Tony Stewart Wins at Texas Driving Same Monte Carlo SS That Captured Win One Week Ago at Atlanta: Fifth Victory This Season for Two-Time NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion; Chevy Captures Top-Six Finishing Positions and Eight of Top-10 in Finishing Order

Jimmie Johnson Takes Over Chase Championship Lead by 17 Points With Two Races Remaining; Four Chevy Drivers Sit Top-Five in Standings

Ft. Worth - Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Monte Carlo SS, took his now favorite Monte Carlo SS to victory lane for the second consecutive week in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). This is the same race car Stewart won with at Kansas Speedway in early October.The win was the fifth of the 2006 season for the two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS). It is the 29th victory of Stewart's NNCS career and first at TMS.

Stewart's win brings the total 2006 NNCS Chevy victories to 22, tying the most wins in a season by the Bowtie brand in the Modern Era. Chevrolet drivers took the checkered flag 22 times in 1980 and again in 2004.Team Chevy drivers scored eight of the top-10 finishing positions, including finishing positions one through six, in tonight's 339-lap race, extended five laps beyond the scheduled 334 laps due to a late race caution

Stewart led eight times for 278-laps and claimed the bonus points for the most laps led tonight. He remains firmly in 11th position in the points and on target for the $1 million year-end points' fund check at season's end.

With his runner-up finish tonight, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS, reclaimed the lead in the Chase for the Nextel Cup standings by 17 points with two races to go in the season. Johnson has scored back-to-back second place finishes giving him 12 top-five finishes for the season and his fourth consecutive first or second place finish.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS, finished third and moved himself up to fifth in the standings, 105 points out of the lead in the Chase.

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS, finished fourth in the race and moved to eighth in the standings, 233 out of the top spot.Raybestos Rookie contender

Clint Bowyer, No. 07 Jack Daniel's Monte Carlo SS scored his fourth top-five finish of the season. The solid run came on the heals of his Friday night win in the Silverado 350K.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS, finished sixth in tonight's race and moved to third in the Chase standings, 78 points behind the leader.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS, finished eighth in the Dickies 500 and moved to seventh in the standings, 178 points behind the leader.

Raybestos Rookie Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Monte Carlo SS, finished tenth when the checkered flag flew tonight. He dropped one spot in the points to fourth, but sits just 80 points behind the leader.

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS, suffered a blown right front tire early in the race. He lost 60 laps in the garage while the career made repairs. He could salvage just a 38th place finish and dropped to seventh in the points 184 points out of the lead.

Chevrolet has locked up the 2006 Manufacturers' Cup. The standings following today's race are: Chevrolet, 264 points (22 wins); Dodge, 195 points (7 wins) and Ford, 187 points (5 wins).

Race number 35 of the season and the ninth race in the Chase will be November 12, 2006 at Phoenix International Raceway.

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Winner

ON BEING IN SHAPE AND LOOKING GOOD OUT THERE: "Yeah thanks, I'm feeling good in the race car too. It's showing on the race track and all these guys behind us. They're the ones who won the race this race today. The first time we came in we were second and we never lost a spot after that so it's all due to these guys behind me on the pit crew. This win is really due to Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief). We didn't have the car driving exactly like we wanted last night and we made some changes late last night. We made some changes between last night and this morning and this thing was perfect.

"I've been racing 27 years and I can count on two hands the amount of times that I've had a car that was as good as this one was tonight. It's just an honor to drive a car when it's that nice. You really feel fortunate and you cherish days like today."

ON THE LAST RESTART AND KNOWING THE 48 WAS HUNGRY AND PROBABLY HAD BETTER TIRES: "Yeah but I don't think he had much after leading all those laps. I wasn't giving nothing up either so I don't think he was going to take any chances. He had a good day today too so it was a big day for both of us. The biggest focus was trying not to spin the tires on the restart. I figured if I could get it in turn one clean that I'd be able to run my line and I'd be fine but it was just a matter of getting it from turn four to the start finish line in good shape."

ON THIS RACE CAR: "Yeah, it's going to Homestead. I can promise you that. I don't care what the crew chief says. I'm driving this car at Homestead (laughs). He better get it ready. There's just something about this car. I'm not one of those guys that's ever said I had a favorite car but last year we had a car that was really, really good everywhere we went and this year this car has run three races and has three wins now so there's obviously something to it. The balance of it is always really good. I don't know if it's a percentage of aero balance or what but it's just one of those cars that is always comfortable everywhere we run with it."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 2nd

"Man, what a night of racing. I can't believe how fast we were running around this race track as we were driving. I'm just so proud of this race team. This race team never gives up. We're working hard and doing a great job. It was a good night for us. I'm mentally tapped after this one."

ON BEING THE CURRENT POINTS LEADER: "That's great. We just hope we can lead this thing at the end of the year. That's the goal. Our guys are doing awesome and we've raced our way back into this and that's something I'm very proud of. Regardless of how this turns out this Lowe's team and Chevrolet has been awfully strong and I'm very proud of these guys."

ON TAKING FOUR TIRES ON THE LAST PIT STOP AND KNOWING TONY STEWART MAY TAKE TWO: "Well I didn't realize everybody else was taking two until I got on the track and saw I was pretty far behind. I thought that might not have been a good idea but then with the restarts here at the end the end the four tires helped me out a lot and I was able to at least get back to where I was before our pit stop."

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

"Yeah, it was a good run for us. We kind of fought the car all night and we kept adjusting on it and trying to make it better and better. We got towards the end there and put two tires on it expecting to go to the end and came out there with a top three finish so a good night for us all around."

ON WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE 10 CAR: "He pretty much got loose and crammed to the bottom and I committed to go low and he got loose and I got into him and he wrecked."

ON THE CHASE: "We're just going to keep at it. That's all you can do."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 8th

"We started off incredible. I was so pumped about the way we started the day off driving from 23rd up there to inside the top 10. We got in the top five at one time but for some reason after that we were never really that good. We hung in the top five because of track position there for a while and tried to make some bigger adjustments to get the car better and just kept losing the handling on it. Unfortunately it wasn't what we were looking for but at the same time we got a top 10. That's good for us here today."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 6th

HOW DO YOU FEEL? "I drank so many fluids, I just had a hard day. The first part of the race it wasn't very good at all. But the guys worked on the car and I got to feeling better halfway through the race. And the last half of the race we were fine. I'm just sorry we didn't do any better than we did. We really couldn't get a hold of the car. The No. 07 got right up on me there. I did the same thing to the No. 16 here a year ago and I couldn't believe how quick it spun me around there and we got in the fence. The guys worked on it and fixed it. And I want to thank them. It's a great race car and hopefully we can have it repaired for Homestead."

WERE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW GOOD THE CAR ACTUALLY WAS AFTER YOU WERE BACK IN 34TH AND MADE SIX STOPS TO REPAIR IT? "I've seen these guys fix some wrecked race cars before. And they've got a great habit of still having that little glimmer of hope that that thing might handle all right. And a lot of teams will just ride it out. These guys stick it out and you can hear it in their voices that they anticipate the car to drive the same, so I go out there and try to make it happen. It was a good race. I'm real proud of my team. It was a good effort for us with all that we went through."

ON BEING SICK 'The first part of the race, I was a mess. It was grueling for me. I could concentrate for about three laps and then I'd have two laps to where I just couldn't get nothing done and I was just all over the place just feeling sick. I got that out of my system somehow or another. Hitting the fence sort of woke us all up a little bit. But it's a shame that I had to put that car through that. That's a great race car. It's a good finish for us, and hopefully Tony (Eury) Jr. and the guys can fix it.

"Physically, it was pretty tough. But the last half of the race I was fine. We knocked the crush panels out and got a little carbon monoxide - sort of like taking a Valium. It kind of gave me a little bit of a pace there. I had a real bad case of heartburn all weekend from drinking so many power drinks trying to put my fluids back in me. I was just so full of fluids and the first couple of corners, man, it was just all coming back up."

TALK ABOUT BEING JUST 78 POINTS BEHIND THE LEADER IN THE CHASE: "I'm really glad that we're close and have that opportunity. That's what you shoot for. We've got some hard, tough teams to beat. But we're putting up a great fight, I think, looking at the two races where I made the mistake in Martinsville and then the Talladega race. I think we're putting up a great fight. I don't think anybody anticipating this team running as strong every week. We all probably agreed on a few tracks we'd run good at, but I don't think anybody anticipated running great every week. So, I'm proud of my team."

HOW SIGNIFICANT WAS THE 4-TIRE CHANGE NEAR THE END? "It wasn't that significant. We had that wreck off of Turn 4 and I run it through the grass and I hit the frame rail on that go-kart track and tore the car all to heck. It was just vibrating and shaking them last couple of laps.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU GOT INTO THE WALL? "I was just going along. We had been really loose in and really loose off and a little tight in the center. We were trying to figure out what to do to fix those problems. And Clint Bowyer came up on me and we kind of crossed paths on the exit of the corner and man, it just took the air right off my car and I went into the fence. I've had that happen. I've been on Clint's side of that. And it's off that corner - that very corner with Greg Biffle a year ago. Man it takes off. The track was really slick tonight. I couldn't get off none of the corners and was real tight in the center and loose in and we really couldn't fix none of my issues. We were probably going to finish third or fourth if we hadn't hit the wall, but it was a great comeback."

DID YOU THINK YOU'D BE ABLE TO MAKE THAT SURGE? "No, I thought maybe we'd be great if we could finish 15th."

WHAT DOES IT SAY FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM TO BE ABLE TO FINISH 6TH? "I hope it says a lot. We've been called a lot of things and it would be great to be called resilient. This team is very strong and very dedicated. They carry me whenever I need it and vice-versa and it helps to have that. It really, really does."

DID YOU HAVE A RELIEF DRIVER? "No, I didn't think I needed one. Man, if I wasn't racing for a championship, I might have. We talked about it. But Tony Jr. won't allow me to do that. He's going to push me. I wasn't in that bad a shape to need a race driver."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHT ON THE CHASE WITH TWO TO GO? "We'll just keep working hard. Hopefully the chips fall in our favor."

CAN YOU WIN IT? "Yeah, I think so. We finish pretty well every week. We should be way out ahead if we can change a few things."

ARE YOU GLAD TONY STEWART IS NOT IN THE CHASE? "Yeah. Absolutely. He's looking great."

TONY RAINES, No. 96 DLP HDTV CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"We had a pretty steady night. We started deep in the field and slowly worked our way up to 20th or so. We got boxed in the pits a couple of times tonight and that really hurt us. We had about a 13th or 15th-place car and finished 19th, so I'm a little disappointed in that. We kind of rebounded, the 6 car (Mark Martin) and I got together in practice and so for the way the weekend was going, it got a lot better."

TALK ABOUT THE LAST 24 HOURS. YOU AND MARK MARTIN WRECKED AND THEN YOU WERE SICK MOST OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY. "We've had trouble all weekend it seems like. From Mark and I getting together -- we didn't qualify good. Our DLP car was pretty decent in happy hour and then Mark and I got together and our car was all torn up and we had to fix it. The DLP guys worked really hard all weekend and really did a great job. I got sick during the second practice and I didn't feel good all night or this morning, so to finish the race and come out with a top 20 -- that isn't all that bad. We're headed in the right direction. It wasn't the best the night could've been, but it could've been a whole lot worse."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 44 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 36th

"Well it was a tough day. I knew our car was a little bit too loose yesterday. We made some adjustments on but we didn't go near enough. It was so bad we had to go to the garage and work on it for a while and we came back out. But I was determined to finish the race and these guys worked hard on it. It's just too bad we were off a little bit off more than I thought we were going to be. Anyway I'd like to thank all the fans here in Texas. It's just been a great ride. On one hand I guess it's sad but on the other hand I'm excited about it. Anyway I've got to thank all the guys at Kellogg's and Hendrick Motorsports for such an awesome opportunity. It's been a lot of fun."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 4th

ON NOT BEING HAPPY WITH THE CAR BUT BOUNCING BACK FOR A GREAT FINISH: "Yeah, we did. I just kind of told them what we needed within the race car and Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made some great calls on what to make adjustments on and we were able to bring the CARQUEST Chevrolet back up towards the front a little bit. That two tire pit stop there towards the middle of the race really got us some track position, got us up front where we can run with those guys. We knew we could we just couldn't ever pass out here. This track is so tough because the bottom groove is still so fast. It's got three lanes but it's not pretty good about 50 laps on tires. It's a little bit tough out there, but all in all a strong day for us. We're happy with it. We'll take it and go on to Phoenix. We love Phoenix."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS:

"We blew a right front tire. I had just asked my guys how long before we pit and they told me how many more laps and I said it would never got that far. I was getting ready to tell them we were coming the next lap and it blew out. As soon as we put that set of tires on, it never felt right. That is the longest front A frame and the least camber we have run all year long you could actually see the wear indicators as it was worn the same on the outside and the inside. So I don't think we did anything wrong. I think we just got an unlucky tire.

ON TAKING A HIT IN THE POINT STANDINGS: "This is pretty much going to do it for us unfortunately. We will keep fighting and get all we can. You never know what is going to happen. We won't quit racing, I will assure you of that. It makes it pretty tough unless everyone else has trouble. I am really disappointed; I think we put together a good effort. If I to do anything over, I wouldn't do anything different. We will keep fighting."

ON THIS BEING A DEVESTATING BLOW: "That pretty much does it for us as far as the championship unless something crazy happens. We put a good effort out. We'll go to the next two races and try to win 'em. If I had to do anything over that we've done so far, I would change some things in retrospect, but today is something that I don't think was our fault. I think this is the longest A-frame we've run all year with the least amount of camber. And the tire wear, if you look at the tire wear right there, it's wore on the outside as it is the inside edge with a lot of tread on the inside edge left. So we didn't do anything wrong camper wise. Every now and then you draw a lucky tire and we drew it."

DID YOU FEEL THIS COMING? "I asked Scott (Miller, crew chief) how many laps til we pit and he said 20 and I told him we'd never make it that far and about 10 seconds later it blew out. I was getting ready to tell him we were coming. I contemplated coming the lap before but you just never know. You never know what is going to happen and it's a really difficult spot to put a driver in, having tires that are marginal is very difficult. The driver doesn't know what to do. If I would have pitted they would have found nothing wrong with the tire. That's the thing, there's nothing wrong with the outside of the tire. It's something with the inside of the tire. They would have found nothing wrong and I wouldn't have slept all night thinking I shouldn't of pitted. It's an uncomfortable thing for drivers to know when to pit and when not to pit. It's a tough position to be in."

ON HIS LUCK CHANGING DRAMATICALLY OVER THE LAST THREE WEEKS AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED OVER THE LAST FEW RACES: "That's racin'. I mean that's how it goes. Again we put a good effort out there and for the most part I think we've done a nice job. I don't think that we should shake ourselves in the foot. We made a little mistake in Atlanta. We made a little mistake at Martinsville but we were still in the hunt coming into this race. The biggest hit that we've taken in my opinion here I don't think was our fault. I know that Goodyear would probably disagree but the reality of it is all we can do is get tire tests and be as easy on the right front as we can and that's what we did today. We actually ran a longer A-frame than we wanted to just because of that and because the truck race the people had tire problems. We actually were way more conservative than we ever have been and still had a problem."

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 2nd

ON HIS RUN: "Yeah, it was a real nice run all night long. We were able to stay in the top five. Never really had anything for the 20 to get up and lead a lap. We did end up getting a lap on the pit cycle but just a strong performance. I had one hair-raiding moment where the window net popped down and I had to get it back up and latch it. It took me a lap or so to get that and I lost a couple of spots. Thankfully I got that up and didn't have a penalty from that but all in all just a strong night."

ON THE DRIVERS IN THE CHASE NOT SEEMING TO HAVE ANY EASY NIGHTS: "I think we all have near misses out there - if it's on pit road, on the track, crashes around you and what goes on. Tonight it was just amazing to me how hard you could drive your car lap after lap after lap. I'm used to some give up and the cars never game up and as the night went on I had to keep pushing myself to run harder so I didn't lose any spots at the beginning.

"I was just trying to be smart and take car of my stuff. At the end of the night I had the pace under control and could run and do what I needed to but all of us, we'd run flat out almost here for a couple of laps and it was really a hard pace."

HOW MUCH EASIER IS IT FOR A DRIVER NOT IN THE CHASE TO GO AFTER RACE VICTORIES? "I think you can change your attitude and your mindset but at the same time you've got to do your job as a driver and you've got to have good equipment. I think we've all been shocked the 20 had a slow spot getting close to the start of the Chase and the end of the Chase and now those guys are in the form that we expected them to be in. If it comes down to fuel mileage at the end or two tires since they're not in the points they'll gamble on that. Our call for four tires at the end just because we didn't want to take a chance and put four on instead of taking two. I think that's where the difference comes in."

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

ON HIS RUN: "It was a good day for us. We fought our car all day long just a little bit just trying to make it better. We got track position there and wound up making something out of what we needed to at this time of the year. We just kept at it and kept fighting and did what we had to do."

ON THE INCIDENT WITH SCOTT RIGGS: "He was blocking all over the place and wound up on the bottom and I got a good run up off and he got loose and I got in the back of him and spun him out."

WHAT WAS THE INCIDENT IN THE GARAGE AREA NEXT TO THE PUMPS? "Those guys decided that they wanted to take matters into their own hands and trip my wife in front of their pit box and ran her over. That's a little bit unnecessary so we're not too happy about that."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - RACE WINNER:

YOU LED 278 LAPS AND HAVE WON THREE OF THE LAST SIX RACES, TALK ABOUT THE RACE TODAY: "It was obviously an awesome day. Anytime you can lead that many laps and that percentage of laps in a race, it's a good day for you.

"Today was one of those days when we had a car that was good all day long from start to finish -- last week was one of them and this week was another one of them - but it's few and far in between in 27 years that you can say that you've had less than 10 cars that were that good and that dominant. I'm not even sure Atlanta last week was a car that was that good. We just had such a good car tonight. We could get a straightaway lead at any time. I was loose the whole day, but we were extremely fast being loose. We kept trying to get greedy because we knew at some point those guys would get their cars better and I wanted to see if I could get it tightened up enough to where I could even go faster. We finally got it too tight and that was the run that Kasey (Kahne) could stay with us. The air pressure adjustment that I had them do on the right front I had them undo it when we came in for the two-tire stop. It was right back to being really fast again and we had a straightaway lead there with less than 10 laps to go. And then the caution came out and there was nothing we could do from that standpoint. But the good news was that there were two cars between us and Jimmie Johnson who had four tires. So with the amount of time it took for Jimmie to get through those two guys, I was pretty confident on that last restart that we should be able to hold out own for two laps. If we had to run five or 10 laps, it might have been a different story. But if the caution doesn't come out either one of those two times we win the race anyways. So the woulda, coulda, shoulda's and all that. But we had the strongest car all day and I'm just glad that we finished it off. I wasn't going to give it away with two to go, that's for sure. With the green-white-checkered restart, the biggest concern was not slipping the tires and spinning the tires and letting Jimmie get a run on us in Turn 1. Once I got to Turn 1, I felt confident that the car was good enough to hold him off for two laps."

IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE FASTEST LAP OF THE RACE WAS YOURS ON THE LAST LAP. THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT HOW STRONG YOUR CAR WAS. WERE YOU HOLDING BACK UNTIL THE END? "We pretty much were in a situation the whole race where we didn't have to run as hard as we needed to on the front side and guys could stay with us for about 10 laps, but they really, from lap one, we would have a three or four-car-length lead so we never really had to push it hard at the beginning. I'm surprised to hear that. I didn't know we did that. It surprises me that we were able to run that quick at the end. But I guess that's the track getting cooler and probably more so than anything, was having those two cautions back-to-back. It probably picked up more of the rubber out of the track and gave us more of a green race track to run quicker on. But I am surprised we were able to run that quick on tires that were that old."

HOW DOES THIS STREAK COMPARE TO THE STREAK YOU HAD LAST YEAR STARTING AT SONOMA? "It was just later. That's the obvious thing. But it's very similar in that we've finally hit our stride it looks like. We hit it three months too late. You look at which teams kind of hit strides this year. Look at Evernham's whole organization and all three of their cars are running much better than they have in the past. You look at the Childress team and all three of their cars are running better than they all have in the past, in recent years. We've just finally hit our stride. We've finally caught up now. It's just one of those situations where we all wish we could turn back the hands of time and get on this string three months early and get ourselves in the Chase. But for us right now, the stress level is a tenth of what those guys in the Chase have and it lets us have the ability to take chances and try things and take the first half of practice and try something that we've been wanting to try but just haven't had the luxury to try. If we were in the Chase, we wouldn't have that ability. It gives us the flexibility to really go all out and try to win races without the fear of losing a bunch of points."

REGARDING SET-UPS, IS IT STUFF YOU'RE TRYING OUT FOR NEXT YEAR THAT'S WORKING, OR IS IT JUST STUFF THAT YOU HAVE BEEN USING THROUGHOUT THE SEASON? "The stuff that we're doing right now, by the time March gets here and we get through with Daytona and stuff, technology may have already passed this stage up even and we may be on to something else. It's not that we're trying anything for next year, it's just that we're trying to accomplish our goal and that's to come into the Chase and even though we're not in it now, set a new goal since we aren't in the Chase and can't run for the championship, that goal has gone away. So the new goal is just to go out every race and try to win the race and do whatever we can to win the race. It's not that that wasn't the goal before, we just finally have hit our stride and things are clicking and now we're winning races. It's not that we just decided all of a sudden to win races. It's a coincidence that the goal we've put in front of us is a reality now."

ARE YOU TAKING ANY JOY IN BEING A PARTY CRASHER IN THIS THING? "I don't think I'm crashing anybody's party. I'm still not going to be in the top 10 and I'm still not going to be able to go for the trophy at the end of the year. So I don't think we're crashing anybody's party. Our objective each week is different than those guys in the top 10. At this point in the equation, all 10 of those guys are worried about themselves and who they are racing for position in the standings right now. We're in a totally different position. So somebody said something about did I think I crashed Jimmie Johnson's party and I can promise you not. He was the highest finishing Chase guy today. I don't know. Did he take the point lead? I don't think he's remotely even worried about what we did today. I think he is more delighted and overjoyed with what he was able to accomplish today."

YOU HAVE NEVER WON MORE THAN SIX RACES IN ONE SEASON, BUT YOU HAVE FIVE WINS WITH TWO RACES TO GO. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THAT AS A WAY TO MAKE THIS SEASON STAND OUT? "Absolutely. This car that we ran tonight has three wins and zero losses. I want to sleep next to this car tonight and make sure nothing happens to it each night for the rest of the year. I don't care what cars we took to the tests, I can promise you this is the car that I will race at Homestead in two weeks. For our mile program, we'll run a different car than this one. It'll give the guys a chance to freshen this car again. That will make it easier on those guys. We don't have to do anything to the body. So sure, that's a very good goal to shoot for right now is to try to win these last two races and say we were able to win the last four races in the Chase in a row. So, yeah, it would be a great accomplishment. It would definitely be the saving grace for us for this year to break our own record of wins in a season."

ON TEAM THINKING OF TAKING FOUR TIRES ON LAST STOP: "Honestly no. We knew none of us were factoring in there would be a caution in the last 15 laps. We had been green for a long time. When the field gets strung out like that, you don't normally have a problem. Realistically, with just 15 laps to go, the decision, to me, was an easy decision just to take two tires, shorten the pit stop, get enough fuel that we needed to get out and get to the end and maintain our track position. Those last two cautions were not what we wanted to see. Even after the first one came out and we restarted, even with four to go when the last caution came out, I was really comfortable with the distance between myself and Jimmie. I felt like I could hold him off at that point, but I didn't want to see the last caution, actually either one of those two, but I was comfortable after the first one. The second one I was just a little bit more uncomfortable knowing he had track position right behind us with fresher tires. The important thing at that point was to make sure I got a clean restart and got to turn one before he did and as long as I could do that, I felt like, that off the previous restart, letting the tires cool down during the caution was going to bring enough life in to them to be able to run hard those final two laps and be able to run the pace I needed to win."

ON NEXT TO LAST PIT STOP, DID YOU KEEP ZIPPY FROM DOING MORE ADJUSTMENTS THAN YOU WANTED? "I had asked for an air pressure change just to see, the hard thing is when you have a car that is that good and that dominant early, we have been in situations in 500 mile races like this that, I don't want to say that we get lazy, but we get complacent I guess, with the way your car is driving. I felt like my car was really, really drove good, but I knew at some point, somebody was going to get caught up and I kept the thought in the back of my mind that we had lost a lot of races because we were that good that early and were just scared to make changes. Even with us being as good as we were, I kept trying to do really small adjustments, when a car is that good, you don't need to make big changes. You just want to little things at a time. We had tried a couple of things that really didn't work earlier in the day. I finally asked for a sequence of changes that I was hoping would least lead us in a direction, if it was going to be the right way or not, and none of them were trick decisions or anything. The were very basic calls and we finally on that run got the car too tight and so we came in for the two tires, we couldn't take all of the adjustment out, it was air pressure adjustments on both sides. Obviously coming in for just two tires, we could only make the adjustment on the right side tires, we did that, and for 15 laps with new tires, it was a good enough change to balance good enough to win the race"

ON HAVING FREE WHEELING ATTITUDE FOR NEXT YEAR'S CHASE: "Yes, it seems to be work. It is hard to say that you can keep yourself this way, there is just a lot of pressure and a lot of stress involved in trying to win a championship at this level. That is goal that everybody wants. In my opinion, it is."

WHEN YOU GET BACK INTO THE CHASE NEXT YEAR, WILL YOU HAVE THE SAME ATTITUDE YOU HAVE HAD THIS YEAR? "Yeah, it seems to work (laughs). It's hard to say that you can keep yourself this way. There's just a lot of pressure and a lot of stress involved in trying to win a championship at this level. That's the goal that everybody wants. In my opinion it's the biggest championship in the United States to win right now. Obviously when you're in it it's harder to keep yourself in this frame of mind but I think more so this frame of mind started because we needed to keep the team pumped up. We were obviously all devastated and none of us would have dreamed that we would miss the Chase. We had never finished worse than seventh in the points so none of us would have dreamed we were going to be in a position where we might not even make the Chase. I think the attitude came from hey we can't change what's happened. There's nothing we can do to get ourselves back in. We've got 10 races to go. What do we do and how do we keep ourselves motivated and see how many races we can in the last 10. The guys responded to that attitude of mine and it seems like they feed off of me a lot. When I came into it with that happy-go-lucky attitude they followed suit and we've had a ton of fun. Even though we'd all like to be in the Chase and we'd all like to have that opportunity to win the championship again, since we don't have that opportunity I think we're all enjoying these last 10 races more not having that stress and not having that pressure but trust me, we would all trade these race wins in and everything to be just back in the Chase right now."

WHAT WILL YOU REMEMBER ABOUT TERRY LABONTE AS A DRIVER: "I remember my rookie year when I went through the Winston Select and went to the Winston Open and started at the tail and I was running second or something on the last restart and Terry ran me up the race track a little but he wasn't going to give me an inch. To win the Winston million was huge. That's the one time that I remember Terry and I really being wheel to wheel for a win. I heard him speak more today in the drivers meeting than I think I've heard him speak the entire time I've been in Cup. He's just a guy of few words and soft spoken and let's his actions speak for him. I've always had a huge amount of respect for him and you always know where you stand with him by the expression on his face because like I said he won't tell you but you'll see it on his face what's going through his mind."

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR WINNINGS AND HOW GOOD IS YOUR RACE TEAM RIGHT NOW? "Obviously winning two weeks in a row I feel like my race team is pretty good. If I said we weren't very good it'd be a joke but I feel like we're doing everything right. Like I said, I think with us having a relaxed atmosphere and attitude, we're all working better with each other than we ever had. We're probably a tighter knit group than we've ever, ever been and I think that's something carrying into next year these guys are going to have to worry about. I'm excited about it. I feel like the team is doing a great job. It's very easy for the caliber team like we have at Joe Gibbs Racing with this Home Depot team to kind of just give up for the year and get ready for next year and that's something that these guys have not done. Their attitude has been let's see what we can do, let's see how many races we can win. We don't feel like we have to prove anything to anybody, don't get me wrong we're doing it purely for our own satisfaction and well being so I'm happy with the guys attitude. We're all happy and having fun and we're running races. You can't ask more out of a race team than that."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 44 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS - FINAL CUP RACE:

ON HIS EMOTIONS AFTER TODAY'S RACE: "Well it was near as good as we had hoped for. I knew our car was a little bit too loose in practice yesterday. We made some changes on it but we didn't make near enough I guess. I didn't realize Rick was going to give me a car so it was so bad I decided we needed to come behind the wall and work on it a little bit because I didn't want to tear it up. It's been a great ride and a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed this series all these years. I guess everything comes to an end sometime. I've been doing this for a long time. I've been very fortunate in my career to have been with some really good teams and been able to win a couple of championships and win some races and have a lot of good runs.

A few years ago I was sitting in the drivers meeting and I was looking around and half these drivers are younger than my kids. I thought you know what I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this. I decided a couple of years ago to run the limited schedule and then wind up our career here and so here we are. The past two years went pretty fast but I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to be doing but anyway it's where we are."

ARE YOU CONTENT RIDING OFF INTO THE SUNSET? "You know, I don't know. As I ride 'em out, yeah. If I decide to do something different down the road I might decide that. I'm pretty sure you won't see me behind the wheel of a car anymore. I feel like I've done this for a long time. I've been very fortunate over the years. I'm going to be 50 years old in a couple of weeks and so there comes a point when you're any kind of athlete in any kind of sport it's going to be time to retire some day. I think it's here from me.

"I'm just very fortunate to be in motorsports and I've been able to have a career that lasted as long as it did. You look at some of the other sports and guys can't compete near that long. The other thing that's neat about it is I was able to go out when I wanted to go out and not because of some circumstances that were out of my control."

WAS THERE ANY TIME TODAY THAT YOU GOT CHOKED UP? HOW SPECIAL WAS IT TO HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER GIVE YOU THE START YOUR ENGINES COMMAND AND HAVE JUSTIN NEXT TO YOU TOO? "It was pretty cool and it was a really awesome day. I think the only time I almost got choked was when I was giving my little speech up there and I was talking about Rick and I was going to mention his family and I couldn't do it. He's been a great guy and a great owner.

"I looked over that at Justin and before I got in the car I looked at that car and I said man be careful of that thing because it didn't look like it could go that fast or something. It was really pretty cool before the race the car was sitting there and all the guys that came up looked at it and all the other drivers and they couldn't believe it as far as how the cars used to look back in the '80s. That was the car that was actually the car I won the 1980 Southern 500 with. I think that car was probably built in '79. They've come a long way and the safety features are completely different. That car really didn't have much other than the seat belts and roll bars so NASCAR has done a great job. That was a pretty good look if you wanted to look at both cars there beside each other."

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK BACK TO BILLY HAGAN GETTING YOU STARTED? "It was really cool. Billy was here at the race today and he was at our fan club thing last night. There's so many guys across the country that have as much talent or more than I ever had and I was just in the right place at the right time and met Billy and he gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. To be able to move to North Carolina and drive in the NASCAR series, which was the Winston Cup Series back then. It was just a real opportunity of a lifetime. When I went over there I never figured I might run more than one or two races and then it was three or four. It's amazing we came this far. I never really knew what to expect. I never took anything for granted. I just did my best week after week."

WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF A SENIOR TOUR? "I hope they'd run senior cars too (laughs). No, I don't know. That would be great as long as its on short tracks, half-mile tracks or something like that. I think that'd be a pretty expensive proposition for somebody to come up with. I'd probably do pretty good in it because I'd be one of the youngest oldest guys there (laughs).