Dale Earnhardt Jr. Scores First Win of the Season While Drivers Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick Follow in 2nd and 3rd to Give Monte Carlo SS a Top-Three Sweep of the Crown Royal 400

Chevrolet Scores 27th Modern Era Win (1972-Present) at Richmond International Raceway; Jimmie Johnson Sits Atop the Point Standings with Six Team Chevy Drivers in the Top 10; Chevrolet Extends Lead in Manufacturers' Cup Chase

Richmond, VA - Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS captured his first win of the season at the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Round 10 on the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series tour.

Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick captured 2nd and 3rd, respectively to give Chevrolet the top three finishing spots on the .75-mile short track.

Chevrolet has now won 27 times at Richmond International Raceway in the Modern Era (1972 - present), and continues to hold the lead in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Manufacturer's standings through the first ten races of the 2006 season.

The series moves to Darlington International raceway for Round 11 on Saturday night, May 13.

Current NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Manufacturer's Standings:
Chevrolet 74 points (6 wins)
Dodge 57 points (3 wins)
Ford 59 points (1 win)

DALE EARNHARDT JR., AND TONY EURY JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS -- RACE WINNER:

"For 80% of that race, Kevin Harvick had the best car. I made a charge on him, but he was so much better I conceded the win to him and was just going to race for second. He chose not to pit there one time and we came in and got four tires. After about 40 laps on the next restart, we went by him and that sort of cost him his opportunity. He could have came back, but it just cost him a little bit. That gave us a better track position and was a blessing to us. So we just held on the best we could. Tony Jr. made a change there on the last pit stop that helped the car a lot where it was driving a little bit better. Before he'd made change where it wasn't driving so good. So that was good. He went back on his change a little bit. And I really tried to stay out of trouble and keep it as uneventful as I could all night long. I raced as hard as I could to try to get the lead. I wanted to lead five laps. I didn't know if I'd have an opportunity to lead because Kevin was so good. So I raced as hard as I could to keep him in sight and if he faded there at the end of a run, I might be able to get a lap in or something or lead a lap. The fortune changed there at the end and there I was out there in front. "On the last few laps, I just tried to get up off the corner straight and I knew Denny (Hamlin) was maybe a little bit better than me the first couple of laps anyway. He would get under me, but wouldn't get into me. We are friends. I've known him since we raced Late Models and we hung out quite a while. So it was fun to be able to race him on this Cup level. You get to race your friends in your backyard growing up and you never imagined that the people you're going to race when you get to the top level will be your friends too. The last few laps were pretty good. I just tried to get off the corner straight. I'd pull a car length here and a car length there. With two to go, I thought I had about four car lengths and I think I've got it run."

IN VICTORY LANE DENNY HAMLIN SAID THAT YOU ASKED HIM WHY YOU DIDN'T LAY THE FENDER TO HIM. WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT NOBODY TRIED TO KNOCK YOU OUT OF THE WAY NEAR THE END? "I thought it was very clean for a short track race between the leaders for most of the night. Obviously, nobody challenged Kevin personally one-on-one. He gave up track position on that call they made not to pit. I wasn't asking him why he didn't put a bumper to me, I just asked him with four to go, I put four car lengths on him and I thought he had the better car. And so I said, 'Could you really not get to me?' And he said he was trying as hard as he could. I thought he had a better car, or maybe I was underestimating my car. When I started pulling him off of Turn 2, I thought it was going to be a little easier than I expected it to be. The first couple of laps, he was underneath me and that's what I anticipated it to be like every lap to the checkered. I was just really curious about why he couldn't get to me."

TALK ABOUT THE CALLS YOU MADE AND YOUR WIN TONIGHT:
EURY JR: "It was pretty awesome. I think Kevin had the best car there for the early part of the race. I was just kind of worried about it and thought okay, let's just get out of here with a top five. We made the car better there and I think that one pit call there where everybody came down and Kevin stayed out was probably the turning point of the race. That kind of set him up to overdrive his car a little bit the rest of the night. We had a pretty easy week here. It went really smooth. I'm pretty pumped up and glad to be back in winner's circle."

ON THE FINAL PIT STOP AND HOW THE CAR CAME ALIVE AFTER THAT:
EURY JR.: "Basically it was a pretty small adjustment. Just before that, I got him a little bit too free and he didn't like the forward bite issue we were having. I just put a half-pound in the right rear and put the bite back and it pretty much set on go. I think the biggest thing was when you see a clean race track ahead of you, that probably helps the driver out a ton. But he looked like he ran the same line all night and he didn't get choked up when the No. 11 (Hamlin) was running behind us. There really wasn't that big of a change. The car had run good all night. We just didn't have quite as good a car as the No. 29 there at the start of the race."

TALK ABOUT HOW VIRGINIA RACING FANS CAN BOOST YOUR ENERGY LEVEL AND HOW THEY WERE OUT THERE: "We sort of live next to here, so we have a good fan base. Every time I ride around the track in a pickup before the race, we get a lot of fans cheering for us before the race and that pumps you up. That gives you motivation to really get up on the wheel. This is a great race track. It's always been a great race track. It's always been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed watching the races here. Since they've changed the track and now repaved it, it's always continued to be great. They've always had a great surface that provides great racing. The facilities are nice. They do a good job. I look forward to coming here. It's one of the better tickets on the circuit. It's got to be right there with Bristol and Daytona."

ON BEING 11TH IN POINTS AT THIS TIME LAST YEAR AND BEING 6th IN POINTS NOW. IS IT TOO EARLY FOR TEAMS TO BE GETTING WORRIED ABOUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU RETURN HERE IN SEPTEMBER? "You sort of got to keep your eye on some of these guys because you know how capable they are that aren't in the top 10 right now. The stability I have now with this team versus where I was last year is a lot better. I think anybody on that team last year would admit that this is a better situation for success and for continued success so we'll be able to maintain. If we start to slip through the standings I got confidence in Tony Jr. to make the right decisions within the walls of the shop, within the components of that race car to do what it takes to put us in position to win to get to where we need to be. I can drive the car as hard as I can drive every lap. Whether I do it right or not, I don't know. Sometimes I get the job done. Even when time is running out in practice and we're not where we need to be, he (Tony Jr.) always thinks or finds something right there at the end that we can all be satisfied with.

"I feel real comfortable making the Chase even if we find ourselves in the middle of the summer slipping. I think that something will click in his head that will make sure we get there and we're right there where we need to be."

ON FANS NOT KNOWING WHO TO CHEER FOR AT THE END AS HE WAS COMPETING WITH DENNY HAMLIN FOR THE WIN: "I don't know. I was pulling for Denny too. There was a part of me that wanted to see him get the win. This is his hometown and he's got a lot of family (here). He said some 400 tickets he's got for family and friends and relatives. I told him it might just be his fan club. He's a good guy and a good friend. I'm sure it was divided down the middle and they would have been happy either way because Denny sure has earned his position in this sport. He's going to win a lot of races and be real successful. I was real happy with the run we had this evening. I hate to lose races in the last 10 laps but if we had run second or third we'd still have a lot to be proud of. But to get the win and to race your friend for it, it's a lot of fun."

ON GETTING CLOSE TO KEVIN HARVICK AND IF HE WAS TRYING TO TAKE THE LEAD OR WAIT AND GET HIM LATER: "We were running together earlier in the race before that incident. I felt like he was going to be hard to beat. He just really had a great car on new tires. We weren't going to be fortunate enough to have a long enough run to catch him. I thought it was better at the end of the run but we had cautions and so we never got to see that gap close up and never got to challenge him for that position. When I got into him, he had the four older tires. He had 40 more laps on his tires. I come off the corner and I must have misjudged on how long my car is because I stuck him in the left rear corner with the headlight and he waved out the window like what are you doing. I was like I'm not really in a position to pass you down here so I'm going to get back behind you. Then I noticed the 5 and 11 were out there so I let them go by. I thought they would run him real hard on the inside and burn their stuff up and I'd just go back by them on the outside and maybe pass Kevin when his tires were about 20 more laps older. That was sort of our plan but 11 was pretty good. He was running the bottom and got by all of us. I was trying to chase him down which I thought I was starting to do and the caution came out again.

"Kevin was on the older tires and I thought if we were going to beat him, that was a pretty easy way to do it for him to be out there on old tires and it cost him some track position and we were able to come back out there and grab the lead. He had new tires there at the end and his car just wasn't quite as good. Like Tony Jr. said, you put a guy out front, it makes it a little easier. You've got clean air. Maybe that's the difference. Maybe me and the 29 have equal cars, just depending on who was in the clean air."

WHAT'S CHANGED SO MUCH WITH YOUR TEAM OVER THE LAST YEAR? "At this point last year I really had a question mark on what caliber of team I was with. I was sort of in limbo as to what I needed to do to be better. We hadn't run well. We hadn't finished well. I was struggling as a driver. My car was struggling. So I was nowhere near in the position I am now as far as my confidence and how I feel about my team now. What's changed is a lot of things. We definitely have some people around. I don't think that we have put better people in. It's just sort of a chemistry we have now within the guys. We actually took everybody that really wanted to be there and put them together for this season. We've got a lot of guys that are really enjoying what they are doing. I can even see a different side of their faces and their eyes at the race track versus '04 even when we were winning six races and doing great. You just see a little bit more enjoyment out of what they're doing each week. They do get along better. When they come to the track they have more confidence in their cars. I have more confidence in the equipment and the cars. I have more confidence in Tony Jr. than I had before. There's just a better, more positive feeling about it. Even when we have the weeks we've had at Phoenix and Talladega, we were disappointed because we know our potential. We knew our potential and we knew we should have run better and finished better. It's good to be able to get out and get a win every once in a while, if not more often to be able to back up your confidence and back up how you feel about your team and how you feel about your cars."

HAVE YOU EVER RACED DENNY HAMLIN FOR A VICTORY EVEN IF IT WAS FOR A VIDEO GAME? "Every time I raced him in video games, I won. If I wasn't going to win, I made sure he lost. We raced a lot of times on video games, I mean a lot. We've had some pretty fun races. Otherwise I've never really raced against him aside from when he beat me and Tony (Stewart) there at the (Budweiser) Shoot-Out earlier this year.

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 2nd

ON HIS RUN: "It was a great run for us. I definitely would rather run second here than I would the Daytona 500 regardless of money or anything. This race is that special to me, both Richmond races are. There's no other person I would rather be racing for the win there at the end. I'm sure he was thinking the exact same thing I was as far as how I was going to race him. He knew I was going to put the bumper to him if I ever got to him. He asked me even in Victory Lane when I went over there and said 'Man why didn't you lay into me?' I said, 'Man if I had the chance, I would have.' It was definitely going to be a whole lot more physical had I had a little bit better car."

WAS THE INJURY TO YOUR HAND A FACTOR AT ALL TONIGHT? "No. Last night it might have been a small factor there at the end of the race. I had quite a bit of soreness. I woke up today just feeling really, really good. My hand had a lot more flexibility than what I had yesterday. The whole Joe Gibbs training group helped me out and really wrapped it up good tonight. Man I did not feel anything at all."

ON YOUR EMOTIONS RACING HERE AT RICHMOND: "It's a huge boost. I feel like this is a race we definitely spend a lot of time focusing on. It doesn't pay anymore, points doesn't pay any more money than the other ones. To have the hometown crowd cheering you on is a big deal. I saw all the cheers when me and Dale Jr. were side-by-side there with a few laps to go. I'm sure most of the cheers were for him but all I could do was imagine in my mind they for me and try that much harder."

WHEN YOU WERE OUT FRONT DID YOU THINK YOU COULD HOLD OFF EVERYONE OR DID YOU KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT? "I felt like had we gone to the end of the race right there that it was our race to lose. The 8 car started running back to me just a little bit. I was in really severe tire saving mode just in case that race went all the way green. My pit crew does any excellent job all the time. We just got out of pit road there third. Track position means so much here. I spent too much trying to get by those cars to try to get back to the 8. Our car was so good on long runs, had we come out leading the race I probably could have fended those guys off and gone ahead and won the race but it's hard to do when your car comes in so late. Those guys get stretched out and all you can is try to pick them off when you can."

WHERE DOES THIS RANK IN YOUR NASCAR CAREER? "This is by far the biggest race of my career. It's something that's very special and to have so many friends and family here, it's awesome. I can't tell you how I feel. I'll be riding this wave for months to come. I'm so happy for the FedEx employees and everything. Those people didn't have much to cheer for last year and this year I get so many letters and everything and so much support from those people. I'm excited to give them something to cheer about."

FOR A SHORT TRACK RACE, DID THIS RACE SEEM CLEANER WITH LESS BEATING AND BANGING? "One thing I noticed about this race track is the groove moved up way higher than it ever has in the past so I think the cars were able to get spread out more than what they had before. A lot of times there were just two grooves here so when you went to go try to pass somebody, you almost had to lay into them to get around them and that's what caused a lot of wrecks. I feel like there were a lot of different grooves. I could run the bottom. I was really good on the bottom late in the run and I could run the top middle of the run. I just feel like the cars got more spread out this race than what they had in the past."

ON RUNNING THE BOTTOM. IS THAT MORE YOUR STYLE OR JUST THE WAY IT WORKED OUT? "I was surprised that nobody else really got their car working on the bottom. At times we were running a lot faster when I moved up to the middle groove. I moved around different lines every single lap. I would just wait on Mike (Ford, crew chief) to tell me 'Hey, that was a good lap right there' and I'd try to repeat it wherever I seemed to run and it always seemed to be the bottom. There with about 50 to go, I think the 5 was racing the 29 for the lead and I caught those two. I think the 5 was running the middle and the 29 was running the third groove up high. It just allowed me to run my bottom groove like I had all night. I think I passed them both within a lap so it was definitely a great handling race car."

WHERE THERE ANY NERVES RUNNING YOUR FIRST NASCAR NEXTEL CUP RACE HERE? "I'll tell you what. When I took the lead from 29 I literally felt my heart beat in my foot shaking on the gas pedal.

"You know there's a long way to the end and a lot of things could happen but I could just feel myself lifting off the gas pedal down the straightaway because my foot was shaking so hard. It's hard to keep your nerves all together. I'm sure years down the road in my career I won't think so much of it. It'll just be one of those normal races and hopefully it will just be one win of many. Definitely for your first win you're trying that extra hard. You never know maybe if I didn't try as hard I wouldn't have burned myself up and (would have) ended up winning the race."

ON THE LAST 15 LAPS, WAS THERE A SENSE THIS WAS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GET DALE EARNHARDT JR.? "I noticed the 8 car on restarts. He would really slide up really bad for the first two laps. I felt like if I could get a really good bite on the bottom then maybe I could get beside him. As he would pull away off the corner maybe I could kind of nudge the side of him and keep him from pulling away from me. I definitely didn't want to risk cutting a tire or messing him up. Last thing I want to do is wreck Dale Jr. I have a decent fan base now. I don't want to kill it. It was really great. I did feel a sense of urgency when I got beside him with about five to go and I really thought I had the race won. I was for sure that he was going to slide up and I was going to be able to clear him. It's just one of those things where it will pay off in the long run to race those guys clean. Hopefully they do it to me in the same situation later."

WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? "We feel like we're a Chase car. We feel like we're a top 10 car every week. We've just had a lot of bad luck. Starting the race at Phoenix, which is a track just like this, on seven cylinders we never really got to show our potential but we knew we had a great handling race car. That's why we were so excited to come here. Atlanta (we were) leading a lot of that race and had two cut tires. Then Martinsville getting in the top 10 and (we) cut a tire and wreck. We've had kind of that Greg Biffle luck, not as far as he's taken it, but we've had a lot of good runs too. I don't know where we're at in points but we're definitely steps towards that top 10."

ON YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH DALE EARNHART JR.: "Me and him became friends before I even became a NASCAR driver.

"He invited me to come to his motorhome in Daytona the year that he won. I think it was '03, '04 or something like that. It was the first time I really hung around a NASCAR driver. I think he respected me more because we had a friendship level beyond racing. Once I did become a driver for Gibbs he was really trying to get me over there at DEI. I definitely felt like Joe Gibbs Racing were the ones who I needed to look out for. They gave me my very first ride. It's a team I'm going to stick with for years. But to go back to him, we spend a lot of time off the race track hanging out with each other doing a lot of things other than racing. Hopefully this is just a race among friends."

ON VIRGINIA RACE FANS: "I couldn't tell you how many people I had patting me on the back this week. I never heard one negative thing. You're not going to make everybody happy. Even though you're in your hometown, there's going to be people who you are upset because you couldn't give an autograph to (them) at one place or another. I'm definitely not afraid to come out in my hometown. Every time I do I get mobbed but I don't care. This is what I signed up for. This is something I love to do. I'm going to stay grounded and I'm going to come visit anytime I can because it wasn't too long ago I was one of those race fans."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - WINNER

ON BEING BACK TO VICTORY LANE: "It feels great especially with the company I'm with. Tony (Eury) Jr. did a good job calling the race. My team did great on the pit stops. I was real proud of the race car. It says a lot about the guys back at the shop putting the car together and calling the set-up plate and everything. I really didn't have to work real hard. The car was real easy to tune. I'm just real proud of the job everybody did at DEI. The motor was really good. I'm real proud of the engine. We made some great strides there. Those guys should be really happy with all the hard work and late nights. We're having fun and finally winning some races. This is a great deal for our team."

WHERE DOES THIS PUT YOU TO BE A CONTENDER AGAIN FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "I think we're there. We keep taking our shots and winning a race here and there. We're pretty competitive and I'm real proud of the team I got. I've got a great group of guys.

"I really enjoy coming to the race track with this group. I sort of learned a lot last year with the group I was with to teach me to really appreciate good people. It's kind of carried over into this season. Everything is really working great. I couldn't ask for any position on this team and in the shop to be better. I'm just really happy with the effort everybody has given me. I try to go out there and drive it as hard as I can every lap. I hope the fans enjoyed the race. It was a fun race for me. I'm just glad to be back in Victory Lane. It just really feels good."

ON RACING DENNY HAMLIN FOR THE WIN: "Well I can appreciate Denny racing in front of his home crowd. A little part of me wanted to see him get the win here but I didn't want to be the guy he had to pass. Denny's a real great friend. He's a good, smart racer. He's going to win a lot of races. He's going to have a successful career. I was just real glad to be able to race him. You want to race against your friends and be with your friends. It's kind of a gift at this level to be able to do that. I had a lot of fun tonight." (more to follow)

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 2ND

"First of all, I couldn't tell you how many times me and him (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) been in that situation on the computer. I usually get the best of him but he got the best of me tonight. If I could just get to him. I just wanted to race side-by-side with him those last few laps. He was just too strong. I want to thank everybody for supporting me over the years - FedEx, Chevrolet, all those people behind, Joe Gibbs Racing. I'm just happy to be here."

WHAT'S IT MEAN TO RUN WELL TONIGHT AT HOME? "It means a lot. It seems like I struggle at this place every time I come here. I put too much pressure on myself it seems like. When you have a great car like Mike Ford (crew chief) and those guys put under me, it makes my job a lot easier. They definitely made me look good today."

HOW'S THE INJURED HAND? "The hand is good. It stings a little bit right now but I was feeling no pain." (more to follow)

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 3rd:

"It was a good finish for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. We just got tight there at the end and lost a little bit of speed. We were short on fuel and just hoping for another caution."

DID YOU GET TIGHT: "Yeah, we got tight."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 5TH

"It was a good night, definitely a great night for the Kellogg's Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS and everybody on the team. They gave me some awesome, good stops on pit road today. It was great. I can't thank those guys enough. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made some great calls for me during the race and gave us a better handling race car. All is well. We came from the middle to the back side of the pack and kind of made our way up towards the front a little bit. We had a mediocre day but we ended up fifth and we're proud of it."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 6TH:

"It started off really, really bad. We were really off the mark. The car just would not get in the race track. But as the night kept going on, we kept working on it and almost got another top-five out of it. So, not too disappointed at all."

JOE GIBBS, JOE GIBBS RACING:

"Just a great night for both those cars. A great effort by the teams. Denny, this is like his home track. He gave it everything he had. I thought we had a chance all the way to the very end, and FedEx was all excited about that. And Home Depot too, because they had a great night again with Tony. Tony is getting close - moved us up to second in points, so that's exciting. So we're all excited about Darlington and going into Charlotte, because I think we've got good cars there too."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 12TH

"It was just a hard fought day. We were a little off at the beginning. We got down a lap. We fought our way back and got back in the thick of things at the end. I think we could have been in the top 10 but I just kind of ran out of laps. I'm very proud of the effort. It wasn't an easy night by any means but everybody did a good job."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 15th:

ON BEING 12th IN POINT STANDINGS: "We did a nice job with the car tonight. And we did a terrible job with everything else. We pitted. The pits weren't open. We had bad pit stops. Everything that we did -- short of getting the car to work good -- was wrong. And out pit crew had been awesome; I'm not down on them. It's just that because the No. 29 (Harvick) had trouble, we were going to be in position to win the race. The last run, the car was so fast. We were the very best when it counted and with decent pit stops and without us being on pit road, we restart third and have a legitimate change to win the race. So, I'm pretty disappointed; but, a bad night could have been way worse. We finished 15th. We soldiered through. I'm disappointed, but optimistic all at the same time."

ON THAT LAST INCIDENT: "Something happened in front. I turned left and Mark (Martin) turned more left and it was just everybody trying to go through a wreck. Nobody did anything wrong. It just happened. But I'm just disappointed. We just made the car better, and better, and better and better and short of the No. 29, we were as good as anybody. And when the No. 29 had his trouble, we were position to win the race."

THE RCR CARS WERE STRONG. IS THIS JUST ANOTHER SIGN OF THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION HAVING THE PROGRAM ALL TOGETHER? "We don't have it all together. We've made a big gain. We've done a nice job of getting better in many areas. But having it all together is when you lead every lap and win races every weekend, and your never going to be there. So we've made a gain on it, but there are still some teams that are a step ahead of us -- maybe not a step ahead of the No. 29; the No. 29 is right there. We're off just a touch. But we're close. We've struggled. We've run well all year. We just got into some wrecks and stuff -- two that weren't our fault -- and then we had a tire problem that wasn't our fault. And boom, three bad races in a row and there you are. We've just got to go to work and get a little better, but I'm very optimistic."

ON EVERYBODY WORKING HARD AT RCR: "Everybody has raised his hand and asked what I can do to help and to make the company better and I think we're making major strides. But I'm not above anybody and I'm playing my part. Certainly my experience can help us and I do seem to have a pretty good ability to talk to people about things that are controversial about having a controversial conversation.

"And that helps us because when you have 360 employees, everybody's not going to be on the same page all the time and everybody is going to have different ideas. And when you do that, if you can keep your heads together and understand that everybody is working for the same goal, you can make yourself better. So I'm comfortable with my position there and we'll just try to add all we can."

TRAVIS KVAPIL, NO. 32 TIDE MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 27th:

"After our stop (lap 289), we hit on the set-up and that's awesome when building a notebook on what works for us. I'm really looking forward to coming back here. It's a shame we didn't hit on it sooner because our car was running with the guys in the top 10...top 15 there in the end. We just lost two laps there in the first half of the race and that kept us from a top-10 finish at least. No complaints though, we did a good job and we leave here with 27th. Not bad."