Raybestos Rookies Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson and J.J. Yeley participated in a media function Thursday afternoon at Texas.

CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: HOW HAS YOUR STARTED GONE SO FAR? “It’s went fairly well. There’s been some bumps and bruises in the road, but they were to be expected going into this season. Last year was my first full season racing these type of cars. Last week we had a bad week. It was pretty hard competing on a racetrack that I had never even seen before. All of us Raybestos Rookies had trouble there. We were up against a pretty strong task. I’m happy to get back here to Texas. We run good on these mile-and-half racetracks. For whatever reason, our Busch car hasn’t run very well and they’re working on that. I’m very confident our Cup car will go good and I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ve got for our car tomorrow.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: “We’re definitely happy about our start in the Interstate Batteries Chevrolet. I think every race other than Daytona we’ve run in the top-10 the majority of the race, just be caught up in some kind of incident during the end of the race. Last week I got into an altercation with the infamous Kurt Busch. He won and I lost and had to go to the pits to make some changes and get the car fixed. I’m just so excited to learn in the NEXTEL Cup Series, especially for such a great team. Hopefully we can get back on track. I didn’t even know how to get to Martinsville last week. I had to call and get directions. We had an opportunity at a top-10 and come up a little bit short. I haven’t had a lot of success here at Texas but I’m going to try hard for Interstate. So far the Busch car has been extremely good. Hopefully the crew chief will talk with Steve Addington tomorrow and try to get that Cup car just as good.”

REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET DODGE: “It’s been okay. We’ve had great racecars every weekend and felt like we had a couple little problems there. We blew a tire in Daytona and at Vegas and that hurt us really bad. If we can just keep running the way our car is running, we haven’t had a winning car or anything like that, but we’ve had real good consistent cars every weekend. We’re pretty excited to come here and bring a brand new racecar. Casey ran really well here last year and I think he had his career best finishes here. I know my teammates are looking forward to running here and think the whole team is.”

YELEY: DO YOU RELY ON THE VETERAN DRIVERS ON YOUR TEAM TO HELP WITH SETUPS? “I think this is the best year for Joe Gibbs Racing because between myself and Denny and Tony, we are all comfortable with similar setups. When we show up at the racetrack, other than a couple of minor changes, the cars are almost identical. We’ll tune them at the races go on and if one of us finds something better, the other two teams will actually give it a try. That’s something that Joe Gibbs Racing has never had in the past. Bobby was on one side of the fence and Tony was the other. Now we can work a lot closer to each other and I think it’s going to make Joe Gibbs Racing that much stronger compared to what they’ve had in the past.”

BOWYER: DO YOU RELY ON THE VETERAN DRIVERS ON YOUR TEAM TO HELP WITH SETUPS? “You always go to the experience first and use their setup. Everybody has their own little things that they like to feel. As far as a starting point, you definitely go with the experience and with what’s worked in the past.”

SORENSON: DO YOU RELY ON THE VETERAN DRIVERS ON YOUR TEAM TO HELP WITH SETUPS? “That’s kind of the way we do things. Nobody has to start out with the same as anybody else, that’s for sure. You can come with any type setup you like. I know Jamie and Casey had different setups quite a bit last year and definitely tried a lot of different things. It seems like myself and Casey and David seem to have three similar setups, probably like the Gibbs cars do. I feel like Casey almost drives the car like I do. Jimmy, Casey’s crew chief last year, really hasn’t had to change too much as far as how we tune the car together and things like that. I think Casey changed the way Donnie Wingo sets his cars up a little bit. I think he’s a little closer to what Jimmy does now on some things. It’s nice to have two different opinions on a lot of things. We always sit down after practices and before the race even starts and go over everything with all three teams, all three drivers and all three crew chiefs. We go over everything we can.”

BOWYER: IS YOU CONFIDENCE LEVEL DIFFERENT LEVEL WHEN YOU RACE IN THE BUSCH SERIES? I think your confidence is bound to be higher. You’re going into familiar territory. You’ve been there, at least one year we’ve been there and know what’s going on and know what to expect. Most of the time when we go to a Cup race we don’t really know what to expect. We don’t know how those guys race at that particular racetrack and things like that. For the most part, we benefited very much from those guys coming down to the Busch Series last year. We learned how to race with them, earned their respect on their side of it, so when we came here it made the transition a little easier.”

YELEY: IS YOU CONFIDENCE LEVEL DIFFERENT LEVEL WHEN YOU RACE IN THE BUSCH SERIES? “The goal still hasn’t changed. The goal is to win races so it doesn’t matter if you’re in the Busch car on the Cup side. I think with all three of us our chances of winning the Busch race is going to be better. I think winning is still the main goal.”

BOWYER: “So you’re more confident in the Cup car than you are the Busch car?”

YELEY: “I have days. Last week I was pretty good. The Busch car is really good.”

SORENSON: “I think it depends on where you go. I’ve been places this year where I’ve gone into race weekend I didn’t really know and once I practiced I felt more comfortable in my Cup car than I did in my Busch car. It sounds backwards but it’s kind of the way things have been going this year, I don’t know why.”

BOWYER: “Either I’m crazy or they’re lying, one of the two [LAUGHS].”

YELEY: WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FRUSTRATION AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN NEXTEL CUP? “Probably not getting the respect that we deserve. You race a veteran clean because he’s a veteran, he’s earned it, and once you give that, you expect that. Sometimes you’ll be faster than someone and they won’t move over. You’ll let a veteran pass you and they’ll catch that very same driver two laps later and he won’t move over for him. I haven’t figure out how to fix that yet other than knock him off the road and ask for forgiveness the next day. For me, that’s definitely the biggest thing.”

BOWYER: WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FRUSTRATION AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN NEXTEL CUP? “I think I’ve definitely seen that same thing. You see those guys give and take with each other and then they look in the mirror and somehow they know it’s us back there and they’re attitude changes quite a bit.”

SORENSON: WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FRUSTRATION AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN NEXTEL CUP? “I would agree. Daytona was pretty frustrating this year. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to Talladega or not. It seems like anytime we have a good run going that we didn’t get any help. I don’t know about these guys, if they did or not. I think the thing about this year is that the Raybestos Rookie class is so strong. The guys are so good. A lot of the guys, veterans out there, really don’t know. I don’t think they’ve had that in the past where they’ve had so many strong rookies. Once we got into this year it seems like it’s always one of us up there running in the top-10 the whole race, if not a couple of us. I think it’s been kind of surprising to see how many good rookies there are.”

YELEY: COMMENT ON THE FACT THAT ROUSH RACING HAS SIX CARS ENTERED IN THE BUSCH RACE HERE. DOES IT MATTER TO YOU? “I don’t think it really matters. I think in every race this year they’ve had at least four. As fast as they’re cars generally are, I know they they’re track records at Texas Motor Speedway is tremendous, so I think if they just have two cars here they are still going to be the cars to beat. They still have four veterans and two Raybestos Rookies coming over so. Of course now on the other side, Bowyer has run second in points and won races. He’s no slouch. I think we all are here and can still win races but you also have to keep an eye on the Roush cars on the mile-and-a-halfs.”

BOWYER: THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT THE REJUVINATION AT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING. WHAT HAVE YOU BROUGHT TO THE TEAM? “I think just a fresh attitude, a breath of fresh air. When you struggle sometimes you try so hard that everybody is grouchy and irritable at times. The main thing is that I like to keep everybody upbeat, everybody on the same page, everybody with a pep in their step and a smile on their face. I think that goes a long ways. Attitude is a major thing is any sport, especially with a team aspect where you have so many different guys working on those cars. Everybody has got to have a positive attitude before you can move forward.”

SORENSON: DOES IT EASE YOUR LIFE AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE TO BE WITH A BIG TEAM? “In NEXTEL Cup, pretty much everybody is a big team. You don’t have many small teams out there. It seems like there is a rookie from pretty much every team. To be competitive in NEXTEL Cup it’s really tough to be with a single-car team if you run bad or something. I feel lucky to get the opportunity to be at this level of NASCAR. I know growing up that you always tried your best and always wanted to get the opportunity to do it but you really didn’t know if you were going to or not. And now that you’re finally here it’s almost like you forget about that sometimes because you’re worried about beating a guy. You’re running against 42 other guys and you’re trying to beat them. You don’t really realize who you’re racing against and you’re at the top level of NASCAR.”

BOWYER: DOES IT EASE YOUR LIFE AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE TO BE WITH A BIG TEAM? “It’s definitely a little bit of what Reed says goes a long ways off. Every team is very competitive in the Cup series but I think we’re all very fortunate to be with the teams that we are. All of us rookies, with the exception of maybe one, are with big teams that have been around for a long time in this sport and well funded. I know one rookie trying to do it on a single-car team and I think the rest of us are fortunate that we don’t have to go through that.”

YELEY: DOES IT EASE YOUR LIFE AS A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE TO BE WITH A BIG TEAM? “And they even brought in a veteran to qualify the 49 car and he missed the show. It’s hard to answer that question. Personally I’ve never been in a car that wasn’t a great stock car. I’ve always driven for Joe Gibbs Racing and I’ve never had to come through the NEXTEL Cup level with a team that might not have all the things that it takes. It definitely makes me feel special and a lot more fortunate than that person that might have the great talent but you might not see it all the time.”