Four of Top-10 Finishers Behind the Wheel of Chevy Monte Carlo SS; Jeff Gordon Continues as Points Leader; Chevy Drivers Occupy 10 of Top-12 Spots in Standings

Daytona, Fla - Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Monte Carlo missed winning the Pepsi 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Daytona International Speedway by a scant .005 seconds to take second. The tiny margin prevented Busch from becoming the first driver to win a both a Busch Series race and a Nextel Cup event on the same day. Earlier in the day, Busch had taken the checkered flag in the rain-delayed Winn-Dixie 250 Busch Series race on the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont/Pepsi Monte Carlo SS took a fifth place finish and increased his lead in the standings to a 277-point advantage over Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx/Kinko's Monte Carlo SS. Clint Bowyer finished seventh in his Jack Daniels Monte Carlo SS and NASCAR champion, Jimmie Johnson, took a 10th place finish in his No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo giving Team Chevy four of the Top-10 finishing spots.

A total of 10 Team Chevy drivers sit in the top-12 as race two of the Race to the Chase is now in the record book.

Chevrolet continues to lead the NNCS Manufacturers' Cup standings with 14 wins in 18 of 36 races completed.

Round 19 of the 2007 NNCS season will be July 15, 2007 at Chicagoland Speedway.

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 2nd:

SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT LAST LAP? "I knew I had to go into Turn 3 and give up a little bit and let him (Jaime McMurray) get ahead of me going into Turn 4 so that I could get the suck down the front straightaway, but I didn't let him get far enough ahead you know, it was just a mistake on my part. I apologize to these guys (crew) but I've got to thank them for giving me a great CARQUEST/Kellogg's Chevrolet today and being able to contend for the win. For the regular car we wanted to get a win and put that in the record books, but it wasn't meant to be."

ON THE EARLIER PART OF THE RACE, IT DIDN'T SEEM LIKE YOU MADE VERY MANY ADJUSTMENTS "No, we really didn't. The car was pretty good. I'd like to thank all the guys for building such a great race car here. But you know, we didn't adjust a lot. We just made minor change here and there so I could run and try to pass if I had to. But running through traffic was a little tough. For us, we were just able to stay out front in clean air in the top 10 anyway and some out with a solid effort here."

ON THE FINAL LAP AND IF HE WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENT: "Well I think everything was kind of going pretty well there. We were on the outside there pushing Jeff or somebody there for a little bit. Then there was an opening for me to go to the inside so I got down and went to the inside and then there was a hole a little bit later for Jeff to get in behind me and the 48 was there and he got shuffled out but yeah just didn't have help from the teammates tonight but our Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet was pretty fast and it had to be the best Hendrick car out there. So I'm proud of that effort by all the guys and just being able to run up front all night. I got to thank my brother there for pushing me at the end and sticking with me but going into three, I think if I would lagged back just a little bit more let Jamie get further ahead I probably could have had a better suck in side draft coming down front straightaway but as soon as I started slowing down he started slowing d own so there wasn't much we were going to get by with there."

ON SEEING THE REPLAY: "I knew that he could beat me however much he wanted to down the back straightaway. I was just kind of relaxing at that point and looking in my mirror making sure to see who I had behind me and getting into three I figured well I'm ahead now so he better slow it up and get back closer to my brother's front bumper and let him ahead. I figured that's probably good enough. I better get rolling here and come up and get the side draft off him and I guess I must have got it a little bit too soon or something."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT/PEPSI MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 5th:

YOU BATTLED A LOOSE RACE CAR ALL EVENING, BUT YOU WERE ABLE TO BATTLE BACK FOR A TOP FIVE "It was loose and tight, so it was kind of hard to tune on it. But Jeff Meendering and the guys on this DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet did a great job because we were not very good to start with and got shuffled back early and just couldn't find our way back to the front. The cautions really fell right for us. They made great adjustments and got the car better and four new Goodyears certainly helped us out and some good pit work and good pit strategy calls and great teamwork overall got us a top five. I'm extremely happy with that. I thought we had a shot at winning this thing there for a second. I knew when I lost my drafting partner and my teammates Casey Mears and Jimmie Johnson; I knew we were in trouble.

"It was nuts man. We weren't very good. We really struggled and I got to give a lot of credit to this race team because they never gave up. They made great adjustments and this DuPont/ Pepsi was pretty awesome there at the end. I got into the outside lane, made some good moves. I made a bad move when I tried to go around the 26 outside. It was too early and I thought I was in big trouble but I had the momentum so I tried to go with it. Luckily I got back to the inside and got back up to the top five. A top five is a great, great finish for us tonight because we had about a 12th or 15th place car. That's a great effort."

ON HAVING A CERTAIN LAP IN YOUR MIND WHEN YOU NEED TO START MAKING YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT AND IF IT WAS DIFFERENT TONIGHT: "I was trying to get to the front every single lap there. Luckily the caution fell right for us where we got to get four new Goodyears and when the cautions fell we were able to come in and get four more or we stayed out that last time and we had track position and then we were able to get the lead. Unfortunately I lost my drafting partner Casey Mears and also Jimmie Johnson. It looked like those tires finally wore out on Casey so I knew I was a sitting duck at that time. Great job to Jamie McMurray too. He drove the wheels off that thing. He was completely out of control but he got to the finish line first so that's all that matters."

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

"The No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) just stopped for no reason, right in the middle of Turn 4. I'm sure he was getting tight because for three laps in a row we were catching him through the center and the exit of the corner. All of a sudden he just stops on the exit of (Turn) 4 in front of 42 cars and I guess expects all of us to drive around him. I don't know. It's tore up two really good race cars. He tried to crash us on Friday in practice and didn't get it done so he finished it off today."

HAVE THERE BEEN SOME DIFFICULTIES BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU? "No, I mean he's a young guy and he wants to be successful, but I don't know if he knows the definition of 'team' right now."

JOE GIBBS, OWNER, JOE GIBBS RACING:

TONY IS NOT REAL HAPPY WITH DENNY RIGHT NOW. DID YOU TALK TO HIM? "I did talk to him. Really, what the deal is, is that we've got two guys who are very competitive, running up front, and we've got real good cars. And this is something that can happen. That's really what happened. It was one of those unfortunate things. Both guys were going as hard as they can and I think both of these guys are real competitive. I think they are good teammates. Both guys are frustrated. And I'm sure Denny really feels bad that it got away from him there. And I'm not sure exactly what did happen. It's just one of those things. It's a shame because we had two good cars. I hate it for FedEx and Home Depot but it's a competitive sport. When you've got good stuff and you're up front like that, it can happen. I hate it, but it did."

IS THERE A LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM THIS? "I don't know what it would be. We were going as hard as we could. We were up front."

IS THERE ANY MESSAGE YOU'D LIKE TO GIVE TO EITHER OF THE GUYS? "No, I think both our guys are very aggressive. They love to race. They're good teammates and they want to win every race. Sometimes guys get upset, which is understandable."

EVERYBODY PREACHES PATIENCE IN THIS RACE. DO YOU THINK THEY WERE IMPATIENT? "We're up front. That's where you want to be. It's just unfortunate. I hate it for everyone. It's just a racing incident, really."

TONY SAID DENNY TRIED TO TAKE HIM OUT ON FRIDAY. DID YOU HEAR ANY OF THAT? IS THERE A FEUD GOING ON? "I didn't hear any of that. I talked to Tony and he didn't say any of that to me."

WILL YOU CALL THEM INTO THE OFFICE AND TALK TO THEM NEXT WEEK? "They talk to each other. They're good teammates. They run extremely well together. Sometimes you can be up front and sometimes it happens to two guys on the same team. It's tough for everybody. It's just a very unfortunate deal."

IS THERE A FINE LINE BETWEEN BEING AGGRESSIVE AND BEING SMART OUT THERE? "I think where you want to be in these races is in the front. You want to be leading the race. You want to be up front. It's just one of those unfortunate things."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX KINKOS MONTE CARLO SS:

ON WHAT HAPPENED: "I'm not sure. I didn't get to see it but I definitely felt a tap from behind. The cars were starting to lose their handle there and I don't know, just trying to hang on. It's just one of those things. It's superspeedway racing.

"It's tough to say. I definitely had my foot in the throttle. My car had a little bit of a wiggle there but I think Tony was a little bit closer to me than what he expected or he was closer than he was the lap before and I think maybe if he was trying to get underneath me it just got hung right there in my bumper and got into us. I was still OK, had it saved, but I think somebody was right there on him probably and he got into us again so it's oh well."

DOES IT MAKE IT ANY DIFFERENT GETTING HIT BY YOUR OWN TEAMMATE? "Not really, we're going to race each other the same regardless so I mean it's really just part of it. Tony or it could be Jeff, it really doesn't matter who it was. That's racing. It's what happens at this race track. It really doesn't matter either way who it is whether it's him or somebody else but I hope he don't try to blame it on me."

DID YOU TALK TO TONY AT ALL ON THE RADIO: "No, I haven't talked to him at all. It's just a situation where he was probably trying to put a position pass on me and it just was a little cluster. I don't know. I might have got loose first. It happened so quick that I didn't see what happened. I thought I had it saved and then got hit again. That kind of put it overboard."

ON IT BEING PRETTY EARLY IN THE RACE FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO HAPPEN: "Oh yeah, it's definitely early but it can happen no matter what lap at this race. It's really not too particular."

DO YOU THINK TONY WAS PUSHING IT TOO EARLY? "I don't know whether it was pushing it too early or not. I felt like I was doing everything.I was holding it wide open every single lap and that one in particular I didn't get off the corner as good as what I had before but everyone's got to be aware that stuff can happen and it definitely did."

WOULD TONY REALLY BLAME IT ON YOU IF HE SEES THE REPLAY? "I don't know. Who knows. Me and Tony have always had a good relationship on the race track. We get frustrated with each other at times for sure but I don't know. It's frustrating. This early it's really frustrating but it's me and Tony."

ON HANDLING THIS WELL AND IF HE HADN'T WON LAST WEEK IF HE WOULD BE MORE UPSET: "I don't know. I'll tell you, I've been in a pretty good mood here in the last month so I'm going to take it for what it's worth and move on. Luckily we're in the position that we are in the Chase right now and we're going to move on. This is not going to put a damper on our team at all."

SHOULD TONY BE BLAMING TONY? "I don't know. It's tough to put blame on anyone especially since I haven't seen the replay or what happened. I know from inside the race car I definitely got hit coming off the corner but the circumstances that led up to that I'm not sure of."

ON TONY SAYING HE TRIED TO WRECK HIM ON FRIDAY AND THAT HE NEEDS TO LEARN THE MEANING OF TEAMMATES: "I do (know the meaning of teammates). I figured I did but I'm going to be the bigger man and I'll take the blame on this. If he wants to blame it on me I'll be the bigger man. I'll take responsibility for it. He's been around this sport longer than I have and he probably knows more than I do so I'll just take it for what it's worth."

TONY EURY JR., CREW CHIEF, NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS:

"We'll get it straightened up here. The car is not tore up that bad. Just the tow is out. He don't want to drive it because it's darting all over the place. We'll just get it where he can drive it in a pack and have a little fun. Right now, the night's pretty much wasted so we'll just get it to where he can drive it."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 66 HAAS AUTOMATION/BEST BUY CHEVROLET:

(Green made contact with Kasey Kahne to bring out the first caution flag of the night) - "I don't know what happened. I didn't know Kasey was there. My spotter didn't say anything. I haven't talked with him yet, but we talked earlier in the day about how the color of our car might blend in with the race track and make it hard to see. Either that, or maybe he got us mixed up with the (No.) 70 (Green's Haas Racing teammate, Johnny Sauter, whose car was painted with a similar color and design).

"Kyle, my spotter, does a great job, so I'm not blaming him. He has a tough job. It was a frustrating night, though. As a team, we seem to take one step forward and two steps back."

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS MONTE CARLO SS:

"I was real bummed out actually. We just got too far behind. Had too many teammates behind this team up on us there at the end but Gil and everybody on this Jack Daniels Chevrolet just brought me a good race car and gave me a good chance. We about got there. I tell you we were out in the lead and the ignition of all things just cut out. It took me a while to figure out what happened. We hit the other ignition box and it took off again. That was kind of a bummer, got us set back and then we get back in the lead and I'm thinking man we might have them after all and then they just went around me. But it was a good effort, good day for us. We needed a good points day to get us back in this thing but man I wanted to win that thing."

ON WHAT HE CAN COMPARE HIS IGNITION BOX GOING OUT TO IF HE WERE DRIVING DOWN THE HIGHWAY: "Well throwing up (laughs). That's what I wanted to do. I didn't know what happened. It was like there's no way. I guess being in California traffic nose to tail at 80 miles an hour and your car quits and you're in the middle lane. I guess that's the biggest thing. It was unfortunate. I never thought in a million years we'd get back up there. We were so tight in traffic. We got a couple good pushes and I got up through them again and gave us a shot and just had too many teammates running behind us."

ON COMPARING THE FEELING OF THE BOX GOING OUT TO HOW HE FELT RESTARTING WITH 14 TO GO AND FOUR HENDRICK CARS BEHIND HIM: "That was pretty sickening but you know I hate it for those guys. I wanted to win that thing so bad but we'll get one. We just got to keep doing what we're doing. They can't keep it from us forever."

ON THE DAYTONA 500 FINISH AND HOW DICEY TONIGHT'S FINISH WAS: "It was very dicey. Everybody was going for broke and it always ends up that way. You ride around here to get to the last five laps. You can't push it that hard the whole race but everybody does stuff to get their cars to run a little bit better but those last five laps, hey the only way you're going to win the race is just go for it."

ON WHAT HE THOUGHT ON THE DEBUT OF THE DEI/RCR ENGINE PACKAGE: "I'm looking forward to it. Everybody at RCR works very hard to give us the best equipment they possibly can when we come to these tracks and they did. We were close."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 25 NATIONAL GUARD/GMAC MONTE CARLO SS:

"I wish we wouldn't have finished where we did. We had a good car. Right there at the end that last run we were a little bit too loose and then we stayed out and everybody came in. I think just not having that little bit of tire I was just hanging on, just didn't quite enough grip to really get up there with those guys. I thought it was a good call because if it would have went green I think we would have had a really good finish but when it bunched everybody back up we were just at a little bit of a disadvantage. Then my car was a little bit too loose so I had a really hard time keeping it on the bottom. It was crazy. That last lap was just out of control. It's almost like everybody just holds it wide open even if their car's not working and doing all they can to make it to the front. I was no exception. I was doing the same. It was exciting. I think the fans enjoyed. It was pretty wild for us in the seat but at the same time it was fun. I just wish we would have had a littl e better finish for our National Guard/GMAC."

WHEN YOU MADE THE GAMBLE DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A CAR CAPABLE OF WINNING? "I did especially the first few laps after that. I felt like we had a car that.maybe a little disadvantage not having the tire but the tires weren't wearing that bad and I felt like our car was good all night. We just needed to get up there so it was a good opportunity to get up there and try. Just the last two or three laps we just didn't quite have enough so it kind of made it a little bit of a rough night. I want to say congratulations to Jaime. I know it's been a long time for him and I'm happy for him."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 2nd - Post Race Transcript:

ON HIS VIEWPOINT OF THE FINAL FEW LAPS: "It was a great battle there with Jamie and I guess the other Hendrick cars and the other Roush cars and Kurt Busch was in there too. We just didn't quite have the teammate situation all worked out today but all in all it was a great effort by my team and my guys on the CARQUEST Kellogg's Chevrolet being able to bring it home in second. We wish we could have won the final restrictor plate with the regular car but we were just trying to battle there to the finish line and I think I got a little bit too anxious on my side draft there off of turn four and just didn't quite have enough momentum in order to carry me to the finish line. All in all we just have to take it and go on with a good points day and head into Chicago next week."

ARE YOU SAYING YOUR TEAMMATES COULDN'T HELP YOU OR WOULDN'T HELP YOU IN THE END? "There was a few opportunities to get behind me and help me, the 24 especially. We were running there behind him and then he got passed by the 26. We got by the 24 there and I ducked all the way down to the inside and was on the inside lane and Jeff I think was clear or was clear the lap later and could have came down and helped us and got three Hendrick cars in a row - me, him and the 48 - but chose not to do so and chose to stay up high and help another Roush car. It was just frustrating with that and then Jimmie got booted out of there I guess and Kurt got up there. Then Kurt and I got together and that was probably the best tandem that we had all day long and the best situation we were in. We just didn't have quite enough in order to keep it in front of that 26. He was pretty strong."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE A GUY WITHOUT A TEAM RIGHT NOW WITH HOW THE HENDRICK CARS AVOIDED YOU THE LAST COUPLE LAPS? "Sort of, I guess. That's what I'm alluding to basically but walking down pit road saying congratulations to Jeff Gordon I got blown off so I guess I'm the outsider looking in now and I'm probably not going to be invited into the team meetings next week so I think bliss is over at Hendrick Motorsports for Kyle Busch. We'll get ready for 2008."

ON DEFINING WHAT HE MEANT ABOUT BEING A LITTLE ANXIOUS WITH THE SIDE DRAFT OFF OF TURN FOUR AND IF HE CAN FATHOM A 166-RACE WINLESS STREAK: "Going off into turn three I got a little bit ahead of Jamie there and I knew that all I had to do is just kind of roll out of it a little bit, tap the brakes some and let him get his momentum built back up on the outside and get back in front of me a little bit. He did so and he got almost a car length ahead of me coming to the exit of turn four and that's where I went right up to him and got to the side draft and was side drafting off of him and then got in front of him by about a foot. I think I started all of that too soon. I started going up to him too soon and getting the side draft off of him. I should have let us get a little bit further down the front straightaway first, let Kurt catch up a little bit more, then start side drafting him about middle of the first straightaway here then coming to this checkered. So I messed up that a little bit but experience will pay off in that in the end.

"Congratulations to those guys. He (Jamie) deserved it. He definitely drove a great race and like Kurt said, he showed a lot of patience tonight and he was able to come out in the end on top of us so he beat us fair and square. I'm not crying but I just wish we would have been able to pull off the double today but for me it's only been 12, 13, however many races but you want to win every week so sometimes you can't do that and this week we came close."

HOW DO YOU PROCESS ALL THE CHANGES ON THE TRACK? DOES YOUR SPOTTER HANDLE THAT FOR YOU OR ARE YOU CONSTANTLY LOOKING, PLOTTING AND THINKING ABOUT THOSE THINGS? "The biggest thing is like Kurt said is you just try to find who has the momentum and what lane's going, who's side drafting who and who's in front of the other guy. You always kind of look and see where the good cars are. You know who the good cars are and some of the good drivers are and stuff like that who know how to restrictor plate race and make good moves so you just kind of have to bide your time and pick the right moves. It's hard to do a lot of times and a lot of times you get stuck and get where you're falling back. With Casey I was behind him there and I was trying to get out from behind because he was so loose and slowing us all down through the corners but I just had to hang in there and wait for the outside lane to open up because I was boxed in sort of. So you just have to be patient sometimes."

WHEN YOU DIDN'T GET HELP FROM YOUR TEAMMATES, DID THAT SURPISE YOU OR DID THAT CONFIRM YOUR SUSPICION? "No, I hadn't been getting much help from them all day. We worked together, we got in a line, we ran around the race track and then things started getting crazy and they went their way and I went my way. They got together there for a while. Really I didn't see a whole lot of the Hendrick cars.Jeff and Jimmie got together there on the outside. I was going to go when they pushed the 07 up to the lead. I think it was with 12 or 10 to go, I was just like you know what I'm not going to be that good on the outside. I'm just going to stick it down on the bottom and see what happens. That was about the only time really I saw Hendrick cars working together anyway all day so more times than not Jeff's had the philosophy that if I can help you and I can help the both of us progress I'll do but otherwise you're on your own. So I just was on my own all day."

ARE YOU FEELING WHAT BRIAN VICKERS WAS TALKING ABOUT ON GETTING HUNG OUT? "It don't matter. I'm a race car driver. I'll race just as hard with anybody else as I do with anybody so whether it's a Gibbs car, a Penske car, a Hendrick car. If I have to race my teammates now differently than what I used to then I'll do it."

YOU SAID THE KEY AT THE END WAS JAMIE MCMURRAY'S PATIENCE. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED AT THE START OF THE RACE? IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WAS SO MUCH IMPATIENCE THEN. HOW DID YOU KEEP IT TOGETHER? "Well, it sort of looked like an ARCA race in the beginning there for a while. And then we brought everybody together and put our heads on straight and we were able to make some laps there and get some green flag pit stops down. McMurray, he got black-flagged there earlier in the race for being a little bit too impatient and trying to make a pass below the yellow line and just putting himself in a bad spot and not being able to get the pass made without getting in trouble for it. I've been in that situation before too. He rebounded nicely from it, though. He had to come down pit road under green and I don't think he went a lap down. I don't think he got a lucky dog. I just think he got back after a yellow flag, got back in traffic, and got some tires and drove back up through there and didn't pick any fights with anybody and didn't turn anybody and made it to the finish line first. So, that's good for him."

YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU'RE NOT FEELING IT WITH THE TEAM TONIGHT. HOW ABOUT WHEN YOU'RE AT THE SHOP? IS THERE A DIFFERENT VIBE THERE? "No, not really. All the guys are still sticking together and everybody in that respect, you know, the guys who build the cars and work on the cars and the fab shop, the body shop and everybody. They all like me. We all get along great and it's a lot of fun with those guys. I really enjoy working with them. And so, you know, it's fun for me. It's just a situation you really don't want to have to go through, but you do. We'll get through it. I'll be fine. And we'll make the most of this season and hopefully make it in the Chase and hopefully be able to challenge for the championship and beat them all out and say I told you so."

AT THE FINISH, DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE SECOND OR DID YOU THINK YOU HAD WON? "I was still on the back straightaway wondering if I won. I didn't know. I figured since they (the crew) weren't coming over yelling and screaming, either they weren't sure, or we didn't win. I saw the TV cameras when I was rolling down the back straightaway and the cameras zoomed in on the No. 26 car, so I figured he had won. It was just so close I couldn't really tell. I thought I had enough momentum to the finish line. But like I said, I talked about it earlier, just getting a little too anxious there off of Turn 4 and on my side drafting and not being able to carry it far enough and late enough in order to win. But it was a good finish for us. We finished second here last year and we finished third at Chicago. So if we can get our summer stretch rolling here pretty well, we'll make it to Richmond and be in the top 12."

DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED WITH TONY STEWART AND DENNY HAMLIN AT THE START OF THE RACE? "It looked to me like they crashed (laughs). I guess Stewart got in the back of Hamlin off of Turn 4 and got him loose and Hamlin couldn't quite keep up with it. It's hard to keep up with it with no downforce and slick tires and a hot race track and stuff. And so, nobody would have been able to keep up with it out here. I'd guarantee that for all 42 other drivers. For that situation to happen that early in the race, yeah, it was too early. For them to be bump drafting through the corners. You can't do it here. At Talladega you can do it; you can get away with it. But here, it's definitely not very smart."

STEWART BLAMED HAMLIN AND SAID THAT HAMLIN CHECKED UP. DO YOU BUY THAT? "Normally the leader is wide-open. I was wide-open when Stewart ran over me in the Bud Shootout earlier this year too (laughter)."

WHAT YOU'RE SAYING ABOUT DOING AND TRYING YOUR BEST, BUT THERE ARE 18 RACES LEFT TO DO. HOW CAN YOU GO AGAINST THE ENTIRE HMS TEAM AND BE SUCCESSFUL? "All I need are my team guys to stick behind me. My crew chief and the team and the guys in the chassis shop and the body shop and everybody to give me the same equipment they've given me the whole time. And if that keeps coming my way, then I'll be just fine and this team will be just fine. As soon as something changes and somebody gets an order to make the thing blow up on lap 50, then we're going down hill. Hopefully that won't happen and Kellogg's and CARQUEST I'm sure, won't want to see that. I'm just looking forward to running the best we can week in and week out with the same equipment I've had the whole time I've been here at Hendrick Motorsports, which is good stuff."

IS TONY STEWART EVER AT FAULT FOR ANYTHING? "Like I said last week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Tony Stewart is Tony Stewart. He's a great race car driver and he can drive the wheels off of anything. And when he says something, we're just going to believe it."

ON POSSIBLY JOINING PENSKE RACING WITH HIS BROTHER KURT? "If Roger Penske wants to sit down and have a conversation, we'll do it. That's what I've said from the beginning is that I'll talk to anyone who wants to talk. So, we'll do it."