REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET DODGE: “We’ve had kind of an up and down season. We felt like we’ve done some things that we shouldn’t have and did some good things as well. I think in the second half of the season we’re just going to try to build consistency and try to be in that top-10 and that’s the goal right now.” DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO COMING BACK TO SOME OF THESE TRACKS? “They should be better, but then again, everybody is supposed to be better when they come back so it kind of evens everything out. There’s lots of times you go back to places that you ran good at and you’re not as good as you thought that you should be. It doesn’t really matter because everybody is on the same playing field there. I’m looking forward to some of the tracks that we’re coming up to, like this one and some of the ones coming up. We’re having a lot of fun right now and that’s the main thing. We just got done with a test at Indy. It’s been a long week but everything’s been going well for everybody.”

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 COORS LIGHT DODGE: ARE YOU SATISFIED THAT THE TEAM IS POINTED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION? “By no means has our first half of the year been what we expected. There have been a lot of changes with the crew chief and building new cars and all kinds of stuff. We’ve been through a restructure stage the first part of the year and have actually been running better. We’re still not where we need to be but the one thing is that it’s a time process. It’s not going to change overnight. We had a pretty good test at Indy on Wednesday, not so much Monday [smiles]. We go to some of these places and we look forward to going back to them because our year started out so horrible and we feel that we could have had better results.” YOUR TEAM AND A LOT OF OTHERS PUT A LOT OF EFFORT INTO THIS WEEKEND, TESTING AT MILWAUKEE. ARE YOU OPTIMITIC OR CONCERNED AFTER THE TEST? “I’m very optimistic about it. We had one car done. Our short track program wasn’t up to par by no means. Reed had his good finish at Martinsville but that’s about it. Everywhere else we didn’t run good so we made some changes and stuff and built some new cars. We’re all looking forward to this weekend. I enjoy running here and I know Reed does too.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES, CHEVROLET: COMMENT ON YOUR FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON AND WHAT YOU EXPECT DURING THE SECOND HALF. “For me the races are just too long. I can make it pretty good until about 75 laps to go and that’s when bad luck seems to set in for me. We’ve had a really good team. Everything is strong, pretty decent. I’m fairly happy. Our qualifying record has been pretty decent. Unfortunately I seem to put myself in a bad position in the last 50-75 laps and it’s cost us three or four really good finishes. Since then it’s taken a lot more patience and a lot more thought process into what I’m doing in the races to make sure that I don’t do that. You still make those rookie mistakes. I know last year here at New Hampshire in the 11 car we qualified decent. I was racing a little bit too hard and put myself in a bad position and got wrecked. Hopefully we’ve learned from all those mistakes and turned things around. We’ve been as high as 17th or 18th in points and been on a downhill slide ever since. Last week was a good top-10 for us. Unfortunately I started to run out of fuel there at the end and it cost us a position. But it helped Clint out here too so it worked out good for everybody [smiles].”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 SYLVANIA CHEVROLET: “You probably missed a shift [laughter]. Are you sure you didn’t miss a shift?”

YELEY: “Positive.”

BOWYER: “Fuel is a good excuse.”

YELEY: “But you know, the Joe Gibbs organization has always had really good short track cars. I know Tony always runs great. I know last year he was always fast here. I guess if we’re struggling we can always good beat up on him to find out the secret ingredient to what going fast at New Hampshire is.” YOU AND CLINT HAD A BUSY MONTH IN JUNE. HOW TOUGH IS RACING IN TWO DIFFERENT PLACES? “It really wasn’t that tough at all. I think it was harder on Clint because he looks about five years older now than he did going into that deal [smiles]. To me it was kind of like going back to the old days. I’m used to racing six, seven times a week, 90-100 races a year. Traveling back and forth with no sleep racing, racing, racing is kind of how I grew up doing this and I’m sure it’s how a lot of guys got to this point. It’s kind of fun to get back to that. Some of it was a struggle. You don’t get to spend much time with your crew chief going over setups so you kind of hope they’re going to guess on something that’s really going to be good for you because you don’t have the time to sit there and talk face to face. You do a little bit over the phone versus face to face. All of our runs were pretty decent, other than going to Sonoma. All in all it was a pretty successful month.”

BOWYER: COMMENT ON YOUR FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON. “It’s been a lot of ups and downs. We’re starting to get things smoothed out. We’ve had a rough month and a half where we ran good but just didn’t get finish for whatever reason: rookie mistakes in the car on my half, a little trouble in the pits a few races with some good runs. It’s kept us from getting the finishes at the end of the race. We’ve had the speed. It feels good to finally get things turned around in the last couple of weeks and get those finishes that we deserve.” DO YOU RELY ON JEFF BURTON AND KEVIN HARVICK WHEN YOU GO TO NEW TRACKS? “A lot. We rely on them each and every week. Jeff Burton has 17 Cup victories and has been in this sport for a long time. Kevin Harvick is a little closer to my age and speaks a little more of my language. The more we get through this season I find myself going to Jeff a lot. He’s been a good teammate, had a really good attitude, he’s been a big difference. I’m just fortunate to have two good teammates that I can pull off of if I need to.”

QUESTION: IS THIS A TRACK THAT YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR TEMPER IN CHECK?

BOWYER: “I brought my own helmet [smiles].”

YELEY: IS IT THE TRACK OR JUST THE NATURE OF NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACING? “I think it’s definitely the nature of it. You’re at a short track and you don’t have too left of them on the NEXTEL Cup circuit. Martinsville is a good place for you to retaliate. You’re not going to get hurt. It’s a tight racetrack and I know the groove has changed where now there’s two or three grooves but before it might have been a little bit harder to pass and now you’ve given them the opportunity to get into somebody. It’s going to make for better racing but it could make for, hopefully someone else, other than the guys up here, having a bad day.”

QUESTION: WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST UNEXPECTED THING THAT’S HAPPENED TO EACH OF YOU?

SORENSON: “It’s got to be tires, I think. It seems like I blow a tire about every week on something. I even blew a tire at the Indy test. I’ve blown more tires this year, times 10, that I did last year all together. I think I blew out two tires last year and about 15 this year. It seems a little unexpected. A lot of times we were going 200 miles per hour and something like that happens it’s not good. That’s been probably the most unexpected thing this year. I think the competition in NEXTEL Cup is kind of one of the other things that is kind of an eye opener, I think for me. I don’t know about these guys but each and every week if your car is not awesome you’re really struggling to get in the top-15 or top-10. It’s just the competitiveness and everything and how good these guys race is an eye opener.”

STREMME: “Probably the biggest thing is how guys show the lack of respect on the track but then they get out of the car and they’re like ‘Oh, I’m sorry’ or ‘I didn’t mean to do this’ [laughter]. I got wrecked at Martinsville and all of a sudden I’m turning right and I get told ‘I’m sorry’ and I think that’s BS. I mean, that’s like last week at Chicago I’m going around to the checkered flag and here’s a guy, he’s all pissed off because he got wrecked to win the race and all I did was run my line. He’s the one that ran on the apron and wrecked himself. How can I wreck a guy when I’m in front of you? And after looking back, I can see why Matt was in a foul mood. It’s been throughout the year and I’ve come to the conclusion that unless it’s my teammate around me, I don’t care about anybody else because they run into you and I don’t know if it’s because there’s a yellow stripe on your bumper or what, but then they get out with a smile and be your best friend. That’s probably been the biggest surprise. In the Busch Series, you’d at least argue afterwards or something [laughter]. These guys will be your best buddies.”

YELEY: “I guess it’s not surprising you have to stay away from the 40 unless you’re the 42 or the 41 [laughter]. I guess for me it’s just the length of the races. I ran some NEXTEL Cup races last year…

STREMME: “You got run over by Cup guys in the Busch race, too?

YELEY: “Yeah, I’ve done that a couple times, too. I just start making a list instead of arguing with them [smiles]. They can come argue with me later. But these races are so long. The Coca-Cola 600, Sonoma, it’s so hard to get a feel for how long these races are going to be, especially now that they are starting to get hot. You’re driving around for four and a half hours. In a Busch race you can normally look up and maybe with 50 to go you go racing. You’re racing all day long and you look up at the scoreboard and you call the spotter and you’re not halfway there yet. It’s just trying to get used to that long run there where the Busch race you have more confidence, generally. Here lately the Cup races have been going pretty green so you get out there and run for a long time.”

BOWYER: “I think along the same lines with how competitive this series is. If you’re not on top of your game and have your car perfect week in and week out, you’re going to be behind. These guys, they’re on top of it. The guys that are in the top-10 and that are in the Chase, and the top-15, these teams have been together for a long time and they are really, really on top of their game when they come to these racetracks. If you don’t unload good, you don’t have much time to get that thing fixed and you’re not going to make a huge drastic change that’s going to get things turned around. To be consistent week in and week out, that’s the toughest thing for me.”

QUESTION: ONE MONTH AGO, RAYBESTOS ROOKIE DENNY HAMLIN BLEW AWAY THE FIELD AT POCONO. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT RACE THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE VERUS ANY OTHER RACE THIS SEASON?

BOWYER: “I was wondering why his car was going through the corners so much faster than mine and wishing that I had what he had. He did good. That’s part of this Raybestos Rookie class. Everybody knew that it was going to be a strong class and I think if we all hit that setup there’s no doubt in my mind that any of us can do the same thing. We’ve all had those cars where we can’t do anything wrong with it. He blew a left rear tire and ripped half the fender off and that will go and determine who wins the race.”

QUESTION: AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE TREATED ANY DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE OF THAT YELLOW STRIPE? AT THIS POINT, ARE YOU GUYS NOT REALLY “ROOKIES”?

SORENSON: “I’d say it’s about half and half. There’s a lot of guys that I’ve been racing with at least half the time out there that every time I get around them it’s the same respect. They race me hard every race. Sometimes if I catch them they give me plenty of room to race around them and then later some of them will catch me and I’ll do the same thing. And there’s some of the other ones that are the same as the start of the year and the same as they were last year, I’m sure. The race last week I learned a lot from a lot of guys. Jeff Burton finished second and I caught him early in the race and he was halfway through the race and he just let me go and he ended up finishing second. There’s a lot times at the start of the race that you can be less aggressive and you can still be there at the end, challenging for a win. I have to learn every week from a lot of those guys out there. I have a lot of fun racing with a lot of them and some of the other ones you struggle with every week trying to race around them. It’s been kind of half and half.”

BOWYER: “You come back in after the race and talk to your teammates on the way home and say ‘Man, that guy was racing my butt off for 25th.’ They know exactly who you’re talking about. There are no surprises. It’s always the same group of guys who have the same problem.”

YELEY: “That pretty much sums it up. Half to two-third of the guys will race you like you want to be racing and as Raybestos Rookies we have to learn which guys you can race and which guys you can’t. I guess after we do that we’ll all be better because of it.”

QUESTION: HAMLIN SAID THE VIDEO GAME HELPED HIM AT POCONO.

STREMME: “You can play video games all you want but you have to have a good team behind you and good equipment. Denny commented on that at Pocono, too, where his crew chief and him were able to sit down and talk about it. They talk about the Raybestos Rookies and everything else, from my side of it, I come into the Ganassi organization. I was outsourced to Busch teams when I come in and I’m learning all kinds of new stuff where at least these guys that stayed in the same organization had notes and everything. I think that plays a big part of it. The video game probably helped a lot but you’ve got to have a good team around you.”

SORENSON: “Here’s the way I look at it. I have a motor cross game I play too and I’m pretty good at it but I can’t do it [laughter]. A video game is a video game. I’m sure that it does help a little bit. I know the computer simulators you’ve got the steering wheel, gas pedals and all that. Real life is always different than that.

STREMME: “It doesn’t teach you what it’s like in long runs and also when the groove is changing. All these guys they’ve been to the tracks and they know ‘I’ve got to catch this curb here and it will help me out.’ It was something that I think he caught on real quick with at Pocono. I think the video games are helping everywhere we’re going.”