RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER ADVANCE MATERIAL FOR THE AARON’S 499 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY, APRIL 28, 2006.

Jimmy Elledge signed a contract extension this week to remain at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Elledge is the crew chief for Raybestos Rookie Reed Sorenson in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

JIMMY ELLEDGE, CREW CHIEF, No. 41 TARGET DODGE:

THIS WAS A BIG WEEK FOR JIMMY ELLEDGE. “Sure enough is. I made the cover of Chip Ganassi Racing’s website page [smiles]. I’m really happy about that. This is my fourth year here now and going to be here at least that much longer so that’s a good thing. I think these teams are not bought, they are definitely built and it’s built with commitments from a lot of people. There’s a lot of good people there and a lot of people that I like working with. I want to be with them and the longer we work and the harder we work at it I think we will definitely get there. I think there’s a lot of good things happening here and a lot of good things for the future coming.”

WHY STAY HERE? “Why not? When I came here four years ago it’s been a building process. I’ve got a race team that’s got a Raybestos Rookie driver with a lot of potential and a bright future and a race team that I’ve had four years of getting everything the way that I wanted. As far as the company goes, the company is big and to leave here and go elsewhere you’ve got to start over and learn their program and the cars and their people and all that. I like where I’m at and I like the people that I work with and I like the direction that the company is going. We’ve had a lot of growth in the last four years to where a lot of teams are maintaining or shrinking. I think there’s a lot of positive things. We’ve got great sponsors and the depth is there. I think there is a lot of potential for this organization to compete toe-to-toe with the ‘best’ organizations in the business right now and I want to be here when that happens.”

HOW MUCH TIME AND EFFORT DO YOU PUT INTO A RESTRICTOR PLATE RACE? “Way too much. For the percentage of races that we have versus the percentage of other races, way, way too much. We have a dedicated group of people that work on the bodies and the chassis rear round. We have a full-time program on them and like I said, for the amount of time, for four races a year, it’s really retarded the amount of money we spend and the amount of time we spend on these things but you have to.”

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT COULD BE DONE TO MAKE THE INSPECTION PROCESS MORE LIKE A NORMAL RACE WEEKEND? “You have what you have as far as cars go. Inspection is a long time and that means there’s a lot of rules and the more rules there are the less things you have to work on to make speed. That’s what causes the expense and the time. Every small gain is a big gain. I think the impound thing is probably a really good idea. That takes a lot of time and money and effort out of those two laps for qualifying. I think that’s a good thing and a good idea. That’s probably one of the biggest things that they are doing, or going the direction that they are going, that will actually save you money and time. Stop and think about it. We go to Daytona and test for three days and we actually draft for a few hours. We spend two and a half days running single car runs for qualifying for the Daytona 500 and we go to Las Vegas a week later and don’t make a qualifying run and test. It’s kind of a little bit backwards but you have to do it. The impound thing is a good idea. I think that’s a big, big savings there.”

DID THE NEW FRONT BUMPERS THROW YOU BEHIND FOR THIS RACE? “No, not really. Cut the old ones out and put new ones in [smiles]. I think that’s a good thing. You don’t need to be racing and beating on people like it’s turned into. I don’t know how the race is going to be now because sometimes you have to hit and beat on people to make lanes go and to make moves. Like I said, that’s a good thing because most of the wrecks happened on the straightaway when everybody is going in a straight line so if that’s happening, I definitely think it’s because of unnecessary things like bump drafting and things like that.”