Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, scored his third victory of the season last Sunday at Dover, but his car failed the post-race heights inspection and NASCAR subsequently docked him 25 points, and he dropped from third to sixth in the standings, 28 points behind the leader. He talked about the penalty and the chase for two championships prior to today’s qualifying session.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – ON THE PENALTY. “The thing is, it’s done, they’ve penalized us, and my job is to drive that race car, and try to go out and do the best job I can and not worry about it. As much as I disagree with it, I just have to go do my job.”

DOES THE PRESSURE GO UP DURING THE CHASE? “This is the Nextel Cup series, there’s pressure to perform every week. There is more to gain and more to lose in the Chase, but I think if you try and change the ways you’ve been racing, and things like that, that’s bad competitively. Yeah, it hurts a little more when you have bad day and it feels a little better when you have a good one, but the process is the same.”

SPECIFICALLY, WHAT DO YOU DISAGREE WITH CONCERNING THE PENALTY? “I’ve tried to think of an analogy, and it’s a lot like if you had a basketball team and went out and scored a certain number of points and then penalized you after the game for all of our guys were a little bit shorter from the other team. Do you know what I mean? It’s, like, really didn’t help ’em out. Don’t really understand the penalty. I believe from my research and Geoff Smith’s, we are the first people ever to receive a points penalty for the rear of the car being low at a downforce track. There are other cars – there was one car, in particular, that was low after a qualifying race at Daytona in the rear, one of the only places that that would help you, and they didn’t receive any points. So, it’s kind of interesting. I don’t really understand it. Everyone in NASCAR has told me that they agree that we did not have an advantage and that there was no intention to make the car low, so it’s just a little bit hard to understand why there was points penalty.”

WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE LIKED TO SEE NASCAR DO? “It would’ve been nice if they would’ve just done what, from what I understand, they’ve done in the past at downforce tracks, and say, ‘Hey, good job. Glad you could run the race like that, and we’ll move on. We’re talking about an eighth of an inch, so it’s an awfully stiff penalty, but that’s what it is. I like racing here. I feel like NASCAR does the best job they can to be fair. I just think they got put into a box here, into a position, and they had to make a penalty and call that makes no sense just because of the way the rule was written.”

YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN BOTH THE CUP AND BUSCH CHAMPIONSHIPS. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT HISTORY? “Listen, there’s probably not a five-minute window that goes by in the day that I don’t think about winning both championships in one year. That would be the ultimate achievement, I think, in American motorsports.”

THIS IS THE HOME TRACK FOR BOTH YOU AND CLINT BOWYER. “It does feel a little bit more personal, racing here. I look at the stands, right now, and I look at the fans lined up at the fence, and I’m trying to pick out people I know – and there are a lot of people I know here. I think for Clint and I, it is an opportunity to just have a killer weekend. That could be killer.”

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, heads into this weekend’s race in 10th place in the Chase for the Championship. In last week’s race at Dover, Kenseth ran near the front for most of the afternoon and led four times for a race-high 192 laps, before an engine problem ended his day with just 26 laps remaining.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WHEN YOU RUN AS WELL AS YOU DID LAST WEEK AND THEN HAVE IT END THE WAY IT DID, DO YOU STILL LEAVE THE TRACK WITH A GOOD FEELING? IS RUNNING WELL AND ENDING WITH AN ENGINE PROBLEM LESS FRUSTRATING THAN NOT RUNNING WELL ALL WEEKEND? “Less frustrating. It wasn’t something really in our control. It’s disappointing when you don’t finish, but it’s not more frustrating. It’s more frustrating when you go to the track and you’re not performing. So, it felt good to go there and perform; that’s the best we performed in the COT car. We had a first- or second-place car there, depending on what stage of the race it was. We felt pretty good about that, that we were able to run and keep up and make some progress on our cars, so that part gives you a lot of confidence. Obviously, the timing could have been better for breaking, not being in the Chase somewhere, but certainly we feel better about our performance.”

DID YOU FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED? “The motor blew up. I don’t know what broke or why it broke or whatever, that’s not really my department. But, I’m sure they looked into it and got it resolved.”

ARE YOU CONFIDENT HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, I feel pretty good. You don’t know what’s going to happen every weekend, but I feel pretty good about our intermediate stuff and I look forward to the weekend.”

WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THE PENALTY NASCAR HANDED DOWN TO YOUR TEAMMATE CARL EDWARDS? “I guess I kind of expected it. It’s kind of the precendent they set with the Car of Tomorrow. It was one of those things with the right rear being low, a jack screw came loose or something, it’s not a performance advantage by any means, but yet they have their rules and their tolerances, and that’s what they’ve been enforcing all along.”

ARE DRIVERS COGNIZANT OF WHO IS AROUND THEM DURING A RACE, AND DO THEY TREAT DRIVERS IN THE CHASE DIFFERENTLY FROM DRIVERS NOT IN THE CHASE? “They shouldn’t. You should race somebody all year the same. I don’t think the 12 guys in the Chase have any more right to the race track than the guys that aren’t in the Chase. There’s 43 cars out there every Sunday and they’re all racing for the best spot they can get, and, in my opinion, nothing should change going into the Chase. I think it should be the same in Week 2 as it is in Week 22 as it is in Week 32. You should race the same all the time. Everybody’s out there trying to get the best they can.”

DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO WHICH CARS ARE AROUND YOU, AND WHETHER THE DRIVER IS IN THE CHASE? “No, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to race somebody the same all the time. Everybody’s out there trying to win a race and get the best finish they can for their team and their sponsor, and get as many points as they can.”