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

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS , met with members of the media and talked about his relationship with his crew chief, his recent success, the new race car and other subjects.

WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE ACCOMPLISHED IN NASCAR, CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW YOUR ROLE AS A LEADER AMONGST THE DRIVERS IN THE SPORT HAS EVOLVED? "I'm not a leader there. I've been in the sport for a while. We've been very successful winning races and championships and I think I have more respect in the garage area than I have in the past but I don't think anybody looks to me as a leader. I certainly don't look at myself that way. I'm just a guy that has experience dealing with all the things that come along with this series whether it's dealing with NASCAR, dealing with the media, sponsors, fans, trying to win races, going along not winning races. I'm just doing my thing the best way I know how."

DOES PART OF YOU WISH YOU WERE EMBRACED THE SAME WAY AS DALE EARNHARDT, IN THAT REGARD? "Not necessarily. That was something he actively took on. It's different today. There's too many other things going on. I look back at how much time he spent up in that truck with NASCAR. Number one is the same people aren't up there as were back then. And you don't have the time like you did back then to be able to do some of those things. I just remember a lot more dead space in the schedule throughout the weekend to go sit up there and when he was sitting up there that would encourage me to go sit up there. I didn't want him to be the only guy up there. Nowadays you don't see guys up there because one, you feel like you're a one man show fighting an 100-foot wall and the other is the schedule just doesn't allow it. So I don't really want that role, to me that was a lot of weight and pressure on his shoulders but it was something that he was wanting to do, not something that everybody else voted him into that position.

"I'm happy with the role I'm in right now. Life is good. I'm very comfortable with the role I'm playing right now in the sport. If I feel strongly about something, I'm going to speak up just like I did last week in the drivers meeting. But that wasn't like my first step to go and be the leader of the garage area."

MAYBE SOME OF THE OTHER DRIVERS ARE GLAD YOU VOICED YOUR OPINION. "From the few people that have come up to me there are a lot of guys thinking that and I think that some guys feel like if 'I said that, it wouldn't have any weight. Thank you for saying it because it did carry some weight'. So that made me feel good that they felt that way."

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC MEMORY OF THE FIRST CONVERSATION YOU HAD WITH DALE EARNHARDT AND HOW YOU FELT AT THE TIME? DID YOU EVER THINK THAT YOU WOULD HAVE MORE WINS THAN HIM SOMEDAY? "I wish I could recall that. I can't. I just don't remember the first time I met Dale, when and where it was. I'm pretty sure that I met him while I was doing a Busch race in either 1991 or 1992. I certainly never thought anything about catching him in race wins. I remember he and I talked about when I was closing in on Rusty (Wallace) and how much he said that it would bug Rusty. He and Rusty were friends. Dale and I had conversations; I didn't understand why Rusty and I didn't seem to get along very well on the race track and he was the guy playing the middle of that. He would go to Rusty and say things to Rusty and then he'd come to me. It was kind of funny. We laughed about it. So no, I never dreamed I'd ever be. of course, I never dreamed that he wouldn't still be here racing and winning races either."

WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THE FACT THAT DALE EARNHARDT, JR. MAY DRIVE A FORD NEXT YEAR? "Somebody give me the story. I know about Yates and DEI but you're assuming that he's going to be at DEI by saying that. I didn't say whether I thought he would be or not. I'm saying you're assuming that it would put him in a Ford. I'd be surprised if he was driving a Ford. I would be. But I think what Dale wants is to be a part of a team that could win a championship. With all the turmoil going on at DEI right now and his contract, it's going to take them a while to get out of that let alone try to combine with another organization. That to me will only take them backwards before taking them forward. I find that hard to believe that he feels like that's the move that can get him where he needs to be championship-wise. In the long run maybe it is."

DOES RACING THE NEW CAR HERE MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT THIS RACE? "Yes. I think among other things I think our team has improved at so many other tracks this year or everywhere we go this year. I think we've just done our homework and we've got things working better because the cars are better. Because our setups are better. I think that this track has been good for me. I like this track. We've run very well here in the past. We've had such major brake issues the last four. I was telling somebody this earlier in the week that we've improved aerodynamics, horsepower, grip, everything so much over the last couple of years that we're going so much faster and maintaining that speed in the race to where it has really, for some reason more so with me than even some other guys, caused us to have some major brake issues. Not that we're running out of brakes or don't have enough brakes. Actually it's an issue where we're building up pad on the rotor that creates a vibration. Once that happens the chassis and the handling of the car is gone for the rest of the night. So the last three or four times we've been here, all I've had is a vibrating brake pedal through the whole night and we never could work on the car. So when we came here to test, even with this car we had the same problem. It was our goal to fix it and find it and I think we finally have. So I think that in itself is going to help us be more competitive throughout the race, at least I hope so. But then I think also the work that we've been doing with this car and with all of our cars has made us more competitive everywhere we go. I hope it shows up here too because I do like this track."

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS BEEN DOMINATING LIKE FERRARI HAS IN F1. DO YOU THINK THE FANS WILL EVENTUALLY TUNE OUT IF YOU GUYS KEEP WINNING? "Nope. No. My job is not to get ratings. My job is to go out and win races and be competitive on the race track and I'm pretty sure Michael Schumacher felt the same way. Who knows why the ratings are up and why they are down. It's really hard to figure out. That's like trying to figure out the stock market. That's just near impossible and I think that when anybody dominates in a sport it brings on a certain amount of attention and then it might turn some people away. We're too early in the season to even be worried or thinking about that. I guarantee it's not going to be like a Ferrari domination. That's a whole different deal over in Formula One we're talking about here. It's impossible to have that kind of domination. While I think that Hendrick Motorsports is really doing well and our team is performing fantastic, I also know that we haven't led the most laps this year. Tony (Stewart) has. I also know that those Gibbs cars are due to get their act together and pull off the strong runs they've had by getting the strong finishes and that Roush is going to get stronger. Our season is so long that if you find something over the off-season that makes you competitive early in the season, then you have less room to work into improve, where the other teams can easily figure out where they're missing it, what they need and they catch up. That will only make our job that much tougher as they year goes on. My biggest fear is just that - that we're too good too early to where it's going to be tougher to maintain that all the way through the season."

ON YOUR SUCCESS THIS YEAR AFTER STRUGGLING FOR A FEW YEARS: "I think that if you looked at the No. 48 team and the success Jimmie (Johnson) has had since he's come to Hendrick Motorsports, I've heard the buzz and 'Jimmie, he's the new guy at Hendrick' and it's nice to know that we've still got it, that I still have it. It also shows you that it's a lot more than just a setup, it's a lot more than just one person on the team. It takes the whole combination and that's what we've got going on right now. We've got a group of guys that work extremely hard to improve our race cars. At the same time, to improve communication and chemistry and sometimes you can't make that happen. Sometimes you can't create it; it's got to happen on its own. That's the thing that I'm excited about, that we've been able to pull that off. Steve Letarte and I and how we get along and how he treats the people on the team has played a big part in that. It's exciting to be back as one of the strong guys. One of the guys to look at at Hendrick and on the track in general. I have no regrets of anything that's happened in my life, good or bad because I feel like it's only made me a better person, a better race car driver. People need to see the real person and go through real things like having bad days, having bad years and then be able to come back and follow that up with some good days and good years. I think that's helped earn us some respect within the garage and outside the garage."

DO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE TO YOUR WIFE FOR MOTHER'S DAY? DO YOU HAVE SPECIAL MEMORIES ABOUT YOUR MOTHER GROWING UP? "I'm going to definitely tell Ingrid that on Mother's Day and my mom on Mother's Day when I'm visiting with them back in Charlotte on that Sunday. There's no doubt that it's going to change me. How can it not. It changes every parent. The only thing I'm prepared for is for things to be different and to go at it the best way that I know how to. I'm excited that Mother's Day is coming up with everything going on and even thought the baby is not here yet, I feel like the things that Ingrid is going through right now, carrying the baby, is she truly is a mother. I plan on treating her like one and look forward to a family get together on that Mother's Day."

DO YOU THINK THE NEW CAR WILL CHANGE THE SIDE-BY-SIDE NATURE OF THIS RACE? "No. To me those are the things that we still have to learn. I wasn't sure how things would go at Phoenix and I was happily surprised that they went well at Phoenix. Not just because we won but I felt like you were able to maneuver about the same way, if not better. The thing is, aerodynamically, if we were going the same speed as the old car, aerodynamically there's no way it would be as good because these cars punch a bigger hole and don't have the downforce. The thing is though, because of that these cars aren't going as fast through the corners. So I think just slowing us down through the corners has maybe made up for some of the lack of downforce that we're depending on. I think that there's still a bit of work to do for the mile-and-a-halfs and some of the faster tracks so we might learn a little bit more at Darlington. We might learn a little bit about that here too. But I haven't run really here in traffic and we just have to kind of wait and see what happens in the race to really find out when we start running side-by-side. This place has really been a challenge to pass on in recent years with the current car so I think that it can only be as good as that with this car. So far I've been surprised and I think the teams have done a good job with making things better but to me the real test is going to be the bigger tracks. I wish more than anything that we had thought a little bit more about it at the beginning of the year. I think NASCAR has been surprised that things have gone maybe as smooth as they have so far but I really wish the All-Star race was in the new car. That we were on a mile-and-a-half this year in a non-points event and that would have been a perfect opportunity for us to really know what we've got."

YOU'VE HAD SUCCESS WITH EVERY CREW CHIEF. WHAT DOES STEVE LETARTE BRING TO THE TABLE? "Any great crew chief to me is a combination of things and he's had to work from the ground up which I think is important. He learned about being a part of a team as one of those guys that started sweeping the floors, basically. Maybe not sweeping floors but he was almost to that level as he came in as a young kid to the No. 24 shop. And then he started traveling on the road to the track doing tires and he's just continued to work his way up in the organization and know what it's like being a guy on the team for all those years. He's smart, he's got a lot of good common sense and I think that's important. He's very good with people. He knows how to communicate. He's a nice guy and he gets along with the guys. I think the thing where I was concerned. I've felt like he and I have always had chemistry. He and I have always been friends for a long time and always worked well together.

"The thing I wasn't sure about is when he got into that leadership role of how he was going to be able to demand respect with the guys that worked for him and how they were going to look to him as their boss. That's the part that he's impressed me the most with. Because he's taken a strong hold of it and he's put guys that weren't doing their job; he's put them on and said 'listen - just because we've been working as friends does not mean that I'm going to let you slide and get away with stuff. I've got to treat you just like I treat anybody else'. And he does the same to me. He treats me the same way where if he sees something in me that I'm not doing, he's not afraid to step up and say something. That's been the part that I think has really elevated him up and has really taken the whole team up because you've got to have respect as a crew chief. You've got to have people feel like you're making the right calls and that's what builds confidence. Guys have to believe in you and you've got to believe in them. That's taken him a little while to get that but that's what I see he has right now. Certainly with the calls he's made the last couple of races that have worked out, you don't question it. You sit there and go 'whatever you say'.

"That was definitely one of the things that I felt like Ray and I had in any crew chief when things were going right. That's what we had - you didn't second-guess or question those calls. I like the fact that he listens to me. When I tell him the car is loose here, he doesn't second-guess or question it one bit. He goes to work on it. I actually sometimes have to get it to where I might say 'don't listen to me on that area. That's not where the speed is at. The speed's over here, let's focus on that area'. So he believes in me and I like that. He knows that if he gives me the tools that we're going to get it done. I've been fortunate enough to show him that the last couple weeks. That's built his confidence up and by him doing the things to the cars and leading the team, making those calls like he made at Phoenix - go ahead and pit for those four tires - that's built his confidence up that I have for him."

THERE HAVE BEEN HARD HITS OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS. IS IT AS SAFE IS IT CAN BE? "It's never as safe as it can be. There's always more that we can do. I think that the thing I do like about the new car is that it's definitely a safer race car. Structurally I feel like it is. There's a lot of challenges that come along with that to be competitive out there and to build these cars that the team has to go through but from a safety standpoint I think it's a good thing. I'm not totally sold on the impact foam in the doors. I feel like that should be more of a honeycomb-type material, maybe made out of carbon-fiber or something. Maybe it's not carbon-fiber it needs to be made out of but I feel like there is better impact-resistant material out there to absorb these impacts and wrecks. I've always believed that a lighter race car was going to withstand impacts better than a heavier car. This car is heavier and has a higher center of gravity than our older car so those are things that I look at as what we could do but right now, things are safe. No doubt about it. I feel like our seats are better, the foam padding that we're using, the HANS device, the seat belts that I have. All those things are definitely better than what we've had in the past. I feel comfortable and safe out there but there's always more we could do."

WHAT HAS STEVE LETARTE DONE TO GET YOU COMFORTABLE IN THE CARS? CALE YARBOROUGH AND BOBBY ALLISON ARE WELCOMING YOU TO THEIR WIN NUMBERS SO WILL IT BE EASIER FOR YOU TO REACH THEM? "We won a championship in 2001. The No. 48 team comes on board in 2001 or 2002. Those guys take off with the stuff that we've been providing - 'here's the way we've been doing it,' boom. They start doing a good job and being competitive and two years later they're outperforming us. We're going to race tracks where he's running good and I'm struggling. That's a feel thing. If you're not comfortable the speed's not there. So when Steve came on board I basically told him 'listen, all I can tell you is what the car feels like' and we were basically building our cars at that point the way the No. 48 team was. They had had more success, they were running better than us so hey, let's go to their philosophy. That just didn't work for us. Jimmie drives so much different than I do. The way he uses the brakes, the way he applies the throttle through the middle of the corner just is a lot different. So we just found out we had to do different things with our aerodynamic package with the body, there's different things you can do with the nose of the car. This is the current car, the Monte Carlo. You can shift those bodies around so much and the way that Jimmie was driving that worked really well worked well for him but wasn't working for me. So that was something that we did. From that point on, the neat thing is that we found some things and it showed Steve, 'we've got to have what works for Jeff, not just what works for our whole organization'. There's certain components that are universal that work for every driver but not all of them. I'm very proud of him for stepping up and doing that test and then understanding and seeing the results coming from it. From that point on, we do our mile-and-a-half stuff a little bit different than they do even today.

"As far as getting to 83 and 84 wins, I just got to 77. I'm focused on getting a 78. It's not a number or statistic, it's not being sixth or fifth or third on the all-time win list, it's about winning races and being competitive. That's the only way I know how to put it. I admire and respect those guys so much because I know what it's taken to get to 77 and to know those guys are where they're at is an incredible accomplishment and if I ever get there it's something I'll be very proud of because I think those guys are as good as it gets. I'll be blown away if it does ever happen."

Behind the Hauler Chat with Jeff Burton, No. 31 LENOX Industrial Tools Impala SS

Jeff Burton, No. 31 LENOX Industrial Tools Impala SS, met with members of the media and talked about why drivers like racing at Richmond, what the key will be driving the Impala SS here, his thoughts on safety with NASCAR's new-generation race car and more.

ON WHY DRIVERS LIKE THIS TRACK: "It's the options that are here. You don't have to run right on the bottom. You can run the top groove. You can run the bottom. The grip level is good. It's wide enough to put on good racing but small enough to put on good racing too. It's just a good mix of a superspeedway and a short track."

WHAT WILL BE THE KEY HERE WITH THE IMPALA SS? "It's all about corner speed. When those cars drive bad they drive real bad. Having corner speed is going to be imperative. But it's like that every week, whatever car you are driving but with this car when it's bad it's really bad. You've got to make sure that you stay on the good side of that."

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN BRING WITH THE IMPALA SS HERE? "I think the more we run 'em the more we can continue to bring stuff that we learned from the previous race. The tracks are all different for sure but if you've got your program working right you can apply the things you did the week before even if it's a different race track. The philosophy might change but anytime you continue to do something over and over and over, if you're not getting smarter about it then you're doing it wrong."

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE FOR YOU AND RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING TO BE RUNNING SO WELL YET HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS IS SO STRONG? "We're not running as well as we need to. We don't look at it as hey, look how great we're doing but somebody is doing better. We look at is as just somebody doing better and the Hendrick group has been able to do it better. There's been times that we've been better but as a whole they've certainly been a little faster and a little more consistent. We feel good about who we are. We know we need to be better. We knew coming into the year we're going to have to improve throughout the year. That's no big surprise to us. That group is doing a better job than we are right now. It doesn't mean we're going to quit. It means that we have to answer that challenge. That's as simple as it gets."

COULD HENDRICK'S DOMINANCE GO ON ALL SEASON? "It could go on. We saw the 17 dominate a whole year. We've seen the 24 dominate a year. We've seen that before. There's no question that every team in this garage is aiming to be better. Some teams will get better and some teams won't. Without a doubt, it's possible that Hendrick could continue it. We certainly are going to do our best to make sure they don't."

ON JEFF GORDON'S SUCCESS: "I don't judge drivers on one year. I just don't do that. I know that Jeff Gordon is a talented driver. Even in the years that he didn't have as much success as he was used to, I never felt like Jeff Gordon wasn't able to get it done by any means. It doesn't surprise me that Jeff and that team are running as well as they are. It doesn't surprise me in the least. If you look at what they did especially in the Chase last year. I thought the 24 really got it together and the 48 ran well most of the year especially from about Indy on the 48 really found a way to step it up and in the last 10 races I thought overall those two cars were probably a little better than everybody else and I think they've improved on it yet again. So I'm not surprised by it and I expect every year that the 24 is going to be a contender."

ON THE 24 TEAM NOT WINNING HERE SINCE 2000. WILL THIS TRACK STOP HIM? "The track isn't supposed to stop them, it's every other team. I don't view it as us against Hendrick Motorsports. I view it as us needing to go out and do a better job. We're not focusing on what Hendrick Motorsports is doing in order to get better. We've got to focus on what we're doing. If somebody beats them, it's not going to be the track, it's going to be because somebody did a better job of using the track to their advantage. That's the way I view it."

HOW MUCH FARTHER ALONG ARE YOU BECAUSE OF THE TEST HERE? "Coming here I thought we were going to be a lot further along. When we unloaded I thought 'Wow, I wish we hadn't even come to test.' I don't know. It took us the whole practice to get where we could be competitive. I don't know. If we did a good job at the test then certainly we should be able to apply the things that we learned at the test and be able to be competitive. That's probably the worst practice we've had in a long time and we're a little confused about where to go from here. I don't know. We're not the right people to ask right now because we obviously didn't do a very good job of using the information."

ON COMMEMORATING THE TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH: "In my opinion, it's one of those things that we need to try to provide continuing help for. There's a lot of young people that this will affect their whole lives and how they deal with that over the next few years is very important to their long term emotional health. I'm more concerned about that than I am about just remembering it. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to just remember it. It does a whole lot of good to go out and try to help somebody and hopefully we can find a way to do that. I'm not one of those people that believes putting a decal on a vehicle or flying a flag is going to make things better other than let people know you're thinking of them. As a community we need to be trying to make things better and have a positive impact on the people that can use it."

ON THE TRACK AT DARLINGTON: "Darlington is the most historic track we go to. It has a deep history and the heritage there is like no where else. I think it's the best race track on the circuit and really look forward to going there. I think it's going to be a huge challenge with this car. It's going to be extremely difficult to get everything right but that's what Darlington is all about it. It's about it being a big challenge and it's about trying to find a way to answer that challenge. To me it's the coolest place we go because when you go there it's kind of like stepping back in time. I used to sit in what was then turn four in the covered grandstands watching races there when I was a kid and it looks a whole lot like that still today."

COULD IT BE CHAOS THERE TRYING TO GET THE CAR OF TOMORROW ADJUSTED TO THAT PLACE? "I don't know. It's going to be difficult. There's no question it's going to be difficult. Without a doubt it's going to be harder than it is with the older car but that's what we do. It's supposed to be hard."

DO YOU FEEL SAFER DRIVING THE CAR OF TOMORROW? "I don't feel unsafe driving race cars. If I had felt unsafe, I wouldn't do it. I don't get into a race car judging how safe I feel. I don't think that's anybody's mentality. I think that's a big misconception in the media and with some fans that we sit in the cars and we drive harder because there are softer walls and we drive harder because of HANS devices and all that. That's ludicrous. We don't drive any different than we did before."

IS THE CAR OF TOMORROW SAFER THAN THE PREVIOUS CAR? "Yeah, I think there are some parts that are better, without a doubt."

ON RICHARD PETTY SAYING THE CAR OF TOMORROW IS LIKE THE RACE CARS THEY DROVE IN THE 1970s AND IF CURRENT DRIVERS WOULD GET ADVICE FROM DRIVERS DURING THOSE TIMES: "I think Richard's point is that it's more similar than what we were doing but it's not similar. There's nothing similar about the Car of Tomorrow and the car he drove at Darlington in his heyday. There's nothing similar about it. It may be more similar than what we've had but the similarities are pretty far apart. They are closer together but still way apart."

ON MARK MARTIN SAYING HE'S THE VOCAL LEADER OF THE DRIVERS RIGHT NOW: "Well I hope I do a good job. I really have a passion for this sport. It's what I enjoy doing. It's what wakes me up in the morning and I like to be involved in it. I like to think that when I leave, I've had a positive impact on it. I didn't raise my hand and say 'I want to be this guy.' It's just my personality. When I'm involved in something I'm totally involved in it and I hope I don't disappoint anyone."

ON JEFF GORDON STEPPING UP AT THE DRIVERS MEETING IN TALLADEGA AND HOW THAT WAS RECEIVED BY THE OTHER DRIVERS: "That's not new. We've had drivers do that before. There's nothing unusual about what Jeff did. It just was his turn."

ON IF NASCAR HAS THE RIGHT THINGS IN PLACE TO KEEP ANOTHER DALE EARNHARDT TRAGEDY FROM HAPPENING: "When you're going 200 miles an hour things can happen. I'm not about to say that we're beyond someone being hurt or even killed. There are physics that are involved in this thing and we need it to be as safe as it can possibly be but it's still not the safest way in the world to make a living and that's obvious. Have we made strides and is it better? There's no question. Is it as good as it needs to be? There's no question that it's not. It could never be as good as it needs to be. As long as we have emerging technology and we have the ability to invest in trying to make it better then it can always be better. It's not as good today as it will be four years from now and if it is then we've been doing something wrong for four years."

ON THE CRACK FOUND IN KYLE BUSCH'S HANS DEVICE AND IF IT CONCERNS HIM: "It concerns me without a doubt. We need to know we can depend on all of our safety devices. Being cracked and failing is two different things. If it failed, that's a major problem. I don't think it failed. It would have probably not taken another big hit like that though. That's something that the manufacturer has to look at. I haven't seen that it was cracked. I heard it was cracked. If in fact it was cracked, that's something the manufacturer has to look at and try to make it better."

WHAT DOES IT SAY IF A DRIVER GOES THROUGH A DOZEN CREW CHIEFS IN FIVE YEARS? "It depends on the situation. I'm not a blanket kind of guy where you can just throw a blanket over something and everything is the same. I don't know what you're referring to but I can't make comment about that. There's a lot of things that change and move that would make a person go through that many crew chiefs. Without being intimately involved in it, I can't make comment about it."

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

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, met with members of the media at Richmond International Raceway to discuss the upcoming race and the season so far.

IS IT YOUR TURN (TO DOMINATE) THIS WEEK OR JEFF GORDON'S? "I hope it's my turn. Unfortunately for me and Jeff there's still 41 other guys who have something to say about it. It's been good fun for us and for the guys at the shop, to see all the hard work come together for these guys. It's been a good time for Hendrick Motorsports and it's probably not going to last forever but we're enjoying it while it's here."

JEFF BURTON WAS SAYING THAT IT COULD GO ON ALL SEASON. DO YOU DARE HOPE FOR THAT? "Well we all hope for it. That's why everyone puts in the hours that they do. But the Gibbs cars have been so close, and the Childress cars, Burton especially, have been right there. These teams are too strong and too good to not have what they need every week. And we go to so many different tracks - it's not as if we go to the same track week in and week out. We're enjoying it but we know that not all good things last forever."

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF JEFF'S GORDON'S RECENT SUCCESSES? "I think a lot of it is getting to know one another and forming that relationship that a driver and a crew chief need. Stevie (Letarte) and Jeff have known each other a long time but when you're splitting hairs and the competition is as close as it is . sometimes some mannerisms or expressions or gestures . you can see them somehow sense things and they're at that point with their communication right now and it's really making a difference."

WITH JEFF RECENTLY PASSING EARNHARDT'S WINS, DO YOU SEE HIM STEPPING UP INTO A LEADERSHIP ROLE OFF THE TRACK? "I think so. I think that Jeff has the respect of all the drivers and of NASCAR. It's not a position he's looked for or wanted to be in but the drivers in the garage area think 'Hey, you can be that guy and carry that voice for us.' Now I wasn't around and see Earnhardt really handle that role so I'm not sure what it would look like or how it would take place but just from things I hear in the garage area, Jeff could be that guy."

ON THE DRIVER'S MEETING: "I think he did a great job of bringing attention to an area that we needed to focus on. I told Jeff when we got out that if I had said that I would have screwed it up and people would have been laughing at me and saying 'why did you bring that up?' Jeff's been doing this a long time, he understands how to approach NASCAR and he also knows what we drivers are thinking and feeling and he knows how to make a blend of all of that."

HAVE YOU AND CASEY RESOLVED WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU LAST WEEKEND? "Yes. It seems that on all fronts we weren't able to communicate between the teams, get confirmation between the pit boxes . the spotters weren't able to notify one another . and I couldn't see anything from within the car . hand movements and so on. On all fronts we somehow missed it."

YOU WENT OUT AND PLAYED GOLF AND EVERYTHING'S RESOLVED? "We talked a few times and when I eventually got hold of Casey he said 'Look I know it wasn't intentional. Just let it go.' I said 'I appreciate you're saying that but we need to figure out what was taking place and how to prevent it happening in the future.' He's a great sport and a great teammate but at the end of the day it was a situation we should have been able to avoid. They lost a lot of crucial points that they need. We just need to get those guys some luck. They've shown a lot of speed and they showed that that Sunday in Talladega. Unfortunately we were in a situation where we didn't communicate and we caused a crash."

CAN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF WHAT HAPPENED? "I think we saw some things with pit box communications that didn't work like we expected. Our spotter didn't know. So we need to make sure these guys . You can imagine on a restrictor plate race and through binoculars you may not see the general hand movements that the spotter uses to notify the other spotters that you're going to pit. The spotter needs to go up to the other guy and grab him by the arm and say 'hey, we're pitting.' That's a step we're going to take, not to assume that somebody knows . It doesn't have to be a teammate. That situation can happen with anyone behind you. We need to make sure the spotters are communicating up there as well."

YOU AND JEFF (GORDON) HAVE BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL WITH THE IMPALA SS YET NOT VERY SUCCESSFUL AT RICHMOND. WHICH WILL WIN OUT HERE THIS WEEKEND? "We're hopeful we're on the right track. We had a good test but so far with the Car of Tomorrow it seems the teams and drivers that run well at Bristol still ran well at Bristol, the same with Phoenix, also Martinsville for that matter. So I'm optimistic but this is Richmond and I still won't run well here."

YOU HAVE SOME VERY INTERESTING TRACKS COMING UP. "I think they're all good tracks for us. Richmond's a place we want to improve on and at the end of the season, going into the Chase, it's such an important race. We want to leave here right and that we do the right things. But once we get out of here, Darlington is one of my favorite racetracks, Lowe's Motor Speedway has always been good to us, so I think the month of May can be really good for the 48 and for Hendrick Motorsports."

BUT YOU WENT TO TEXAS RED HOT AND EVERYTHING WENT WRONG. CAN A TRACK STOP A TEAM'S HOT STREAK? "I think so. But not only a track. Racing's such a tough deal. It's not as predictable as sometimes we're led into. Statistics show certain things and I think that statistics are right but at Texas we were in great position, we ran in the top three all day long feeling that we were doing the right things to be in there fighting for the win at the end. Jeff was leading and got into the wall. Casey was strong but got crashed in the first lap. So I really think we were going to break that jinx at Texas but it didn't work out. So I guess there are a lot of variables out there and earlier I was saying that this is a good run for us but it's not going to last forever because there are so many variables week in and week out on the race track."

IS JEFF GORDON DIFFERENT THIS YEAR, NOW THAT HE'S MARRIED? "He doesn't seem any different. I know he's married and he's going to become a father but him any different as a race car driver. Maybe we're not used to seeing the finishes we've seen out of Jeff in the past few seasons or so but as a teammate and a friend he's always been the same with that competitive spirit and that desire to win. I think that the thing I'm most impressed with Jeff on is his ability to build a team and create the environment around him that he needs to succeed. For the last few years he's been doing that. He hasn't had the success he's expected and has wanted but he's had a great frame of mind, has lifted the team up and now has the team where it needs to be. I'm really impressed with that."

IS THERE ANY RELATION BETWEEN HIS PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIVES' SUCCESS? "I don't think that they're related. He may say something totally different but from what I see about Jeff it's that the whole situation is coming together for him right now."

WHAT MAKES THE ALL-STAR RACE SO SPECIAL? "A million bucks? That never hurts! I think that we're out there to race for a big purse. We all look forward to that. We all say, going into the All-Star Race that we're not worried about it that there are no points, and then you show up at the track and then you realize that there are a million bucks to win and that competitive spirit kicks in. And you start the race with a very similar competitive mindset to a points race. I think it's very exciting for the fans, for NASCAR, for the track - everyone tries to put on such a good show and not concentrate so much on the competition. The short format, the concerts during the break and all that . there's so much energy at that event from all aspects, that lifts it up and makes it such a special event."

THE FORMAT HAS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS. DO YOU HAVE ONE THAT'S YOUR FAVORITE? "No. I think the race is long enough and the way that things work out at the end, the good cars make it to the front and have a shot at winning. That's all you're really after. The inversion (of the grid) is really interesting and you never know where that's going to end up being but it seems that that last segment is just long enough to have the fast cars get back to the front."

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FAN VOTE? "It gets the fans involved and that's the type of race . we should focus on, get the fans involved and make them feel part of it. That's what makes that race so special for us. I think it's perfect."

WHO ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE FOR? "Can I vote? I haven't even thought about it. Maybe Kyle Petty, he's a good one for it."

DO YOU EVER GET THE SENSE THAT JEFF GORDON IS ENVIOUS OF WHAT YOU'VE ACHIEVED IN THE LAST FEW SEASONS? "I don't think so. Why it's stayed the way it has and why we haven't picked ourselves apart as competitors, as teams . Jeff's really proud of the 48 and what we've been able to do, to win races and the championship and those things. He started the interaction between these two teams, he's maintained it and kept it there and that's something else I'm really impressed with."

HOW WAS YOUR GOLF EXPERIENCE AT QUAIL HOLLOW. HOW WAS IT TO BE ANONYMOUS WITH TIGER WOODS AND SO ON? "I wish I could have been anonymous! They wouldn't have remembered my terrible shots if I had been anonymous! I absolutely had a blast but I can't tell that I've ever been more nervous in my life. Luckily they call Casey first and his first ball goes five feet, the second goes 10 and I go 'I know I can do better than that and that's all I really care about.' And mine went 30 feet. So it was a lot of fun, but very intimidating. As the day went on I parred a couple of holes so I was pleased with that. It was nice to be at an event and to interact with the fans, where I didn't have to worry about my job. I could really enjoy the experience and the autographs and hang out and have conversations with the fans going down the fairways, talk about stuff. A lot of guys were teasing me about crashing Casey, so that was fun. Some heckling going on. All in all it was great fun."

YOU WERE PAIRED WITH DARREN CLARK. DID YOU GET TO TALK TO HIM MUCH? "I did. Unfortunately our round took so long because Casey and I are so bad at golf so we had plenty of time to get to know him. He was a great sport. Unfortunately he had an injury he was trying to work through - he'd been playing soccer with his kids and hurt his hamstring. You could see that as the day went on that his hamstring was really bothering him so I felt really bad for him there."

WHAT DID YOU SHOOT? "Par was your partner. So if weren't going to make par you picked up. I picked up a lot."

JAMIE MCMURRAY IS A FRIEND OF YOURS. HE MANAGED TO STAY UPBEAT DURING HIS BAD 2006. HOW DID HE MANAGE IT? "You're right. He has been able to stay upbeat through the bad times and that's really impressive. I don't know how he does it but he does a good job at it. It would be really hard not to get down on yourself and not get down on your team but he's managed to keep a good perspective on it all. I'm not sure how I'd do it."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DOMINANCE OF HENDRICK AND THE IMPALA SS IN THE CAR OF TOMORROW RACES? "We've been dominant in these races but there have been some other teams that have been very close. I think the Gibbs cars have been dominant in Bristol, also Tony had control of the race at Phoenix, but didn't win the race. So not only have we had good cars we've also been putting ourselves in position to win at the end of the race. That's the other thing that's really important. We hope to keep it going but we know the competition's right there and sooner or later someone else is going to win one of these races."

HAS HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS REALLY DONE ITS HOMEWORK ON THE CAR OF TOMORROW? "I think so. The stats show we've really been on top of it, that we've really done our part. I think there's room to improve, to make the cars better yet with more time, working with them more and more. With limited test sessions we have it's really tough to get a good baseline with the cars, but so far we're doing a great job."

Behind the Hauler Chat with Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS, met with members of the media and talked about how testing here helped his team, the Virginia Tech tragedy, his thoughts on safety with NASCAR's new-generation race car and more.

WHERE IN VIRGINA AE YOU FROM? "Actually, Chesterfield is the county I'm from but Midlothian is kind of like the city where I grew up in. Definitely a Chesterfield guy, for sure."

HOW DID THE CAR RUN DURING PRACTICE AND DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THE NEW CAR ON THIS TRACK? "Our car's really good. The Busch car is pretty fair. I feel like our Cup car is pretty good on race runs. This is a race that - even though we've lost on a couple races with the new car in the past - this is the one where we're going to reset everything and hopefully catch a break and get a win."

ELLIOTT SADLER SAID THAT HE'D RATHER WIN HERE THAN THE DAYTONA 500. HOW ABOUT YOU? "Without a doubt, I'm the same way. I'd definitely rather win this one than any other race and it means something different for everyone. Tony (Stewart) has his Indy and just as my Indy. It's a track where I've really spent a lot of time growing up and it'd be really special to get a win here."

WHY IS IT SO MUCH MORE SPECIAL? "I never felt any kind of emotion like I had just after I won the pole here. Even the wins I had at Pocono, nothing matched the pole that I got here so I couldn't imagine how I would feel after a win. When you see all the people that have your shirts on and all the people that you see around town and in the pits cheering you on, it makes a difference and it kind of gets to you."

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING TO KEEP MOTIVATED AND AVOID THE 'SOPHOMORE SLUMP'? "We're just staying focused. We've done everything this year that I hoped we'd do. We've improved on every finish other than one this year so far and we're way ahead of points where we were. You never know. When you hid bad luck streaks, things happen. We've had bad luck these last few weeks but it hasn't killed us. We've bounced back week in, week out and I'm looking forward to a race where nothing bad happens and we have to battle our way back to the front. Just a race that goes smooth and if that's the case then we could easily win."

DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF MOTIVATION? "We do. We definitely have the predictions for '07 stapled up there in the lounge and we look at it every single week. We hope to prove everyone wrong."

HAVE YOU FELT LIKE EVERY WEEKEND SO FAR WOULD BE YOUR WEEEKEND? "Every week now feels like it's our week to win. That's the feeling that a driver loves to have is to know he's with a very competitive race team and I know I have that right now and I feel like we have all the pieces to win week in and week out. We've just got to catch some of those breaks that we need to actually win. Last year we had winning cars on occasion; we had 10th-place cars on most occasions and sometimes we didn't run good at all. This year it seems like we're finding a whole lot more consistency in the way we're running throughout the race."

YOU'VE SAID YOU RAN LAST YEAR'S RACES CONSERVATIVELY. HAS THAT CHANGED? "No, I'm still of that same nature - being conservative; making sure I have something for the end. It's just my style of driving and I think I'll probably always be that way."

DO YOU FEEL PROUD ABOUT THE SUPPORT THE DRIVERS HAVE SHOWN FOR VIRGINIA TECH? "Definitely. Myself, Elliott, Jeff and a couple other guys. this is a big weekend for us and Virginia Tech really as a whole. Having this event in the state where it all happened, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people here from Virginia Tech and hopefully we have them all on our side."

DO YOU THINK THAT NASCAR HAS MORE OF AN IMPACT WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE DEALING WITH THE TRAGEDY THAN OTHER SPORTS? "There's so much notoriety in NASCAR. We can help. A lot of people watch NASCAR. Any kind of contribution that we can give to someone in need, we're going to do it. Whether it's hurricane relief or what happened at Virginia Tech or anything. I'm glad NASCAR has stepped up and done the things that they have to help that school."

WHY DO YOU THINK YOU'VE BEEN SO GOOD IN THE NEW CAR? "I think it's just our team is on top of it right now and that doesn't last forever, by any means. We've got to get wins while we're still on top of this game. Each week the competition is getting closer and closer. Hendrick's there, obviously. The other teams are starting to figure it out. We want to get those wins before we're back on a level playing field, so to speak. This is a good weekend to get that started."

HOW MUCH DID THE TEST SESSION HERE HELP YOU? "It always helps. We always run good on tracks where we test. We don't always test that well but it seems like we get a lot of information to learn to bring back. We're definitely a better car than what we were during the test and that's just a lot of hard work back at the shop. I'm just the lucky guy that gets to drive it."

DO YOU HAVE EXTRA CONFIDENCE KNOWING THAT YOU ALMOST WON HERE? "Yeah, that one I play back in my mind quite a bit. It's frustrating but that was kind of the point of the season where everything kind of turned around and we started running well. Given that situation this year it may be a little bit different outcome and driving style but I've just finished second and third so many times it's time for us to be in the winner's circle and my guys especially. It means more probably to them and it ever would to me."

DOES THAT MOTIVATE YOU EVEN MORE? "Yeah. A huge motivational factor is coming into play. We know how close we were last year and we know how strong we are at races with the new car. We're back home and we've got the track and the car together. It should work out to be good for us but we'll see."

THIS WEEKEND YOU ARE WEARING A HELMET DESIGNED BY A CHILD. HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO MEET HIM AND WHAT'S IT FEEL LIKE TO WEAR THAT? "FedEx has a 'Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet' campaign that they're doing this year. We're doing 11 different children's hospitals and Richmond, this is the first one for this year. (Patient) Justin (Griffith) actually designed the paint scheme which I'm running on my helmet. That's another great thing about my job is we get to give away money to these children's hospitals because these kids can't always go to the race track. So we take the race track to them and hopefully get Justin a win."

TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH J.D. GIBBS AND WHAT SETS HIM APART AS A MANAGER? "I'm not really sure what it is about J.D. A lot of it is because he's younger, like I am, but we always seem to end up living somewhere near each other or whatever. We just kind of have a relationship where he used to be a driver so he knows how I feel and we've raced at all the same race tracks so we've got a lot in common. It's one of those guys when you see the boss you're happy to see him instead of kind of wondering what he's going to say."

CAN YOU TELL IT'S TOUGH FOR HIM TO GET OUT OF THE SHADOW OF HIS DAD? "He's doing such a good job of running that company right now. He's been running it the last two years. They got a championship under him with Tony (Stewart) a couple of years ago. J.D. has really done a good job of stepping up while his dad's away. I'm sure his dad's behind him, telling him the right and wrong things to do."

ON YOUR HERITAGE HERE AND HOW YOU GOT INTO THE SPORT: "I grew up in Chesterfield where everyone loved racing. We always used to go to the local short tracks. We always watched the races on Sunday. That's just what we did as a family. That's just what we did as a family. I just kind of latched on to it as a child and it seemed like we just excelled at every division we've ever come across. Finally when the parents' money runs out you've got to rely on someone else to help you out and we had those lucky breaks. We got here so fast. I'm happy that I'm actually being competitive while I'm at the top level of our sport."

ON THE PRESENTATION TOMORROW WITH BURTON AND SADLER: "We're going to try to get together and present Virginia Tech a contribution to the school and the families and everything. That means a lot to us to help them out because that's our home team right there for most Virginians. I have a lot of friends and family that have gone there. It's definitely going to be special if we can keep the Virginia trophy back here in Virginia and hopefully if I do win that trophy I can present it to Virginia Tech."

DO YOU FEEL SAFER IN THE NEW CAR? "You don't feel any safer but you know it's there. It's kind of like an airbag. You never really notice it until it comes out and hits you. I think it's a step in the right direction to have these cars safer. They're doing everything they can to progress week in and week out to make them better. It's going to be years and years down the road before we get these cars where they need to be but eventually it's going to be a change for the good."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE VIRGINIA TECH TRAGEDY THAT AFFECTS YOU SO MUCH? "Just the fact that I have a lot of friends that still go there and have gone there. Obviously my relationship with (football coach) Frank Beamer and there's just a lot of different played into that factor but I always wondered, Saturdays on the radio: what's the score of the Tech game. I think a lot of people feel that way every each and every week. It's bad that the school gets recognition that way but hopefully it will be better in the long run."

SEEING THE BAD WRECKS, DO YOU FEEL AS SAFE AS YOU CAN BE? "You just never know what can happen. We've seen wrecks in the past where it doesn't look like anything; next thing you know we find out the weak spot of our race cars. I think they've done a really good job of trying to cover every aspect but not every wreck is the same. There's some that hit different spots than others. Each one of us drivers have different headrests or different helmets. We're not mandated in that cockpit of what we do to protect ourselves. With the right hit on the right person with the wrong equipment, will it be bad sometime? You never know. That's why we continue to try to take steps to make it better."

DO YOU THINK ABOUT KYLE BUSCH'S HANS DEVICE CRACKING? "No. Our teams try to keep up with it quite a bit. Whether it cracked in that wreck or it had been through other wrecks before and that was the straw that broke its back, you never know. But hopefully I'm sure that's going to be an issue now that they're going to look over a lot closer."

DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION ON THAT? "Just what we hear through the media. I know personally every time I've been in a wreck that they've checked out the HANS and helmet and everything pretty thorough. Will they be even more thorough? Probably."

DO YOU LIKE YOUR NEW NICKNAME, 'CHESTERFIELD'S OWN'? "I really do. That means a lot to me to know that I'm representing my little part of Virginia. I love going there and going to all the same places that I used to go. This is home for me. It's right up the road and this race definitely means a lot more to me than probably most guys out there."

YOU FINISHED SECOND HERE LAST YEAR: "If nothing, just break through and get a win this year. Whether it's here or anyplace, we really want it but I told (crew chief) Mike (Ford) that I forgive him for Talladega if he gets me a win here at Richmond."

HOW WAS PRACTICE? "Our car was really good. I feel like we have a race-winning car. It depends on where we qualify. We have a good draw for qualifying so that's going to be a benefit for us but I think we've got a shot at it."

IS JEFF GORDON THE ONE TO BEAT RIGHT NOW? "Sure. The roll that that team is on, it's hard to say that they're not favorites for anything or any race track. They're the guys that we are chasing but I have a feeling that a lot of those guys are looking back at our car."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT MOTHER'S DAY AND YOUR MOM? WHAT'S HER NAME? "Mary Lou. Actually, my mom was not really into my racing that much until one time, there was a Powder Puff race in Amelia, Va. at a go-kart track. So I got my mom to get on my go-kart and she finished second. Ever since then she's been absolutely hooked. More than my father. She was the one really pressing behind me to keep going and keep this racing career going. She's definitely the driving force behind our family in this whole racing deal and I've got to give a lot of thanks to her."

HOW DO YOU HARNESS MOMENTUM AND MAINTAIN IT AS OPPOSED TO FALLING OFF THE PACE? "Constantly working. You can't just sit back and thing that just because you're good this week, you're going to be good next week. It's constantly trying to come up with new ways to be better. I think each week, each one of these teams - especially with the new car - keeps getting better and better with every single race we go to. Luckily, we're kind of taking strides with them trying to stay on top of it. How long that wave is going to last, you'll never know. But we're going to ride it as long as we can."

WHERE WOULD WINNING THIS RACE RANK FOR YOU? "I've made no two bits about it that I would rather win here than at Daytona or any other race track that I go to. It's very special to me just because my parents still have their season tickets to this race track. It's kind of surreal to me when I go up in the stands and I go up in the suites and look down on my race car in the pit area and realize that that's the car I drive. Each week it's becoming a reality; it's just not quite sunk in yet."

Behind the Hauler Chat with Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Impala SS

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Impala SS, met with members of the media at Richmond International Raceway and discussed Hendrick Motorsports' success at Impala SS races, how he's doing after the wreck at Talladega last weekend, what kind of race he anticipates tomorrow and more.

ON HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS' DOMINANCE AT IMPALA SS RACES: "I don't have it. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson seem to have it. They've got it figured out pretty well. We're never very pleased with our car in practice but when the race comes around we seem to move our way forward. We don't qualify very well either so we'll just have to see what we can do here this weekend but everybody as a company and as an organization have worked really hard on the car. We were one of the first ones to build the chassis for NASCAR and stuff like that. Maybe we're just a couple steps ahead."

ON WHERE HIS TEAM IS ON THE LEARNING CURVE WITH THE IMPALA SS: "I don't know. I think Jeff's driving style seems to fit it a little bit better than mine. For some reason I'm further behind than the rest of us but like I said when the race turns around we seem to be right there anyway."

DOES THAT MEAN YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR DRIVING STYLE? "Better learn how."

ON HOW HE'S FEELING AFTER TALLADEGA: "I'm alright. I'm pretty good. I was a little sore Sunday getting back in the car but on Monday I was back at the gym just as normal."

ON JEFF'S DRIVING STYLE AND WHAT MAKES HIS STYLE DIFFERENT: "He likes to use more brake getting into the corner, slowing the car down more initially, slowing the center up a little bit, getting the car turned and then just hammering the gas to drive up off the corner straighter better. For me I tend to let the car try to free wheel and roll faster through the corner and just finesse it more up off the corner but these things they don't like to turn so you're waiting on it further along through the corner instead of just being able to get back to the gas like Jeff does."

DOES IT WORRY YOU ABOUT THE CRACK IN YOUR HANS DEVICE AFTER TALLADEGA? HOW DEEP IS THAT INVESTIGATION GOING? "I have no idea on that. I'm not a part of it. NASCAR took it from us and they sent it back to HANS. That's all I know. I didn't see it. I don't know what the crack looks like. I don't know where the crack was. I've got full faith in them things because they've saved how many lives already. I'll keep wearing it of course. It's mandated but I'd keep wearing it anyway."

WERE YOU CONCERNED WHEN YOU HEARD IT CRACKED? "No. It did it's job of course. That's the first one that they've seen like that. I don't know. I don't know why it did. If there was a stress fracture, I don't know if it was something that the bondings of the materials weren't bonded right or whatever but they haven't had it yet so hopefully that will be the last one."

ON WHAT MAKES DARLINGTON A GREAT TRACK: "The asphalt. There isn't any there. You're running on top of rocks so it's almost like an old dirt track. You're sitting there sideways all the time trying to finesse and trying to keep it straight as much as you can. It's going to be tough especially with this Car of Tomorrow. I'm not sure what to expect there. It's going to be really, really different so I'm not going to run the Busch race there so I'm going to have my full attention on this COT and try to see if we can't get our Impala SS running pretty well there at Darlington."

ARE YOU EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RACE HERE TOMORROW WITH THE IMPALA SS? "Oh yeah, follow the leader single file. It's going to be great."

ON IF HE'D SWITCH TO THE NEW HUTCHINS HYBRID WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE IN JULY: "Is that the one that goes down your back? Yeah, there's been a few different ones made - the Hutchins device, there's the straps that were on your body, then that one that goes down your back that the drag racers wear, I've seen a few wear it anyway, and the HANS. They're all relatively the same. No, I'm not going to switch just because of something that had happened like that. I'd like them to try to see what they could do to figure out why it did what it did but until they figure it out and do some more research on it we'll never know."

DID YOU SHAVE YOUR GOATEE FOR LUCK? "I went and got a haircut so I decided to cut everything."

HOW MUCH OF YOUR FRUSTRATION IS JUST SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH IN THE GROWTH PROCESS? "For me the biggest thing is I guess I've never gone through this much of it at once. I've had a weekend here or there throughout the year but nothing where it's been four weekends in a row so we've lost a lot of ground here the past few weeks and we need to try to turn it around sometime and hopefully this weekend we can and try to rebound and get back going to where we can try to make up some points again. But this seems to be a place where we've run well in the past and we haven't finished worse than fourth I believe so I think we'll be alright."

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SEEN THE REPLAY OF YOUR WRECK: "Actually I hadn't seen much of it besides on the Tevo from the motorhome last week. I went in and watched it after the wreck and just kind of analyzed it a little bit and what had happened and what had initiated it so that was about all I really watched, about three times."

ON HOW HE GRABBED HIS HELMET DURING THE WRECK: "I cracked my visor and grabbed a hold of where the visor comes down right around the chin strap so my fingers were inside, my palms were out."

IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU'RE TAUGHT TO DO? "No, I just prepared for the worst. I was actually preparing for guys just hitting me and luckily everybody was on top of their game and they made some evasive moves to get away from and not hit me and spin me like a top. I was preparing for getting hit but then I figured also the grass, if I got to the grass it'd be a pretty ugly thing. I was planning for it going over."

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN IT WAS OVER? "I didn't know it was over yet, that's why it took me longer to get out of the car than it probably should have. I had my eyes closed so I wasn't watching what was going on so when it was over, I wasn't sure if it was so I kind of cracked my eye open and said 'OK, the world is right side up and there's a fire so let's go ahead and get out.'"

HAVE YOU SAID THAT IF YOU GET UPSIDE DOWN THEN IT'S YOUR GAME PLAN TO CRACK YOUR VISOR: "No, it was just spur of the moment. I wanted to grab a hold of my head and I wasn't just going to put my hands like this and hold on to it. There's nothing to grip so I had to crack my visor in order to get my fingers in there."

WHERE YOU SCARED WHEN YOU WERE SITTING THERE THINKING OTHER DRIVERS MIGHT HIT YOU? "I mean you're just sitting there kind of tensed up almost holding your breath and everything and all your muscles are pretty much trying to tuck in as close as you can to your body and pull tight so in case you get hit and beat around. My seats are real tight anyway. Junior told me 'Man, if I would have scrubbed the wall I would have broke my hip in that thing because it's so tight.' That's the way it is so you're not sliding around in your seat going to hit something. You're already tight, you're just already there."

DID THINGS GO INTO SLOW MOTION: "Pretty much. When I was sliding upside down on my roof I was like I don't know when this thing is going to stop but I hope it stops before it wears through the roll bars. The other thing about it was I didn't know that I traction rolled. There's so much grip at Talladega now that when I got turned sideways I traction rolled over. I though the air picked me up and flipped me over but I traction rolled. If it was the old surface I think I would have slid along and nosed it into the fence and probably had four flat tires or whatever. It traction rolled so it was just that quick."

ON WHAT HE ANTICIPATES TOMORROW: "It's a fun short track. It's kind of fast. It'll spread out and you'll get a lot of grooves. Whether or not the Car of Tomorrow will be able to pass, we have yet to find out. It wasn't very good in passing in Phoenix for me anyway, for some of the guys back in the pack, but I guess up front maybe it was a better show."

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY WISHES? "Not yet, it's not Mother's Day (laughs). I don't plan ahead. When I plan ahead I'm in worse condition than when I don't. I'm waiting until it comes around."

DID THE VIDEO OF THE FLIP DO IT JUSTICE? "It did but it was a rough ride. Your head bouncing around between the headrests and stuff like that anyway. From even holding on as much as you could you still got it bounced around and tossed around so it was a rough ride. It went along a lot faster on the video than it did in real life."

WHERE DOES RANK IN TERMS OF YOUR HARDEST HIT? WAS THAT THE HARDEST HIT YOU'VE HAD? "Probably the multiple hits is the most that I've ever had but as far the hardest impact that I've ever had, it's not the hardest. I think when I wrecked at Texas in my 84 car years ago, that was my hardest. For as many as it was, it'd probably match that but as far as one impact, no it wasn't as hard."

DOES THAT SHAKE YOU UP FOR A WEEK OR TWO? "Not really, I had to get back in the car the next day so I didn't have much time to think about it or anything. I was even asked that question by (Mike) Massaro. He said 'What's your thoughts going into tomorrow?' (I said) 'I'm going to be there. I'm going to get back into that car.' There's not much I can do about it. You just have to put it behind you and keep going."

HOW MANY RACES DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU COULD HAVE WON OR COULD HAVE BEEN CONTENDING FOR THE WIN? "In the Busch Series, probably every single one of them. In the Cup Series, probably Daytona. We had a good shot there. Vegas wasn't that good. Atlanta wasn't that good. Vegas was probably a top five. I didn't get that, I think we were ninth. Bristol I didn't think we could contend for a win there. We were just kind of riding along and then we got it. Martinsville we weren't as fast as Jeff and Jimmie up there and Denny. We finished about where we should have there. I think the only other place is probably Texas. We were running really good there. We had our backup car. We came from 43rd on the starting grid and marched our way up to third and there were still about 50 laps to go or something like that where we had one more pit stop in there to make some changes and get a little bit better so that's probably our last legitimate shot to win the race. And Talladega was a good one for us too."

HOW DO YOU NOT LET THAT WEIGH ON YOUR MIND OF HAVING ONE SLIP AWAY? "It's tough especially on me. All I want to do is win races and solidify myself for being here and being a contender every week. But there's other guys out there that have had legitimate shots at winning too. Kurt had a shot at Texas to win the race. Denny Hamlin had a shot at Phoenix to win the race. It changes every week. There's probably 10 guys that will tell you I could have won that race. Ten guys can't win the race so it's always pretty tough."

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ABOUT SOLIDIFYING YOURSELF? "When you win one race a year, that's not good enough especially for me.

IN THIS DAY AND AGE CAN YOU IMAGINE ANYONE ELSE GETTING TO THE NUMBER OF WINS JEFF GORDON HAS WON? "I don't think it will happen. I really don't. Jimmie is probably the closest guy that could do it. He's won the most races over the past three or four years but I don't think you'll see Jimmie Johnson by the time he retires that he'll have 70 wins. I don't you'll see another driver get to 70."

WHY DO YOU THINK OTHER DRIVERS WON'T BE ABLE TO GET TO 70 WINS? "Guys won't drive as long and guys can't win 13 races in a year. Jeff had three years there where he won 13, 11, 10 (races), he was just a dominant force and was winning week in and week out. The most you'll put together now a year is about five."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE NASCAR HAS DONE EVERYTHING IT CAN TO MAKE THIS SPORT AS SAFE AS THEY CAN? "They've done a great job on safety and everything that they've been working towards. They want to make sure that there's nothing on the race track. That's why they throw their debris cautions, making sure it's all cleaned up so we don't cut our tires and run into the wall. And they've done a good job inside the cars. There's a girl named Jamie who works for NASCAR. She's running around with every car that crashed taking pictures. Today she came by and took pictures of me and my seat with my seat belts to make sure that there wasn't anything that looked out of the ordinary with the way it was going over my HANS device because they were trying to look into that to research it. They do everything that they can possibly think of and until they come around where there is anything that looks abnormal they don't really learn anything. So they try to prepare for the worse if you can."

DO YOU THINK WE'RE PAST THE POINT OF HAVING ANOTHER EARNHARDT SITUATION? "No, you very easily could. You could see it here. What was it, three or four years ago, Jerry Nadeau had his hard lick. There could be another Jerry Nadeau. There could be another Earnhardt situation any day at a restrictor plate track or even at California. Luckily David Reutimann got out of his crash from California and his crash that he had at I think Texas two years with him and Bill Lester when they crashed off our turn four. There's a legimate shot anywhere around any corner that somebody can get really hurt."

ON IF SEEING HIS CAR AFTERWARD GAVE HIM CONFIDENCE: "I haven't seen it yet. They have it at shop but I didn't go by the shop this week. They actually told them to leave it alone. I think they're going to put it in the museum next to Schrader's car because there's only been two Hendrick cars that have been on their lid and Schrader and I are the two."

Behind The Hauler Chat With Clint Bowyer, No. 07 DIRECTV Impala SS

Clint Bowyer, No. 07 DIRECTV Impala SS chats with media on his expectations for Richmond, his season so far, the Impala SS and other subjects:

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WITH THE NEW RACE CAR HERE? "I think we're pretty good. I think it's going to be the same old thing. It's going to be hard to rotate to center and brakes are going to be an issue. I think we're a little bit better than we were at Phoenix hopefully and it should be good."

ON JEFF GORDON'S SUCCESS? "They've done their homework. They've worked a little bit harder right now and we're digging deep to try and catch up to them. You've got to make the best of the situation and try to beat them."

DO YOU SEE THE NEXT MONTH BEING THE TIME WHERE YOU CAN REALLY MAKE SOME GAINS IN THE STANDINGS? "Oh yeah. I think it's going to make or break it. It's an important month especially with the new car. The teams have struggled with it; you're going to gain big on it. It seems like they bomb out or you run good with these things. It's hard to have a happy medium. We're just focused hard on this next month and trying to be as good as we can."

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH YOUR SEASON? "We're definitely happy with where we are at. We struggled the last two or three weeks there and we're just trying to get things turned back around where we can get back into the swing of things where we belong. Just kind of had a bad run here these last few weeks and trying to get things turned around."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE A BIG PART OF RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING'S REVIVAL? "I was here when they were struggling. I cant forget about that. I was just in the Busch cars. I'm definitely happy about the situation I'm in; I think I've got a good group of guys backing me on the Jack Daniel's car. I've got good teammates and good engineering and just a good total package right now. Richard's really working hard and focused hard on getting us the best he can possibly get us. I think it's making a difference."

DO YOU THINK THIS WILL BE A MUCH DIFFERENT RACE? "Oh yeah. I think that every time we run this car it's going to be a different race. You just struggle. I think it's going to be a slower race. I think that grip is always an issue with this car. It's just hard. You're racing yourself. You're racing the race track. If someone comes up on you, just let him go. It slows you both down when you're racing door to door. It's almost impossible - it just slows you down so much. I look forward to the Busch race and I think the Cup race will be another boring one."

YOU THINK IT WILL BE BORING? "Yeah, I do. That's kind of the nature of the beast and until we get things figured out I'm afraid it's going to be that way."

HOW'S THE LEARNING CURVE GOING? "I think it's going fine. I think so far so good this year. We've struggled the last couple weeks and got behind a little bit. I think a good run here would put us right back where we need to be."

WHAT DID YOU GET OUT OF YOUR APRIL 30TH TEST? "We were just working on some brake stuff. In Phoenix we burnt some brakes off it. We just worked on some brake things, some minute things that are very important with this car. It doesn't take much. It either makes or breaks it."

ARE YOU A FAN OF THE NEW RACE CAR? "I'm not a big fan of it. I think we could put a lot better show on for you with the old cars."

YOU MADE A REMARK ABOUT THE NEW CAR BEING EITHER GOOD OR NOT COMPETITIVE AT ALL. HOW IS THAT? "I think it's so close. You're looking in qualifying trim right there. We were 27th and 15th was less than a tenth. Six hundredths. I think that says a lot about how close these cars are. When you're that close, you get behind and you can't make it up and that's the problem. Track position's everything. If it does come around to pit strategy and things like that it's going to be a shame. You could run good all day long and somebody makes a gamble in the pits and beat you."

HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE WITH DIRECTV AS A SPONSOR? (Laughs) "Hopefully a lot. I know there's millions of people with DIRECTV and it's fun to have that on our car."