KEVIN HARVICK GIVES MONTE CARLO SS ITS 10TH POLE OF '2006

HARVICK CAPTURES POLE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

ALL CHEVY FRONT ROW TO LEAD START OF SYLVANIA 300

Loudon, NH: Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Reese's Monte Carlo SS, captured the pole for Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS). It is his fifth NASCAR Nextel Cup Series career pole and his first of the 2006 season. It is the 10th pole of the 2006 NNCS season for the Bowtie brand.

Completing the all Chevy will be Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS. Harvick's lap of 28.893 seconds, 132.282 mph, was over one-tenth of a second quicker than Gordon, who sat on the fastest time for over half of the qualifying session.

A total of five Monte Carlo SS drivers will start in the top-10 of the 43-car field for Sunday's race. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Monte Carlo SS will start fifth. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS will roll off seventh and Robby Gordon, No. 7 Jim Beam Monte Carlo SS secured ninth in the starting order.

The Sylvania 300 is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday with live TV coverage on TNT. MRN Radio and XM Satelitte Radio will bring the action live to radio listeners.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 2nd:

"That lap was for Steve Letarte (crew chief). He is a local New England boy from up here. This is kind of like his home track. He has been doing an awesome job with this DuPont Chevrolet team. We are fired up about the Chase and being in it and running for the Championship. We missed it a little bit the last time we were here so the guys went to work on those areas and they gave me a great car to drive. The car just felt great. I didn't want to overdrive it. I got it in there deep but I was able to get back on the throttle quick and that is the kind of car I have had all day. I hope it continues like that all weekend. We are certainly going to work hard on it. It was a lot of fun and we put up a good number, so we are pretty pleased. We gave it everything we had and that is all we could ask for. It is a good way to get started in the Chase. I hope it continues all weekend."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REESE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Pole Winner

"It was a good lap for our Reese's Chevrolet, but the driver didn't get it all off of two, I just kind of rolled in to the throttle and didn't put it down all the way. Good lap through three and four and the first lap wasn't too bad. I am just really proud of all my guys on this team. Hopefully it will stick. If I had it to do over again, I think I could do better. It is was a really good lap, I just didn't feel like I got it all but it is ok."

ON PUTTING A PIE IN DENNY HAMLIN'S FACE ON PIT ROAD: "Denny got me with a pie on the Regis and Kelly show when we were in New York the other day and I didn't say anything. I just waited until the opportune moment and I got even, it was pretty cool. I am all about this stuff. If it continues, we will just keep playing the game and try to stay one notch up."

ON NHIS SPEEDWAY: "Personally for me I have always enjoyed coming here. Always have, even when it was flat and before they re-banked it. It has always been a good place for us. Now we just have to play the pit strategy right and put ourselves in position for the end of the race."

POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO - Qualified 2nd:

ON IMPORTANCE OF STARTING UP FRONT AT NHIS: "Pit selection is really important and just to put yourself in position to lead a lap and get bonus points. Although there are cars who can come from the back and work their way to the front doesn't mean it is easy and doesn't mean you aren't going to get caught up in something. You would always rather start up front.

ON SURPRISE OF HOW FAST THE LAP KEVIN HARVICK TURNED TO CAPTURE POLE: "He was on my radar. He was good in practice, I think he was second or third and they have been running strong. I didn't know I was going to get beat that bad. I knew we had picked up from practice and I was happy. Of course, anytime you go out there and you put a good number up, you can't help but get your expectations up a little bit. It was a bit of a letdown to not get the pole because I haven't gotten a pole this year, but in all honestly, anywhere up front is good. That front row is a great starting place. It is a huge improvement for us from the last time we were here. The car is driving good so I am happy. If I can gone out last and qualified second and been off by a tenth or whatever it was, then I would have been happy, But when you are up there on top and get knocked off, then you are a little bit disappointed."

ON HAVING RACES WHERE THERE IS NO QUALIFYING: "My thing is we all go in to the Duals (Twin 150s) at Daytona sweating it because that is our Daytona 500 car and we don't want to put a scratch on it. You go out there taking big risks to be tearing up your race car and having to have a lot of work ahead of you to start the race. I think because these are stock cars and we bump and bang and rub as much as we do, if that were the case on more weekends, you would see grinders and tools in the garage prior to race day. I think it is cool they do the Duals at Daytona but to do it more weekends than that other than maybe the All Star weekend, I don't think we would all like that very much."

ON WEAKEST POINT OF QUALIFYING LAP: "I didn't get to see my lap on TV so I don't know what the pace chase or whatever we call that thing is. I did watch Harvick's lap and saw where it went green up off. I felt like I could have gotten into the corners a little bit deeper and could have squeezed the throttle a little bit harder. But all in all, I was very happy with my lap. You've got to give credit to those guys. They did their job. Kevin did his job. It was a heck of a lap. I didn't think anybody would run a .79 today, I'll be honest. Yes, it went green off of Turn 2, but it doesn't mean that he didn't also run faster in Turn 3 and 4. That thing is a little misleading at times. It's a little bit delayed. And at the same time, it's not always as accurate as what we'll get from the telemetry and the segment times."

CAN YOU DESRIBE YOUR FRAME OF MIND NOW GETTING READY FOR THE CHASE COMPARED TO LAST YEAR, AND WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO SUCCEED? "We're fired up as a team. We've made a lot of changes. What Kurt (Busch) is going through now is what we did last year. We did a lot of testing and changes and trying experimental things last year; what we liked and what we didn't like when we hit on some things and when we missed some things. But I think it got us more prepared and it's obvious because we're in the Chase this year. For us, it wasn't disappointing because we just missed the Chase because we weren't competitive. We weren't battling for wins. We weren't consistent enough to be in the Chase. This year, we've got to step it up another notch. But what a huge improvement over last year. A lot of crazy things can happen in these last 10 races. Are we the best or the fastest car out there? I'm not sure. But I think we've got a lot of potential to be great and to be consistent and to do some things that a lot of people might not think that we can. So, we'll just go out there just like we did today and work as hard as we can to get the car the best every single lap and do the best we can and hopefully not make mistakes and see where we end up."

WAS LOUDON THE MOST CHAOTIC RACE OF THE CHASE THE PAST 2 YEARS? "This is a little bit like a short track because it's not an easy place to pass, so you'll see some bumping and banging and things happen. Crazy things are capable of happening any weekend. And will they happen this week? You've got guys who are battling for a championship. You've got guys that are trying to get themselves back into that form where they need to be to win races. You've got guys in the back of the pack trying to get into the top 35 in points as well as guys trying to get to 11th. So there are several different races going on. It's not just 10 guys out there racing. Any time you have that, you can have some craziness."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REESE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Pole Winner (5th Cup career pole)

ON QUALIFYING LAP: "It was a good lap- but I actually came on the radio and told the guys I was sorry because I didn't get everything I needed to get in one and two when I got back in the throttle. Turns three and four were extremely good both laps and felt like our car is really good. I told Todd (Berrier, crew chief) and the guys that if they can make me qualify good, they are doing something really right, because I am not the world's greatest qualifier. It has been a really good weekend so far. The car unloaded really well and was really good in race trim. When we put it in qualifying trim it ran really well there too. We are looking forward to Sunday."

ON BEING JUST FIFTH CAREER POLE: "I really don't care about qualifying to tell you the truth. I should put more emphasis on it and I don't. It doesn't seem like it really affects what we do. To start up front here where it is tough to pass is good. It always seems like track position means as much as anything and is really important. To have the first pit stall and have the track position right off the bat, hopefully will be an advantage.

ON SEAN CAISSE DRIVING KHI BUSCH CAR NEXT WEEK: "We are looking forward to having Sean in the car next week. I think he has potential to make it in this sport. He has a swagger to him and I like that. He has a little bit of an attitude and I think that is what you need to be good is to know you are good and he has that."

ON INCENTIVE TO QUALIFY WELL HERE: "I think there is just a lot on the line right now. We are out there racing for a championship. We sent Richard (Childress) hunting this week so I figured since we sent him hunting, I need to at least step up and try to qualify. Not that I don't try, I just overdrive or under drive the thing. It just doesn't seem like I can find a good balance to have to do good qualifying. The guys built me a brand new car to come here and race and we went and tested. So when it is comfortable and you can drive it, you can do good things. It is nice to overdrive it and have it sticks."

ON SUCCESS IN BUSCH CHANGING ANYTHING IN CUP CAR: "This week, I have been really bored and I don't have anything to do so I have been over aggravating (Ron) Hornaday and those guys on the truck. I drag Todd (Berrier) with me and others to find something to do. I think I have heard Mark Martin say this a lot, the Busch car running good is probably one of the reasons I have been able to keep my job so long. When you run good on Saturday, you don't question yourself in the seat. You know you can run good, you know you can be competitive, you know you can beat a lot of the same guys you race with on Sunday. The competition level is a little bit steeper on Sunday, but it is a definite confidence builder when the Busch car runs good on Saturday."

ON TEAM TURN AROUND WITH ADDITION OF MORE GINEERING STAFF TO INCLUDE KEVIN BUSKIRK: "I think the biggest thing he brings to our team is experience from the engineering side of it. We have a couple of engineers now on our team. He is a good one for Todd to bounce ideas off because he has been a crew chief and understands the pluses and minuses of things. He is good for me because he doesn't beat around the bush. He will tell me where I am at, where my corner speeds are and he will be honest with me and I like that. He thinks he has added another element to what we are doing and I think that is really good for us."

ON BEING ON A ROLL RIGHT NOW: "Right now things are just going really well and when you have momentum on your side, it is something you can't buy. You can't necessarily figure out how you got it, where you got it, it is just one of those things. The performance of our cars has been really good all year. In the beginning of the year, we had things kind of not go our way. We crashed but the performance of the cars kept us up where we needed to be. I have been on both sides of this deal, I have ridden the wave as it is crashing down and as it is going up. I have learned to enjoy it while you can, to try to take advantage of what you have.