BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS, TALKS WITH MEDIA ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF RACING THE NEW IMPALA SS FOR THE FIRST TIME, POSSIBLE TRACK REPAVING AT DARLINGTON & BRISTOL, AND WHAT TO EXPECT IN SUNDAY'S RACE

HAVE YOU IMPROVED ON THE NEW CAR SINCE THE TEST? "Yeah, I think we've made some improvements on it and we're starting to get that feel. We're learning a lot. Today is only about one or two laps. Some guys made some race runs. We did not. I feel like we've got a shot at the pole, so I'm happy about that. I never felt like we weren't going to be competitive with it. But it's just working through the travels and different things we need to make this car feel like the current car."

BRISTOL HOLDS THE RECORD FOR CUP CAUTIONS - 21 ON TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS. COULD WE HAVE ANOTHER RECORD NUMBER THIS WEEKEND? "We have to wait and see, really. I don't think we're going to see a much different Bristol than what we've seen in the past. I don't think this car is going to necessarily bring on more cautions than what we've seen in the past. But it's certainly not going to bring on less, either. I was a little bit surprised that more guys didn't have trouble in practice, so I think that's an indication of what we might see. I was having a little bit of trouble getting into the corner. The car was a little bit uncomfortable because of what we had to do to make the car turn in the middle of the corner. And I'm curious to see how that works out in qualifying."

AS BRISTOL'S WINNINGEST ACTIVE DRIVER, ARE ALL YOUR NOTES COMPLETELY WIPED CLEAN WITH THE IMPALA SS OR CAN YOU APPLY SOME? "Well, we're always going to keep notes and apply them to everything we've learned over the years. And even though you might move from some things, in some ways we've stepped back with this car and in other ways we've moved forward - aerodynamically with the splitter and with the wing. But mechanically, with a bigger and heavier car with less downforce, then mechanical grip is important and the travels that we run are important. As a driver, you're still searching for the same thing. You want to get into the corner and roll through the center and be able to carry speed up off the corner. Those things will never change. It's just how we get there.

It's exciting on one hand because it's a challenge, but it's a little bit disappointing because I feel like we've really made some big gains with the current car - not just at other tracks, but even at the short tracks. I would like to have my current car here and see what it feels like, but we're making the most of this new car, the Impala SS. It was a good practice for us and so far it's been a good day."

ON HIS PRACTICE SESSION: "Unlike what we've been doing at most tracks lately where we start with a race set-up and run a race run and then get travels and everything for tomorrow and then switch over to qualifying. We started out straight with qualifying today. Qualifying is going to be extremely important this weekend and it's tricky. If things are with this car with the travels, we wanted to get on top of it right away. I think it's paid off for us because our speeds are pretty good. You saw a lot of guys really thrashing to get some things figured out in a short period of time, but I feel like it worked well for us."

ON THE BIG TEAMS MAKING LAST MINUTE CHANGES "Well of course they are. You have to still run the current car, so you can't forget about that. But yet it's important to get this new car figured out. The bigger teams are able to make more last minute changes because they're constantly learning right up to the last minute before that car gets loaded and leaves (the shop). And, they had a whole day here yesterday going through inspection. So there are a lot of new things we're going through with this car. It's just going to be a learning process until we get a few races into it and then we'll know more."

ON THE BIGGER MEASUREMENTS OF THE NEW IMPALA SS: "It's a little bit awkward. We carry so much momentum out to the wall in turning into the corners and we use up every inch of the race track. And then in traffic, of course you're using every inch. You're trying to find out where your bumpers are and how much room you have. I think you're going to see guys rubbing and banging into each other a little bit more than in the past just because of misjudgment because the car is a little bit wider.

"Even just trying to get through the garage, I'm trying to be extra careful because that splitter and everything that's out there, I don't know exactly where it's at. So it's been a little bit of a learning curve as well. That'll just take time. It's not that big of a deal."

OTHER THAN MESSING UP YOUR SPLITTER, ARE THERE OTHER AREAS WHERE YOU CAN MESS UP YOUR CAR BY BUMPING PEOPLE? "Yeah, throughout my career, anytime I've bumped with anybody, I've felt like it was taking too big a risk. I'm not a big believer in getting out there and bumping and rubbing and leaning on guys. I like to stay away from them if at all possible. It's hard to say what's going to occur until we go to a race. But as tight as this race track is, we should learn an awful lot this weekend about it."

ARE PEOPLE STILL BOUNCING IN THE CORNERS? "No, not nearly as much as during testing. I think everybody was just trying to figure out your travels and being on these bump stops, you know. You've got a lot to work with. You're trying to maximize the splitter and the downforce. Getting those travels right is extremely difficult. We don't have a machine at the shop, really, that can duplicate this kind of condition like we can at smoother, faster places."

WHAT THINGS DO YOU NEED TO HAVE ANSWERED BEFORE QUALIFYING? "The biggest thing is travels. This car really doesn't have the front downforce like out current car, so we struggle to get the car to turn through the center of the corner. And yet, at the same time, it makes for a very light car getting into the corners. It's about trying to get the car freed up as much as you possibly can to really roll in the center of these tight corners without loosening the car up too much for the entries."

HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO THE CURRENT MONTE CARLO SS? "I feel like we have a lot more tools to work with to free the car up here in the past and we had the downforce to make up for the entry. Now, we don't have the downforce and that splitter is sensitive when it leaves the ground and when it compresses close to the ground and the track. And so I feel like we're a little bit more limited on our tools to work with. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it just makes it more challenging."

CAN YOU GO BACK TO YOUR OLD NOTES? "Like I was saying earlier, we have some new technology with things that are more current with the splitter and the wing and we've learned so much about riding on bump stops and getting the most out of the aerodynamics, but this car won't allow you to do near as much as what we do with the current car. So, in some ways we're stepping back in time and maybe that's a little bit better for some of the older school drivers, but I don't think so. I think it's going to come down to the good teams that pay attention to detail and build a solid car and really know how to apply everything to this car and a driver who feels the car well enough to go out there and drive around. It's the same thing we deal with every weekend.

"But I do think there are only certain teams out there that have really figured out how to get their bodies to maximize the downforce and still get through inspection with the current templates. And this car eliminates that a lot. I do think it's going to close up the competition in some ways, but in other ways it challenges those guys even more to where you could see some really tight times for a lot of guys and some guys will be way off."

ON THE SPEEDS "I don't know if aerodynamics are going to play a big role in this car at this track. So I think the speed difference will be no different than normal; it'll actually make it a little easier to pass some cars. I'm more concerned with the cars that are running about the same speed - maybe a little slower - and then you come up behind them and then you don't have the aerodynamics to make the pass. I'm more concerned with that."

ON THE TALK OF REPAVING DARLINGTON AND BRISTOL "We're finding out a lot of things about these race tracks, like the shape of the track and the angles and the banking. If they asked my opinion, I gave my opinion. Darlington is such a great, historical race track, there are some very minor things that they can do to maybe make some improvements. But unless you want to tear the whole place down and do a whole new race track, which I don't think anybody wants to see that done, I think they're really going to just get in there and fix some of the pavements issues where its breaking apart. Here, it's kind of the same thing - except that you're dealing with concrete here. I think there are some forming and different transitional things that they can do to make more side-by-side racing here to make it not only more exciting, but more competitive. I'm very curious to see how things turn out with this track and I've met with them a few times. The problem is you're working within these walls. Those outer walls can't be moved so you have to work around that and that challenges the engineers a lot. I'm happy to give my feedback and I hope other drivers are. I wish that every track that is either repaved or where they are building a new track that they would sit down with as many drivers and crew chiefs and tire engineers and NASCAR officials that they possibly can before they decide what they're going to do."

ON BRISTOL COMPARED TO MARTINSVILLE AND WHAT TO EXPECT WITH THE NEW CAR? "I think Martinsville should be a little bit easier to adapt to because we don't have the loads and banking and drop-offs transitions we have here. So I think we should see a fairly typical Martinsville and a typical Impala SS. It's a lot of what we're dealing with here."

ON THE BIGGER TEAMS BEING ABLE TO GET A HANDLE ON THE NEW CAR FASTER "Well I feel like Hendrick Motorsports is so on top of everything right now. When you look at all the teams out there, I think we're doing as good or better job than most. That doesn't just relate to the current car. It relates to new projects, the new car and everything. We're excited because we know we're bringing good race cars to the track. And we're really excited with the DuPont Chevrolet team right now. Good things are happening. We're having a lot of fun. We're competitive and I don't think that's going to matter whether it's the current car or the new car. We're having a good time."

ON THE IMPALA SS RETURNING TO NASCAR? "I think it's very cool. I've never driven an Impala on the race track, so I'm excited about it. I think it's very unique marketing that the manufacturers are doing by splitting up the brands. It's a good opportunity to take the new car and turn it into the Impala SS and keep the current car the Monte Carlo SS. I think it's brilliant and we're going to make the best of it."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS IMPALA SS

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS IMPALA SS TALKED WITH MEDIA ABOUT THE NEW IMPALA SS RACE CAR

ON SAFETY OF THE NEW GENERATION OF NASCAR NEXTEL CUP CARS: .With the Hans device, the soft walls and the better head restraints we have in our cars, there's been a lot of great work that's been done. But safety isn't a goal, it's a trip. You're on it every day.

"Without people being hurt we'd be thinking we were doing good enough and that's one of the things we have to guard against in the future. It's real easy to look around and say look how good we are, look how great we are. It's real easy to convince yourself that you've done enough. But we weren't good enough, we weren't doing enough to move the bar. We were doing enough to get by for a little while, but as we improved in some areas, that made other areas go down. It's not acceptable that we have to be constantly trying to move the bar when we weren't doing it. And when I say we, I don't mean just NASCAR I mean all of us, it takes the teams, it takes the drivers, it takes the manufacturers, it takes everyone. NASCAR is taking the lead in the last three years but it doesn't rest solely on their shoulders. I don't think they're responsible for my safety - I think I'm responsible for my safety.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE IMPALA BRAND COMING BACK TO NASCAR? I think it's really cool. When you think about how long it is since Impala has run it's really neat to have it back. People don't think that the Impala has much history in racing but it does. And it's cool to have it back.

IT'S SAID THAT TEAMS AND DRIVERS HAVE TO BE OPEN-MINDED WITH THE NEW CAR. HOW CHALLENGING IS IT. HOW EASY IS IT TO GET IT GOING FAST? It's really easy when things are going well. I've always said the hardest thing about this business is to know when to do something different. When things are going well it's much harder to do something different. You want to hang on to what you've got, you want to improve on what you've got. You can't do that with this car. Things that worked on our other car don't apply here. It's not only an open mind it's like we're running a whole other season. That's how I view this. It's a new car season now and that's not to say that we can drop our other car (the Monte Carlo SS) and get by if we don't get better because we won't. There's a new car season and there's a today car season."

APART FROM QUALIFYING YOU'VE GOT TOMORROW. WHAT CAN YOU LEARN AHEAD OF THE RACE ITSELF? We've been testing here - we've been testing a lot all season. You know we build to theories. And the only way to test those theories is to try more stuff. The only way to try more stuff is to have more track time. But there's never enough track time - especially in this situation. There are a lot of questions. There are a lot of questions from a speed point of view. What do we need to go fast? Then there are a lot of other questions, the what-ifs. What if you get into the back of another car, what happens? We still don't know how these cars are going to cool yet. You think about when you come to Bristol having people overheat because the cars get all bunched up. There can be a lot of overheating issues. We have no idea how these car are even going to cool. There are a lot of things like that that we have huge questions about. We'll be a lot wiser Sunday night.

THE CARS ARE A WHOLE LOT WIDER. DOES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? I really haven't noticed it. But you do need to give another foot to the guy that's on the outside of you. You almost have to give him another foot to make sure you don't squeeze him into the wall when you get underneath him. So I think that that potentially is an issue. I mean how often do we come off a corner and we've got our quarter-panel or whatever right up against a guy's door and he's right up against the wall. Another eight inches puts him right in the wall.

Behind the Hauler Chat with Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Impala SS talked with members of the media about racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, the setup of his Impala SS and other subjects. Johnson is currently second in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings.

THE COMBINATION OF THE NEW CARS AND THIS TRACK, WILL THAT CAUSE TROUBLE? "It's tough to tell. Once we get into the cars we don't really know what the shape of the car is like. It's just dealing with the handling of it, trying to balance out the front of it. I'm sure there's going to be some things pop up that aren't expected. I think in the end you'll still see a typical Bristol race."

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BRISTOL? CAN YOU HAVE SUCCESS HERE? "It's just a different animal. I think we've all been able to start over at the same points having developed a car that's good for me. Jeff (Gordon) and I don't drive the identical setup so what he attempts to test here with before doesn't work for me. I tried it, it just doesn't work. This gives us all the same starting point; we feel like we're in a good position right now with the new car. The conditions are much different now than when we tested here; it's much, much warmer now and there's a lot less grip out there so it's going to put on a good show. You're going to see a lot of sliding around."

WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT AFTER PRACTICE SESSIONS? "Some of the stuff that brought comfort to the car for qualifying trim at the test didn't work now and I think that's the because of the temperature. Beyond that I think the test just carried over. The cars still have a lot of movement. You can sit in Turn One and watch them bounce around and 'porpoise' around and the hard part is trying to get out of this. If you haven't stopped the car with a packer before the splitter hits the ground, what you're seeing all that movement is the car hitting the packer or that bump stop and it's just a harsh stop; it bounces the car around. We're all trying to play with our shocks, tire pressures and geometry to make that impact more forgiving so the car will turn."

DO YOU DO THAT EVERYWHERE OR JUST IN TURN ONE? "I think the transition's more abrupt in Turn One. There's a smaller act of it over in Turn Three but it doesn't like Turn One."

TEAMMATE JEFF GORDON IS QUICKER THAN YOU RIGHT NOW. DID YOU GUYS WORK TOGETHER ON HIS SETUP OR DID THEY GO AT IT ALONE? "We've certainly had input. In the test session we were probably close to him. I think over time the way Chad (Knaus) looks at things is different than how Steve (Letarte) looks at it. What I look for in my inputs is different than Jeff's and that's where we kind of drift apart but since we're starting at the same point we're closer here."

HOW DO YOU SEE SAFETY IMPROVING THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER? "Well, I looked at it as pretty safe when I first started in the Busch series and it's changed so much that I couldn't be more thankful that all the hard work has gone into it. It's been a group of people, regardless of the make of the vehicle just working on safety just for the drivers of this sport. There were universities developing softer walls and a lot of technology that's gone into stuff so I'm glad to see everyone working together to make it safer. Like I said, I felt I was safe before but now that everything we have, even the crash data box in the cars.really makes it a lot better."

BRISTOL BEING SO TOUGH FOR YOU IN THE PAST, DO YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A BETTER CHANCE WITH THE NEW CAR? "I think it does help close that gap up. I feel that way now but we wanted more practice. We'll have to see how the race goes but I feel it's helping us out some."

HOW IS THE CAR DRIVING? "It's alright. I think the warmer weather now has changed some things from the test. Some of the things that worked for us in the test didn't work right away so we backed off of it and we're still trying to get balance."

ARE YOU MAKING MORE CHANGES THAN NORMAL? "You're more limited now than you were before so you can't really change as much. You have to keep the car off the ground with the packer and stuff and get the splitter right so you're kind of boxed in."

CAN YOU PUT A QUALIFYING SETUP AND A RACE SETUP ON THIS CAR? "Yeah, there's definitely a qualifying setup versus race setup. It really boils down to maximizing the grip of the tire and in qualifying trim you want to abuse it and use all four tires as much as you can. In race trim you want to soften things up and take care of the tires."

WERE YOU HAVING TROUBLE EARLY ON? "Yeah, in the beginning when the track was green it was pretty slick. I think I was sideways all the way down the front straightaway one time. But once rubber started being laid in the grip came back."

WILL YOU CHANGE WING ANGLE BETWEEN QUALIFYING AND THE RACE? "I don't think so. I think we're going to maximize all the downforce we're allowed to have and then find a way to make the car turn mechanically from there. You're faster through the turn except for Daytona and Talladega and there's minimums set on all of that. So if we can have as much downforce as we can in the car that's where we're going to go."

DO YOU THINK THE TOP TEAMS WILL HAVE MORE OF AN ADVANTAGE BECAUSE OF THEIR ENGINEERING SUPPORT? "I think initially it's going to work out that way. The big teams are going to have the advantage. The support of the engineers is part of it but over time there are less areas to play with this car so it will limit us."

IS YOUR SIGHTLINE ANY DIFFERENT IN THE NEW CAR? "It's really tall inside the car. It's more the vertical vision that I have. I swear that the line of the roof must be six inches taller to look out of the car. It's really the only difference that I noticed."

DOES IT HELP AT ALL AT A HIGH-BANKED TRACK LIKE THIS? "It does. Bristol it does and I've always suggested my - we run that black tape strip along the top of the car - I've always kept mine up as far as I could at tracks like this. Just so I can see from around the turn. This does help with that a little bit more."

DID YOU AND TONY STEWART HAVE A CONFLICT AFTER ATLANTA? "No, once we had a chance to talk about it we didn't and I knew leaving the track that we were in good shape. Word kind of made it from his people to my people that it was fine. It's funny, I called him and you know how he is with his damn phone, he doesn't ever answer. I texted him, went through the whole routine and he wouldn't call me back. Then he said 'come on my show and we'll talk about it.' Once he had me come onto his radio show I figured everything was fine. We talked on his show and he came on my show the following day and it was fine."

HOW HARD IS IT FOR A DRIVER TO COME OFF THE WALL, PREVENT FROM CLIPPING YOU AND THEN GIVE YOU THE FINGER? "There's no doubt that Tony is a talented driver. I didn't realize that was visible on TV. He did a great job not wasting the issue and when I caught wind of him rallying back it was just too late to readjust. I tried but that didn't leave a lot of room and he ended up rubbing against the wall. I don't think our cars even touched. If we would have touched it would have put me into the wall and that would have been a big loss. But he's very talented to shoot me the bird right inside the car and keep going straight."

HOW CHALLENGING IS IT TO COME IN WITH A NEW CAR, TIRE, ENGINE. IS IT ANY MORE CHALLENGING THAN WHAT IT WAS WHEN YOU FIRST CAME? "I don't know. I'm trying to think back to my rookie season. I don't know. With the limited testing that we have and the lack of opportunities to get data with this new car, it is very challenging in that respect. If you're good at describing what you feel you're going to excel. I think my rookie year I tested 12 times a year and I had a lot more time to get data and learn the tracks.

"You've got to distinguish the different feelings of the car and why it might be tight or loose and get the crew chief in the area of where the problem is coming from."

WOULD YOU ALMOST RATHER BE A ROOKIE? "No, I said from the beginning I'd trade my youth for five years of experience and here I am in my sixth season and loving it. It's been a long road and there's a lot of things you have to learn. A lot of it's learned by making mistakes and making the wrong adjustments on cars and then living with it for 500 miles, thinking 'I'll never get out of here'. I'm glad those days are, for the most part, behind me. It's still a big learning curve and I don't think you'll ever quit learning but I like the feel that I have now."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT/QUALIFYING COMMENTS WITH TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT IMPALA SS

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT IMPALA SS TALKS WITH MEDIA ABOUT HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT, THE NEW RACE CAR FORMA, HIS CLASSIC CAR PURCHASE AND RACING AGAINST JIMMIE JOHNSON IN ATLANTA

HOW DO YOU LIKE THE NEW CAR? "It still doesn't feel like the old car by any means but this Impala SS, it's a lot better than I thought it was going to qualify so I'm happy with that.

"We just made a couple little itty bitty changes before qualifying so I'm sure the track's probably picked up a little bit. I was just trying to match what I did because if you said everybody tried out-matching them or just going a tick quicker but I didn't know we were going to be that much quicker."

IS THE CAR REALLY AS BAD AS YOU THOUGHT EARLIER? "No, it's not quite as bad. I mean, after you let the engineers have a couple weeks to work on it like we talked about during the test. they had a chance to analyze all their data and it would be better than what it was when we were here during the test. At the test they all didn't feel so good but now it feels a little bit better. It still doesn't feel as good as the other cars did but at least we're decent so far."

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING? "I can do it for one lap; Denny can do it for a lot of laps right now. I don't know honestly. It's like we talked about it before, it's just going to be a matter of who can find out what this car laps the quickest right now. I'm not sure. I held my breath good for a lap, good enough to get us there so far but we'll see if it stays."

DO YOU THINK THE CAR WILL PASS WELL OR DRIVE WELL IN TRAFFIC? "For now. We're not going to know until we do it. I don't think it will be a big deal here on the short tracks. Not here or at Martinsville but you're not going fast enough. It's more just about regular racing here, it's when you get to the mile-and-a-halfs next year that it's going to be a big deal."

HOW DOES THE CAR LOOK TO YOU? "I still think it's ugly. They're all ugly but at least everybody's cars look ugly. We all look evenly ugly. I still don't think they look that good. I couldn't watch that Busch practice and see what a stock car is supposed to look like vs. a sports car."

DIDN'T YOU AND SPEED COMMENTATOR MIKE JOY BUY A CAR TOGETHER AT BARRETT-JACKSON? "I bought it and I'm waiting on as far as what we do when we sell it and all that."

IT'S A FORD GALAXIE, RIGHT? "I think so."

WHAT'S YOUR INTEREST IN THOSE KINDS OF CARS? "I didn't have any but he said he thought it might be a sleeper that might be a good buy late in the day."

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT? "Whatever he wants to do with it. I told Mike, I said 'it's up to you what we do with it, if we make any money off of it, whatever we make we're going to spilt in half."

HOW DID YOU GUYS GET HOOKED UP? "He was out there all week doing the coverage of it (the auction) and I asked him for some advice about a couple of cars I was looking at, late in the day on Sunday. It was kind of getting dull and he said 'if you're looking for some buys or some cars you might be able to turn over and make some money, this is one you might want to look at.'"

HE'S GOT A REAL PASSION FOR THIS STUFF? "Oh yeah. The depth of knowledge he's got on the collector-car market is unbelievable. I was really impressed."

JIMMIE JOHNSON WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH TALENT IT TOOK AT ATLANTA FOR YOU TO GET OUT OF THE WALL, STRAIGHTEN YOUR CAR AND SHOOT HIM THE BIRD. "I didn't shoot him off. I got my fist out there and that's just the heat of the battle. When it was over it was over and by the time we got to the airport I'd calmed down. That shows you just how much we both want to win. Jimmie and I are really good friends and I'd rather be mad at him than any of the other guys so like I said, it was either go ahead and push the issue and both of us crash or back off and end up second."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL IMPALA SS

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL IMPALA SS TALKED WITH MEDIA ABOUT FEELING PREPARED FOR WEEKEND WITH NEW-GENERATION IMPALA SS RACE CAR

ON THE NEW CAR: "I don't think anybody really knows what the circumstances are going be or the outcome is going to be. I think everybody is just excited to get in to the race and anticipating getting in to the race. There might be 100 cautions or two cautions, I don't really know. I don't think anybody really knows. I think there has been a lot read in to something that we all don't know anything about. We have all have tested the car the car a lot, none of us have ever raced a lot, we actually haven't raced it at all. We haven't really raced it around anybody.

"It is hard to know what is going to happen and what isn't going to happen. It might be one of those things that everybody is so far off that you can't go any faster and you can't hardly wreck. Who knows what is going to happen. I think it is going to be your normal Bristol race just for the fact there is going to be beatin' and bangin' and a lot of cautions."

ON FEELING BETTER ABOUT THE CAR TODAY: "Yes, I understand why we were where we were after the first practice session. While we were in here, I read somebody's article, from West Virginia, I don't remember who it was, but they were talking about how bad the test was and obviously they didn't look past the first practice session, they just wrote what they wanted to. We were top-five and top-10 in the rest of the practice sessions and were very happy with our car. We just went down a different path just to see if it would take some of the things we have been doing at the flat tracks stuff, but it wouldn't."

ON BEING ABLE TO TRANSFER INFORMATION USED ON MONTE CARLO SS TO IMPALA SS AT BRISTOL: "We don't have any information. Everything is 180 degrees from what we did on the other cars. But you still have that same feel that you want. You still have the same techniques that you use. I think the biggest thing we are going to fight with this car is forward bite, loose up off the corners after 25 or 30 laps. That seems to be the pretty common theme throughout the garage.

"I think the guy who can get up off the corner the best and not be completely sideways up off the corners will be hard to beat."

ON NEW GENERATION CAR BEING THE GREAT EQUALIZER: "I think you are going to see the same guys be successful. This is just one of those places where technique and just getting a rhythm are more important than anything. You still to have your car right but if you find that feel, you are going have the same kind of things happen. I think it is wrong to read in to what we think is going to happen, we are just going to have to see what happens when we race."

ON PLAN IN PLACE WITH TEAM FOR DAMAGE THAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO SPLITTER OR WING DURING THE RACE: "We have a whole crash process that we have already developed and gone through. I don't know what the deal is with the wing; I think if you knock one off, you go get another one. I can't 100% answer the question, but I know we have taken the time to build extra front ends and splitters and all those things in case we do have some damage. I know we have extra deck lids, noses, splitters, fender, doors and everything you can imagine."

ON IMPROVEMENTS TO SAFETY OF RACING SINCE HE STARTED DRIVING: "Oh man, I think the race tracks are safer with the soft walls, I think that has been the biggest improvement. Our seats are so much safer it isn't even funny. I'd say, I mean, it hard to even put a number one it, but they are so much safer, it is hard to even put in to perspective. You get in the car, you don't worry about anything, you just go."

ON VALUE OF RUNNING BUSCH RACE NOW: "Well, three of the last five Busch race winners here have won the Cup race too. That is kind of a self-explanatory answer there. As I said earlier, this is a rhythm track and once you get in to a rhythm and you find a feel that you like and it works for you, if you can find that feel in a particular car, then you are going to be successful."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX IMPALA SS

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX GROUND IMPALA SS TALKED WITH MEDIA ABOUT TODAY'S PRACTICE SESSION AND HOW THE IMPALA SS DROVE, IF THERE IS A MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUALIFYING AND RACE TRIM AND IF HE'S AVOIDED THE SOPHOMORE SLUMP THIS SEASON.

HAMLIN POSTED THE FASTEST TIME DURING TODAY'S FIRST PRACTICE SESSION WITH A TIME OF 15.484. ONE YEAR AGO HE ALSO POSTED THE FASTEST TIME HERE AT THE FIRST PRACTICE SESSION WITH A LAP TIME OF 15.491.

ON PRACTICE TODAY: "Actually I didn't know that (his practice stats). Yeah, we were pretty good. We just kind of kept up with the times. We took our time and stayed in qualifying trim for most of the practice. When a guy would go out there and beat us we would go out there and beat him. We just kind of eased into it a little bit and kind of saw where we stood out. Definitely no room for error there. I think we were three hundredths slow we were going to be sixth. We don't have the gap that we had on the guys in testing. A few teams have caught up so I think we'll definitely have to be on our game."

IN TERMS OF STRICT DRIVEABILITY, WAS IT EXACTLTY WHAT YOU EXPECTED OR WERE THERE SUBTLE DIFFERENCES THAT YOU WEREN'T QUITE READY FOR? "No, it was pretty much what I was expecting. To tell you the truth, they really drive a lot like the cars that we were currently running. There's really not much difference from my standpoint other than that I can see a little bit more. Other than that, everything seems to be pretty much the same. It's going to be other race tracks like Loudon and what not before we really see a difference in how we feel."

ARIC ALMIROLA HAS MADE A RAPID ASCENT FROM LATE MODELS UP THROUGH THE RANKS MUCH LIKE YOU DID. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HIS CAREER? "Well Aric comes from a very similar background racing the late models. He's actually from Tampa, Florida, the same place I was born so we're very similar. We raced against each other in late models a little bit. He was coming in as I was going out. He's definitely one of the up-and-coming drivers at Gibbs. It's exciting to have guys that got good talent and that can give us good feedback. That's what we kind of rely on him for right now, good testing notes. And when he's my teammate on Saturdays I can definitely rely on what he says because I've got all the faith in the world in him."

IS THERE GOING TO BE A GREAT DEAL OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RACE TRIM AND QUALIFYING TRIM WITH THE NEW SPLITTER AND WING? "No, especially at this race track there's not a whole lot of difference. We spent testing all in race trim and today all in qualifying and really the cars drove no different. Usually there is a pretty distinct gap between qualifying and race trim. There are a lot of things we'd change. We came here that way but then we started backing out and getting closer and closer to where we were in race trim and got faster so I'm pretty excited that there's not a big transition from one to the other. That way if you qualify well you should race well."

SITTING EIGHTH IN THE POINTS RIGHT NOW, IS IT TOO EARLY TO TELL IF YOU'VE AVOIDED THE SOPHOMORE SLUMP? "Yeah, I don't know. There are a lot of race tracks like last weekend where we ran horrendous. It was a terrible weekend for us, probably the worst race I've ever run in the Cup Series. We were able to salvage a 19th-place finish after running mid-30s most of the day. We've haven't hit our stride back on those race tracks. We've still improved on every finish that we finished for the first four races from last year to this year. So we're making gains, we just haven't hit the stride at really the good race tracks for us yet. The first four tracks are probably the worst four for me except for maybe Dover thrown in there. Once we got past those, we knew that coming here and going to Martinsville, those are the tracks that we're going to be able to excel on."

ON THE NEW RACE CAR: "They're going to change the current car around in probably in the next three years. I'm not going to say they don't really look any different and once we run them but I think once we run them in race conditions and we see what can be improved on I think it's going to be an evolving car that's just going to keep changing."

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL CHANGE? "I'm sure they're going to update more safety things. They may change something on the bodies of them to make them where they handle better in a pack. It's hard to say because we haven't really run full-bore with this thing."

DO YOU THINK THE BUSCH CAR AND THE CUP CAR WILL NOW HANDLE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT? "Yeah, well that's why we chose not to run the Busch race this week. It's because we felt like we'd do better just to focus on the new car. We did that last week and it turned out to be a terrible race. So I don't know, it's tough to say whether it's an advantage or disadvantage to run the Busch race. This is just one of the weekends where I felt like the two drove too differently so I chose to sit the Busch race out."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS IMPALA

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS IMPALA SS TALKED WITH MEDIA ABOUT THE NEW IMPALA SS AND CHALLENGES OF THE FIRST RACE WITH IT THIS SUNDAY

TELL ME HOW YOU ARE VIEWING THE NEW RACE CAR: "I don't know what to think. If we get out of here with the fenders on and a smile on our face I'll probably love it, otherwise I'll hate it. I'll tell you, everybody's going to be that way. That's the cards you are dealt and you've got to make the best of them. If it's easy to do, we're going to prevail with this thing."

IS IT WIDE-OPEN FOR SUCCESS BECAUSE OF THIS NEW FORMAT? "Well, the guys who get around this place good are still going to be the guys to beat at the end of the day. Handling is going to be a big part of it. As poorly as all our cars first handled when we first got here, as far as we all came just in the one-day test, I think handling is going to be an issue. Who can keep the car. lap 20, 30, 40; who's fast up in those laps are going to be the ones to beat.

"It's going to be hard to make the car that way because to be good that deep into a run, you've got your hands full early."

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE SPLITTER OR WING GETS DAMAGED? "Well, it's obvious that those are key components of aero in these cars and it's not good if you lose any of them. I did see teams - Kasey Kahne was parked next to us in the tests and he took the splitter completely off. He was able to get around the track. It didn't 'fly out of the ballpark' but it's going to slow you down and you're not going to win the race without it but I think you can finish and salvage a halfway decent run out of it."

WHAT DID YOU GUYS LEARN FROM WHEN YOU WRECKED? "Not to do it again (laughs). We were definitely on some things there that were faster but it was obviously a lot more of a handful to drive so we're probably going to revisit some of that here in the test but not quite as much, I think. Gill and Jeremy, our engineering kind of learned something there as far as setup-wise. As far as fixing the car I think we learned some things there. It wasn't that hard of a hit and it basically knocked the whole body off the chassis. I think they figured out some areas to beef it up a little bit and some areas to maybe try to make a little bit weaker to give."

HOW MUCH DIFFFERENCE IS THERE BETWEEN THE NEW CAR AND THE OLD FROM INSIDE? "Oh, there's definitely a lot of difference here. When I tested on the flat tracks like we've been testing all winter long, I really didn't notice a whole big difference. I was happy with the way my car handled - which gives me confidence going into a place like Martinsville, Phoenix or Richmond. Some of these places I feel like won't be as big of a deal but here you're going so fast, there's no way to test for Bristol. The only way you're going to test for Bristol is to build a Bristol in your backyard or something and go test. We're on 10-year-old technology they did way back when and the crew chiefs that were around then and know what's going on are going to be the ones to figure it out first. That's one thing I like about Gill. He's been around a long time and remembers those old days and how to get the cars around the track. He was able to pick up on this really quick."

SOME OF THE GUYS HAVE SAID THAT MARTINSVILLE WILL BE A BETTER BAROMETER FOR WHAT THIS CAR'S GOING TO BE. DO YOU AGREE? "Oh, I definitely agree with that. Phoenix as well. Once we get to Phoenix I think everybody will pretty much have their stuff dialed in and I think you'll see a lot better race. Here I know I'm very concerned about; I've been worried about it all week. I know I'm probably not the only one like that."

DOES IT ADD TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE NEW CAR WHEN YOU'RE GOING FROM THE BUSCH CAR TO THIS CAR WHERE THE SETUPS ARE DIFFERENT? "To me personally, laps here are important. This place is so unique. It takes so long and you're so up on the wheel. It's nerve-wracking to be around here. You're never relaxed. The more laps you run around here the more relaxed you get. The more of a rhythm you can get in. If you were to just jump in that thing and start the race right away, you'd be fidgety and all over the track and it's really hard, for some reason for me, to get calmed down here and get in a rhythm and get relaxed."

HOW ABOUT IN TERMS OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SETUPS IN BOTH SERIES? "They're going to handle different, that's for sure. But like I said, laps around here for me is key and I think that's going to help me."

HAVE YOU EVER NAMED ANY OF YOUR CARS? "Yeah, I named my favorite car 'Betsy'. Unfortunately I stuck it in intensive care right now. We just had so much good fortune with that car; it was so good to us. That was the thing I hated most about wrecking at Las Vegas, was hurting that car that's been so good to me."

WHY DID YOU NAME THE CAR THAT? "She was Betsy - she was the one."

ANY OTHER NAMES? "Not really, I don't even know why I named it 'Betsy'. I was just going down the track and after the race one time, with another top-five in that car, I said 'old Betsy did it again'. It kind of stuck."

THERE'S A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE COMPARING MARTINSVILLE TO THIS TRACK, ISN'T THERE? "Oh, it's night and day difference. This place is so fast and you carry so much speed around it. Martinsville is slow. You let off at the flag stand, basically and along there and let it roll all the way through the corner before you pick up the gas. If you're not back in the gas about the center of the corner here you're going to get lapped pretty quick."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH MARTIN TRUEX JR, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS IMPALA SS

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO 1 BASS PRO SHOPS IMPALA SS TALKS WITH MEDIA ABOUT THE NEW IMPALA SS AND HIS APPROACH TO THE SEASON

BASED ON THIS MORNING'S RESULTS HOW DO YOU FEEL QUALIFYING WILL GO? "Well, we're kind of throwing some stuff at it right now for qualifying. We actually unloaded off the truck fairly well. In race trim we were about the fourth- or fifth-fastest car. Went to qualifying trim and the car didn't really get any faster so I'm a little nervous about that but it's the same old Bristol. It's hard to turn in the center and you've got to drive off. It's real, real important for us to qualify well here and we kind of need to pull them out of the hat today so we'll see what happens."

YOUR CAR SEEMED TO BE LOOSE OF THE CORNERS. IS THAT WHY YOU WERE FIGHTING MOST OF THE PRACTICE SESSION TODAY? "Well, we were really fighting turning in the center. As you keep throwing things at it to try and get it to do that, usually here you'll get loose in the corner and you'll get loose off. So it's kind of. it's really hard here to find that balance of where you can get through the center good and still get off the corner. That's what we were fighting."

YOU HAVE SOME NOTES FOR EVERY TRACK NOW. ARE YOU COMING INTO THIS YEAR MORE CONFIDENT? "Yeah, for sure. It's been a whole lot easier for us so far this year. Everywhere we've been we've been really good right off the truck and that's because we've been there. We know what our race cars need and we've done a great job of showing up at the race track with cars that perform well where last year we were kind of showing up blindfolded it seemed like sometimes. It's been a whole lot easier on me and all of the guys on the team. When you unload with a car that's capable of going fast it's a whole lot easier to have a good weekend so it's been good. Our cars have been running good every week and I'm looking forward to the year."

YOU'LL ONLY HAVE TWO HOURS OF PRACTICE TIME TOMORROW. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO HAVE RESOLVED BEFORE SUNDAY'S RACE? "I don't think there's any real big questions that are critical that we need to know before the race. The biggest thing is to get your car driving good. It's just like another weekend for me, so far. The biggest problem we've been facing is getting this car to turn.

"It doesn't matter where we take it, you're limited to the travel in the front end. We're traveling probably not even half the amount we usually do. We're just having a hard time getting this car to turn. We're just kind of feeling our way through it trying to find things that work and it's going to be the thing we're going to fight all weekend. That's what most people are fighting and we're just going to have to figure it out."

HAVE YOU BEEN IN NORTH CAROLINA TOO LONG? YOU'RE STARTING TO SOUND MORE LIKE GASTONIA THAN SEASIDE HEIGHTS. "It rubs off on you, you know."

I KNOW YOU WON THE BUSCH RACE HERE BEFORE. WHY DID YOU GUYS DECIDE NOT TO RUN IT TOMORROW? "Well, Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. got this one. I think I'm getting the night race when we come back so I'm looking forward to that. We've got a Busch team and we've kind of just split up the schedule. I want to run the night race. I like racing here at night better than the daytime so that's kind of why I'm not here. We're going to probably do about eight or 10 Busch races throughout the season so I'm looking forward to them. They're always a lot of fun to do. Dale got this one so hopefully I'll get the next one."