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

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, met with members of attending media at Phoenix International Raceway to discuss racing the Impala SS on the PIR track, young drivers and NASCAR fans.

ON IMPALA SS AT PHOENIX: "It is all right. I will let you know when we get though today, then tomorrow then Sunday. We started off practice pretty decent there, then lost it a little bit but got it back there at the end.

"It is a combination of two things. One is we are learning about the car each time we have it on the track. Now we have had two races so obviously we have learned some things there.

"Now, we are going to learn more because this is a unique race track compared to the other two we have run on. The speeds are higher, the travels are different. It has the same characteristics it has had everywhere else. It goes in the corner and doesn't turn in the middle of the corner. It just doesn't have the grip, just doesn't carry the speed, so you are constantly trying to find that right spot. First you just try to maximize the grip, which is fairly easy to do in this car then you have to work on the balance.

"By itself it isn't that big of a deal, in traffic is when we will know and we won't really know until tomorrow and the race. "

ON BENEFITS COT HAS BEEN SAID TO HAVE PAYING OFF AS OF YET: "Not yet, not yet. Safety wise, I don't know if we have seen crashes or impacts yet to verify that other than what they have done on their sled tests and other things. But from what I see, it should be a safer car, so that is good. The passing thing is definitely and unknown. I think we will find out a lot more about that tomorrow when we get out there in practice and then especially in the race on Saturday night. We all know it isn't going to save us any money right now but we know it has cost us more money right now. But hopefully looking in to the future it will save us some money."

ON HOW PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY CHANGES DURING A RACE: "This track changes a good bit. It definitely loses a lot of grip when that sun is out then sun is intense here and track temperature means a lot. The cooler temperatures are optimum so we expect it to change quite a bit."

ON HOW STRONG TEAM IS NOW: "No doubt about it, it speaks volumes on what an incredibly competitive we have right now. You can point fingers all you want, one week it might be my fault, one week it might be somebody else. But we are so incredibly close to winning and I am very proud of that but each week that goes by you have a competitive race car capable of winning, the frustration level goes up. As long as we keep pulling off those top-five finishes, we will be able to smile at the end of the day and we know we have the next week. That is going to run out eventually, obviously, with the new points system, winning does mean something at this point. So we want to get those bonus points just like leading a laps, we like to get those bonus points anytime we can. But the most important time to win is in the Chase."

ON THINKING ABOUT THE NEW BONUS POINTS FOR WINNING: "Well, it is on your mind, especially when you have a guy like Jimmie who has won three races. You know that no matter where he is in the top-10 or top-12 in points, you know he is going to be up front when the Chase starts."

ON DALE, JR. GETTING IN KYLE BUSCH CAR AT TEXAS: "I think I said it last week, I was shocked and surprised that one-somebody asked him to get in and that there was even a reason for him to get in. The other thing is that he agreed to drive. It was very cool though. That was an awesome thing that he did for a friend and speaks volumes about Junior. The smile on his face getting out of the car said a lot about Junior too. Obviously surprised."

ON A DRIVER THE CALIBER OF DALE, JR. LEARNING ANYTHING BY DRIVING THEIR CAR: "No, not when it had been wrecked like that. No. He didn't learn anything. Anything he was learning wasn't anything we were giving up. Just more the fact that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was driving the No. 5 car and where was Kyle (Busch)."

ON IF HE WOULD DO IT IF HE WAS ASKED: "No, probably not. (LAUGHS) I would probably say no because if I am out of the race, I would want to go home. That is why I said I was very surprised. It might be different if it was Tony Stewart's car and we were out and his car was in one piece and he was sick or something and couldn't get it. If I am going to drive a car as a fill in I want to it when it is running good at a track that he runs good at. (LAUGHS)"

ON THE REACTION OF THE TALLADEGA FANS TO HIM IF HE WINS THERE AND TIES DALE EARNHARDT, SR. WIN RECORD: "It can't be worse than any other reaction they have there. It will probably be pretty much the same as it always has. We definitely have a lot of fans at Talladega but we obviously have a lot that pull against us there as well. I don't really think about it. Doesn't matter to me where we do it, when we do it, how we do it. I just want to get a win, that is most important thing."

ON KYLE BUSCH INCIDENT AT TEXAS: "When you react and you don't have time to think about it, you just get somebody in the car because you know the car is ready and you want to get three or five points or whatever it is, everything is important. So I don't think at that point who was standing there, if you can't find your driver and there has been a miscommunication, then you have got to react. I don't think that has anything to do with standards and how we do things at Hendrick Motorsports. What we do at HMS is we put cars out there that are hopefully capable of winning and we never stop working on getting the most points we an until the checkered flag wave and that is what Alan was doing. I commend those guys for that. Again, it was just a miscommunication from what I hear and that is the whole thing that comes out of that. I think they all learned that don't let the driver go until you tell him what you are doing. And the driver knows I am not leaving until I know what is going to happen.

"You have to remember, he (Kyle Busch) is still young. He might not want to admit that or talk about that but he is. He is an incredible driver, he has a lot of fire inside of him and it shows. He is very competitive. He was upset obviously when he got out of the car and you can't change a guy's personality, that is just him. You just have to learn to bottle it up and manage it. There is only so much that his Mom, Dad and Rick and other peers of his can give him advice about the heat of the moment like that. It is about how you control it and what you learn from things and I am sure he learned something from it."

ON TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH: "Any time there is a tragedy like that, it is a wakeup call to all of us to appreciate life and understand that things can happen in the blink of an eye that you least expect. Certainly our hearts are with them. We are going to be carrying a Virginia Tech sticker on the car. We have a lot of guys on our team that came from Virginia Tech. Engineers, and different people that work for me. That is a school that means a lot to us in this garage. It is tough to see anybody go through something like that but especially a place where you have a connection."

ON MORE ADVICE AND INFORMATION SOURCES TO BE AVAILABLE TO THE YOUNG KIDS COMING IN TO THE SPORT NOW TO HELP THEM COPE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT: "I do think that there should be a little more attention put on it when a rookie comes in. I think that in other major sports there are rookie orientation and I think that some of those things can be good to kind of open their eyes for the guys as to what expectations might come there way. The lack of privacy, the time you have to spend testing, with the media, with your sponsors, with what is going to be expected of you and how you handle that and manage your time. If you want to avoid controversy, how you might want to go about that. I do think that sometimes we just tend to have to go through it on our own and learn from our experiences. I am not saying that an orientation will make a big difference, but it at least might make them think a little bit.

"That is what I say about Kyle, he is young and he is awesome for the sport. He is a tremendous race car driver, I feel like 95% of the time, he makes good decisions and there are very few times when it gets the best of him. We have seen it with all of us. Maybe it wasn't as big of a deal with me, but I went through it. I had time where I felt like people were out to get me or I just didn't feel like it was proper justice or whatever the reason. When you are living it, you feel like everybody is against you rather than for you sometimes. As time goes by, you learn that is not the case and everybody goes through these things and these experiences at different times it in their lives and their careers. It depends on how much success you have early in your career or late in your career. It depends on all those things. As time goes on, you learn how to handle them. Hopefully it is something he can learn from.

"It is different for every driver. I agree that we should have a little bit better system in place. I think we should and I think NASCAR should as well. You just kind of get thrown in to it. You go with it the best way you can. With Jimmie, I was a friend of his as well as a teammate and so he wasn't afraid to ask questions and come to me. It wasn't like I went out and offered a lot of advice. We would talk in conversation about things and we still do today. If I have something, I might say 'Hey man, I had this pop up, did this get brought up to you' and we talk about it. Or he will say 'Hey how should I handle this situation and this got brought up the other day' and we will talk about it. We are close so it is easy for us to do that. So maybe Kyle goes to Kurt or somebody else for those kinds of things. He can certainly come to me or anybody else, it hasn't happened."

ON WHAT SHOULD THE FOCUS OF A TEENAGER BE WHO WANTS TO GET IN TO RACING: "The attention should to go out and drive as many safe, competitive cars as you can. Race against the best; race as much as you can, get as much experience as you can. Try to make an impact on somewhere in the media where you are getting attention where you are having success and the things you are doing on the track to where you are going to attract a car owner or a sponsor, somebody that can put your name in the bag to go to the next level.

ON COLIN BRAUN: "He is tremendously talented. I have raced against him and have watched him race in the series. The thing is if you want to race in NASCAR, you have to learn to race on ovals. Our series is about racing on ovals and big heavy cars and it is nothing like the cars he is currently driving. I don't know what he has driven in the past, if he has or if he hasn't but you just have to go get in as many different kinds of cars as you can as and the most difficult kind of cars. I don't think there is anything more difficult than a stock car.

"At 18 all I wanted to do was go race. Whatever somebody would allow me to get behind the wheel of, I just did it. I didn't have a set plan. There is no set plan, you just do all you can and you know your goal is to get to the next level, whatever that might be. When I was a teenager, I thought that was the Indy 500, I had no idea it was going to turn out to be NASCAR."

ON THE TOP-35 RULE WITH REGARD TO THE TOYOTA TEAMS: "Those Toyota teams can qualify on time now and when they get locked in to the top-35 they are going to think it is the greatest thing on the planet. But while they are sitting on the outside they think it is the worst thing that there is. They are still getting an equal opportunity to qualify for races because they are racing against guys who are not in the top-35. You just have to be fast. You know, if you are fast enough, you are going to make it. It is unfortunate when the weather comes. I think that is when it really doesn't make much sense, but all the times other than that, I think they have about the best system in the place that I can think of."

ON IF A FOREIGN BORN DRIVER LIKE JUAN PABLO MONTOYA EVER REACH A HUGE POPULARITY WITH AMERICAN NASCAR FANS: "I don't know, but I think he can reach a whole other level with the world-wide fan base. I think you are always going to give up something to gain something else. Just like my popularity. I might not have the type of fans that Dale Jr., has but I have fans he doesn't and I have fans that he doesn't. I don't think it is all about getting every fan; it is about getting the most that you can and he is definitely capable of doing that in a big way.

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

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

TELL US ABOUT COMING TO PHOENIX AND RACING IN THE NEW CAR: "I think there's a lot of questions to be answered this weekend. This is the first time we'll have the Impala SS on a track this big with this kind of speeds and also on a track that is conducive to side-by-side racing. Martinsville is not one of those tracks where you see a lot of that, nor is Bristol. I think this weekend we will answer a lot of questions. As we have in the previous two weekends with the new car, we're going to leave here a whole lot smarter or a whole lot more confused; we'll see which one. Either way we'll leave with a whole lot more information that what we had when we got here. A lot of that has to do with the track itself, being conducive to two grooves. I don't know. I think it's going to be really interesting.

"I think the Richmond test was a big challenge to get the cars to drive the way we wanted them to drive and I think it will be the same here this weekend. But I think that what we did see at Richmond was speeds that were pretty equal amongst the field and I think we'll see that here as well."

BEING FROM VIRGINIA, DID YOU KNOW ANYONE THAT ATTENDS VIRGINA TECH AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT HAPPENED THERE THIS WEEK? "Being from South Boston, Virginia, Virginia Tech has a lot of people that go there from the South Boston area. There are some people that I do know that are going to school there; more so I'm friends with their parents or my parents or my in-laws are friends with their parents and that kind of a thing. I don't believe I know anyone that was killed or injured. It's hard to get your hands around something like that; to think that something like that could happen.

"Blacksburg is just a stereotypical sleepy town that is just a nice place to live and a nice place to raise kids. It's kind of scary, really. It could happen anywhere at anytime. I just don't know what there is to say. it's awful. It's an awful deal, no question and hopefully they can start the healing process."

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO GET INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S RACE CAR? DO YOU HAVE STANDARDS FOR THAT? "Historically, in old-school racing, when someone needed some help, you help them. I've had drivers help me before; I've helped other drivers when they were injured or sick. I've had drivers - always teammates, if I remember - drive my car to give me their opinion on what my car is doing in an effort to help me. I've done the same for people. I know that last week has brought up a lot of discussion on whether (Dale) Junior should have driven that car (No. 5) or not based on the points. I believe he did the right thing. I believe that when a team asks you if you can help them, it would have been completely out of the box to say no. For Junior to say 'no, I can't do that' would have been way more unusual than for him to say yes. I do understand that by him driving that, there's three points there. I do understand some of the fans and some of the media's thought process on 'that's three points you gave him that you shouldn't have given him'. I understand that as well. 'But there is such a thing as professional respect and I think that Junior extended professional respect to Rick Hendrick; to the Hendrick (Motorsports) organization and I would have done the exact same thing. Had I been asked to do that. trust me, I would have rather got in my airplane, gone home and beaten the crowd, but if a competitor asks you to do that it would be really hard to say no with our previous history of people helping. This is a cutthroat business from time to time but also a very compassionate garage area.

"I don't think Junior did anything different from what everybody would have done, to be quite honest. There are some conflicts you can get in - there have been times at Busch tests where I had some drivers ask me to drive their car and I couldn't because of contractual issues. Short of something like that, if you can help someone I think you should."

ARE YOU SURPRISED MARK MARTIN IS STILL RUNNING A PARTIAL SEASON DESPITE HIS SUCCESS? "Well, at Daytona I believed he was going to run the full season. I believed he would be in the top 15 in points and it would be very difficult for him. I thought he would get a lot of pressure from a lot of people surrounding him to continue to run. Knowing Mark, trying to make people happy around him he would fold under that pressure. But I'm proud of him for not doing that. Don't forget why Mark is doing what he's doing - he's doing what he's doing because that's what he wants to do. Someone gave him the opportunity to do exactly what he wanted to do. So I'm proud of him for sticking to his guns and I'm proud of them for not putting a lot of undue pressure on him, making him feel like he needed to do it. They didn't do that. They deserve some credit for that as well."

HOW HARD IS IT TO MAINTAIN YOUR COMPOSURE OR SELF-CONTROL WHILE RACING? "I haven't always had self control and I haven't always had the discipline that I need and I still don't today. There's a time in almost every race that my team does a good job of getting me re-centered and refocused. Sunday was a great example. I was extremely frustrated with the car I was racing. I thought they could cut me some slack and I became frustrated about it and my frustration led to slower lap times and my team saw that and got me back centered. I still lose it and lose focus and get away from the things I need to be concentrating on."

WHAT KIND OF RACING WILL WE SEE THIS WEEKEND AND HOW WILL THE NEW CAR AFFECT IT? "It's more of a question mark to me going into this race then it was at the other two races. I believe going into Bristol and Martinsville that we were going to see Bristol and Martinsville races because, like I told you then, I didn't care if we raced Pintos there, you were going to have a good race. This race is different. I honestly don't know what to expect. What I believe you will see is five to 10 cars that really figure it out. I think there is a possibility that you'll see the last 10 cars in the field not as competitive as you saw at Bristol and Martinsville because we're on such a learning curve. There are so many things we don't know about. I also believe that at Martinsville that we'd see a greater difference between the fastest car and the last-place car than what we ultimately saw. If you looked at lap times, it was closer than we've ever seen. I looked at lap times after Saturday's practice and the times were remarkably close. What I'm telling you what I think we're going to see, I could be proven wrong. I just don't have enough information in front of me to give a good answer."

DO YOU THINK THIS WILL BE THE TRACK WHERE WE SEE WHAT THE NEW CAR WILL BE LIKE AT THE LARGER TRACKS? "In comparison to the other tracks, yes. This track, to the point of showing us what it will be like will pale in comparison to Dover. But this track will give us more of an indication than what we've seen at the prior race tracks."

WHY DO YOU THINK MARK MARTIN HAS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL DESPITE HIS AGE? MANY DRIVERS HIS AGE START TO STRUGGLE AT THIS POINT IN THEIR CAREERS. "Well, first of all, as a guy that's been written off as someone who's not able to drive any longer, I don't believe that Dale Jarrett or Bobby Labonte or anyone else you want to add to that has forgotten how to drive. I believe that they're not in a situation that allows them to run as fast as they can run. That's not a knock on their race teams or anything else; that's what I believe. I don't believe for a minute that Bobby Labonte can't go around this race track faster than me or Jimmie Johnson or anyone else. Mark Martin has exceptional talent. I've said this before. He is one of the best drivers that this sport has ever seen. The fact that he's never won a championship has never changed that. He is one of the very best, ever. He has the ability to that, I'm telling you right now.

"So does Bobby Labonte. But you have to be in the situation that allows you to achieve. The driver takes responsibility for that too; I'm not saying that we don't. The driver has a tremendous amount of input into what's going on. But if everything's not right I don't care if you're 25. and we see it today. We see drivers today that two years ago were really successful and are struggling right now. They didn't forget how to drive either. So the whole age thing, I believe, is really blown out of proportion. Jeff Gordon has been doing this a long time. And if it's really age that matters - is it really age or experience that makes you worse? Why would you be worse at 44 than you are at 34 or 24? After being a person that's getting ready to turn 40, I feel better today than I did when I was 30. I think I'm better prepared. I think I'm a better driver at what soon will be 40 than I was at 30. I don't understand how that can deteriorate over the next five years. Ask me five years from now and I may say 'hey, you know what, you're right'. But I don't understand it. One of the great things about this sport is that is doesn't rely on the same kind of athletic skills that you have to excel at to play basketball. It's why you don't have a 40-year-old playing basketball. But with the skills that are required of us from an athletic standpoint, I don't believe you can't be successful in. Dale Earnhardt finished second in points the year before he was killed and he was what, 49? Harry Gant had his best years in his mid-40s. I just don't see it."

DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS ABOUT THE FOAM ISSUE AND HOW MUCH OF A WORK IN PROGRESS IS THIS CAR? "I think it's a huge work in progress and we come to this track basing what we're going to do off of a test at Richmond as opposed to the previous six races that we've run here. I believe this is a huge work in progress. We're only two races into a completely new car. We don't have enough tires to go anywhere else and test. We're learning on the fly. We just don't have near the amount of information that we have as opposed to when we go to Vegas or California so we're definitely learning on the fly. As far as the foam in the right side, I'm really concerned about that. The foam that was in my car at Martinsville was melted away and had a big void in the bottom of it where it had deteriorated. Mine could have been the one to catch on fire as opposed to someone else's. It has been addressed. There's been a great deal of that near the exhaust pipe removed in an effort to help the problem. But until I see evidence that it can no longer be a problem I have to believe that it could still be a problem. It's one of the things that concerns every team about the new car is that there's so many things that we don't have control of. The foam, the battery system. there's several things that they said we have to run. Whenever someone takes control away from us, we think that they're not as smart as we are and we're going to have problems with it. So we're concerned about the things that we can control but we're also concerned about the decisions that have been made for us. And those things have made an impact in the races and will continue to be an impact on the races. NASCAR is on a learning curve too; we're all on a learning curve. It's not all going to be right, right off the bat. This is only the third race; there's a hell of a lot to learn."

HOW MUCH LESS RELEVANT WILL RUNNING IN THE BUSCH SERIES BE NOW WITH THE NEW CAR AND WILL THAT AFFECT YOUR DECISION TO RUN IN BOTH SERIES? "That's a really good question and my answer is I'll tell you this afternoon. I don't know. There is enough difference in the cars today - without the new car, in what we've been racing - that I don't run over to the Busch car and say 'here's the setup from the Cup car' or vice versa. It doesn't work like that. The teams are together; they do understand what each other are doing and there is much less that applies from the Cup car to the Busch car today than opposed to say, last week. The interesting thing, from a Busch standpoint, I think, is what involvement are the car owners going to want to have in it? What is the benefit for Richard Childress to be running an Impala SS on Sunday and a current car on Saturday when there is way less crossover? What is the benefit in doing that? The reason we do it today is because our engineering support, a lot of it helps the other. There are things that we can cross over. The fewer amount of things we can cross over, the less willingness there will be for the car owners to be involved.

Contrary to a lot of belief, it's very difficult to make financial ends meet with the Busch programs. The Cup car owners are pushed to the very limit with the amount of sponsorship dollars that you can get for a Busch program and the amount of money it takes to run it effectively, it's difficult to make money doing that. The reason to make money is to buy new technology so you can do all those things. If you can't do all those things, then why be involved? At some point it will become a distraction. If I can't get benefit from running the Busch car and the Busch car becomes apparent that it isn't helping the Cup team then I will be much more reluctant to run the Busch car. I love to race but there is no question that I do it because that gives me five more tests and it gives me the opportunity to try things on Saturday that I won't have the chance to try on Sunday. There's no doubt about that. If I can't get benefit and I'm not helping. the main goal is to win the NASCAR championship. That's goal number one.

If running the Busch program steps in the way in any form or fashion and it's no longer a help to do it, then I don't want to be involved in it. Because if it gets in the way - if anything gets in the way - of me winning the Cup championship, then it's out of my life. The Busch program would be the same way. I don't know yet how that's going to end. I haven't run both cars on the same weekend. I will tell you this, I went to Richmond to test both cars and it's the least amount of back-and-forth information that we've been involved with to date. At any Busch test that we've gone to with the Cup car with the same test, it's been the least amount of information traded back and forth."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS HAULER CHAT:

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DALE EARNHARDT JR DRIVING KYLE BUSCH'S CAR AT TMS AND GAINING 3 POINTS ON YOU? "That car was going to get back on the track either way. If Kyle was there, he was in it. They actually came to find me to get in the car, but I had already left because we were out of the race and black-flagged because we couldn't maintain the minimum speed, so that would have been a great story if I was the one who went out there and lost myself third position in points (laughs). But its just part of it and you just try to help out wherever you can."

WOULD YOU DO THAT FOR ANOTHER TEAM - SAY FOR DEI OR GIBBS OR SOMEBODY LIKE THAT? "If the situation comes up. The only time I've been faced with that was to help Tony Stewart out at Watkins Glen. But there was obviously a conflict with primary sponsors and that kept that from taking place. I was standing there in my Lowe's uniform and Mark Cronquist (JGR head engine builder) came up to me and said hey can you get in the car and I looked at him and said, 'Look at my uniform and then look at yours. Do you really think I can get in this car?' And he said oh, he was sorry and then ran off.' So in the six years I've been in this sport - even the two years in Busch - I've never been in a situation to relieve someone or be relieved.

"So it's just something that happens every once in a while and I think you scramble to get whoever you can in the car to help out."

ARE THE AERODYNAMICS GOING TO BE A FACTOR IN SATURDAY NIGHT'S RACE? "The car is bigger. It punches a bigger hole so there's more turbulent air behind the lead car all the way through the pack. That's something that we've all been expressing and had a concern about to start with. The old car is a smaller vehicle and punches a smaller hole. So it's going to be a learning experience. But I think we do have a good plan in place of bringing this car in and start it off on half-miles and bring it up to the miles. We're all learning more. This show might not be the show that we all want, but next time we race this on a mile track, it's going to be better. And that's what this year is all about is to try and make the car better each time we're on the track."

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE ABOUT PIR? "I think it's just the aero-balance of the car. We do have hard braking in Turn 1, which will be similar to Martinsville so I think lessons learned at Martinsville will carry over a little bit there. Turns 1 and 2 is a much tighter corner and it seems like less aero, almost, down there; and then you get into (Turns) 3 and it's so flat and aero is really, really important. So if we do see an issue, it might be in (Turns) 3 and 4 where you just can't get close enough to someone in front of you or run in behind him and get position. But it's really hard to speculate until we get out there. I think it'll be better than what we expect, but I still think it'll be better when we come back for the second or third time on these tracks."

DO YOU THINK NASCAR NEEDS TO DO MORE FOR THE YOUNGER DRIVERS TO HELP THEM ADJUST TO CUP FINANCIALLY AND REGARDING THE DEMANDS ON THEIR TIME? "Growing up in this sport, I can say at (age) 31, I'm still growing and learning. So I don't know where that point is to say hey, you're too young or you need this help from your team or your sponsors. I think the owners recognize that this is a big sport and there's a lot on the line and you have major corporate dollars involved and you need to make sure you bring somebody in who is able to deal with these things and who is trainable and has the right outlook on things.

"So I think you've gone through a lot of red tape to get here and this point and you've earned a spot to be here. Now that doesn't mean that you're not going to make mistakes and your emotions aren't going to get the best of you and it's going to be a tough road for you. It's tough, regardless of where you are in this sport. It's just a hard game to be in."

WITH THE NEW CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT, HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK ABOUT HAVING A 20-POINT LEAD ON EVERYBODY ELSE? "I didn't think about it until we won Martinsville. It doesn't change my mind on the track and the decisions I make out there. It's just kind of a novelty item when you go home to know it's (winning) going to be a bonus in the Chase. That's the way it is now. But when we get to the Chase, if we are fortunate enough to be in position to be in the lead, we'll love it then. But if you're 50 out, you're going to hate it."

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SHOOTINGS AT VIRGINIA TECH AND HOW IS HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS DEALING WITH THAT TRAGEDY? "During the day Monday, I heard tidbits of what was going on at VT and thought of Marty Smith, a good friend who is a graduate from the school; and we have Darian Grubb and a lot of guys from Hendrick Motorsports have gone to VT. And it's just hard to believe - not only at Virginia Tech, but just anywhere in our country that this can take place and how vulnerable this society is that somebody really is that possessed to do something wrong. It's really a scary thing. My reaction is similar to everyone else's -- that hasn't had a friend or known somebody involved. I've just been completely shocked. Our hearts are out for all the families involved. And then all the stuff that has come out since, you wonder what in the world was going on in that guy's mind. What was he thinking? Why was he like this? It's a tragedy. We're all asking the question, 'Why?'"

FROM A DRIVER'S PERSPECTIVE, IN KYLE BUSCH'S SITUATION LAST WEEK AT TMS, DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR CAR CAN'T RACE ANY MORE WHEN YOU DRIVE IT INTO THE GARAGE AFTER A CRASH? "Oh, yeah, most of the time you have a good idea. If you make light contact and do some aero damage - like the contact I had with Tony (Stewart) I felt was just aero damage. It didn't bend the steering. Some contacts you make and the steering is 180 degrees off, and you know you've done major suspension damage here and there is no way you can fix this."

SO YOU WOULD HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA OF WHETHER THE CAR CAN BE FIXED OR NOT? "Yeah, in order for Kyle to leave, I think he must have felt that the car was really destroyed and there was no way to fix the car and get it back out. The guys must have done a really good job fixing the car."

WOULD YOU PERSONALLY LIKE TO SEE A NASCAR TRACK IN THE SEATTLE AREA? "Absolutely. I think the more markets we can be in, the bigger our sport is going to be and the better it's going to be. We have fans all over the country and it's kind of dark right now in the northwest. There is some short track racing that goes on up there, but unfortunately we don't have a Cup track up there. Hopefully we can expand. In my opinion, I think the best thing for our sport is to have one race at every track and race at 38 different places instead of racing at 26 tracks total. But it's hard to be the promoter or track builder. It's a tough situation because there is no guarantee you're going to get the Nextel Cup date. Without a doubt, that is the major event you need to get to work through the expense and cost. There is a lot of revenue for the city with a Nextel Cup event and I think everybody is on board at that point. But it's really the chicken or the egg because if you build a facility and hope NASCAR comes and there's just no guarantee. We've seen tracks like Kentucky and Nashville Speedway that come up that are great venues but that for whatever reason doesn't fit what NASCAR sees from a marketing standpoint and it doesn't happen. So it's a very risky business environment and I'm glad I don't have a dog in that fight. Being a track owner would be a tough game."

NEXTEL CUP WAKE-UP CALL WITH CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 DIRECT TV IMPALA SS

CLINT BOWYER TALKED WITH MEDIA ABOUT THE NEW-GENERATION RACE CAR AND ON THE SEASON THUS FAR:

TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT IT IS TO BE THIS FAR AHEAD IN POINTS THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON: "Everyone's been doing their job on the Jack Daniel's Chevrolet, bringing good cars to the track every week. That's a big part of it - preparation. It all starts at the race shop so (crew chief) Gil (Martin) and everybody have been doing a great job with that. We've been strong week in and week out. I think we've been a top-10 car every week; I've learned a lot in the car and I think we've learned a lot communication-wise as well."

YOU HAVE A SHOT AT GETTING INTO THE ALL-STAR CHALLENGE BUT IF YOU DON'T WIN A RACE YOU'RE STILL ELIGIBLE FOR THE NEXTEL FAN VOTE - TELL US ABOUT THE VIGNETTE YOU RECORDED FOR THAT: "They drug us out there to the side of the road when we did that. It was a lot of fun to do that but hopefully we won't have to use that commercial; hopefully we'll be able to win a race and do it that way. A million bucks to win that baby and it would be fun to be part of it."

WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE NEW CAR HERE? "Well, we're struggling a little bit so it's hard for me to answer that. It's definitely a lot higher speed out there. The cars are getting into (turn) one and having to back the corner up a little bit, keep it off the splitter, things like that. So it's going to be interesting; I think there's going to be a lot more cautions. It's really up on top of the race track slipping and sliding around and it's just going to be the nature of the beast with this car."

IS THERE A DIFFERENT FEEL FOR THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST YEAR OR DO YOU THINGK IT'S MORE OF THE SAME? "I think it's just about being a lot more comfortable and feeling like you belong here and fitting in. I think that's a big part of it. Going to these tracks a second time, that was a big advantage. Last year going to race tracks you've never seen before and racing against these guys, you just made a lot of mistakes. I was able to learn from them and I'm trying to capitalize on it."

HOW DO YOU WORK WITH YOUR TEAMMATES? "Well, they're faster than I am (laughs); I'll be trying to see what they're doing. Obviously both of them are very experienced; they know what they are doing out there. Jeff Burton is so polished on and off the race track. You learn so much from him. I was over in his hauler just a little bit ago trying to figure out what they were doing; maybe what he was doing in the driver's seat different than I was. That's a huge advantage of a multi-car team - when you're struggling you go over there and ask them questions. That's exactly what I do."

HAVE YOU EVER LEFT THE TRACK THINKING YOUR CAR WASN'T DRIVABLE (AFTER A WRECK) AND IT ACTUALLY STILL WAS? "Well, I think if you tear your race car up the least you can do is stick around to see if they can fix it."

IS THERE SOMETHING SPECIFIC YOU ARE LOOKING FOR HERE WITH THE NEW CAR AS OPPOSED TO MARTINSVILLE OR BRISTOL? "Oh, definitely. You're getting into turn one; obviously you're using a lot of brake at Martinsville but you get off into one here with so much speed and have to slow down so much it's hard to keep that thing off the splitter. Once you've hit that splitter it seems like it goes haywire. It takes off every which way - nose first, gets loose. It upsets the car when it gets down on that thing and keeping the car off of it is a big part of it."

HOW WILL THAT BE DIFFERENT IN TRAFFIC? "I think it will be worse. You do a lot of passing; get up in underneath of them onto (turn) four and roll off into one underneath them, trying to out-brake them. It's going to be hard to out-brake them and stay off of them."

YOU WERE FAIRLY STRONG HERE LAST YEAR AND YOU'RE STRUGGLING TODAY. WHAT CAN YOU BRING TO THIS? "I think you bring some things but it's a whole new animal. The setups are quite a bit different; it's all travel. When you're traveling as much as you were you're going to have to change something. It's just trying to get a good balance on it. I know Gil and the guys will come up with something here. They'll pull a rabbit out of the hat; I know they would."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH KYLE BUSCH AND ALAN GUSTAFSON, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG'S IMPALA SS

Kyle Busch and Alan Gustafson, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS driver and crew chief, currently seventh in NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points, met with members of the media at PIR:

ON RUNNING IMPALA SS ON A ONE-MILE TRACK, THE BIGGEST TRACK SO FAR FOR THE NEW-GENERATION NASCAR RACE CAR:
KYLE BUSCH (KB): "It is going to be something new for all of us except Jeff Burton who did the Goodyear tire test out here. For us, it something where none of us haven't been on this big of a track with it yet. I haven't, our team hasn't but Hendrick Motorsports has when they went to the Milwaukee Mile when they were developing it. I am looking forward to it, it is a new task at hand, hopefully we have a pretty good piece where we can go out there and try to win."

ALAN GUSTAFSON (AG): "This is going to be the first race where aerodynamics is going to come in to play and something obviously we are all interested to see is the interaction between the cars in traffic as well as by themselves in clean air. Where Bristol and Martinsville were more mechanical grip race tracks, now the aero is going to play a bigger part of it and that will be neat to see. Phoenix has always facilitated good racing in the past, we just hope that trend continues."

ON WHAT HAPPENED AT TEXAS THAT RESULTED IN DALE EARNHARDT, JR. CLIMBING IN THE NO. 5 FOR THE LAST FEW LAPS:
KB: "As It has been stated, there was a bit of a miscommunication there. As I came in, I presumed that the car was finished, that (the damage) was too extensive to repair it. I could barely turn it; I couldn't even turn it to my own garage stall at all to the right. I took that as an indication we were done for the day. I went in to the hauler, changed my clothes and walked out. Never had a team member or anybody say further that we were going to try to go back out or anything. So we didn't talk with each other after the incident."

ON WHEN FOUND OUT THAT DALE EARNHARDT, JR. WAS IN THE CAR AND WILL THERE BE A CHANGE OF PROCEDURE IN THE FUTURE:
KB: "I heard on the radio broadcast that the No. 5 car was ready and they were looking for a driver and that Dale, Jr. was in the thing, so that is how I heard. I was on my way to the airport to get on the team plane in order to go back to Charlotte, NC, that is how I found out. We have something in place now to try and help us out that will make it easier with crash procedures. Alan has his crash procedures for him and the team guys built but there has never been one built where the driver is a part of that. We have some changes in place now."

ON FEELING IF HE LET TEAMMATES DOWN AND ON WHAT HE LEARNED:
KB: "No, I don't feel like I let my teammates down and they tell me that I didn't let them down. You know, there were two really hard hits I took last weekend. I was pretty beat up and pretty sore. That was another reason that facilitated me to pack it up early and say let's go home. But, we have talked about it as a team and we see it as a non-issue. We are looking forward to this weekend Phoenix and keep the streak alive with the COT for Hendrick Motorsports.

"The biggest thing I learned was there has to be more communication not only from the team to me but from myself. I didn't go to the team and ask if we were going to get back out. That is partially my problem, but we want to make sure we have it straightened out for the future."

ON HEARING ANYTHING ABOUT THE CAR GETTING BACK OUT ON THE RACE TRACK AND ON IT HE HAS SPOKEN WITH DALE, JR.:
KB: "Negative. I never heard anything about the car getting back on the race track. When I got out of the car, I was disconnected from radio communications with the team. They were all so busy working on the race car that nobody came in to the hauler to inform me so I just assumed. But my assumptions were wrong.

"I tried calling Dale, Jr. this week, but I had the wrong cell phone number. I got somebody else on the phone who didn't speak very good English. I must have an old cell phone number. I came in here this morning to play the roll of team owner with my West Series program team, but I didn't think that 9:00 a.m. was Dale, Jr.'s up time yet so I didn't want to knock on his door. We will let him get his beauty rest."

ON FEELINGS ABOUT IMPALA SS NOW AFTER TWO RACES: "Kenny Wallace said all he ever heard about were people complaining about the old car and how it is tight and how there doesn't seem to be much difference between the cars, they both won't turn. But at least we can get the car we have been running to turn, we can make it to where it will be free through the corner and it will be handling pretty well. With the COT, we keep struggling with a tight condition and it just won't turn. Everybody is pretty much fighting the same thing. It is just who can get it the best. I haven't heard anybody say they have been able to get it to turn in the center and have good drive off like we can with the current car.

"For me, it is still a hindrance to get it to drive the way I want it to drive. But that is why Alan and the engineers get paid to do what they do to try and make it better and I get paid to do what I do."

ON ACCIDENT THAT TOOK HIM OUT OF TEXAS: "There was a visibility problem and I couldn't get slowed down quick enough. If you go back, no one has rewound the tape back far enough, Dale Jr., went in to turn three and loose in the center of turns three and four so he had to check up, so he was probably about 10 miles-an-hour slower than I was going through the center of the corner. When he got loose, just right after that is when we saw Tony (Stewart) spinning and he was already 10 mph slower than me so he had a head start on it and was already on the brakes. I was off the gas and just kind of rolling through there.

"I have spun out at Texas twice like that on the front straight away like that and both times I have gone up and hit the outside wall so I was aiming for the infield. But when I couldn't see anymore because the whole track was filled with smoke from Stewart going from the top to the inside, I didn't know where he was, or where he was going to go so I was on the binders once I saw him going across the race track, I was pushing on the brake pedal as hard as I could, trying to slow down as hard as I could, Earnhardt disappeared in to the smoke and I went in after him and just plowed him. It was a pretty heavy hit, I felt it through my knees and my hands so it definitely was a hard one."

ON CONFIDENCE LEVEL GOING IN TO TALLADEGA:
KB: "I am looking forward to it. Everybody ran that coil-bind setup last year and I think we are going to try it again this time. The track definitely has a lot of grip; it was really easy to drive there last fall. I would say it is probably going to be the same way because the track hasn't had time to age much. I think it is going to be good for us. I think with Hendrick Motorsports success on restrictor plate tracks of late, we probably are the favorites. I think with the way we have run in the past few plate races with Alan building some pretty great race cars, with all the restrictor plate programs we have at HMS, it has come a long way. I am pretty confident we can run up front and try to win the race."

ON MAKING A DIFFERENT DECISION NOW IF COULD DO OVER LAST WEEK AND WHAT WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY:
KB: "I probably would have at least gotten with a PR representative from the team or a team member or somebody to discuss my well-being and the car's well-being and trying to get back out on the race track."

ON WHAT HMS HAS DONE TO BE SO FAR AHEAD OF OTHER TEAMS WITH IMPALA SS PROGRAM:
AG: "There are a lot of things. We have done a lot of research on this thing for a long time. I believe I am correct in saying we were the first ones to build a roll cage on this car in the development stages of the car. We have a whole engineering group that is working on this car. As I have mentioned before, David Green does a lot of testing for us with the car, so we know where we are on the car. A lot of issue in improving the car is knowing where you are with the car and identifying the problem. Se we were able to go out early in the development stages of the car and identify the issues we were going to fight to get a jump-start on what we were going to have to do to fix them.

"Another thing is not emphasized enough is that part of the car is designed to do a good job emphasize the driver's talents as well as the team's talents with pit stops, pit crews and race strategy, etc. I think you are looking at HMS, you are looking at the best drivers in the series and the best pit crews in the series, and you are looking at some of the better strategies in the series and that has lended itself to our team. If you put Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Casey Mears in anything they are going to be good and if you lean anything a little bit more toward the driver, that is going to give us an advantage."

ON HAVING A BACK INJURY AND ICING IT AND HOW HE FELT MONDAY MORNING WHEN HE WOKE UP:
KB: "I had a few back issues during the race. For some reason that seat we have never been able to come to a conclusion of what it takes to fix it. There is a pressure point that it pushes on my lower back and it was very sore. I told Alan the problem so he could write it down so we would have a reminder of trying to fix it when we got back to the shop, and then I would get some ice afterwards so I could ice it down because it was so sore. I been sore all week pretty much from my neck down, but just because of two hard impacts in one weekend but getting over those and getting better.

"As far as somebody else getting in and driving my car, that was awfully nice of Junior to be there and be available, I guess I knocked him out. It was a tough break for both of us. But for the friendship we have and the friendship he and Pigeon have so he could come over and help us out and get us three more points, that was pretty cool."

ON WHAT WERE INITIAL FEELINGS WHEN HE FIRST HEARD SOMEONE ELSE WAS GETTING IN HIS CAR WHILE HE WAS AT THE AIRPORT AND WHAT WILL HE SAY TO DALE, JR.:
KB: "The first thing that came to mind was I didn't know they were fixing the car to go back out, I never got that news. The second thing was well, at least somebody was available so we could try and get more points. I am going to talk to Junior about is just basically thanks for taking the chance with everything and getting in the thing, not knowing what kind of car it was or what kind of shape it was in. I know these guys did a great job; I have been in crash repairs before and never had any kind of problem. I have always had all the confidence in the world to go back out there. I knew they were going to be fine and there was absolutely no worry about the car or the way it was going to drive. So just thank him for being there and giving us the opportunity to get more points."

ON BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF RACING IMPALA SS AT PIR:
AG: "The biggest challenge is going to be and I think it is a little bit of why Kyle has had issues with these cars, is they just don't make the downforce and don't have the grip our other cars have. You typically struggle with the differences in the corners here. It is hard to get the car consistent and have the car turn good consistently through the corner. So that is what we are going to focus on. The nighttime is always a variable here that you struggle with. Qualifying kind of shades from sun to early evening and you struggle with that during qualifying. Practicing during the day and racing at night is tough. You have to have a lot of adjustability with spring rubbers. We have to have a good game plan on where you are going to go based on where the balance of your car goes. You struggle with the normal things you struggle with here. You are going to struggle with getting your car to turn good in the center and then you struggle with getting the drive off the corner and these cars at the race tracks we have run previously have been worse for situations. We are geared up. We have done a lot of research, the guys have worked really hard on having a lot of options and different packages to try and that is what we are going to go after."

ON TRYING TO GET IN TOUCH WITH KYLE TO GET BACK OUT AND ON CONSIDERING PUTTING JIMMIE IN THE CAR:
AG: "Yes, what happened there in thinking we had a backup, you have to look at the whole situation. Our team as a whole, we had to pull out our backup car on Saturday afternoon, had to thrash to get it ready and start in 43rd spot. Came from 43rd to third at a race track we historically don't run very good at, had a very good race car. So when we got in to the incident, which in my opinion was through no fault of our own, that is a huge swing in emotions. Personally I was very frustrated at that point in time and was focused on fixing that race car and ripping as much sheet metal off to get my anger and frustration out as possible in that situation. Kyle, unfortunately had been in two bad incidents and probably wasn't necessarily in the greatest shape in the world. So we continued to fix that car, there is a couple things we do by the way when we fix a car, we put a crash nose on and we want to learn about it for the Chase and for the experience. There were a lot of different things going on and I guess basically what I am trying to say is when all that happened, there was a huge change in circumstances and emotions and we as a team didn't do the best job handling that. We should have went and communicated with Kyle, took five minutes to talk to Kyle and see where he was with all of it. That was our flaw.

"As far as Jimmie goes, how Dale, Jr., came up, I was speaking with our general manager Brian Watson who was tracking everyone's position on the race track and the points positions and said to Brian hey Jimmie just fell out, do you think we could get Jimmie in this car. Brian said, well I think he will do it but we are going to ask Jimmie to take three points away from Jimmie, which we didn't think was a very fair thing to do.

At that point in time, one of our team members overheard us and Junior was in close proximity and agreed to do it in quick fashion, so that is how all of that came transpired. Jimmie was the first choice obviously and will be in the future, but we didn't want, I actually think if we would have went and ask Jimmie, he would have done it, but, it wouldn't have been fair to put Jimmie in that position so we chose not to do that."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH MARK MARTIN, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS

Mark Martin, No. 01 U.S. Army Impala SS, spoke with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway about his semi-retirement and his first race in the Impala SS.

ON MAKING THE DECISION TO NOT COMPETE FULL-TIME IN NNCS AFTER LEADING THE POINTS: "If I had wanted to chase the Cup, I would have."

ON HAVING A LOT OF PEOPLE AROUND HIM ENCOURAGE HIM TO STAY IN THE CAR AND GO FOR IT: "I had some people around me. They certainly weren't all saying that. I am really happy, I have the greatest life any one could ever ask for. The best family you could ever dream of, you know, I am cool with it."

ON HOW MUCH PHYSICAL FITNESS PLAYS IN TO HOW COMPETITIVE HE STILL IS: "I don't think I am a better driver than any of these guys. So there has got to be some reasons for my success and I don't think it is the driver part of it. Part of it is the physical fitness, part of it is the fire and to manage that fire, it might be difficult when I am 75. I am 48 now and I have it, I won't race if I don't have it. I am not racing 38 races this year if that tells you anything. I still have it and it is hot, but I don't know if I have enough for all of it. I am starting to build a desire and a fire for other things in life. Since I was 15 years old, this has been it for me, number one. Taking precedent over everything. There are a lot of things that have to do with me being able to still be as competitive as I am on the race track. I don't think I am as good as I was 15 years ago but it is hard tell.

"Part of circumstances without question and part of it is that old thing that you make your own luck. You don't make it all but you can make part of it. Part of it is I have been in good situations. Part of it is I am able to inspire people around me, I have worked with people who believe in may and I may not be as good as they think I am but it doesn't matter as long as we get the result and that is the truth. I don't view myself as a better driver than many of these guys, but I certainly wouldn't be happy with the results that a lot of them get. I will do anything, anything to run good. It doesn't matter if it require working your guts out on a sponsor, or working your guts out on a team of working with my own hands at the race track, testing. You know, there is a lot more to this than just strapping yourself in and mashing the gas.

"The people that work on your cars have to love you, they have to believe in you. There is a lot of that. I don't know, I can't answer your question. You have to ask that the people around me, those question. But I know there is a lot more to it than just strapping in."

ON WOULD HE STILL DO THIS IF HE WAS IN A SITUATION LIKE DALE JARRETT FOR EXAMPLE WHERE HE WENT BACK TO ABSOLUTE SQUARE ONE: "No, I am already at a limited schedule based on 2003 and 2001. Those two years were way substandard and unacceptable to me. So I made my plans and I am sticking to them."

ON MORE ADVICE AND INFORMATION SOURCES TO BE AVAILABLE TO THE YOUNG KIDS COMING IN TO THE SPORT NOW TO HELP THEM COPE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT: "I definitely think they need more financial advisors, and a lot of the young guys, their parents are good for that or are savvy didn't. They didn't get here by being stupid to start with. The kids didn't and their parents didn't who helped get their kids here. Financial advisory is very critical in making the most of your career. For the most part I think we have a great group of young drivers. We have different drivers working in different areas to improve themselves whether it is physical fitness or their mental state, anything else. In order to succeed in this business, you have to excel in more than one area."

ON NOW SEEING WHY CHEVY HAS BEEN DOMINANT FOR SO MANY YEARS: "You know, I won't know how to answer that question other than that NASCAR does the very best they can to regulate the competition. A lot of the results have to do with the people working on it. What you do with what you have to work with makes a big difference. There are certain times when a manufacturer has a clear advantage big time like in 1998 I remember that the Ford had a big advantage. But not very often do you see that in this business. What you see is teams working together and excel with whatever it is they are working with. I feel that the field is very level out there right now and on any given weekend the results would be different with just a drop of a hat.

ON WHY HE IS SO AT PEACE WITH HIS LIFE RIGHT NOW: "Because respect means more to me than that trophy. I don't know how much respect you can hold on to when you are fighting a losing battle. Respect is the main ingredient of what really makes me tick and also satisfies me. I am not walking away from racing. I might have a tough time, I don't know. It wouldn't be as easy if I had hung up my helmet that it was to set it aside every two weeks once in a while. If I hadn't raced Cup this year, I would have raced something. I can't imagine in the next 10 years driving something sometimes because that is what I want to do. Any professional who has done something all of their life, whether it is writing or racing or shooting basketballs, or whatever, if that is what is what they have done since they were a little kid, and they were really, really good at it, it is not going to be easy for them to quit doing that.

"It is a problem for not just athletes, but for everybody. I think that is the standard for everybody, it is hard to quit doing something that you love for so long."

ON WHAT HE WILL BE DOING NEXT WEEKEND WHEN HE IS NOT RACING AT TALLADEGA: "I will be racing with Ricky Carmichael and Matt (Martin, his son)."

ON CAR OF TOMORROW: "Well, it going to be all new to me except I have been at all of the tests so far and have driven at all the tests and all. I don't really have much thought about it. I hope it goes as good as everything else. This team has been incredible. I have had huge horsepower with the Hendrick engines and great reliability. Some of the best race cars I have ever driven. I am sure if this one isn't, we will fix it for the next time. This is a great team and so far our testing has been competitive.

"A lot of people have speculated that this car would suit the old guys. It won't suit my driving style if it doesn't turn and that is the main problem with these cars. If anything it is going to be anti my style. I can't stand a car that pushes. There is our challenge. It was pitiful the first time I drove it, it was fair at Bristol, wasn't so good Caraway. It was really good a Richmond. Feel wise I felt the car was as good or better than any car I have ever driven there. We weren't the fastest car but I really like the way it drove. So I was real encouraged to come here. This will be my first event in the Impala.

"I don't know that the aero will be a big thing here. Everybody has got the same car. I don't think we are going fast enough to have major aero issues. This is a good track for this car. Richmond and here I think is good. Maybe more interesting at Darlington. I think it will be real real interesting at bigger tracks. I think if we had had it at Texas I don't think it would have been so great. We were complaining about the other car not turning well and this car inherently has a huge issue because we have been limited to half the front suspension we had with the other car. There is nothing about the COT that is a big deal other than that. The wing, is no big deal. More room, bigger greenhouse, none of that stuff is no big deal. But taking half the front suspension away is going to have the teams and the drivers squirming, it is a real challenge."

ON KYLE BUSCH LEAVING TRACK LAST WEEK: "It is the crew chief's decision is whether he wants to work on that driver's stuff. He shouldn't really have a decision on what the driver does, he should just have a decision on what he does and everybody is different. It is everyone's own decision.

ON HIS OPINION ABOUT DALE, JR. JUMPING IN THE NO. 5 CAR: "Now you are asking me for my opinion and It is my opinion that everyone who is talking about what Dale, Jr. did last weekend, everyone who is saying that was wrong are wrong. Why not, what is wrong with that? In Dale, Jr., case it probably needed to be a Chevy, but beyond that, what is wrong with that.

"Like Dale said, it is a throw back to the old days. What is wrong with respecting the way it used to be a little bit. That is just my opinion. Other people are probably going to have the opinion that well that was three points the No. 5 might knock you out of the Chase over. Back in the day, we didn't worry about that so much because we were racers. When a friend or people you like, he (Dale, Jr.) likes and respects the people that work on the No. 5 car and when they asked him, he was honored by that. You know that he is going to do that. He didn't get a committee together and consult them, he did what he felt like he wanted and was right to do. That is what I think, I support him 100%."

ON WHAT IT WILL FEEL LIKE TO WIN AT CUP LEVEL WITH ANOTHER TEAM: "These guys deserve to win. They are so incredibly good. Ryan (Pemberton) and all the guys on this team. The big deal to me will see them, their enthusiasm their excitement, it will be about them, it won't be about me. The thing is I have driven for so many different teams, Jack Roush and other teams. I won races for Bill Davis in his Busch car and others, mostly Roush Truck, Cup and Busch but so many different teams. So many different dashes, switch panels and all that stuff, the thing that I remember about those wins are like the Mike Beam and crew at Daytona or whenever we won a truck race. Or Ben Lesley and the guys at Charlotte in 2002. A lot of those guys had never been in victory lane. They had never won a Cup race, maybe never even won a race at all, I don't know. I know they had not won in Cup. That is what I remember, not anything about me and what I felt like. I don't know where the trophy is. I know it is in the museum somewhere but I haven't walked up and looked at it. That is not what I remember; I remember the faces and the thrill and the team and how much they enjoyed it. That is what this would be about if we were able to make it happen, that is what would mean the most to me. I wouldn't think about Jack Roush or Bobby Ginn, I would think about Jay Frye and Ryan and the other guys who have given their guts for this and deserve it."