Behind the Hauler Chat with Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS, MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA AT POCONO RACEWAY AND DISCUSSED HIS MEMORIES OF BILL FRANCE, JR., ON HOW TO APPROACH POCONO, HOW FATHERHOOD WILL AFFECT HIS LIFESTYLE AND OTHER TOPICS.

ON THE PASSING OF BILL FRANCE, JR.: "I think that it is something that it takes me time to really let things like this sink in as to just how much we are going to miss him. I had the opportunity to spend some time with him away from the race track here in the last couple years and those are the moments that I am really going to miss the most and think about. Obviously there are a lot of people in this garage here that could better describe what he has done for this sport over all of those years and his role and his passion. I just remember the times, listening to him make decisions or talk about decisions that were being made and you could sense the passion that he had for this sport and wanting to continue to see it grow. He liked being involved and that was fun to see a man of his stature and in his position to still be that excited about it. We are going to miss him. He meant a lot to a lot of people, but to me, over the last couple of years I felt like I finally started to get somewhat of a bond with him and that meant more to me than anything else."

IS THERE A LIGHT HEARTED MOMENT, SOMETIME YOU WENT TO THE TRAILER AND YOU KNEW YOU WERE RIGHT AND YOU CAME OUT OF THE TRAILER AND FOUND OUT MAYBE YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN RIGHT? "Well everybody knows he gave his opinion and he always had the last word. You always had so much respect for him because you knew that what he was saying was right, even though it wasn't always easy to take. To me the good moments that I had were fishing and being in the Bahamas on some of the boat trips and just hear him get excited about catching fish and getting away from the hustle and bustle of all the decision making, but still as soon as racing got brought up, he was just as passionate about that as he was anything else."

AS YOU START THE SECOND HALF OF THIS SEASON IN THE LEAD, HOW DIFFERENT IS IT FOR YOU AS YOU GO DOWN THE STRETCH COMPARED TO WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS? "I think that we have got a great race team this year that we have been able to fine tune on and not be looking and searching for major things. We are just trying to continue to push ourselves so that we can stay in this Chase and that when we get in it, that we are one of the guys to beat. At this time, I feel like we are, obviously with leading the points. You have got to keep getting better because the competition is going to keep getting better and it is nice to be in position where we can focus on all of those finer details instead of searching for something big."

THERE IS NOT AS MUCH PRESSURE, NOT AS MUCH HEAT, MAYBE, AS WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO STAY, YOUR EIGHTH, NINTH OR 10TH? "The pressure is still just as intense, the same, because now the pressure is to stay on top and to get that championship. No matter where you are at in the field, anywhere in the top, whether it is 50 points, you know, you are either trying to make it in the top 35, you are trying to make it into the Chase, you are trying to win the Championship, you are trying to win races, you are trying to get into the top 10, it is intense for everybody. The pressure and the intensity is the same throughout the garage, it is just different."

ON THE BUSCH PENALTY: "Everybody knows when an incident occurs on pit road that that's going to get you in trouble. It is going to cause you some type of a fine. I think that what I saw, was what happened on the race track wasn't near as much Tony's fault, as I think that Kurt felt like it was. So, I think that his frustration got the best of him. I think that we all knew that there was going to be some kind of fine and penalty and that it would be severe because there was a crew member involved and even though I don't think that he intentionally was trying to do anything, he was just frustrated and mad, but NASCAR had to make a pretty stern decision there and I think that, it didn't surprise me, put it that way. I am more surprised that they didn't suspend him, actually."

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY, IN YOUR OPINION TO APPROACH THE RACE AT POCONO? "Well the thing is that you have three completely unique turns here. It is trying to find that fine balance where you are either compromising where you can be as good as you can be on all three, or you attack one or two corners here and give up one of the other turns. I think that has always been the biggest challenge and still is."

YOU HAVE HAD SOME GREAT MOMENTS HERE AND SOME FRIGHTENING MOMENTS. IS THERE KIND OF A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS TRACK AT ALL? "I love it more than I hate it. Anytime you have a failure and a problem, and you hit the wall the way that we did, that is not going to be any fun. We have been running good the last couple times that we have been here and that probably means more to me than anything else. We have had some great moments here at Pocono. I still like the track a lot. I think that the race is a little long, but as long as we are running good, it doesn't matter where we go, I am having fun."

ON MICHIGAN NEXT WEEK: "Well in some ways it's easy and in some ways it's not. It might be easy to drive, but it is not necessarily easy to go fast and to be up in the top positions, qualifying or in the race. I think that the reason that most drivers like it is because it is a driver's track. You can search around that track if your car is not working good, you can try the middle, you can try the top, you can try going in high, coming in low, you can do a lot of things to really get the speed out of the car that you are looking for. It is a wide groove race track. Anytime that we go to a track that has multiple grooves it is going to be a drivers favorite. I know it is my favorite."

IS FUEL MILEAGE ALWAYS AN ISSUE THERE? "Seems like it is because there is so many wide grooves and so many options. We don't see a lot of cautions. Any track where we don't see a lot of cautions, then fuel mileage is an issue."

HOW HARD IS IT FOR A DRIVER TO SAVE FUEL, TO LET OFF OF THE GAS WHEN YOU ARE ASKED TO DO IT? "It is very difficult. You have got to have a big lead, like Casey had, where you can just let off. If you are doing it under green, it is very difficult. You have just got to be smooth with the gas. The team had to do some prep work going into the race with how they jet the carburetor and tune that carburetor. I think that is probably playing a bigger role. Under caution, you can probably save more fuel by shutting the engine off, more than anything else."

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE SPOTTER AT MIS AND CAN YOU GET LOST AND LOSE TRACK OF OTHER CARS? "No. Just like any other track. Spotters are important everywhere we go. You have a good indication where everyone is at."

ON THE SUPPORT THAT MR. FRANCE BROUGHT TO BRICKYARD: "I think that it was huge for the sport. It is certainly huge for me. As somebody that grew up around open wheel racing and who had desires to go race at the Indianapolis 500. To get the opportunity to go there in a stock car was just phenomenal. I really commend them for getting together with Tony George, it was the first time that any other type of event had happened there, certainly major event, besides the Indy 500. Now, you look at the popularity of the Brickyard 400, it certainly changed my life and career and will probably always go down as my biggest and my favorite win of all times. That event would have never happened if it weren't for Bill France, Jr."

HOW MUCH DID YOU ENJOY THE OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE AT ELDORA? WAS THAT AS FUN AS IT LOOKED FOR YOU? "It was a blast. I had so much fun, more fun than I thought I was going to have. I didn't know what the car was going be like, because I had never driven one of those cars. The track, I have always enjoyed racing there. To pick up the car as fast as we did, and to have a good car and then be competitive and getting to slide sideways for the first time in a long time, it was more fun than I ever thought that I was going to have. I look forward to doing it again."

YOU AND KYLE WERE RIGHT THERE, I KNOW YOU SAID THAT YOU MADE ONE MISTAKE OR SOMETHING: "I did make one mistake when I got the lead. I take a lot of pride out of that event because I didn't know how quick I was going to be able to pick it back up, getting on the dirt, it has been awhile. I wasn't sure what that car was going to be like and we were fastest in one of the practices, third qualifying and then took the lead from Kyle and in feature, I mean I was shocked, I was blown away. That was very cool, but I did make a mistake when I got the lead and drove into one just a little too easy, then he got back by me and I felt like I had really probably one of the best cars. But Kyle did a great job too. You go into it to have fun, and I had a blast, but then you get competitive and I knew that was going to happen to me if I got competitive then it was going to take some of the fun away from it, so I keep trying to remind myself just how much fun it really was."

DO YOU THINK THAT IS THE KIND OF EVENT THAT IS SO SPECIAL THAT IT IS GOING TO KEEP GROWING AND ATTRACTING MORE DRIVERS AND MORE ATTENTION? "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean that track is perfect for what type of an event that it is. That track is a fast track but it is a fairly easy track to adapt to if the conditions were the way they were. They had perfect conditions, I felt like. Nice, slick, smooth race track. The teams, I just applaud the teams, they put so much effort into preparing those cars. Some of them had brand new cars, you know, and had a whole separate car painted up for their driver, for that event. You have got to give a lot of credit to Tony and his guys and folks that organized that event. Not to mention that it is for charity. I am curious to see what kind of pay per view numbers there were, if it drew much of a crowd there on TV, but I know that we had a heck of a crowd there in person. I am pretty sure that I will do it again."

HAVE YOU BEEN GIVEN ANY ADVICE FROM OTHER DRIVERS ON YOUR PENDING FATHERHOOD? "I get advice and thoughts from parents all across the nation and everywhere I go. From how great it is going to be and how much it is going to change my life and how challenging it is, you know, all across the board. I think that this Father's Day is certainly going to be a very meaningful one, because of what is about to happen for me and I am getting excited, you know, it is right around the corner and I look forward to going home. I hate that Ingrid can't travel with me, but it is so much fun to go home and feel what is going on inside of her belly and just know how close we are getting and talking about what it is going to be like to be parents."

HOW DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS GOING TO AFFECT YOU AND YOUR LIFESTYLE? "I really don't know, I just know that I am looking forward to it. I am excited about it. I am committed to it. I know it is going to be one of the most rewarding and challenging events and experiences that I have ever had. But until she is here and until I see her for the first time and hold her in my arms and go through it, it is hard to say."

SOME DRIVERS HAVE TALKED ABOUT HAVING A FAMILY, CHANGING THEIR FOCUS AND THEIR DRIVING STYLE. DO YOU THINK THAT WILL AFFECT YOU AT ALL? "It could change it for the better or it could change it for the worse. I will be surprised if it doesn't change me. I think that it will. It is a life changing experience, so it is going to change everything in my life. It is either going to make me more motivated to go out there and be more competitive on the race track because I actually have more purpose and meaning and something to really truly strive for, to see my daughter and my whole family at the race track experiencing what I do. In other ways, it could make me say, you know what, this is a dangerous sport and I have been extremely successful, I have got nothing to prove, why continue to do it? I have no idea, you know, that is why I go into it with an open mind. I am a very competitive person. I love to be in a competitive environment and so in some way, I am going to want to do that. I hope that it is still in racing, because racing has been that one thing that I have strived at, I have been good at and successful with and I have got such a great team that I don't think I will ever want to give that up."

ANY AMUSING SUGGESTIONS ON FATHERHOOD THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US? "I mean there are plenty of good ones, you know I think that most of them have to do with changing diapers and all of those types of things, going through the birth and all that, but most of everybody that I have talked to have been very positive and very excited for me."

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

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS, MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA AT POCONO RACEWAY TO DISCUSS THE PASSING OF BILL FRANCE, KURT BUSCH'S PENALTY, RACING AT POCONO AND MIS AND OTHER SUBJECTS. AN AUDIO FILE OF THIS INTERVIEW CAN BE DOWNLOADED BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW.

ON FUNERAL FOR BILL FRANCE, JR: "Didn't have a chance to speak to the family or anything but to see them, I watched Betty Jane speak on stage; she seemed very strong and in a good place. I'm sure it's a very difficult time for them but yesterday's services went well. Probably as good as you can expect. Done in a very good way. Some great stories from Mr. Hendrick and other close friends of Bill (France). We paid our respects and then came up to Pocono."

YOUR REACTION TO THE PENALTY FOR KURT BUSCH: "I knew it was going to be big and I still haven't seen the footage to know how close he was to any one of the team members. That's a huge fine and I knew it was going to be something big. Playing in that department or area, I kind of expected a suspension but now there's kind of a baseline there and I'm sure it will only get worse from there.

"I'm not trying to go after Kurt and say that there needs to be a suspension but that's a major thing, especially if you're endangering people on pit road. I'm sure it's something he feels bad about. His frustration just got hold of him and put him in a position to do that. You can't mess around with guys on pit road. You can't hurt innocent people."

WHAT DID BILL FRANCE MEAN TO THE SPORT OF NASCAR? "Unfortunately I've only been in the sport for six years and the NASCAR I know is more with Brian France running it and Lesa (France Kennedy) and Bill from afar just keeping a watchful eye on things. But I've been fortunate enough to go on fishing trips and spend some time with him and can see that he really has had his hands still in the sport. To hear the great stories, be intimidated by him and his presence, I'm certainly going to miss him. As it's been well documented, he's taken the sport from. took it over in the 1970s from his father and he's really made it what it is today. I think Brian is poised and ready to continue that tradition on and continue to grow our sport."

TALK ABOUT RACING AT POCONO: "It stays pretty much the same. We feel that we're coming back with a much better package than what we have here. Last year we won the Brickyard and the Brickyard and Pocono are similar. "We put a lot of effort into it and we feel that we're going to be closer and hopefully be able to run up there with the No. 11. He had everybody covered by a huge margin last time we were here so we want to close that gap and get up there and fight with him for the win. I really think we've got some good things. The engine shop's been working hard and we have a new power plant design that we're trying to bring out this weekend, see how that works. New package for the chassis itself. Even though with all these new things coming along we're still optimistic and think that everything's pointing in the right direction, that we should be a threat."

YOUR THOUGHTS ON MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY: "It just always puts on great racing. It's a track we can always count on to see good side-by-side racing and lots of grooves and lots of action. I'm excited to go back. I know it's a favorite for a lot of the drivers."

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO ATTACK POCONO? "I think everybody has their own philosophy. I think that Turn Three is probably the most important corner. To get that corner right you have to sacrifice some things in the other turns. The corner leading onto the longer straightaway is the biggest priority and Turn Three is very flat, it's rough and tough to get through there. So if your car will perform through there, I think that gives you an advantage and you can have a good finish."

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF MARK MARTIN'S CONDENSED SCHEDULE? "I think he's really kind of setting the pace. I was talking with Jeff (Gordon) and us drivers sit around and say 'man, you don't want to get out of racing and you don't want to not be at the track but you don't want to do the 38 races year after year'. For someone like Mark Martin to set his pace. I know Bill Elliott has tried; Ricky Rudd tried. But they weren't in the best situation when they decided to step down. Now to see big teams providing that opportunity - and Mark couldn't have that opportunity at Roush, it took this relationship with Ginn to get it done - but to see team owners willing to go that route, it inspires Jeff, it inspires me and guys that don't want to quit racing. After 15 or 20 years you want to have a couple weekends off here and there. I think Mark's doing a great job of leading that brigade."

Nextel Wake-Up Call with Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Monte Carlo SS

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX GROUND MONTE CARLO SS, WAS THE GUEST OF TODAY'S NEXTEL WAKE UP CALL AT POCONO RACEWAY. HAMLIN DISCUSSED COMPETING AT THE PRELUDE TO THE DREAM EVENT AT ELDORA SPEEDWAY THIS WEEK, HIS SUCCESS AT POCONO, HIS TEAM'S IMPROVEMENT FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR AND OTHER TOPICS. AN AUDIO FILE OF THIS INTERVIEW CAN BE DOWNLOADED BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW.

ON THE PREDLUDE TO THE DREAM: "The most important thing is that they raised a lot of money for Victory Junction and a lot of other good charities. It was a lot of fun. I didn't have the best of race cars but we made the best of it and at least made the main this year because I didn't crash, so that was good."

ON HAVING SUCCESS AND SWEEPING BOTH RACES IN POCONO IN 2006. WHAT IS YOUR EXPECTATION THIS WEEKEND FOR POCONO AND WHAT IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS HERE? "I don't know, I mean, I guess you could say that we expect to win and we are starting to feel that way at every race track that we go to now. We are running in the top five, top three, really, week in and week out. The Car of Tomorrow, same as the regular car. We are real confident in what we have. We have got the same car back, but it has been changed a million different times and it is nothing like the old car that it used to be but it is just the same chassis number. We have the new Chevrolet engine here which is going to be very good down these long straight a ways. Looking forward to it."

IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT WHEN YOU ARE RACING HARD WITH SOMEONE, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO KEEP THAT EMOTION IN CHECK? "It is tough, I have somebody that sees when I am about to do something and they basically say that it is just not worth it, and it's not. Usually, if I didn't have someone in my ear saying something, I would probably do more things than I really do, but you know, it's hard, it is really hard to hold back and not show somebody what you think, because pretty much, hand signals don't even work anymore. Guys were taking it to a whole new level."

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT KURT BUSCH DIDN'T GET A RACE SUSPENSION FOR WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND? "I don't know. That would be a big step. I think that you could argue with us, too heavy, too light, either way but to be surprised that he didn't get a suspension, I think that would be really over the top."

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT LAST YEAR AND WHAT YOU ACCOMPLISHED HERE, DOES IT BOGGLE YOUR MIND THAT THERE ARE DRIVERS HERE WITH 20 TO 30 CAREER STARTS ON THIS TRACK THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE THE PLACE OUT? DID YOU EVER SIT BACK IN THE OFF SEASON AND SAY WOW, THAT WAS REALLY IMPRESSIVE? "Yeah, I mean even after the first race, it was amazing to me how well we ran here and it seemed like it took two laps of practice to realize that we were good enough to win. I still have not learned everything that I needed to know about these cars or this race track still. There are still some things and lines that I could use that would be better for me, but I think that until I don't have a car that is not as dominant as that car was last year, I am just going to keep doing the same thing, obviously it is working."

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE RACE TEAM FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR: "Well, we knew that Charlotte and Dover, worst two race tracks without a doubt, if we could just keep our emotions okay for those next two weeks, then we were going to be over the hump. Without the fuel situation, those guys staying out, literally, I crossed the line at Charlotte and was like, this is great, third place at my worst race track and we finished third. We still finished top 10, which is very good and we were one of the cars that had to pit, and then to run fourth at Dover after qualifying so far back, that is the sign of our team right there.

"We are head over shoulders better than what we were last year and what is so good for us and makes us so confident is that we were 60 some points out of the championship last year and we were nowhere near as competitive as what we are this year. We are just trying to get to the Chase and we are trying to get some wins and we feel that if we can start that Chase on a fairly even playing field and not be 60 to 70 points behind then we could probably win it."

HOW MANY WINS SHOULD YOU HAVE IN YOUR ESTIMATION? "We very easily could have had three wins right now, which that is still going to put us one behind Jimmie but he has been more competitive than what we have on the overall race tracks, earlier in the season. It looks like we are just hitting our stride now, these last, probably seven, eight, nine races we have been very, very good. It is a situation where we are looking at the points now and we feel fairly comfortable with where we are at in relation to 12th.

"We are starting to take the mentality now that we have got to start taking chances of getting wins because if we are not winning, we are not doing anything. We might as well be 12th in points, if we are leading and we don't have a win, it doesn't matter. Right now we are going to start to look at damage control. At the end of the race, if we just make a crazy call and it burns us, how far is it going to burn us? Is it going to burn us to where we loose 100 points or hey, we can loose 50, it is not too big of a deal."

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT MARK MARTIN CAN SIT OUT RACES AND STILL BE IN CHASE CONTINGENT? "No, and I mean the closer we get to Chase time, they are definitely going to have to start thinking about how competitive they are on a part-time basis. He is going to think, is 10 straight races that bad to try to do, and I think that he is extremely happy with his schedule right now, but I tell you, for a guy that has not won a Championship, that is awful tempting. I think that he is probably more competitive than he's been in years."

Behind the Hauler Chat with Jeff Burton, No. 31 AT&T Mobility Monte Carlo SS

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 AT&T MOBILITY MONTE CARLO SS, MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA AT POCONO RACEWAY AND DISCUSSED HIS MEMORIES OF BILL FRANCE, JR., HIS REACTION TO THE PENALTY IMPOSED ON KURT BUSCH, THE AFFECT OF CREW CHIEF CHANGES MID-SEASON, HIS THOUGHTS ON THE POSSIBILITY OF RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING ADDING A FOURTH TEAM AND OTHER TOPICS. AN AUDIO FILE OF THIS INTERVIEW CAN BE DOWNLOADED BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW.

ON THE PASSING OF BILL FRANCE JR. AND HIS MEMORIES OF HIM: "Over the last three or four years I got to know Bill much better. I really didn't know Bill that much before then and he invited my wife and myself to go to some things with him and got to know him much better and was privileged to do that. He was a really neat guy. He always knew who was in charge when he was around. You always knew where you stood when he was around. You hear a lot about how tough he was and he was. He was a really tough guy and I think he was the right guy for the sport at the right the time. He was willing to make tough decisions and stand by those decisions and at that same time what you don't hear a lot about is how compassionate he was. He offered things to me and my wife that I never could imagine someone would offer us. He just was a really giving and caring person, at the same time the other side of him was really tough and sometimes abrasive but that's who he was and it was really cool to get to know him."

ON HIS REACTION TO THE PENALTY IMPOSED ON KURT BUSCH: "I think the penalty should have been really severe. I think that there's no question the severity of it is real important for a deterrent standpoint and also from a punishment standpoint. I think there's a lot of people in the garage that believe he got off easy - 100 points is huge though. You think about it, there's 13 races to go in the Chase and he's got 100 points to make up in addition to what he has to make up already. They parked him, not only did they penalize that 100 (points), whatever he lost but not being able to back out the other day, he lost those points too. Maybe that was only three points, I don't know how many it would have been but it was something and it's a pretty severe penalty. You could say he deserved more though."

WERE YOU SURPRISED THERE WASN'T A SUSPENSION? "I thought there was a possibility of a suspension. I'm not going to say I was surprised there wasn't a suspension but it wouldn't have surprised me if it would have been a suspension."

ON THE RASH OF CREW CHIEF CHANGES MID-SEASON THIS YEAR AND WHAT THAT DOES TO A TEAM: "Well you know the old saying that change is good, that's not necessarily true. Good change is good and the reality of it is if the crew chiefs that come in have success then everybody will rally around them. If they don't have success then everybody always questions 'well that wasn't the right thing to do' and questions the people that made that decision to do it. It really depends on the results of how it's handled within the team. I found that most teams in the garage are really resilient to changes. I don't think most teams in the garage like change but they're very resilient to it and typically are willing to give everybody a chance. But a lot of it has to do with the amount of success that people have when change is made."

ON BEING IN ABOUT THE SAME SPOT AS HE WAS LAST YEAR IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE PRE-CHASE SEASON AND IF HE APPROACHES EACH YEAR ANY DIFFERENT: "I think the experience is the same. I think the situations are different. Situationally this sport moves so quickly that last week is different than this week. You can't approach everything the same but I think the experience is the same. I think having gone through it last year benefits our whole team, not just me, it benefits all of us - understanding the pressure, understanding a little more about what's coming. At the same time you have to do what's right for the situation that you're in and that again can change every week and you don't know what you have to deal with a lot of times until you're dealing with and that's what's hard about our sport."

YOUR THOUGHTS ON MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY: "I'm good with it as long as we've got good gas mileage. I certainly like the races that end without fuel mileage being a factor as most teams in the garage and I think the fans do too. A good old-fashioned race is always better than not. At the same time it's part of racing. Being able to make the power you need to make and make good fuel mileage is something you have to do in our sport. If people can get more miles than we can then we've got to go to work. When we get more than they do then we've done a nice job."

HOW LIKELY DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT RCR WILL GO TO FOUR TEAMS? "I think it's likely. That could be a 50 percent chance, a 51 percent chance or a 90 percent chance but I think it's likely."

ANY WORD ON WHO MAY DRIVE AND THE SPONSOR? "We've been in a lot of discussion lately about it. Obviously we can't divulge what's on our minds but we have some exciting things that could happen and we have some exciting things that might not happen. There's a lot in the air right now that we don't 100 percent know what's going to happen there. But we believe, for the most part. there's negatives to having a fourth team. Having a fourth team doesn't guarantee success. A matter of fact is it guarantees more challenges. Having a fourth team guarantees you you have more to deal with and more problems that you're going to have to deal with than without a fourth team. The question is 'do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages'. We believe that with the structure we have in place, with the people we have in place, with some modifications to those that we can absorb a fourth team and do a good job of it helping the other three teams and the other three teams helping it. The only reason that we want to do a fourth team is that we can add to the resource pool and hopefully we can gain an advantage and in some cases catch up with some people. That's the only reason we'd want to do it. We do understand that it's going to be a difficult thing. It's not all positives. There's things that. we've got to make it positive. We've got to do the things that are necessary to make it work. I've been part of a one-car team, a two-car team that was really a three-car team but we really acted like it was a two-car team. I've been part of a five-car team, I've been part of a well-working three-car team. I've seen a lot of it and I can promise you that having more teams doesn't assure you more success. Having more resources that are well-thought-out and a good game plan around those resources with a means of checks and balances helps you have success, but you have to be able to do all those things. If you can't do all those things then having more teams is actually a bad thing."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS MONTE CARLO SS

WITH THE SUCCESS THAT DENNY HAMLIN HAS HAD AT POCONO, DO YOU THINK IT'S YOUR TURN NEXT? "I hope so. We've been trying. It's not from lack of effort. We just keep coming up a little bit short. We're a Top 10 car. We've just got to get a little bit better. We were a top five car last week and that was a breath of fresh air, but we didn't finish there. We've just got to get to finishing there."

AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON, IS PART OF IT PROTECTING YOUR SPOT AND THEN TRYING TO GET YOUR FIRST WIN? "Yeah, obviously you want to be consistent. Consistency always pays off in championships. But trust me, I want to win."

HOW IS THIS TRACK DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS? "In every way, shape, and form. It's a triangle. Most of them are oval. Every corner in this track is different. There are three corners. Turn 1 is pretty fast. You get into it. Turn 2 is perfectly flat; it feels like. You slip and slide around. There's a curve you can get on. Turn 3 is flat again. You slide in until it lands and get to the gas as quick as you can. It's a very unique race track, but it's fun also."

UNIQUE? DO YOU LIKE THAT OR NOT? "Well, one time would be enough (laughs)."

DO YOU LIKE THE MICHIGAN TRACK? "I like any track you can race on. If you can pull out and change your mind and go to a different groove and pass and race, it's a good race track. You can certainly do that there. We've been four and five-wide."

ON THE PENALTY NASCAR GAVE KURT BUSCH: "It's pretty stout. They mean business. I want to know what the penalty is if you crash them on the race track. Obviously he put a lot of crew members in danger and that's not good. People are on foot with no roll cages around them or seatbelts or helmets or things like that. That wasn't a good situation."

Behind the Hauler Chat with Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Monte Carlo SS

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL MONTE CARLO SS TALKED WITH MEDIA ABOUT HIS APPROACH TO THE CHASE, THE CHALLENGE OF POCONO, AND MORE.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PENALTY NASCAR HANDED OUT TO KURT BUSCH? "I don't really know what's right or what's wrong. I haven't really even seen the pictures of his car hitting the other car on pit road. But we've got to take care of our guys on pit road and keep the safety of the sport. I just kind of feel sorry for Roger (Penske). He's one of those guys who is probably one of the world's most respected businessmen and he's got to deal with something like that."

DO YOU THINK IT WAS FAIR? "Oh, I don't know. It was a pretty stiff fine. It could have been worse though. He could have had to sit home a week and not race. I've done that before. Been there, done that. And that's no fun."

HEADING INTO THE CHASE, HOW DO YOU APPROACH THESE NEXT 13 RACES? "Well, we've just got to keep stuff from falling off our car. That's the biggest thing. The performance of our cars has been really good. And we just can't make mistakes. And we've made a lot of mistakes. We've had a lot of things go wrong that shouldn't go wrong and I think everybody knows what we need to do. We have a very mature team. We all know when we do wrong and what we do wrong and what we need to do better. We've just got to do it and everything will be fine."

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE TO THE POCONO TRACK? "This place isn't nearly has hard as it used to be. We don't shift anymore. A lot of the challenges that used to be here aren't here anymore. Its kind of one of those normal driving places now - other than the corners are a little bit different at each end. It still has the unique characteristics of the race track, but it's kind of lost some of its stuff that set is apart from the other race tracks when we didn't get to shift anymore."

IS IT MAYBE NOT AS FUN? "It's not really as fun, but it's still challenging to get your car to work. You've got to get off of Turn 3 to make time down the front straightaway, and Turn 1 is really bumpy. So it has different challenges, but it's just not quite as challenging as it used to be."

DALE EARNHARDT JR. WANTS TO GET A NEW CONTRACT FINALIZED SOON. DO YOU KNOW HOW ANY OF THAT STANDS WITH RCR? "No, I don't get in the middle of it. It's none of my business."

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE JUNIOR AS A TEAMMATE? "Ah, it's none of my business."

WHY DOES EVERYBODY LOVE THE MICHIGAN TRACK SO MUCH? "I think everybody loves Michigan because you can race from the bottom of the race track to the top of the race track and tires wear out and everything changes as you go through a fuel run. So it's a lot of fun for the drivers to go there and race and move your car around and adjust as things change."

DID YOU HAVE A LOT OF DEALINGS WITH BILL FRANCE JR, OR WAS IT MORE THE OLD GENERATION? "I didn't have a lot of dealings with him. I've dealt a lot with what I guess you could call the new generation of NASCAR. But I think you have to respect everything that the France family has done in general to give us a place to do what we love to do. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't all be here enjoying the things that we get to do. He's made a lot of things happen in our sport that probably couldn't have happened if he wasn't in charge. You just think about the families and everybody involved and that's the most important thing right now.

"If something is going to happen to you, this is the place you want to be. You want to be in the garage around your peers and friends because these people will take care of you. If you need something, this is where you want to be because this is the biggest family you'll ever be involved with."

Behind the Hauler Chat with Mark Martin, No. 01 U.S. Army Monte Carlo SS

MARK MARTIN, NO. O1 U.S. ARMY MONTE CARLO SS MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA AT POCONO RACEWAY TO DISCUSS HIS PART-TIME SCHEDULE, RACING AT POCONO AND OTHER SUBJECTS.

ON THE POCONO RACE TRACK: "I've always loved this race track. It's one of the best places we go to race at. And you just set the car up to go as fast as you can through all the turns."

DO YOU LIKE SHIFTING BETTER THAN THE WAY IT IS NOW? "It's okay the way it is now. Shifting kept you a little busier, but it's all about racing. So if nobody is shifting, then it's the same for everyone."

DO YOU LIKE THE MICHIGAN TRACK? "Yeah, that's why it's on my schedule. I love Michigan."

HOW MUCH FUN ARE YOU HAVING THIS YEAR WITH YOUR NEW SCHEDULE? "It's a dream come true. You know, the stars just had to lineup just perfectly for this to work out for me and the Army and Ginn Racing. I don't know what would have happened sooner in my career or a little later - it would have been too late. So I've got the best gig in NASCAR."

ON THE NASCAR PENALTY HANDED DOWN TO KURT BUSCH: "That's not for me to say. That's them, not me. I'm a driver."

WERE YOU SURPRISED? "Not really. That's what they (NASCAR) do. I try to abide by the rules. I don't make them."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON BILL FRANCE JR? "I have a lot of memories of him. When I came on board, he was already in place. So I really didn't know his dad that well. But certainly the state of NASCAR today has everything to do with what his drive and vision and the kind of person he was. I disagreed with a number of decisions he made. But at the end of the day, way more often he was right and I was wrong. So if I was in charge, we wouldn't have what we have here today."

AS WE GET CLOSER TO THE CHASE, AND IF YOU'RE CLOSE TO MAKING IT, WILL YOU CHANGE YOUR SCHEDULE TO TRY TO MAKE IT? "Nah, I'm good. I'm set."

YOU LIKE THE WAY IT'S GOING? "Yeah. I'm thrilled."

HAVE YOU HAD ANY FEEDBACK FROM OTHER DRIVERS YOUR AGE THAT THIS MIGHT BE THE WAY TO GO DOWN THE LINE? "This is a unique opportunity. It's not the easiest situation to put together, but we have it going on here. So we're sort of the model for that right now."

IS IT DIFFICULT TO RACE ONE WEEKEND AND THEN MISS A WEEKEND? DO YOU LOSE RHYTHM? "Certainly not. I've been racing for 35 years. I don't need any more time (laughs). I'm just lucky to be driving great cars. And that's what's really important."

IS THERE ANY TEMPTATION TO CHANGE YOUR SCHEDULE? "No."

YOU ADDED THE SECOND POCONO. WAS BEING SIX TIMES A BRIDESMAID A FACTOR? "No. I always wanted to run the second Pocono race. When we laid out the schedule and started marking numbers off the list, I had a number that I was shooting for and I had to cut some races to get to that number. And then when we got into this thing and I had the flexibility to do what I wanted to do that I knocked off the list."

WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE PERFORMANCE OF THE NO. O1 ENTRY AND HOW WELL IT'S DOING THIS YEAR? "I'm pleased (laughter). It's an outstanding accomplishment by a team that I have come to know as equal or on par with the best in the garage."

HOW DID THEY GET THERE SO QUICKLY? "They were there at times. This team has not turned over a lot. They were there at times with Joe (Nemechek) and with (Jerry) Nadeau. They had the rug pulled out from them a number of times with Ernie (Irwin) getting hurt and Jerry Nadeau getting hurt. They were really fast with Mike Skinner at times. The only thing they were ever really missing was consistency."

AND HOW DID THEY GET THAT? "I don't know. It just happened."

CAN YOU CHANGE YOUR SCHEDULE IF YOU WANT TO? "Yeah, I can if I want to. If I decided I did, I'd still have flexibility."

DO YOU WANT TO RACE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "No, I don't even want to. So if I was leading, like I was when I missed my first race, I still wouldn't. I don't want to."

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT YOUR PART-TIME SCHEDULE? "Being off."

BUT YOU ALSO ENJOY BEING AT THE RACE TRACK? "Yeah, but this is overkill. The schedule they have today is overkill - especially after you've done it for 20 years. I'm very interested in moving on with my life without having to give up on part of the best part of my life and still be a part of that and move on with my own life."

IF YOU ARE IN THE TOP 12, WHAT HAPPENS WITH THAT? "I won't be."

DO YOU LIKE DIRT TRACK RACING? "Oh, yeah, it's fun. A lot of us got our start there. It's grassroots racing - like going Truck racing."

BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT WITH CASEY MEARS, NO. 25 NATIONAL GUARD/GMAC MONTE CARLO SS

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO HAVE A GUY LIKE JEFF GORDON FOR A TEAMMATE? "We work really close together - all of us on the team do. But I think that Jeff, having the experience that he's had over the last few years and being as close a friend as he is has been great to be able to pick his brain and get a little bit more detailed information. We've been friends and I've been able to get advice over the past couple of years, but now, being on the same team I get more detailed advice and that's really good. It's really something."

ARE YOU SURPRISED ABOUT THAT? "Surprised? No, we're really good friends so I'm not surprised. We get along really well. And ever since I moved back here (east coast) we've gotten really close and hung out away from the track a lot. So I'm not really surprised because we're already good friends."

WHERE DOES HE HELP YOU THE MOST? "I can't really say. Anytime that I need advice I can go to him. Nothing stands out in my mind. When we go into our meeting today, I'm going to probably ask a couple of questions and it's probably going to help me out. It's just a little bit all the way around (like) what they're doing for set-ups and race trim versus qualifying and there are probably just 10 million little things that he's got a lot of information on from being here for so many years. Obviously by having so much success, he's a good guy to have to pick his brain, for sure."

DO YOU LIKE THE MICHIGAN TRACK? "Michigan is really awesome. I've always really enjoyed it from the time I raced Indy Lites there. I always had a lot of good finishes there and good results. I tend, for some reason, to always do well there at Michigan. We've had some top fives there and I'm looking for one up from that. We've led races there in the past and I'm looking forward to going back with a car similar to the one we had in Charlotte. We had a very fast race car. Hendrick Motorsports has done a great job with the RO7 motor and I think we have a good shot at it when we go back."

CAN YOU WIN THE POLE? "I think we definitely have a shot at it. We're within range. I overdrove the Tunnel Turn in practice. But right off the truck, the car has been really good. We're definitely in the ball park."

YOU WON YOUR FIRST CAREER POLE HERE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT POCONO? "I don't know what it is about this place, but for some reason as soon as I unloaded the first time I was ever here with an ARCA car, we were really fast. And then with a Cup car, we were fast right out of the gate. We were quick. For some reason, I've adapted to this track really well and I have no idea why."

ON THE PENNSYLVANIA NATIONAL GUARD WELCOME THURSDAY NIGHT: "I think the town was really cool. And it was neat to see that many people being excited about me showing up. It felt like there was somebody standing behind me that they were looking for (laughs). But it was neat that they were so excited to have a NASCAR day in their town. The Pennsylvania National Guard was really cool and receptive to us. They gave us some instruction on how to run an armored personal carrier vehicle. The best thing I liked about it was seeing all the buildings. I really like seeing old things. I'm not a history buff, but I love seeing old building and pieces of equipment and things like that, so that was really cool."