel good about it. I like the heat, and I think the slicker the track is, the better I do. I think it suits my driving a little bit, so I'm excited for that. Hopefully we don't get a thunderstorm that affects the length of the race or the race in its entirety. I'm looking forward to it.

We've been working hard on our mile program, and we feel like we've made some good gains, done some testing coming into this weekend and this race, and looking forward to getting on the track. Hopefully we can be up there leading laps and get tight for a win.

Q. Did you learn things on the last Pocono race that you can translate to next week?

We didn't feel too bad about the Pocono race. If we count the 11 out of it, he was so much faster than everyone else. But compared to everyone else we felt like we were close. I don't think we finished in the top 5, but we were still inside the top 10 and had a decent day there. We learned a little bit in Indy, got some good ideas to go back there with, and we're looking for solid top 10s every week. That's what we're after.

Q. With this next win Jeff Gordon will tie Dale Earnhardt. In your mind how significant a moment would that be?

I never really ever thought of that until you just mentioned it. How successful Earnhardt was, the championships that he had and the mark he left in this sport, I think it's a huge accomplishment for Jeff, something I'm sure he's very proud of, when he's able to meet that number or maybe even someday be ahead of it.

Q. What do you think it is about Jeff that's enabled him to be this successful this quick?

The thing with Jeff, I've only known him for the last four or five years, and just to see the sustain power that he has. There's times when people doubt what he's doing, what the ability of the team is, and those guys never quit. It's so amazing to me and it's inspiring at the same time to see Jeff Gordon always reinvent himself; the team always keeps finding speed and keeps finding ways to perform.

At the beginning of this year, there was some rumbling about the lack of wins for the 24, especially on 1.5-miles. Then he goes to Chicago and is one of the dominant cars all day long and wins the race. He really amazes me every time. He steps up and gets the job done.

Q. I'm sure it's going to be an emotional response from the fans. In your opinion how do you think the fans will react?

I think whether you're a 24 fan or not, they've got to respect what he's done, and that's all Jeff would ask for and the team would, as also. He understands the fact that he's loved by many and hated by many. That's just the way it goes. That's just the way sporting works. A fan is going to cheer for who they want and the rest they don't like.

He's the one who taught me his point of view on that, and I think all the racing community, all the race fans will respect what Jeff Gordon has accomplished.

Q. Is there a little bit of payback here from September? Do you think you'll see any retaliation this weekend at this particular race?

You never know. It just depends on how people start racing each other and if it drums up something in your mind where it's time to push back. You guys will I'm sure pay close attention to it, and if I see something brewing in front of me I'll try to stay out of it.

Short track racing, one, you have things that carry over from previous events that may have rubbed you the wrong way with another competitor, and two, it's very tough to pass here, so you can aggravate something in a hurry trying to pass them or trying to get by them and lean on someone and get your competitor in a bad mood and the next turn they'll knock you around, as well. That really escalates at a track like New Hampshire. You have a hard time passing and you can't pass just driving by someone, you've got to lean on them a little bit and no one likes that.

Q. Did you have enough time at Indy this week to test?

No, we really could have used a second day. It seemed like the first day ?? as our first day wore on, which was the third day, we started closing the gap and getting closer to where we needed to be and a lot more competitive. When the day started, it was quite a bit off, but we finished stronger.

Q. Were you there one full day or were you there Monday, as well?

No, we weren't there Monday, it was just Wednesday, and it was from maybe 1100 or 1200 to 500 in the afternoon, so we got three quarters of a day.

Q. Is there any way to lobby NASCAR for another day or extra time there considering all the rain?

No, we would like to, but in all seriousness, I don't think we can as a team. Our guys have been on the road nonstop. They stayed overnight in Chicago, worked on the cars, turned them around, turned the transporters around, traveled Monday afternoon to Indy and we sat there on Tuesday and then drove on Wednesday and then had to come here. That's a tough part of the schedule, a lot of travel, a lot going on. I'm not sure unless we went on the off weekend how we could find time to even go there and test again, so I wouldn't anticipate it.

Q. What do you think the effect of having a driver like Montoya joining the circuit is going to be in worldwide recognition and worldwide publicity?

I'm excited for it. I think it will bring in a lot of recognition worldwide, and I think eventually it'll shut up all the F1 guys that don't think this is a sport, don't think that we have a technical sport, don't think that we're drivers.

Juan is going to have a big learning curve coming in. I think when you look back when Jeff Gordon tested the F1 car he jumped in it and drove fast right away. Even Jeff Gordon said it's going to take years before I learn exactly what this vehicle wants to consider or even think about winning a race. I think it's going to be the same for Juan. It might be even tougher, and I think history shows that it's harder to come out of a high downforce, high grip car into a low downforce, low grip car.

But all that being said, I think Juan is a great personality, a colorful personality for our sport. The Latin market just by itself we saw with Adrian Fernandez coming in driving the Lowe's car how excited and the fan base he had with that. So a Colombian driver coming in, I think it's going to do a lot of great things for our sport. I think it's going to help it grow a lot.

Q. More and more Cup drivers are coming out talking about the large number of drivers who on the Cup side are going to the Busch side, and more are saying NASCAR has to do something to decrease that or to limit that. What's your opinion on that?

You know, if we had 50 or 60 Busch cars showing up at the race track, then I would agree with that and think that something needs to happen. But when we have a race that's separated and the Busch cars ?? I think it was Kentucky, Cup cars were at Pocono or something and we had 42 cars on the race track and they didn't even have a full field. If we take away the Cup guys, and there was, what, 10 or 12 that went back and forth to make it work, that race could have been really bad and really boring. In the end, not even a regular Busch Series driver won the race, the 84 Dave Gilliland.

I think that race really put a lot of things into perspective. We need to have these fields full, and Cup drivers do add a lot to it, and until we have too many cars or not enough spots, I think they ought to leave it alone.

Q. You've been the only guy, I guess maybe Tony, too, but the last three years of this Chase that has been firmly in it, haven't really worried about being on the bubble. When you look at some of the guys on the bubble like Jeff, are you kind of glad you don't have to deal with all that stress that those other guys are going through?

Yeah, I guess I am. There are two ways of looking at it. One, it's very important to get off to a great start and not have to worry about that. And two, I caught the end of old style racing and old style points system where if you were 10th, 500 points out, you didn't have a shot anyway. It's like a rebirth or a new opportunity for these ten cars now that you didn't have four or five years ago.

Hopefully, and I know someday I will be in that situation, I'll be loving the fact that there's ten cars ?? I'll be fighting trying to get in it, that's the way racing works out. But I still have that mindset of it's a great opportunity for those guys, and their stress right now is to get in the Chase. My stress really hasn't been there yet because we've been fortunate and been up front, and in a few weeks the stress is really going to show when the Chase starts.

Q. Is there any stress for you right now from now until Richmond? Are you worrying about preparing a certain way?

Yeah, I'm still worrying about every race, every track, especially coming here because it's the first race of the Chase. I just want everything to be right and keep making our cars better, not be comfortable, not be content where we are, try to keep new technology coming, trying to learn new things I can do inside the car to go faster so when the Chase starts we have the best product possible.

Q. Are you telling Chad Knaus things you want done on your New Hampshire car and your Dover car? Are you looking that far ahead?

You have to, and in order to really make body changes even, it seems so simple, it's a good two?week turnaround to get a body change done and to try to get the wind tunnel documented so you know what you're taking on the track. You really have to look far ahead and get these things planned out, get them built in the shop, get some data through wind tunnel or whatever the means may be to validate the product you're taking to the track, and then you take it to the race track. So we're thinking pretty far ahead.

Q. Do you think you're ahead of the guys down 11 through 16 or even like 8 through 10 where they've got to worry about the now even more than thinking about September, October, November?

I see a large ?? there are a lot of guys that are very capable of winning the championship that are from that 8 to 12 range right now in the points. I guess my eyes are focused on the individual cars. I know there's like three Roush cars that are really tough, and if they're in the Chase then I'll have my hands full with them. The 9 has been really strong, the 8 has been showing a lot of strength, 24. So I've been more looking at individual cars.

To tell you the truth, I don't really know who's in 10th right now. I know where Jeff is, but I don't know the other players. I'm just focusing on my car and my situation.

Q. But the guys who are back there, regardless of who they are, they probably can't look as far ahead as your team is looking so you probably have a bit of an edge.

Yes and no. I think that's common practice anymore. You really have to plan things out far in advance and always be working on it. I feel that there's probably 15, maybe 18 cars that could win the championship under this format with the Chase, so anybody gets in the championship Chase, they're going to be a threat.

Q. Earlier this morning Matt Kenseth said that Jeff Gordon is the face of NASCAR, and when he's not running well, it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel normal, and then when he is running well, it all feels normal in NASCAR. Is there something to that here in the garage?

Well, I think that comes from when he was first getting involved in the sport, Jeff was a dominant guy, and I have to agree with that on some levels. You know, if you're out there racing and it's the usual suspects, the 20, 24, 9, those guys aren't up front, and it's new faces or new cars, there is maybe a little different feel to that, but it's more based on past success of those race cars.

You know, I've been so close to the 24, and I've personally seen a lot of really good races all year long, and bad luck taking place and distributor caps breaking and wheel bearings blowing out or rotor blowing apart. I've seen some different things taking Jeff out of it. I guess I can understand where Matt is saying that, and I do see a part of that.

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

THIS WEEKEND YOU COULD TIE DALE EARNHARDT IN CAREER VICTORIES. WHAT WOULD THAT MEAN TO YOU? "That would be a huge honor. I'm just blown away and overwhelmed that I've gotten to 75 (wins). To me Dale is the all time great, certainly who I have had a chance to race against. I've never really had the chance to race against Richard (Childress) or really Darrell (Waltrip) in his prime or anybody else that is up there. To me racing against Dale (Earnhardt) is the best I've ever raced against. To match up to something that he's done and just to be one away from it is an honor."

WHAT HAS HE TAUGHT YOU? "He's taught me a lot more off the race track than he did on the race track. The thing that I admired so much about him is the fact that he won over so many different years (with) cars changing, the sport changing, different drivers coming in and out of the sport and yet he always continued to find a way to get to victory lane and battle for championships. I think when you look at the span of time that he was able to do that, that's very impressive."

DALE EARNHARDT JR. SAID THAT IF YOU TIED HIS DAD'S RECORD HE'D HAVE TO SHAKE YOUR HAND BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU THAT YOU WOULD HAVE DALE JR.'S RESPECT IF YOU TIED HIS DAD? "I want to get to 76 (wins) before I talk about it, you know. Again I'm very excited to be at 75. Even if I don't get another one then I still am overwhelmed and will be very satisfied. The fact that we're one away from it obviously gives us something to shoot for. To get respect in this garage is not easy to do especially somebody that grew up in the shadows of the great Dale Earnhardt so that would mean a lot to me."

MATT KENSETH SAID YOU ARE THE FACE OF NASCAR. IS THAT A ROLE YOU ACCEPT? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? "I don't know if I totally agree with that. I think Dale Earnhardt Jr. is probably more recognizable with NASCAR than I am. I see Tony Stewart as the past champion so he's carrying the torch right now. We certainly made our mark and I'm proud of what I've accomplished and where I stand in the sport and what I represent - my sponsors, the sport and my team.

MATT KENSETH SAID YOU AND HIM TALKED TO EACH OTHER IN INDY. WHERE DO YOU STAND WITH HIM RIGHT NOW? "I did all that I could. I pretty much left it up to him. I look at the Bristol incident and this incident as so similar and he came up to me and apologized to me and said he was sorry, didn't mean to do it and I was fuming for a long time after that but you have to move on and go on. People can believe me or not but that wasn't payback. It really wasn't. It was racing hard and it just happened to be a guy that I had an incident with earlier in the season. He can say that I intentionally did it but I've looked at the video several times and it's pretty obvious to me that I got back in the gas quick and he didn't get in the gas. That's just going to be something that we might disagree on right now but if both of us don't move on it's going to cost both of us a chance at a championship."

HOW HAS THE DYNAMIC WITH TEAMMATES CHANGED THINGS WHEN YOU'RE BOTH RACING FOR THE WIN? "I race everybody the way they race me so you take Matt Kenseth who didn't give me an inch at Bristol. He also rammed me pretty hard. He keeps saying that I was hanging back on the restart. I'll give anybody an opportunity to look back at the restarts and see if I was more than a car length back. There's no way. I was just getting better restarts than he was. I think that Jimmie (Johnson) and I race one another hard and race one another clean and we are teammates and you've got to take that into account. As bad as we wanted to win especially in Chicago, I would have raced him really hard. If I had jumped back in the gas and he couldn't get back in the gas the same thing could have possibly happened because it wasn't intentional so it's not that I necessarily would have raced him any different."

ON READING THAT HE (GORDON) TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT EVEN THOUGH IT WASN'T INTENTIONAL: "Anytime a guy gets in the back of another guy, you have to take responsibility for it and I certainly will but the clear thing here is that it was not intentional. That's what we're all talking about and what we need to move on from because it's over. Now we're at New Hampshire and we're here to race and there's going to be plenty of action for you guys to talk about after this race I'm sure."

ON THE RIVALRY WITH HIS FANS AND DALE EARNHARDT'S FANS. ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH DALE EARNHARDT OFF THE TRACK AND THE RIVALRY BETWEEN THEM: "There really wasn't much of a rivalry. I think we both had a common respect. Maybe even more so what he had done off the race track. I was very fortunate that in some ways he took me under his wing to kind of guide me in the right direction related to the business side of this sport. I was very, very appreciative of that time that he spent trying to teach me some of those things. I feel like I still live by a lot of those things that he taught me but most of what I learned on the race track was just by racing him not by him sitting me down saying 'Try this. Do this.' "

ON JUAN PABLO MONTOYA COMING TO NASCAR: "I think he's an unbelievable talent. I think it's a great thing for the sport and I think that he's getting obviously an opportunity to come in with a quality team but all those things still are going to make it a long road for him. What I respect the most about his decision is that I feel like he really recognizes that, understand it and knows it's going to take time yet he's still willing to go through that challenge. It's still going to be one heck of a challenge for him in his career based on what type of racing he's done in the past, not a lot of oval track racing, not in a big heavy car with little downforce. The fact that he still wants that challenge speaks very clearly as to what type of person Juan Pablo is."

ON THE RUMORS OF DANICA PATRICK COMING TO NASCAR. WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE LIKE FOR HER IF SHE CAME HERE? "Well again similar to Juan Pablo it'd be a very big positive for the sport, for NASCAR in this series, but I think that at the same time it'd be a huge challenge for her. I think that all the type of racing that she's done growing up and that she's currently doing is just so much different than our cars that I always encourage anybody that no matter how big of a star, name that they are in the world, that they got to come in and get stock car experience. If you look at anybody that has been successful in our series, they all went through the Busch Series. They all maybe went through the Truck Series. They spent time maybe in ARCA. That's just the progression you have to take to understand these cars at this level. Once you get to the Cup Series it's so competitive that if you don't have success fairly early on you're going to get bombarded with questions and criticized and it's only going to make things tougher for you. There's enough pressure as it is already. I think it has nothing to do with talent level, it has to do with experience and so I just hope that if someone like Danica was interested in coming in that she would take that into account. Not saying that her or Juan or anybody has an ego but you need to put that aside and say 'OK, I need to get experience at a lower level before I just jump into the Cup Series.' I hope with Juan Pablo with him not being F1 now that he can come over here and run some Busch races maybe some ARCA races and some Cup races this year before he starts next season."

WHEN YOU DID THE CAR SWAP WITH HIM BACK AT INDY DID HE GET THE BUG BACK THEN ABOUT GETTING INTO NASCAR? "Well I don't know. I think that if anything he was like 'Wow, what a piece of junk' compared to his car so I would have thought that would have sealed the deal that he'd never come to NASCAR. I think that really it's more of going to F1 and knowing that in F1 the cars are amazing but the racing isn't there. The strategy is what it's all about. It's all about which manufacturer, which tire dominates that season. I would have to assume that there are some big frustrations with that where I think he recognizes with talent over here at this level can bring something to the table. Yeah, you've got to be aligned with a good team but I think all things being equal the talent usually rises to the top and he's got a lot of talent so he probably believes that eventually with enough time he can bring something to the table."

ON JUAN PABLO BEING AN HISPANIC TONY STEWART. IS THAT A GOOD OR BAD THING? "Well I think Tony is good for this sport. You know what? That's a pretty good comparison. I would say that. Juan might be a little bit more polished than Tony but yet he doesn't mind speaking his mind when he wants to at the same time and he's a great driver."

HOW WAS THE CAR YOU BROUGHT TO INDY? "That was actually the road course car that we've won several times with. I can't say it was set up perfect for Indy because we had never been there before. I would have much rather had him drive our car at Watkins Glen or Sonoma. I think that once he gets in one of the Ganassi cars he'll say this thing is quite a bit different than the car I drove and they've just changed a lot over the years. I think he's going to do well at the road courses. I think that the ovals are where it's really going to take some time to get the hang of it."

WERE YOU SURPRISED ABOUT THAT ANNOUNCEMENT LAST WEEKEND? "Yes and no. I had heard actually that rumor actually a couple of weeks prior to that and I just laughed at it. I thought 'No, there's no way that is going to happen.' I thought for sure he'd find something that he would move to if he was ever to leave McClaren. I figured he'd find something else he'd like over there. But I'm excited. I think it's great."

ON CLARIFYING HIS PREVIOUS COMMENT ABOUT RACING PEOPLE THE WAY THEY RACE HIM: "What I mean by that, if somebody doesn't give me an inch of room out there, I'm not going to give them an inch. I'm not saying that they should or have to give me more room. I'm just saying that if they race me really aggressively, hard, push me, spin me, then they can expect the same type of treatment. I don't believe that Matt (Kenseth) at Bristol intentionally tried to spin me just like at Chicago last week. I didn't intentionally try to spin him. Did I get into bumper? Did I mind loosening him up, moving him up the race track so I could make the pass? No, absolutely I was trying to do that. There were four laps to go and I was trying to win the race and you only get sometimes one window of opportunity and that was my window of opportunity and I took advantage of it. That's why I take responsibility of it. I didn't want to hit him and spin him. I think the same thing happened at Bristol. I don't think he wanted to spin me at Bristol but he wanted to touch me. He wanted to hit me and move me up the race track like I had done to him. To me once you set that precedence then that's pretty much the way you race that guy. There's some guys that race really clean out there and I race them really clean. If a guy makes it really hard for me to pass him I'm going to make it really hard to pass me. You know everybody's personality, their driving style and that's what you do out there."

DO YOU REGRET SHOVING HIM? "No, I don't regret anything. I hate that he got spun out. I didn't try to spin him out. I hate that he spun out. I don't regret shoving him. If I had all my wishes I would have shoved him and he would have moved right up the race track and I would have passed him and he had finished second."

SHOULD YOU BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD? SHOULDN'T YOU BE SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR THE OTHER GUYS IN THE FIELD? "I think that we are setting examples by going out there and showing everybody that we're going to race everybody really aggressive and hard. When something like that happens it's how we move on from it from that point forward is hopefully the example that we set that's a good one."

WITH ALL THE AGGRESSIVE DRIVING AND RETALIATION HERE LAST FALL, DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK HAS A REPUTATION NOW FOR PAYBACKS? "Here's the problem with this race track, you can't pass. Anytime you go to a race track that's a one groove race track that you can't pass on, then you're going to have guys running into one another to make the pass. Really to me if I got a guy behind me that's faster all I have to do is move down in his line and I'll keep him behind me. As soon as you do that then that guy if he gets an opportunity to move you out of the way, he's going to move you out of the way. Because we're at a one-mile race track, corners are a little bit slower; I think guys don't mind running one another a little bit more than they do at other race tracks."

ON RACING IN THE NORTHEAST WITH DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES AND IF YOU HAVE TO DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT: "We always hope when we come up north that it's going to be a lot bit cooler. It's really hot out there. We just have to do everything we can to keep ourselves cool and hydrated in the car. I can't say it'd be any more than what we did last week or the week before that. It's been hot everywhere we've been going."

DO YOU HAVE A CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER THIS YEAR? "I wouldn't call it a chip. I would call it determination. I would call it trying to get ourselves back to where we need to be to win races and championships. In some ways we have improved. I think that we've been down and out and people have pretty much written us off. I can tell by the way guys race me. A perfect example was me and (Greg) Biffle at Vegas this year. I think he just expected to get up to me, get on my bumper, loosen me up and drive right on by me and I was just going to wave at him as he went by. I had too good of a car to do that and I didn't do that. I didn't put up with it and I raced him really hard. We banged down the back straightway. We got the position and ended up finishing fourth. When I have a car that is capable of winning or running up front then I'm going to be more aggressive with it to get those good finishes."

ON NOT HAVING PEOPLE DOUBT HIM BEFORE IN HIS CAREER AND HOW A FEW PEOPLE COMMENTED ON HIS FOCUS EARLIER THIS YEAR: "It didn't set well because I felt like while those things were being said we were testing and I'm spending more time with Steve Letarte (crew chief) trying to give him good information. I know how hard those guys are working and I felt like we were doing everything and more than we possibly could to be competitive and then you hear those things. That's why I try to honestly stay away from watching too many of those shows on SPEED or reading too much. No disrespect to you guys. It doesn't have anything to do with that. It's just easier for me to stay focused and to put all my energy into driving my race car, trying to figure out what we need to be better. It's hard though when you get in a group like this and you get asked questions and you go 'They said what?' You can't help that that definitely affects you a bit. But I've got to thank Rusty because of the things that he said.

ON HEARING ASSUMPTIONS THAT HE HAS ENOUGH WINS AND ENOUGH MONEY: "It's easy to make those assumptions from the outside. Here's the thing that cracks me up about our series. You can win 10 races a year and never spend one day at the shop, never even say hi to guys. You can be on planet Mars Monday through Thursday until you get back to the race track and nobody will say one word. They won't say one word because the stats are there, the numbers are there and that's all that people really focus on. When the numbers aren't there they've got to come up with a reason why this is happening. There are reasons why this is happening. Come visit our race shop, go to the wind tunnel, the seven post test. Get out there on the race track and race your competitors. Go look at what your competitors are doing and just realize that you are getting beat. That's what we did. We said 'Hey, we're getting beat. We got to get our stuff better. I do the same thing. I say 'OK, what can I do to be better? Do I need to adapt my driving style to different setups?' That's where it's at. It's not where your focus is, if you're making too much money you don't care about it anymore. It's never been about the money to me. They can pay me twice as much money as I'm getting paid right now and I still want to experience what it's like to go to victory lane and get that trophy and celebrate with the team."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS:

ON RACING AT NEW HAMPSHIRE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY: "The biggest thing is just being able to turn the center here and having a good drive off. You have to be able to mash the gas and get off the corners well too. The biggest thing sometimes though is when you turn the center then you're loose off and then as soon as your center gets a little bit tight then you're good off so you can't ever really find a balance at this place. It's very, very difficult to do that."

WHY DO WE SEE A LOT OF DRIVERS BRING SHORT TRACK RACE CARS HERE AND CONSIDER THIS A SHORT TRACK WHEN THE TRACK IS REALLY OVER A MILE? "The biggest thing with that is it's flat, it's stop and go, it's sort of a Martinsville type race track. The biggest thing is just trying to get your geometry closer to the ground. Last year we made the mistake of doing that the second race here. The first race we brought a short track car. The second race we brought an intermediate car because we went from Richmond to here and that was our only short track car that we really had so we had to bring an intermediate car because they couldn't get it turned around in time and we struggled. We ran 20th all day. For some reason, whatever that was, we just decided to build another short track car so now we have two of them so I think we'll be ready to go this year."

A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THAT BECAUSE JUAN PABLO MONTOYA IS ONLY 30 YEARS OLD HE HAS TIME TO LEARN, MAKE THE TRANSITION TO NASCAR AND BE STRONG. YOU STILL HAVE A WHILE UNTIL YOU'RE 30. IF YOU ACCOMPLISH EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH IN THIS GARAGE IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS, CAN YOU ENVISION YOURSELF SWITCHING TO OPEN WHEEL CARS? COULD YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THAT SAME SCENARIO AT ALL? "Yeah, possibly depending on where NASCAR goes, that depends on what I do. The biggest thing with that is trying to figure out exactly what you want to do. I might be here 10, 15 more years and figure out this is pretty old now, let's go doing something else or I'll just be done and go sit at home and play with kids like Ricky Rudd and do that kind of family deal so the biggest thing for me is to just get to that point. I'm 21 right now so I have plenty of time to think about it and hopefully plenty of time to get all the success that I'd like to have."

ARE YOU INTO OPEN WHEEL CARS? DOES THAT PEAK YOUR INTEREST? "Yeah, I love watching them on TV and stuff like that. It's pretty cool to be able to see the technology that they have - CART, IRL, Formula 1 - Formula 1 especially. It's definitely a bigger deal to try to go do that kind of stuff than it is for us. I think the more difficult task is for some of those guys to come over here and try to do what we're doing versus us going over there. Whether or not that happens, I don't know."

A LOT OF TIMES DRIVERS SAY THE RACE TRACK CHANGES WHEN RETURNING TO A TRACK. IN THE CASE OF POCONO IT'S A FIVE-WEEK SWING. DOES THE TRACK CHANGE OR IS IT JUST THE SAME POCONO? "Last year it really didn't change much. We ran pretty well both times last year. We didn't run so well this year. Hopefully when we go back we'll have a better knowledge of what we need to run in the car in order to be better. I'm not sure if it will be any different. I don't think so. I don't think it was any different last year so it will probably be the same Pocono."

DO YOU PLAY VIDEO GAMES? HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED A VIDEO GAME TO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A TRACK? "No, I did that more so years and years ago when I was a kid watching the Cup Series growing up. I'd put the game in my computer and I'd go race every NASCAR track with the NASCAR boys. Anytime they were at whatever track I'd be at that track too and kind of just go through the season. It was kind of fun doing it that way but I haven't played that video game in such a long time. The biggest thing for me though is to go out there and run the Busch Series and the Cup Series to get my extra track time and try to learn what we can."

WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN ANYTHING AT THE INDIANAPOLIS TEST? "Yeah, we learned some stuff. We got going there a little bit and we kind of got going a little bit faster and then we slowed down a bit then we got going a little bit faster again. The sun wasn't really out but the heat of the day wasn't what it's going to be when we go back there in August. It's kind of going to be a little tough to figure out exactly what we need to do in order to make ourselves better for when we go back but the biggest thing is we finally got my car turning pretty well through the center then it was loose off the corner and I got loose and overcorrected and smacked the wall. Hopefully that's out of my system and we can go back and have an easy Brickyard 400."

IS THAT A TRACK THAT IS REALLY SENSITIVE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS? "Yes and no. I haven't been on it for enough years to where I can tell you that. Jeff (Gordon) or Tony Stewart will be able to tell you. For myself last year it was all sunny, the whole weekend it was sunny, and then yesterday or whenever we were there it was all cloud cover. Normally when we were there before it was tighter just because of the heat on the race track. You couldn't get the grip you wanted. Yesterday was a lot better than I expected but our car was still a little bit tighter than I wanted."

CLINT BOWYER IS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT RACING IN THE BRICKYARD 400. CAN YOU RELATE TO HIS EXCITEMENT? "Yeah, he's in for a big surprise there. You can't picture it. I thought I pictured it pretty well and I wasn't even close. The biggest thing about the Brickyard is that it's almost as big as the Daytona 500. No one will ever admit it but it is pretty much one of the biggest races that we have on the circuit now so to be able to run there is extra special. Guys have been going there for years. It's almost a hundred year old facility and everyone that has been racing there over the years will tell you just how prestigious it is."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS? IS IT THE POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE? WHAT'S GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND DURING THE BALLOONS AND PRE-RACE ACTIVITIES? "Can we get in the car and go now? That's my thought really. It is a little bit longer of a pre-race than anywhere else we go to. It's all for the show and Indianapolis is the most prestigious race track so they want to have the best show out there and do what they need to do to keep people coming back. Sometimes it can be a little bit of a boring race but hopefully this year will be a little bit different than that and we can have a good one where fans will love it and want to come back."

NASCAR NEXTEL WAKE UP CALL: CREW CHIEFS STEVE LETARTE, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS AND GREG ZIPADELLI, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS:

AS A CREW CHIEF, HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH ANY INCIDENTS THAT MAY COME UP WITH YOUR DRIVERS?

LETARTE: "You want to support your driver and he wants to support you whether you have a good car or bad car. The race track is the one place that the drivers are on their own. They have a spotter to help them and we help on pit strategy, but the only people that really know what happens on the race track are the drivers."

ZIPPY: "The drivers are somewhat on your own. You always defend and believe in your driver. And you race others like you want to be raced. It's no different than the way you treat people in the real world, in here (the media center) or in the grocery store or wherever you may be.

ON THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE THAT JEFF GORDON IS ONE WIN BEHIND DALE EARNHARDT AT 75 RACES:

LETARTE: "Jeff and I both agree. We're not much on stats. We try to race week in and week out. We hopefully will have a nice long retirement so we can step back and look at what we've accomplished on the race track. We're proud of those stats. We're not ashamed of them by any means. It just shows how dominant Jeff had been over a lengthy period of time. I think we've won at least three races in 10 or 12 years. We're going to hopefully try to continue that this year. As far as looking back on them, they are good stories when you're old and gray and sitting on the porch. You can tell people what you've accomplished. But we're definitely proud to be associated with that group of Earnhardt and Pearson and Petty and those guys with all those wins."

WHY DO WE SEE A LOT OF NEW ENGLAND INFLUENCE IN NASCAR CUP RACING?

ZIPPY: "For myself and probably a lot of the guys that are on my team that worked as we raced on our own. We raced weekends and you always dreamed about getting to that level. I don't know if your desire is a little bit different because you're wanting to get there so you have to pack up and you have to go there. If it was the other way around, you'd probably see a lot of guys from the south if the racing was up here. They're families and friends are in the sport so that's just what they do. I don't know if it's a lot different. Have you really looked at the stats? Is it really much different? Only because you think, oh, he's from New England. But how many people that are in this garage that are right from Charlotte. I just don't think you look at it that way or think about it."

LETARTE: "I think a lot of it had to do with just the racing divisions in the country. There are just as many people from maybe the Midwest as there is from the Northeast. If you look at the Late Model races around I would say the Southeast and Midwest and Northeast is really where it's at as far as competition. What people don't realize is that up here, racing is really popular but there is not a lot of money in racing. You work as hard as you can and still fall short because you don't have the money to fund it. When you walk into a place like Yates, Gibbs, or Hendrick - it's not an open checkbook, but the amount of money these owners are willing to pay for equipment and planes and trucks and you can kind of test wherever you want or do whatever you need. There is so much excitement and it brings so much energy to somebody who has raced out of their back garage at night for their whole life, that it really makes you want to work hard and move up."

LAST WEEK, JEFF GORDON TALKED ABOUT HOW HUNGRY THE TEAM IS AN HOW HE IS PERSONALLY. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HIS MOTIVATION NOW THAT HE'S GOT FOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS AND 75 WINS? IS HE STILL AS HUNGRY AS HE WAS WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER AND JUST COMING INTO THE SPORT?

LETARTE: "I think he's just as hungry. I think may be he maybe does it for different reasons. When you first come into the sport, you want to prove to everybody you belong here. And then after you've won that much, you really don't have to prove it to the outside anymore. Now he's really doing it for himself and the team. You'd have to ask him to get his opinion, but the most excited I see him is when he pulls into victory lane and sees the 20 guys that are there with him. There are a lot of guys on our team who haven't won and Sonoma was their first win. And that was big for those guys who have never won or gotten the feel of it. I've never doubted the devotion to the team all year long. I hate we haven't given him cars to be able to show as hard as we've been running, but we've had some bad luck with some good cars and then we went to some strong tracks and just had a bad car. And I take responsibility for that. I'm glad now that we're in the summer we're able to get a little bit of stats to go with the hard work we've been putting in."

WITH THE WEATHER BEING SO DIFFERENT AT LOUDON FROM NOW UNTIL WE COME BACK IN THE FALL, CAN YOU TRY ANY TRICK PIECES NOW AND USE THEM LATER, OR DO YOU TAKE A CONSERVATIVE APPROACH THIS WEEKEND?

ZIPPY: "Our conservative approach is that we came here to win. We'll do the same thing this weekend as we'll do when we come back in the fall. We'll race as hard as we can and we'll do the best job we can with what we have. To me, that's how we race every week. When you get down to the last couple of races, you then start looking at things a little differently and you start racing the guys who are right next to you in points and who you're racing for position. But right now, when we come back for the first race of the Chase, you've got to race as hard then as you did in Daytona to put yourself in it."

LETARTE: "Zippy might be in a little bit better position than myself, but we have to make the Chase. We can't worry about the first race in the Chase if we don't make it. So we go to every race to win. We've been like that since the 500 and we'll continue that all the way to Homestead."

YOU STARTED OUT WITH MODIFIEDS BUT NOW YOU'RE IN CUP CARS. DO YOU CHECK BACK ON THE MODIFIEDS TO SEE WHAT THEY'RE DOING?

ZIPPY: "There aren't many people in the Modified series that I know anymore. There are a few. I probably stay closer to the Busch North Series and that's where I spent a lot of my last few years before I moved down there. I still have a lot of friends that I help and talk to on a regular basis and spend time with in the off-season. My roots are probably right now closer to the Busch North Series just because that's kind of where I left.

"But yeah, you never know what you'll learn from a conversation with someone and what they're thinking and what they thought and maybe what they tried. You might not take exactly what they did, but it just might get your thought process going in a different direction."

DO YOU THINK TEAMS BE AS QUICK TO MAKE CHANGES THIS YEAR AS LAST AFTER THE CUTOFF FOR THE CHASE?

ZIPPY: "I would imagine. I don't know how much there is of benefit. But if you're not in Chase, you still have goals and it doesn't mean that you didn't have a successful season. As far as where Tommy (Baldwin, Jr.). If he can progress from where he is today and win races and get top five's and top 10's, then you build that momentum for next year. I don't know that's it's over and you start over. Some of these things take time. You have to work on it. He's in a situation that it's going over there and seeing how their program works and getting familiar with that driver. There are some people who are fortunate enough to have success when people get put together right away. But that's not always the case. We've seen it probably more not than we have together. So you have to look. The key is that there is a lot more pressure I think on ourselves as far as crew chiefs, I think there's a lot more pressure on drivers to perform. That's just what it is. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

LETARTE: "I agree. It depends on what your goals are as a team. If your goal and your expectations are to be a championship caliber team, then not making the Chase is really a letdown for your goal, then I think that's a good time for your owner or driver or crew chief to reevaluate their program because with testing the way it is and the tire program the way it is and everything else, it changes - it's almost 10 free races if you don't make the chase and that's your goal. If you feel your goal is to go win races if you don't make the Chase and that's your goal.

If you feel your goal is to go win races, and like Zippy said if you see momentum and you see improvement, there's a touchy situation there where you have to make a decision as a team -- if the improvement is coming, how long will it take? Or, maybe there's not enough improvement. You have to really just evaluate your program. The Chase is a good time for the media and the sponsors and all have to really look at it all. The stress in the garage is higher than it's ever been because there are so many competitive teams. That evaluation comes on a weekly basis."

WHAT HAS JD GIBBS BROUGHT TO YOUR ORGANIZATION THAT HAS KEPT YOUR ORGANIZATION AT ITS LEVEL?

ZIPPY: "JD was there every day from the day I started. And he dealt with certain issues of the company - the same ones he's dealing with now. The difference is that he's more in the public eye and dealing with things like if we get called to the (NASCAR) trailer, he's there now instead of Joe (Gibbs). But he was there and he was coming to most of the races. He's been in that role for a long time. I just don't think anybody realized what he was doing - because maybe his dad was there and maybe kind of overshadowed what he was doing. And what do you say about Joe? His presence is very positive. We miss him - just him walking through the shop is huge. He still spends a lot of time back there. We see him on his off-weekends. He may not come to the races, but he'll show up at the shop for a day or two. So they have both done a good job. They compliment each other in the way they're dealing with things.

"And Jimmy (Makar) is there. He overlooks all of us. On the day to day stuff he's working on the Busch stuff a little bit and on the Cup stuff and our development stuff. So we have a lot of good people. We have a great structure. If you can keep all those people doing what they need to do, it just makes things - things just happen. That's the key today."

WITH TONY STEWART RUNNING EXTRA RACES, DOES THAT MAKE YOU NERVOUS? IS THERE ANY PROBLEM WITH FOCUS WHEN HE'S OFF DOING OTHER THINGS?

ZIPPY: "No, Tony likes getting in the Modifieds and getting in the dirt cars. That's no different than I like going hunting. And I wouldn't expect Joe to tell me that I can't take a day and go fishing or hunting in the fall. That's my hobby and that's what I enjoy doing. He enjoys the race. I enjoy the race too, but it's harder for me to go and help somebody work on their car than it is for him to just go get a ride in anything he wants anywhere. You always take the chance of him getting hurt like he did in the Busch car at Charlotte, and then us wrecking the following day and making it worse. But I mean I could fall out of a tree while hunting and get hurt. So I just believe if it's your time and something's going to happen, it's going to happen - whether you break an arm or you break a leg or whether you're driving to the raceshop in your car and somebody runs a red light. Obviously you put yourself in a position for a little more risk, but you've got to enjoy your life while you're here. It's too short."

ON THE 1.5-MILE RACE TRACKS AND WINNING LAST WEEK AT CHICAGO, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE FINALLY GETTING A HANDLE ON THE CHALLENGE OF THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS THAT YOU GUYS HAVE HAD?

LETARTE: "Oh, I definitely think there is satisfaction any time you win (because) every track you go to is so competitive. But to win on a 1.4-mile - especially Chicago -- Chicago and Texas have really been our Achilles. What people may or may not realize is that didn't happen in Chicago. That happened months and months ago. At Homestead last year, we led laps and it just didn't turn out right at the end of the race. We went to Texas and got a flat tire and we still hadn't been able to produce any numbers at the end of a race. To go to Michigan and lead laps - I think the most laps - and that was a brand new car. We took it to Chicago and finally - at the end we were the fastest. When I go back and look at the lap tracker, we were probably a top three car all day long. To have the adjustments work like they should and for the car to react like it should - it's always a relief to win - especially at a track like that. I'm just really thankful for everyone at Hendrick Motorsports - especially the aero department and the people that had so much contribution to that win - to finally get to go home on Sunday night with their kids and family and know that we finally broke through and got them a win they deserved."