Robby Gordon, driver of the No. 7 Menards/MAPEI Ford Fusion, was part of the weekly Nextel Wake-Up Call press conference at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Friday afternoon. Gordon spoke about a variety of issues, including this weekend’s all-star event.

ROBBY GORDON – No. 7 Menards/MAPEI Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TELL EVERYONE WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT THE OFFER YOU HAVE ON THE TABLE IF YOU WIN THE NEXTEL FAN VOTE? “I came up with an idea a couple of weeks ago and I think Kyle came up with it a year ago and it’s like, ‘Hey, I’ll just give my money away.’ But then I started hearing a lot of other guys say, ‘We’ll give our money away, too.’ But then I started thinking, ‘They can’t give their money away without asking their owner. They can only give 30 percent or 40 percent or 50 percent of their money away.’ There’s a pretty big difference there.”

IS THERE AN ADVANTAGE TO RUNNING THE OPEN? WE HAVEN’T SEEN THAT PAY OFF AS MUCH AS YOU WOULD THINK. “I think Kasey finished last year. I think the series is just so competitive right now that if you can gain a little more track time it obviously helps us. Provided that we have good communication with the crew chief of what went on during that race, track time, it’s already gonna be dark by that point, so it should be able to relay back to the all-star race as well.”

THE MONEY FOR THE CHALLENGE IS BIG BUT NOT NEARLY AS BIG FOR THE OPEN. IF THIS RACE WERE TO EVER LEAVE CHARLOTTE, HOW HARD WOULD IT BE FOR A TEAM TO TRAVEL AND RUN THE OPEN? “Obviously, the money is a lot different. How do I say it, the money wouldn’t even pay for the engine or the tires. It doesn’t pay for it the way it is right now. I’m pretty sure my contracts don’t require me to run the all-star race. As a matter of fact, I’m positive they don’t, but we do it because it’s here in Charlotte, it’s easy to do and it’s track experience that you can take into the Coca-Cola 600 the next weekend. As a matter of fact, I know all of my contracts are for the 36 Nextel Cup races.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TERRY LABONTE TESTING FOR THE BUSCH RACE IN MONTREAL? “I think Terry, that’s probably the right thing, especially if he’s not gonna run the race. Maybe he’s gonna run the race, I don’t know, but information is so important. We get such little information these days because of the testing that goes on – the little information you’re able to gather with the seven Nextel Cup tests and the tracks you can’t go to and really gather any information for the cars that we have, it’ll definitely help RCR for gears and stuff like that, but we’ve been road racing for years and you can look at how many feet their straightaways are and how sharp the corners are and pretty much nail the gear to within 50-100 RPM anyway.”

DOES THE OPEN GET THE CREDIT IT DESERVES? “When you look at the guys in it, it’s obviously competitive. You’ve got Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer and Montoya and Kenny (Wallace). The list is long of the guys that are in the Open. This series, you take the Hendrick cars out of the car of tomorrow deal, back on the mile-and-a-half tracks like this before, it was fairly competitive last year. There was 10 or 15 guys that could have won races on mile-and-a-half race tracks, and I think the car of tomorrow, even though the field is tighter, it’s separated a little bit more. Those guys have dominated the first five events, but it’s gonna be a tough race. It’ll be exciting. Everybody will enter the Open or race the Open different than they’ll race the All-Star Challenge because you have to use that car for the All-Star Challenge, so you have to make sure you have clean fenders on it and it’s still aerodynamically sound. We’ve seen for years here them wrecking across the finish line for the win. If you wreck across the finish line for the win in the Open, all of the information you just learned is out the door, so why do that? So I don’t think you’re gonna see as exciting of a race in the Open as you will see in the All-Star Challenge because of that.”

ON JEFF BURTON’S RISE AND BEING IN THE ALL-STAR CHALLENGE. “I think that shows how much a team has to do with the performance of an individual. One guy doesn’t make a team perform.”

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, has to race his way into the Nextel All-Star Challenge tomorrow night. Edwards spoke about that challenge after Nextel Open practice on Friday at Lowes Motor Speedway.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – HOW DIFFERENT IS IT TO TRY AND RACE INTO THE CHALLENGE? “It’s different because the last two years we’ve been in the all-star race and hopefully we’ll get in again this year. It’s just like running the “B” Feature somewhere and you’ve got to go to get in the show, so we’ll hopefully be in it.”

LOOKING TOWARD THE 600. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO PREPARE FOR IT AS A DRIVER AND WHAT DOES THE TEAM DO TO MAKE THE CAR LAST? “The 600 is grueling on the car and it’s really tough on engines. I don’t know that they really do too much differently, but I know as a driver that the biggest thing about the 600 is just to remember how long it is. After 500 miles there’s another 100 left and that’s a long race. I’ve noticed in the last couple of years that if your car is real bad at the beginning, just don’t panic. You can come back from almost anything and be fighting for the win at the end of 600 miles.”

ARE THE LAST 100 MILES TOUGH TO PREPARE FOR? “For me, personally, I’ve got a great trainer and I train all the time. I love the longer races. If we raced 1,000 miles a week that would be great for me. You can tell, though, especially if you’re having a bad night. If you’re real, real loose and your car won’t handle right, it’s physically very tough. If you have any leaks in the car, carbon monoxide or whatever, that makes it tough, but that’s just another variable. I think it’s fun to compete like that.”

HOW DOES THE BUSCH RACE FACTOR IN? “The Busch race adds to it a little bit, but I’ve got great guys and great people that make it real easy on me race day, so I can rest up.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FORMAT CHANGES TO THE ALL-STAR RACE? “I have no clue what the all-star format is. I think the Open format is two 20-lap races and that’s all I’m worried about right now. Anything that makes it more exciting, though. This race is about anything that makes it exciting for the fans and if they’ve got a way to make it exciting, that’s what they need to do.”

THE TRACK IS SLICK NOW. IS IT DIFFERENT FROM YEARS PAST? “The track feels slippery – like it’s aged a little bit – and that’s good. With the hard tires and everything that makes it real slippery, so it’s just one of those things that as the track ages and we get the tires just right, we’ll all get used to it but, right now, it’s different everytime we come.”

HOW DO YOU CHANGES THINGS TO COMPETE WITH HENDRICK? “The only thing you can do when somebody is beating you is to try to figure out how they’re beating you and fix it. That’s all you can do, so what we’re trying to do at Roush Fenway Racing is to engineer the best we can and prepare for the long term with this car of tomorrow.”

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN ATMOSPHERE FOR THESE TWO WEEKS IN CHARLOTTE THAN IN DAYTONA? “It’s a pretty cool two weeks here. Everybody’s family comes down and visits and it’s kind of got the feel that you’re racing in your backyard. During testing a lot of crew guys and their wives and kids would come out to the track and you get to see people at the race track that usually don’t get to come, so in that respect it’s a lot of fun. Once they drop the green flag it feels just the same as any other race, but I can drive home tonight and go sleep in my bed or eat dinner with my buddy. It doesn’t feel like I’m on the road and that’s pretty cool.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO ADJUST TO BEING A TEAM LEADER AND HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE DENNY HAMLIN DID THIS PAST WEEK? WHERE IS THAT LINE FOR A YOUNG DRIVER? “I’ve been racing a Cup car for three years now and when I first started I obviously didn’t know enough to really make any decisions, and now as I go along and learn more there are times when I feel really strongly about something and I feel like it’s OK to speak up and say something about it. But I think this sport is so dynamic and so difficult, and there are so many people with so many specialties, that I think it’s in my best interest and the team’s best interest to be very cautious about what I speak up about because it’s very simple to speak up and say something in the heat of battle. Everybody notices what the drivers say and it’s easy to say something where you maybe spoke before you knew the whole story. There are guys like Mark Martin, who could walk into a meeting at Roush Racing, who has been there for 18-20 years, and he could say exactly what he thought needed to be fixed. He had the seniority and the experience to do that, but I feel like for me personally, I’m in kind of a transition. I’m nowhere near where Mark Martin is at, so I’m still cautious.”

BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO SPEAK UP AS A TEAM LEADER, RIGHT? “Right, but speaking up usually has to follow some research. You want to make sure you’re figuring out what the real problem is. I know that I’ve walked in Monday morning really mad about something and I knew I knew the answers, and I walked in there and realized, ‘Wow, I wasn’t right.’ If I would have gone off the hook, and I have, I’ve been mad at the wrong person or upset at a situation for the wrong reason, and you just have to be tough. I read that this morning about Denny and I thought the same thing, ‘Wow, that’s a big deal for him to do that,’ but Denny’s a smart guy. He doesn’t say a lot of things like that, so he must have just felt real strongly about that.”

HOW DID YOU RECTIFY THOSE SITUATIONS WHERE YOU GOT MAD AT SOMEBODY? “You just kind of apologize and back-pedal a little bit, and make sure they know that you were wrong. It happens all the time. It’s a really high pressure sport and, like I said, it’s so dynamic and there are so many different things going on. It’s so easy to say, ‘The motor blew up because of this or we had a slow pit stop because of this,’ and a lot of times you have to take the time to look a little deeper. I’m not saying that in Denny’s situation he wasn’t perfectly right, but you have to be cautious.” S

OMEBODY SAID THAT WHEN YOU’RE IN THIS SPORT YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE ANYTHING BUT HONEST. “Right, but you don’t have time to be wrong either.”

WHEN YOU THINK OF THE SEASON ARE YOU THINKING 26 RACES AND THEN 10 OR THE WHOLE SEASON OR JUST WINNING RACES? “At the beginning of the season all I think about is the 26 races. That’s the first season and then after that it’s like a whole separate season – literally.”

WHAT DID IT MEAN TO THE TEAM TO GO TO THE PIT CREW CHALLENGE THE OTHER NIGHT? “It was really neat to be there and be able to come. I think Sprint counted it as an appearance for me, so it was like two birds with one stone, but I would have been there anyway. The first year I went I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was and I was like 50-50. I was like, ‘Well, I guess I’ll go,’ and once I went and saw how big of an event it is and how much my guys put into it, I’ll never miss it. As long as I can be there I’ll be there.”

DO YOU THINK THE CREW GUYS RECOGNIZE WHICH DRIVERS SHOW UP? “I don’t know. I hope they do. I hope my guys do, but I wouldn’t knock any of the drivers for not being there. The schedule is so tough and if somebody had a vacation planned or time to spend with their family, trust me, any of the drivers who weren’t there weren’t off just sitting around playing video games at home. They were probably spending time with somebody they’ve neglected more than their crew.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE OPEN? “I’ve been fortunate because we’ve been in the race the last two years, but this is gonna be fun. I was kind of dreading it a little bit, thinking this would be kind of a downer week because we’re not in the show already, but after I’ve been in the car and talked to Clint Bowyer and some of the other guys in the race, I think it’s really gonna be fun.”

HOW HOT WILL IT GET IF YOU’RE FIFTH WITH A COUPLE OF LAPS TO GO? “If I’m fifth and we’ve got a car that can do it, it’s gonna be fun the last couple of laps. You just never know until the end what you’ve got. Hopefully, it will turn into a battle with four or five guys going for spots. It doesn’t do you any good if you make the show and you have a wrecked car though, so it’s gonna be interesting.”

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, is already in the Nextel All-Star Challenge and is a former winner, having taken the checkered flag in 2004. He spoke about the race after practice on Friday.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WHY DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS ALL-STAR RACE SO MUCH? “It’s exciting. My favorite thing about it is it includes the team so much. The team is included every week, but they don’t necessarily get the recognition as much from the media or the fans. This is really big because they get introduced on the stage before with the driver, and there’s a pit stop during qualifying, which is a great thing for me with the way I qualify, so they’re just involved a lot more. They had the pit crew competition this week and that’s my favorite part about it because they get a lot more recognition than they usually would.”

ARE GUYS MORE AGGRESSIVE IN THAT RACE BECAUSE THERE ARE NO POINTS OR IS IT THE SAME AS EVERY WEEK WITH GUYS JUST RACING HARD? “I would say they are a little bit more with guys trying to go a little bit more than what they think they can. They try to get that little bit extra all the time and that’s why you see a lot of accidents and a lot of action that you do see, so I think you’ll see a lot of that tomorrow, especially with this tire. It’s pretty tricky. It’s hard to catch it and hard to save it, so I think you’ll see a little bit of that.”

SO YOU MIGHT TRY TO GO FOR IT A LITTLE MORE TOMORROW AS OPPOSED TO JUST SETTLING FOR A GOOD POINTS DAY IF YOU’RE RUNNING UP FRONT? “Yes and no. If you’re in a position to try to win the race, you’re gonna run as hard as you can to win that race, but yet if you’re running second and the guy in front of you is two-tenths faster and he’s driving away, there’s nothing you’re gonna do to make that up. You’ve got to be smart enough to do that because if you can’t win, there’s no sense wrecking. You want to still go try to win, but you don’t want to tear anything up for no reason either.”

YOU WERE PENALIZED AT THE START OF THE YEAR. WHAT WAS YOUR THOUGHT ABOUT THE 8 CAR PENALTY? “I don’t know if everybody saw it and I didn’t read the whole thing, but when we showed up Bristol, NASCAR gave us all a bulletin and it basically said what the minimum fine was gonna be for any intentional cheating, or whatever you want to call it, with the COT car and that was the minimum fine -- $100,000 and 100 points and a suspension for the crew chief. We all had that actually in writing sitting on our desk at Bristol. I saw it on Robbie’s desk when we got there, so it’s not a surprise. That’s what they said their minimum penalty was gonna be for any of those type of infractions with that car.”

MORE ON THE PENALTY? “I can’t comment on whether it’s necessary or not, I don’t know. I think if you’re NASCAR you have to do what you say you’re gonna do. That’s what they told us they were gonna do in writing before we ever ran that car, so I don’t think they really had a choice. I think it said that’s the minimum penalty, so if it says that’s what the minimum penalty is for intentionally messing with a certain spec part of that car, then that’s what they’ve got to do. How can you say a penalty is gonna be 100 points and fine you 50? I don’t know how you can do that.”

DO YOU FEEL ROUSH IS CLOSING THE GAP WITH THE COT? “I think we’re getting closer. Do I think we’re there yet? No, we’re not as good as some of those other guys, but I think we’re getting a little closer and we’re working really hard at it.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE JOB NASCAR DOES OFFICIATING RACES? “I think they do a good job of officiating races. I think certainly there are probably times during a race where it gets strung out and maybe they’re looking a little harder for debris than other times. If you scan them, you can hear that. They’re looking pretty hard to see if there’s something because, let’s face it, it probably is getting a little boring. We’ve got to realize that it’s a sport. I think they officiate it very fair. I think they make sure that they don’t have an outcome in the winners, but I think certainly we all realize it’s an entertainment business and they’re gonna try to make the races as entertaining as possible, just like trying to get the COT cars all as close as they can to the same. They want the racing to be close and they want it to be entertaining.”

DO YOU REALIZE THE FANS SEE THAT AS EVERYTIME THERE’S A CAUTION THAT GOES AGAINST YOU, THEY THINK IT’S BEING DONE TO HURT YOU? “As a driver you always think that too. The first thing that happens is if you’re leading and there’s 10 to go and you see a caution you’re mad. You can come around and there could be 10 cars wrecked on the backstretch and you’re still like, ‘I can’t believe there’s a caution.’ That’s just human nature. Everybody is gonna think that. If it works against you, that’s the first thing you’re gonna think, and if it works for you, you probably won’t say much about it.”

IF IT HAPPENS IN A FOOTBALL GAME, THERE’S TWO SIDES AND YOU’RE EITHER FOR IT OR AGAINST IT. HERE THERE ARE 43 TEAMS OUT THERE. “One thing we’ve got to remember too is that NASCAR has done a lot of work, especially in the last six or seven years, on safety. A lot of times it’s not uncommon at all when you listen to the scanners. If there’s somebody that needs a caution, they’re complaining about debris and NASCAR has got to listen to everybody. The guy who is leading is saying the track is clean and the guy running third is saying there’s debris all over the place. They’ve got to weigh all of that out and they’ve got to try to spot it themselves and, first of all, they’ve got to do what’s safe for everybody.”

IT’S ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE. “Yeah, everybody’s got a different look at it.”

HOW DO YOU VIEW THE SEASON – AS A WHOLE OR 26 AND 10? “I really take it week by week for our part of it, but I definitely try to keep track of developing stuff for the end of the year and making our stuff better so when we get to the end of the year we’ve got the best stuff available, but I just kind of take it one week at a time and give it your best every week. I can’t think of a week that we were like, ‘This week doesn’t matter. We’ll waste it.’ You want to do good every week.”