KYLE BUSCH WINS AT BRISTOL AND SCORES 600TH WIN FOR CHEVROLET IN NASCAR NEXTEL CUP COMPETITION

Impala SS Drivers Capture Eight of Top-10 Finishers; Jeff Gordon Takes Lead in Series' Point Standings

Victory in Food City 500 Marks First Win for Impala SS in Return to Cup Competition; Win by No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS is 200th NASCAR Victory for Rick Hendrick as a Car Owner in Cup, Busch, and Truck Combined

Bristol, TN - March 25, 2007 - In what can only be described as a banner day for the Bowtie Brigade at Bristol Motor Speedway, 21-year old Kyle Busch, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS, scored not only the 600th win for Chevrolet in NASCAR Nextel Cup competition (NNCS) but, the first win for Impala SS in its returns to the race track to give the flagship nameplate 61 victories. It also marked the 200th win for his team owner Rick Hendrick in NASCAR Busch, Cup and Truck competition; the fourth NNCS victory of his career, and he led eight Impala SS drivers to top-10 finishes.

Busch led two times for a total of 29 laps and took the lead for the final time on lap 185 to score the win in a green-white-checkered finish.

"I need to thank Jeff Gordon for giving me a break there in one," said the Las Vegas, NV native. "Jeff Burton could have dumped me there in three and four but I think our Vegas finish helped me out a little bit with that. I think I had some brownie points to use up. I used them all up in one spot there. I really want to thank everybody at Carquest and Kellogg's and everybody on this Hendrick Motorsports team and everybody at the shop. This is 200 for us, and 600 for Chevrolet so glad we could do that for everybody."

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Impala SS, came home second and now sits second in the NNCS standings, just three points out of the lead.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, finished third and took the lead in the standings. Gordon won the pole for the Food City 500 giving Impala SS a perfect record in its debut back on the race track.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Impala SS, finished fourth, giving Chevy drivers four of the top-five finishing positions. Harvick sits fifth in the standings.

Jeff Green, No. 66 Best Buy Impala SS finished sixth, his best finish of the season followed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Impala SS in seventh and Clint Bowyer, No. 07 Jack Daniels Impala SS in the eighth spot.

Casey Mears, No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Impala, finished 10th, his best finish since joining Hendrick Motorsports at the beginning of the season.

Defending NNCS champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, is third in the standings after finishing 15th in today's race.

Round six of the 35-race 2007 NNCS will be Sunday, April 1 at Martinsville Speedway.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS - Finished 17th:

Note: right front flat; melted a bead

"I got the brakes too hot trying to chase down Carl Edwards. We had the middle section of the race something went wrong and we just weren't that good. We got it better at the end and started making up some ground. But I unfortunately overheated the brakes."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS IMPALA SS - Finished 2nd:

"We kept fighting and never gave up. That's what we do. We never give up with this team. Kyle (Busch) did a great job there. He's always driven me clean and I'm going to drive him clean. That's the way I race.

"I wanted to win the race really bad obviously but I wasn't going to knock him out of the way to do it. In my opinion, you knock him out of the way; you didn't win. If you can pass him without knocking him out of the way, that is how you do it and you do the best you can. He has always driven me clean and I tried to return that."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL IMPALA SS - Finished 4th:

"We came up a little bit short. But our Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet and these guys did a great job putting a great car underneath me. We just got one crappy set of tires there and it's just a shame. You can put one set of tires on and they should give those to you for free because they're junk. But we put that last set back on there and the car came back to life and we just raced to fourth. So it was a good day."

YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO RUN WELL AT BRISTOL: "I just like this place. Everything about Bristol is a lot of fun. You can race hard and beat and bang a little bit and get after it. So it's just a fun place to race."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS - Finished 3rd:

"Oh, my goodness, what a fight this was for us. It was a great fight for the DuPont Impala Chevrolet. We had our trouble. We started on the pole and went backyards pretty fast. Steve Letarte and all the guys on this team did a great job making adjustments. That was teamwork right there. We were fortunate not to go a lap down there a couple of times. Right there at the end, we actually had a pretty good race car. We put new tires on and I wasn't as good as some other guys. So I'm real happy for Kyle Busch.

"That's an awesome win for him. I wanted to race with him. I got a run on the inside and I knew (Jeff) Burton was going to get a run on the outside and I knew I was in trouble, so I just tried to hold on to third. That's a great win for Hendrick Motorsports.

"It is always a team effort, if those guys didn't listen to me and make the right adjustments, it doesn't matter what I do out there. I showed them what I could do with that car with that car at the beginning so it obviously wasn't me. It was unfortunate we got that far behind in the beginning. We really struggled yesterday in practice and we fought really hard to day. We were fortunate to stay on the lead lap.

"I am really happy for Kyle Busch. That is a great win, I am glad he got it for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. It was a great day for the DuPont Impala.

AND THAT'S NUMBER 200 FOR RICK HENDRICK? "Yeah, and it's number 600 for Chevrolet. So, what an incredible day. What a roll Hendrick Motorsports is on. We're going to get us some of those (wins) this year. We've just got too good of a team and a race car, so I'm looking forward to the whole year."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 66 BEST BUY IMPALA SS - Finished 6th:

CONGRATULATIONS, I BET YOU LIKE THIS NEW CAR, DON'T YOU? "I like Bristol and this car and Harold Holly and all these Best Buy guys. They did me such a good job today on pit road. We stayed out of trouble. The No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) had something go wrong there on the last lap. I thought I was going to get spun out by Dale Junior, but it was a great race. I think it was a great race for the fans. We just need a couple more spots to be where I want to be, but that's a start for sure."

HOW MUCH OF A BOOST IS THIS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM? "It's momentum for sure. We know we can do this. We just have to get out and do it and not get down on each other and I think we have the last couple of weeks. But this is a momentum builder for sure and a pride builder for sure. Harold and those guys did a great job and I'm not going to give up on them and I know they're not going to give up on me."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER IMPALA SS - Finished 7th:

"Congratulations to Hendrick and Kyle (Busch). They had a great car. I'm sure winning at Bristol is really exciting... I gotta congratulate my crew too. They did a great job adjusting on my car. Tony Jr. and all the Budweiser guys did an awesome job. They gave me a car that ended up being pretty good there in the end. Clint Bowyer and Jeff Green and those guys we were racing at the end drove clean. We just tried to get it home - put it in the bag and get us some points. We didn't have a great car to get up there and battle to with the leaders but I'm real proud of my team, they gave a real good effort."

ARE YOU DISPLEASED WITH THE HANDLING OF THE CAR? "Well, I'd like to have run better. Absolutely, yes. We would have liked to have had a car that was just on and turned better. (Crew chief) Tony Eury, Jr. and them did a great job, I just passed who I could pass and I tried not to give anybody too much trouble. We ended up with a decent finish. We just rode around and stayed out of trouble, sorta like you do on the road courses - just stay out of trouble and hope you get a decent finish."

WAS PASSING EASIER OR TOUGHER WITH THESE CARS? "Passing was tougher because nobody's cars handled quite as good."

WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE CAR TODAY? "Lot of room. Very comfortable. You drove the car basically the same, it just didn't have the same characteristics of downforce and grip. You become frustrated with that. That was the only thing. Hopefully we can just learn the car better."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S IMPALA SS - Winner

600 WINS FOR CHEVROLET AND 200 WINS FOR RICK HENDRICK, HOW DO YOU FEEL? "I need to thank Jeff Gordon for giving me a break there in one. Jeff Burton could have dumped me there in three and four but I think our Vegas finish helped me out a little bit with that, I think I had some brownie points to use up. I used them all up in one spot there. I really want to thank everybody at Carquest and Kellogg's and everybody on this Hendrick Motorsports team and everybody at the shop. This is 200 for us, and 600 for Chevrolet so glad we could do that for everybody. I still am not a very big fan of these things, I can't stand to drive them, they suck.

"I just really want to thank all of my Carquest/Kellogg's guys, they worked their hearts out for me this weekend. Tony Stewart had a great car; he probably could have won the race, Denny Hamlin as well. It looked like he got snookered there in traffic. Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton there at the end gave me a lot room, I really want to give them appreciation and thanks. They let me race and gave it too me clean, so that is cool. I am glad we could come out of here with a victory.

"We have had some bad breaks in the Busch Series for five races, Daytona we had a tough race, Vegas, Atlanta, yesterday. It is just an ongoing battle over there, but just glad we got our program back up to right and the way it is running in the right direction. But here on Sunday what wins is what matters. What wins on Sunday sells on Monday so congrats to Chevrolet on their 600th win and Hendrick Motorsports on their 200th. This is a great team. They are tough, they are strong, they never give up even in our town times. We were terrible at Atlanta, we sucked last week, so come back and bounce back like this just proves that this team doesn't give up and they can dig deeper when they have to and there is a little bit of adversity."

REGAN SMITH, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET IMPALA SS - Finished 25th

(Note: on the first pit stop (Lap 49), the 01 team was penalized for the car being over the pit box line. The team lost a lap and was sent to the tail-end of the longest line, which was 39th place. At the time of the pit stop, Smith was running 18th.

"Anytime you feel like you have a better car than the driver you leave the track disappointed. I was learning a lot out there today. I made a mistake on pit road early and that pretty much killed our day from then on. I was barely over the line. Sometimes the officials are lenient but he wasn't today."

"On the positive side, the U.S. Army Chevrolet was quick at times so that's promising. And it was a huge accomplishment to finish the race at Bristol. We are proud of that because that was the main objective. I'm glad this is over -- all the hoopla about my Cup debut. I am looking forward to Martinsville next week."

RYAN PEMBERTON, 01 ARMY CREW CHIEF

"It was both a good day and frustrating day. The first pit stop when we got penalized for being over the line really hurt. It not only put us a lap down, but it also sent us to the tail-end of the longest line. The good news is that Regan regrouped and went on to drive a solid race. Everyone has to remember he didn't come into an easy situation by driving the car that was in the points lead and making his first Cup start at what is probably the toughest track on the circuit. But he handled himself very well both on and off the track. He's a pleasure to work with and this deal is only going to get better."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS IMPALA SS AND JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS FINISH 2ND & 3RD

Burton and Gordon Post Race Press Conference Transcripts

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS IMPALA SS - FINISHED SECOND

ON BATTLING WITH KYLE BUSCH AT THE END OF THE RACE: "I've taken two away from Kyle in the Busch (Series) thing and it was kind of cool for it to come down to us again. Scott Miller (crew chief) made a great call there to come in and put on tires there. I'm real proud of him for making that call rather than getting conservative and trying to finish third or fourth or whatever. He knew people behind us were going to pit. I can remember watching Terry Labonte drive through the field years ago when he and Earnhardt got together. I had that in my mind. I was like 'I want to pit. I want to pit.' But the 24 started down pit road and Scott yelled pit. I was really glad he did because it was probably going to be on pit road at that point. It was a lot of fun. I have a lot of respect for Kyle. He's a really hard racer. He gives 100 percent. He's always driven me clean and that's what I did with him."

ON HIS ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPALA SS AND IF THIS WAS TAMER THAN THE TYPICAL BRISTOL RACE: "I will say that if my car last year handled the way that my car handled today, we would not have run second with new tires or old tires. Certainly these cars don't drive as well as the cars we had last year but they are what they are. You've got to make them handle well. I thought the race was a lot like a Bristol race. It wasn't very calm where I was for the most part of the race but I thought it was real similar to a normal Bristol race. The Car of Tomorrow is certainly a difficult thing for us to deal with but if it's difficult for everybody then really the only thing that matters is how you are in relation to your competition not how you are in relation to what the car would have been later. That's really inconsequential at this point. Coming here I said whoever won the race would have done the best job and they deserved to win the race and whoever did bad, it wasn't the Car of Tomorrow's fault. It was the driver and team's fault. That's the way I still feel."

ON THE LAST LAP IT SEEMS COMMON HERE TO USE THE BUMPER TO MOVE SOMEBODY TO WIN THE RACE. WHEN WOULD YOU USE THE BUMPER? HAVE YOU UNDONE A PRECEDENT OF USING THE BUMPER TO MOVE SOMEONE TO WIN A RACE? "Obviously I could have used the bumper and moved him out of the way and won the race but I try not to do that. I can lay in bed tonight wondering what ifs but that's just what I chose to do. It wasn't because I wanted him to win more than I wanted to win. It's just that's what I try to do. Jeff and I were racing pretty hard earlier. On that last run he was really tight. I didn't use a bumper on him either and by the way I don't think he would have used the bumper on me. I hope you wouldn't. I don't know. I don't know if it's the right thing to do or not. I know that half the people in the grandstands believe it wasn't the right thing to do and half of them probably believe it was. That's what I try to do - right, wrong or indifferent - that's how I try to do it."

ON A LOT OF SINGLE FILE RACING UP FRONT WITH THE STRONGER CARS. DO YOU THINK THAT HAD TO DO WITH THE UNFAMILIARITY OF THE CAR OF TOMORROW OR THE WORN OUT CONCRETE HERE? "Since we had concrete here, we've never had side-by-side racing. It's always single file. If you're going outside you're going to be double side but you're going to be doublewide going to the back. I didn't think the race was any different today than we had last year. That's my point of my view. I may be wrong but my point of view was it was just another race at Bristol."

ON THE LAST LAP, DOES IT MATTER WHO IS IN FRONT OF YOU? "It matters a lot. My deal is I try to race everybody clean. My mother always told me do unto other people as you want them to do you. That's cool until they prove to you that they're not going to do that to you. I let them make the rules. If that's the rules they want to live by then that's the rules we'll live by. That's the only thing I know to do. People make mistakes. The 25 slowed down in a wreck today and I didn't get slowed down as much and I spun him out but you knew it was a total accident. I don't know. I've always tried to let the guy that I'm racing with set the rules. Kyle has always set the rules with me. He drives hard. He drives really hard but he's always driven me with respect so that's the way I drive him."

NOW THAT YOU HAVE ONE RACE UNDER YOU HAVE ONE RACE UNDER YOUR BELT WITH THIS CAR, DO YOU FEEL MORE OR LESS ENCOURAGED ABOUT IT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? "I think the media have tried to make so much about the Car of Tomorrow. We think about it as our job to make it work. We don't have a choice. What choice do we have? We can complain about it or we can love it. But at the end of the day, they're going to pay us points and pay us money how we finish. It doesn't matter if we like the car or if we love the car. The only thing that matters is the result so I'm not encouraged. I'm not discouraged. I believe if you give Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Jack Roush, whatever you give them, whatever box you put them in, they're going to do their very best to build a car that's better than the people they're racing against. That's what we do. That's our jobs. I think it's going to be fine because the teams have to make it that way. We have no choice. That's my opinion. I think it's going to be a handful at Darlington. I think it's going to be hard to drive. I think it's going to be real hard to drive. That means that Jeff Gordon is going to shine because he's a really good driver. That means his team is going to do well because they're a really good team. That's what we do. That's our job to try to do it better than everybody else. It doesn't matter how you drive with it by yourself. It only matters how fast it goes in relation to your competition. That's really all that matters.

"You can have a street stock race here and it'd be a good race. You can't judge the Car of Tomorrow today. It's impossible. There weren't any catastrophic problems because of the Car of Tomorrow but the race wasn't great because of the Car of Tomorrow. The race at Bristol is going to be a good race. It doesn't matter what you do."

GOING TO MARTINSVILLE AND NOT HAVING THE BENEFIT OF TESTING THERE, WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES GOING TO BE? "I think we're starting further towards zero. I think it's going to be a bigger challenge. Testing with a new piece is very advantageous. So yeah, I think next week is even a bigger challenge than this week was just because we don't have any information. I think every team went home from the test and experimented a lot here, learned a lot and then came and tried to apply that and learned more on Friday and even more on Saturday and tried to apply that. I'll tell you, when I looked at Jeff's car Saturday morning and they looked really slow. We were really slow but it's a building process. Both teams kept building, building, building and finally made our cars pretty good. I know the 29 was the same way. We had whatever it was 12 hours or whatever testing here. We don't have that in Martinsville. It will be easier to get lost that's for sure."

DID YOU REALLY LEARN MUCH TODAY? IF SO, WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT YOU DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW? "Well you know that if we learned something, we're not going to say what we learned. That wouldn't be very productive. I'm sure every team learned throughout the day and they learned throughout the weekend and we'll apply all that we can to Martinsville. The tracks are completely different obviously but there's some things that we can probably apply but there's a whole lot that won't apply. I happen to think that the Richmond test in two weeks is going to be really important for getting ready for Phoenix and Richmond obviously. There's a little bit we can learn from this weekend but not a whole lot."

ON HIS PIT ROAD SPEEDING PENALTY: "You'd never talk to a driver that sped on pit road that said 'Yeah, I was speeding on pit road.' I don't think there was a conspiracy out there to catch me for speeding on pit road when I wasn't. I will tell you that I came in behind the 29. I don't know how I was speeding and he wasn't. I need to go back and review that. Luckily I have an in-car camera and I can go back and review that and figured out what happened there. Obviously I was speeding. Yeah, it enters my mind because that's track position. It took us forever to get it back. We were really fortunate to get back as far as we did.

"We were fortunate to have a good enough car to do that. On the other hand had we had the track position we might not have come in and gotten tires. So who knows? I don't like putting us in the position going from sixth, fifth or wherever we were running to 16th. That's unacceptable. That's not something that something that somebody with my experience should be doing. Again, I will tell you I was confused how I was speeding but obviously I was."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS - FINISHED THIRD

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY'S RACE: "The kind of day it started to be for us, to come home third, obviously, I've got to be very, very happy. I didn't really want to see that last caution. We were real, real tight on those new tires at the end. But man, we made such great ground up throughout the day, to go all the way to the back and we were fortunate to stay on the lead lap. It was certainly a lot of work; a handful for us today. Not a lot of fun at times but there at the end it was just fun to be racing with those guys. I don't even think I had anything for Kyle (Busch) with my new tires. We were just too tight and I knew that Jeff (Burton) would be tough on that restart. I made a mistake - I went to the inside. I don't think it would have mattered. Jeff would have drove by me on the inside if I would have gone on the outside. But I'm very happy to come home third."

ON USING THE BUMPER TO MOVE CARS OUT OF THE WAY: "The bumpers certainly line up a lot different too. In the past when you just got a bumper on the guy it lifted the back of the car. These cars push it forward. I think it's a lot different when you're running late in the race and you run a guy down from the straightaway back and then he puts a block on you, trying to protect his spot. Then you might be like, 'okay, I get one shot.' But when it's a green-white checkered (flag) you never really want to move anybody out of the way for a win. You certainly don't want to take a chance at wrecking them.

"We've seen it happen here probably more than anywhere. If a guy races you clean you usually race him clean. Jeff has always raced me clean and I try to always race him clean. Kevin Harvick was very good to me, I can tell you that. He had every opportunity to move me on that last corner and he didn't. There was some great racing going on in the front there for first and second. I still thought that Jeff was going to get it and I saw Kyle drive into the corner of the first turn so hard I didn't think he would ever make it. So you've got to give your hat off to him for his effort."

IS THE CAR JUST GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME TO GET USED TO? "I didn't feel like my car handled as good as what we've had in the past. I was just real loose getting in to get it to turn through the middle. I think that we certainly made improvements from the test and I think we'll continue to make improvements but we're so limited to what we can do to fix some of the issues that we have with the car. We're going to learn and get better and smarter like we always do but there's some things that you might not be able to fix. That's why they brought it here for the first race. It was smart on NASCAR's part to bring this car here because you're going to have a good, exciting race and the cars are going to handle kind of the way that they do here. You're going to be kind of loose getting in and sometimes tight in the middle, loose off and that's what we had today. Maybe it's a little exaggerated compared to normal but that's what we had. Let's go to Martinsville and I think it will be fairly similar. Then let's go to Darlington and I think Darlington's going to be the first race that we really kind of see what this thing's going to be all about. Until we get to Kansas or Chicago or one of those tracks I don't know if we're ever really going to see. I guess maybe Phoenix and Darlington (will be ones)."

ON THE NEW RACE CAR: "The only thing I'd like to add to that and not that I disagree with Jeff is that we're comparing it to the current car. The current car drives better, it's got more downforce, it's got more grip, it has better feel; it just feels better. So if you compare it to that car you're not going to like it. If NASCAR sees the results that they want to see on the race track then we need to get rid of the Monte Carlo and just go to this thing because you're never going to like it compared to the car that we have. We're stepping backwards in a lot of ways and if it's safer and the racing is better, I'm all for it. It's going to make it more difficult for the driver and the teams to get this car hooked up but if it makes for better racing and more entertainment then I think it's good for the sport. We can't answer that question this weekend. As long as it's pretty decent and comparable to what we've had in the past then I think that's a step forward. I agree with Jeff - it is what it is and if this is what NASCAR agrees on that this is what we're going to race then we're going to go race it. It doesn't matter whether we like it or not."

HOW FRUSTRATED WERE YOU WHEN YOU WERE FLIRTING WITH THE END OF THE LEAD LAP THERE EARLY AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO GET THE CAR BETTER? "It was very frustrating. We started out very loose. Yesterday we fought tight, tight, tight so we loosened the car and we did it too much. There were only so many adjustments that we could make to get that looseness out of it. But we did make some big ground up. I felt like we really were too stiff in the right rear with this car and luckily we were adjustable and pulled spring rubbers out of the right rear. That helped secure the car a little bit getting into the corner. Then we just started playing around with air pressure and bite and all these things and all these things that we typically do but nothing seemed to make it great, it just made it better. Luckily it was better enough that on the long runs we were pretty good. We were never good on the short runs and I really wanted to see the thing go all the way there that one time we came in with like, 86 (laps) to go."

YOU SAID YOU'VE NEVER USED YOUR BRAKES SO MUCH AT BRISTOL BEFORE. DO YOU EXPECT THAT TO BE THE SAME AT MARTINSVILLE? "Thanks for pointing that out (laughs). I just mentioned that to Jeff here actually. I'm pretty concerned with brakes at Martinsville. I used more brakes here today trying to get this car into the corner because it just seems to carry so much momentum in there. Of course, it was pretty loose anyway getting into the corner. I used up more brake than I ever have here at Bristol so that tells me that Martinsville we're probably going to have a lot of the same and use up a lot of brake there. Now we can go with a little bit different cooling package there than what we had here but we did upgrade our brakes here just in case and played it conservative. We'll go ultra-conservative on that same side, all the way maxed-out for brakes and cooling for next week."

DESCRIBE THE FINAL RESTART: "I made a mistake. I had a run on him and I went to the inside. I really felt like Jeff was the one that was in the best position because one, his car was handling a lot better. He had fresh tires as well and I felt like if I went to the inside he was going to go to the outside and if I went to the outside he was going to go to the inside. But I got the momentum and I went to the inside. As soon as Kyle started to come down on me I had my hands tied behind my back. Rick Hendrick already came on the radio and said 'hey, buddy, let's look at the big picture!' So I pretty much knew that I couldn't put a fender on Kyle when he came down on me and didn't want to. I knew right then that I was least going to lose one position and I thought 'let's not try to lose too many positions here'."

YOU TALKED ABOUT TAKING CARE OF THE FRONT END AND THE CAR HOPPING AROUND. HOW MUCH DID THAT PLAY INTO TODAY? "There was a wreck one time and Bobby Labonte slowed up in front of me and I couldn't slow in time. I ran hard into the back of him and I was really concerned. I thought we were going to have a lot more damage come in the way that radiator opening is. There's just some unknowns but we had no problems. I was pretty impressed with that and it didn't seem like it did too much damage to Bobby. It didn't spin him out which was nice. In the past, when you get on the brakes your car lifts up and you go underneath the guy, it usually spins him out. So I thought that was a plus. That ought to be interesting when we get to Talladega. There were positives that came out of today. I think we learned some things about the car but like Jeff said, we all kind of expected that Bristol wasn't going to be some kind of big revelation and all of a sudden we were going to have a great race. I will say that whether it was the car that we had today or whether the older car would have done this but we made some passes on the outside that I was pretty surprised by. Coming through the field on some lapped cars, usually you're hunting for the bottom and we could dig up there on the outside for a couple of laps. It was more because we were just killing guys' momentum on the inside than having more grip on the outside. Still, I thought that was pretty interesting that we were able to do that so I saw some positives. I'm still not crazy on this thing but it's growing on me."

DO YOU THINK THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A DIFFERENT FINISH IF KYLE WAS NOT YOUR TEAMMATE? "Well, who knows because if I would have gotten into whoever it was, whether him or anybody else, who knows whether it would have taken me out at the same time. I made the mistake by going to the inside so it wasn't my way to fix the mistake by taking the guy out because he ran me down to the infield. I probably, maybe would have put a little more pressure on him but I knew no matter what he was going to put up a heck of a fight. He's a very, very aggressive driver and like Jeff said, it's who you're racing. If you're racing your teammate, you're going to race him one way. If you're racing a guy you have history with you're going to race them differently. If you're racing a guy that races you good and clean you're going to race him good and clean. You're going to try to win the thing fair and square. I didn't think we had a shot at the thing anyway. I'm just happy to finish third."

KYLE BUSCH, ALAN GUSTAFSON, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG'S IMPALA SS, AND RICK HENDRICK, OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS POST RACE TRANSCRIPT

RICK HENDRICK ON THE WIN:
"Any time you win at Bristol it's pretty special and we had a lot riding on the race today. It was the first race for the Impala, Chevrolet was looking for their 600th win and we were trying to get 200. I'm just real proud of the guys. Alan (Gustafson) works hard and Kyle drove a smart race and a hard race. They adjusted the car all day long and we were pretty good. I don't think anyone had anything for Tony. But at the end of the day it was a good race. I'm real proud of the organization and I'm real proud of Kyle. He did a heck of a job."

ALAN GUSTAFSON ON THE PIT CALLS AND THE WIN TODAY:
"It's just such a huge accomplishment for Hendrick Motorsports and Kyle Busch and the CARQUEST/Kellogg's guys, the No. 5 and No. 25 car shop with the car coming out. It's been such a huge load on those guys. I'm real happy for them, I'm real happy they got this win and the 200th for Hendrick Motorsports and the 600th for Chevrolet, the first race for the Impala SS - a lot of good things. The pit calls. Bristol is pretty much a four-tire race track - that makes things a little easier on me. Kyle gave me a lot of good input today on adjustments; we made good adjustments all day. We were in the right place at the right time. The pit crew, we really struggled last week at Atlanta. We came back this week with a chip on our shoulder and won the race. So I'm proud of them too."

KYLE BUSCH ON HIS WIN TODAY:
"I was a good race from my perspective. It wasn't all that great. We definitely have some work to do. We certainly weren't the class of the field. Tony Stewart was that. Denny Hamlin was awfully strong as well and the Evernham cars were really good too. They just had bad breaks and had trouble. It's a hard thing to try to come out with a new car and take the Impala SS and make it run right first time out. We kind of had everything fall out right for us and to get to Victory Lane. But those other guys were definitely better than us, they just didn't have things fall the right way."

WHY FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE WASN'T IT A GOOD RACE?
"When I got up front and I was in the top six, Tony Stewart was gone, he was checked out. Second place was five car lengths ahead of third place, which were three car lengths ahead of fourth. We all got kind of strung out. I was 10th, 11th or 12th and I looked up and nothing was going on. I thought "this is a great race" and then the spotter came on and said there's a real logjam behind me. There's a log jam because people can't turn, they're sliding up the track and bumping into one another or whatever, trying to make way through traffic and stuff. But when you're out front, you know, you can't pass well. For me, I got tight in traffic and then when I got out front and when Denny (Hamlin) came up and passed me I was loose. So at Bristol that's not cool."

ON A DAY WHEN THE GIBBS CAR WERE CLEARLY THE CLASS OF THE FIELD BUT YOU WON AND TOOK A THIRD PLACE, DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD TO GET THE WIN OR NOT GOOD THAT YOU HAVE MORE WORK TO DO?
RICK HENDRICK:
"We've been in positions like at Daytona and in the Busch car and several times where we've been in position to win and it didn't happen. We realize we have some work to do but I think that what you have to do in these situations is try to be there at the end, do the best you can, work on your car and adjust as the day goes on. Then if things happen to fall your way you take them and you go on. Every time we've been to the track. We'll go back home and work on the cars and we'll get better. It was a situation where we weren't just terrible but we were definitely not the class of the field but our guys adjusted on the car and had good input from the drivers and we had a real good finish with all of our cars. We'll take it at Bristol. I've been here and run all day long and then on the last lap get dumped. It's one of these tracks where you want to survive and come out of here with some points. We're going to learn every time we run this car. I'm not disappointed. I would have liked to have run better but I'll take the results and go home and let these guys work on the car and we'll be better the next time we come to town."

KYLE, TAKE US THROUGH THE GREEN/WHITE CHECKERED FLAG:
"I was definitely worried at the end of the race. Even so, on that second to last restart when Denny was behind me and Biffle was behind him, they were pleading to come down pit road and those other guys did I knew that if I could get far enough out, hopefully it would be far enough that they couldn't catch me. I got a great jump. I didn't look in my mirror for a lap and all of a sudden I did and thought, "Is there a caution out? Where did everyone go?" I was a straightaway ahead. I just tried to hit my marks and run my line. The thing was so tight; I just couldn't get it to turn through the corner. I think I was trying too hard but those guys were really gaining on me pretty quick. I knew that if we got to the white flag and a caution came out we'd be okay. But I wasn't sure I could hold them to the checkered. I'm not glad that caution came out, but I am glad that we won the race.

"On that last restart, I knew that if I could get a good jump on those guys and beat them down into one and two I knew that my car would shoot out of the hole down the straightaway and I might have a bit of breathing room. But that wasn't the case. I spun my tires down the front straightaway just because they were so cold - I did so on the previous restart too - but it all sort of came together and having Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, two class acts behind me, that raced me clean that gave me the sort of room I needed to race definitely helped out. They could have very easily made their way to Victory Lane and made our day harder."

KYLE, BEARING IN MIND HOW COMMONPLACE IT HAS BECOME TO USE THE BUMPER TO MOVE SOMEONE OUT OF THE WAY AND WIN, WERE YOU SURPRISED IT DIDN'T COME AND WOULD YOU HAVE USED IT IF THE ROLES HAD BEEN REVERSED?
"I knew that Jeff (Gordon) would have got an earful if he had laid a fender on us. So I figured I had a little room there but I didn't know about Jeff Burton if he got clear of Gordon. So Burton got through there and was right on me and I knew that he could very easily do it. I wasn't necessarily expecting it, as I know he's a better race driver than that. He gave me the room to race clean and I don't know if that was some sort of payback for Las Vegas; he didn't do anything wrong there but I lost the race and I raced him clean and gave him some room. I gave him some room here. I figured if I left some room down low, he could get his nose in there and body slam his way through. But I tried not to leave anything on the bottom open. And if the roles were reversed, I don't know. I would probably try a little harder but if I couldn't get under him without moving him out of the way I probably have done the same thing. It's not fair to race that way. If you had a better car or something like that for the race. But I knew I didn't have a better car and I knew I didn't have better tires so that's the way it worked out."

KYLE, DO YOU KNOW MUCH MORE ABOUT THE NEW RACE CAR NOW? IF SO, WHAT ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS?
"We do know a lot more about it. But it's the same, as we already knew. It still doesn't turn. For me it's not a fun car, it's a hard car to race around the race track with other competitors as you don't have the maneuverability, you can't really pass all that well. With the old car if you were tight at least you could go up the race track and then come back down and then shoot out of the hole. But with this thing whenever you started to slide the front tires it continued to slide so it's almost like you're on skis out there. Another problem that perhaps nobody thought of is that if you have a front tire go down and there's no rubber on the race track you're just going to slide on that ski and into the fence. I think we saw that with a couple of competitors today. It's a hard car to set up and it's a hard car to drive. Maybe if we learn more about it, it will become better but I don't really remember anyone complaining about the old one we had, so. We'll just have to work hard on our Impala SS and see if we can make it better."

ALAN, TELL US MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU HAD TO DO TO THE CAR TO MAKE IT WIN THE RACE.
"We have to run a lot of different type configurations of car now at the 5/25 shop. We've got a speedway car that we've got to work on, we've got a downforce-intermediate car we've got to work on and co-develop and we've got an Impala SS we've got to work on and co-develop. We've also taken a Busch car in-house and those guys have really worked their tails off, a lot of hours, a lot of Saturdays, a lot of late nights to give us the best chance to win the race. And unfortunately, especially with that Busch car, we've had a lot of opportunities that haven't come through. We got the right result today and it's due to their hard work and it's due to Kyle Busch and it's due to the race cars, what Mr. Hendrick gives us to work with. I'm real happy for those guys and I'm real happy with the win. They got it and they deserve it. I'm really happy for them."

KYLE, CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE IRONY OF YOU NOT LIKING THE NEW CAR AND YET WINNING THE RACE?
"I told Alan as early as the test that I just can't stand to drive this thing. It's terrible and I hope we can just go out there and win the race and then tell everybody how terrible it is. I'm glad we were able to do it. I'm serious. I told him that (laughs). I don't know; I'm done talking about it. It's hard; it's terrible. With the Busch car, it's been fun; it's been great. Like Alan said, we took it in-house and we worked on it and we worked on that program and I think we turned it around. It's a lot better to run well on Saturday to learn things and to be able to transfer that on to Sunday. Even though the cars are different you can still learn a little bit about the race track. That's always going to be said. The more track time, the better even though the cars are different. That's why I run Truck Series races. The biggest thing for me to do on Saturday is to run as well as we can for our sponsors for Mr. H and for all those guys that work so hard at the shop and build those things."

RICK, AFTER THIS RACE WE HEAR ABOUT RACING CLEAN, ETC. BUT THIS IS BRISTOL, WHICH IS NOT KNOWN FOR THAT. IS THIS A NEW ERA OF RACING?
"Well, I don't know. I guess we're going to have to wait until the next Bristol race. I think these guys have a lot of respect for each other, especially when you are teammates and you're working together. I was in Martinsville running one and two and took both of them out and it's hard to work in these shops together. I think everybody would like to race and have the best car win and finish the race. I think if it would have been two or three more laps it might have been different with the old tires. I think these guys work so hard and the field is so tight and I think I heard Jeff Burton say it in his last interview, if you've got a guy who races you clean you're going to race him clean. If you've got a guy who's always nudging you. I think you've seen a couple paybacks already this year and that doesn't help anybody. It knocks people out of points. Everybody wants to win the championship and you can make friends out here out here at Bristol or you can make a lot of enemies and then your payback might come in the last 10 races of the Chase. We've got to figure out a way to race two abreast and let the good car pass the other car without having to wreck people and I think everybody feels better about that when they go home. I hope that's the way it's going to be."

RICK, WHAT WAS THE COST OF THIS CAR, TO MAKE A WINNER OUT OF IT?
"I think that everybody is in the same boat. We're building intermediate cars and we've got to build these cars. When you're running parallel programs and you're working on different chassis and waiting for the chassis to be approved, it's a chore. We'll run a couple races and we'll go back to our intermediate cars. If we had a wreck, if somebody had a car that wasn't as good as it should be in Atlanta, we're getting a lot of work done to go to Texas. So it's hard to run these different cars but its just part of the program. When the decision's been made that we're going to bring this car along, I think everybody's trying to work to make sure we do the best we can. I think definitely it was the right thing to do to bring it to the short tracks first because we're going to probably have some rule changes and some things are going to happen as we get to intermediates and probably to speedways too. It's going to be something that's going to develop over time and it's never easy when you've got. Nobody would like to have to come out with a whole new fleet either so I think NASCAR did the best they could after the decision was made to race it to bring it to short tracks first. But these teams are working harder than they've ever worked. If we could come test more it would probably be a bit different. Having to go to places that you're not going to race to try to learn doesn't give you much time to really tune the car up."

KYLE, WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOU MIND DURING YOUR PASS OF HAMLIN FOR THE LEAD?
"Coming out of turn four down the front straightaway there I saw the in the middle of turns one and two, the No. 48 car was having a little bit of trouble there. I don't know what happened to him; I'm not sure if it was a flat tire or what. I knew that there was going to be some jumbling up going down the back straightaway so I just kept looking out my windshield as far as I could see. I saw Denny looking low off of turn two and I saw that Jimmie was trying to get down low and I saw some other slow cars down there so I just stuck it on the top and kept my foot in it. I was able to clear him and get by him and got through turns three and four and then the caution came out. Just being on top of the wheel as well as looking far enough ahead just made me get through there. That probably gave us the win, of course, being able to get up front like that."

KYLE, YOU SAID THIS CAR IS HARDER TO DRIVE. HOW MIGHT THIS FORCE YOU TO CHANGE AS A DRIVER?
"It's harder to tune which makes it harder to drive. Because you're telling the crew chief this and you're telling him that and we can't fix it. We've tried everything. And any time you try to help the center you kill the entry and exit. You want to get the car to turn through the center of the corner then it's spinning out getting in and coming off the corners. Any time we fix the entry and the exit now I'm plowing through the center again. It's just so hard to tune. That's what made it hard to drive. Because you're searching all over the place and you can't find anything - nothing works. So you're just sitting there struggling with the thing. I just go off into the corner today, when I had it good on entry, I just go off into the corner and full-lock left the thing and judge my turning ability by how fast I needed to go through the corner. If it was turning good then I'd speed up a little bit. If it wasn't I'd slow down a little bit. You just hold the wheel full-lock. It's not very fun. There's no maneuverability with the thing. That's my take."

ALAN, HOW HARD WAS IT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE CAR WANTED SINCE YOU HADN'T YET GONE THROUGH A RACE WITH IT?
"I think to answer that question correctly you've got to step back a little bit. We don't have the ability to get these cars into the race track like we used to. They don't make as much downforce, the suspension configurations limit us, the spring rules, the splitter travel limit us as to what we can do so what happens is drivers, by nature, want to drive their cars very hard. That's what they're paid to do. They want to go fast. With this car, that's not the way it is. You have to be smooth and very consistent to be fast. I think that's where Kyle's frustration comes and as for me tuning it, it will change. You can definitely over-drive the car and things will happen. We all want that pie in the sky - we want it to handle perfect. I want it to be perfect for Kyle when he's driving 100%. Unfortunately we weren't able to achieve that so that makes it tough to tune. As far as the adjustments in tire pressures, wedge, track bars; that's all physics. It still works the same way, it just works to a lesser extent because these cars don't have the same grip."

KYLE, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW LOOK?
"Whatever (laughs). Rick hasn't told me to cut it off yet so I'm all right, I guess - so far. As long as I keep acting nice and doing the right thing."

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR ON HOW TO RACE OTHER DRIVERS?
KYLE BUSCH:
"It's just getting time and spending time with everybody. There in New York when we did the top 10 stuff in September, I got to get around those guys a little bit more and we all have some of the same interests. You're so busy all the time that you just want to go home and sit on the couch. So you don't really get together much. You race these guys every week. When I raced growing up, I'd race it for a year and then jump to the next division. So I got to the Busch Series and I won races and then I left. I got to the Cup Series and that's where you stay. This is it. You're done. You're at the top. You're done moving up. So I came in trying to win races and roughing people up and moving them out of the way. And I thought about it and I thought I've got to race these guys for the next 15 or 20 years. It's going to be a while. So, I decided to step back a little and try to make some friends and try to gain some ground on being allies with everybody and not having many enemies."

ON THE COMEBACK OF THE NO. 24 TEAM (JEFF GORDON) TODAY AND WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR DRIVERS WHEN THEY ARE RUNNING ONE-TWO?
RICK HENDRICK:
"I'm really proud of Stevie (Letarte, crew chief) and Jeff because at one point, Jeff was probably the worst car on the track and really struggling. You see a guy that's so good here have that problem; you know there is some kind of problem. You know there is something wrong. But they didn't give up. I was really proud of their effort. Anymore when you have multi-car team, you have a lot of information. I was proud all three drivers came to victory lane today. If Kyle and Jeff had had a problem at the end of the race and crashed, it would be a real problem for Stevie and Alan to work together next week. We want to beat the other 40 cars that are out there. It's hard. You've got smart guys that work together. I've been in a situation where my two teams are fighting on pit road and trying to drive back to the airport in a van and trying to keep from getting hit in the middle. I don't enjoy that. But I don't expect the guys not to race, either. There is a way to race them clean. I mentioned to Kyle and to Jeff on the radio to think about the big picture and they did and there wasn't any problem."

IF NASCAR CAN TURN THE NEW CAR INTO ONE THAT CAN RUN ON EVERY STYLE OF TRACK ON THE CIRCUIT, WHAT FINANCIAL RELIEF WILL THAT PROVIDE?
"We'll see how that turns out. I know NASCAR is concerned. They want a good show. The fans want a good show. They want people to race. We've been doing this a long time and we've adapted. We added rear windows to Monte Carlos when they didn't have downforce. NASCAR would come up with rules changes to make the cars more competitive. And they work with the crew chiefs to try to find the fix for things. So I'm confident that NASCAR is not going to let the car be a problem with the show. There are a lot of smart people with all these teams. NASCAR is going to keep working with these guys. Once you say you're going to run it, now we've got to fix it. We've got to make it what it needs to be. You're not going to do that the first race out of the box. They're going to try to stick to the plan to keep the costs down and the car safe. It's also got to be competitive. Everybody will work together. We're all in this together and we've got a lot of work to do. But I think we'll get it done."

WAS THERE ANY TIME THIS WEEKEND WHERE YOU WERE ABLE TO ADJUST OR FIX A PROBLEM WITH THIS CAR THAT YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO DO IN THE PAST? IF NASCAR TAKES YOUR CAR BACK TO THE R&D CENTER, WHAT WILL THAT DO TO YOUR FLEET?
ALAN GUSTAFSON:
"Our fleet is two cars and they're both in our trailer. So I hope they don't take this car or we're going to be one short at Martinsville. We need this for our back-up. As everybody has done, we've struggled learning this race car. We have less tools to work on and less tools to adjust with. During the history of Hendrick Motorsports and the eight years I've been there were all the engines and tools we've used to go fast. They've kind of gone away a little bit and we've got to reevaluate what we do. During the course of the weekend, we were constantly learning. I felt like I was in school there for a while - just trying to figure out what we need. Kyle did a great job in adjusting his driving style in what he has to do in those cars. Our engineering staff at Hendrick Motorsports did a great job to give us the tools, but it's harder because there is not as much you can do. You're more boxed in the corner and we're still paid by Mr. Hendrick to get an advantage so we've got to work that much harder to get an advantage. Our guys at Hendrick Motorsports and all the guys on the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Chevrolet deserve the credit because after 500 laps, we were the best. We were the team who adapted to the new car the best. Kyle adapted to the race track and the new car the best. We got the trophy and I'm real proud of that."

IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR CAR THAT THE NEW RACE CAR REMINDS YOU OF?
KYLE BUSCH:
"No, I haven't ever driven anything that I haven't been able to work on or fix or anything like that. Legends cars you can fix -- Late Models, Dirt Modifieds, Pavement Modifieds - everything I've been able to work on. You're in a box. The tools you have are limited. There are rules, but you can get around some stuff. With this thing, they want everybody to be equal. They want parity. They want the Michael Waltrips to be able to win races. It's going to take time to develop it and research it."

YOU SEEM LIKE A MOST UNHAPPY WINNER. IS THERE ANY PRIDE TO BEING THE FIRST WINNER OF A COT RACE?
"I'm very proud of out whole team and that we were able to pull through and get the job done. But it wasn't easy for us or for anybody else. Everybody has had to build these things. Everybody has worked their hearts out but we were able to prevail today. I'm glad we were able to get the victory today. Hey, I'm a happy winner. I'm the happiest I've been in a while because of all my Busch Series races and being so close and having stuff happen. It wasn't a fun day. Yesterday was a fun day. I had fun racing those cars. But I just didn't have fun racing this thing today."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT BRISTOL THAT WORKS FOR YOU?
"It's a fun place to race. It's a great place. It's hard to get a ticket here. It's sold out for years. I don't know what it is about this place that makes Kurt (Busch) or I run good here. I've had three third place finishes in the Busch Series. One second-place finish in the Cup Series and I won here today, so I've had some more recent success than I've had in the past just getting accustomed to everything. But that's all out the window now because they're tearing this place up as soon as everybody leaves."

ON THE 200 WINS FOR RICK HENDRICK AND 600 WINS FOR CHEVROLET:
"On the Hendrick wins, all that goes to Rick Hendrick. He's a great individual - not only a great boss. He's the best owner. He's the best person to work for. When you work for a guy like him who gives you all the tools and all the opportunities. It's great. He believed in me when I was nobody. He deserves all the credit for the 150 wins and for the 200 wins.

And Chevrolet is obviously a great partner of ours. They've supported us through thick and thin. They supported us in 2000 when we were pretty bad and won maybe two or three races that year. They've always been there. For them to get 600 means a lot. We're real proud of the fact that we were able to give that to Chevrolet in the new Impala SS, which is great. I know that's important to them because they need to sell cars on Monday. I'm real happy and proud to be affiliated with them."