Ford drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray are all in the top 12 of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings and each held separate Q&A sessions after Friday’s two-hour practice session at Richmond International Raceway.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion

WILL THE RACING BE ANY DIFFERENT WITH THE COT? “We just finished practice and my Office Depot Fusion drives just about the same as our Scotts Fusion over on the Busch side, so I think the racing is gonna be really close to the same. I don’t think it’s gonna be any different. The cars feel, actually, pretty good.”

HOW IS YOUR LEARNING CURVE COMING WITH THE COT? “I feel like we’re just a tick behind on this car of tomorrow, but the future looks good. We haven’t devoted a ton of testing resources and engineering to this thing yet and we’re still fairly competitive with it, so I think it’s gonna be pretty good in kind of the mid-term future.”

WOULD YOU KNOW HOW TO ACT IF THE QUEEN WAS AROUND THE TRACK? “I saw the queen on TV the other day and that’s pretty cool she’s in town. It would be interesting to invite her over, grab something to eat, and maybe give her a radio to listen to the race. She seems pretty cool.”

THE HENDRICK CARS HAVEN’T BEEN THAT GOOD HERE BUT THEY’RE GREAT IN COT RACES SO FAR. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THEM THIS WEEKEND? “I think the Hendrick cars are gonna be really good. They’re obviously running really well. All of the Chevrolets are running really well, especially in the car of tomorrow races, but the way this sport goes it’s up and down and I feel like the meetings we’ve had and the things we’ve been preparing for in the future are gonna bode well for the Ford teams here in the short term.”

DARLINGTON AND CHARLOTTE ARE COMING UP. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THOSE PLACES? “The next month is gonna be a lot of fun. Darlington is a blast. Charlotte is fun. We get to have some fun races and we’re at the point where you can’t make anymore mistakes. You have to really establish yourself in that top 12. Last week we blew up at Talladega and, for us, we’re not looking to move forward as much as we are just looking to not shoot ourselves in the feet like we did last week.”

A LOT OF GUYS SAY IT’S BEEN TOUGH GETTING THE COT TO TURN IN THE CENTER OF THE CORNER. DO YOU AGREE? “Yeah, the trick with the car of tomorrow so far is to get it to turn in the center of the corner and not be unbelievably loose in and off, so that’s what we’re working on. We’ve found some stuff just here today that’s working really well, so from the start of practice to now it feels a ton better.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BEING ON MAD TV THIS WEEKEND? “It was really fun. I’m pretty excited about being on Mad TV. They were really cool to work with. Both my PR guy, Randy Fuller, and I are both in the little skit, but you’ve got to see it. The main guy in the skit was real funny. He and his brother were pretty hilarious.”

ANYMORE TV STUFF COMING UP? “I don’t think anymore TV stuff anytime soon, but that stuff is always fun to do. That took about 30 minutes and it was kind of a good break in the day. We had a good time with it, so hopefully we’ll do more in the future.”

HOW DID IT COME ABOUT? “I don’t know how it came about. I know they wanted to do something with somebody and I think I was just kind of available. We ended up getting along pretty well when they called. We understood what they were trying to do and, mostly, we were just up for doing whatever and having a good time and they seemed to be on the same program.”

YOU WERE ON THE EXTRA TV SHOW AS BEING AN ELIGIBLE BACHELOR. “We’ve worked with them on a couple of things and they’re really fun to work with. Somehow they decided to include me on some sort of bachelor list, which is cool to me.”

DID YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR DREAM DATE? “I talked about my dream woman. I didn’t really talk about my dream date, but I told them Halle Berry was pretty far up the list. I’ve never met her, but from outward appearances she seems pretty cool.”

YOU’RE IN THE TOP 12 NOW. DO YOU FEEL IN CHAMPIONSHIP SHAPE? “I feel like we’ll be alright. Honestly, it’s a little bit frustrating how we’ve been running. We just haven’t been one of those where we’ve been fast in practice, fast in the race, hauling the mail lately and it’s a little bit frustrating, but from what I can tell we’re gaining ground. We’ve got some good plans with engineering and stuff to hopefully get ahead of the curve a little bit. It would be really tough if we hadn’t run well before and know how simple that is when everything is going right, but I feel like we’re working towards good things.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN YOUR CONSISTENCY THIS YEAR? “It’s just preparation, like anything else. Our car has been running at the end of all the races and that helps a lot.”

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN YOUR SUCCESS HERE? “I love the race track. I think most of the drivers do and I think most of the fans do, too, by looking at the fans all the time, so it’s an exciting race. It’s fun because you can run side-by-side, but it’s still a short track so it’s always a good time.”

JEFF GORDON STOOD UP AND SPOKE AT THE DRIVER’S MEETING LAST WEEK ABOUT BUMP DRAFTING. WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN A GUY OF HIS STATURE STANDS UP AND REPRESENTS ALL THE DRIVERS? “I don’t think it’s representing all the drivers, he’s representing his own opinion. That wasn’t representative of all the drivers. I think every driver is a little different when it comes to what they like and they don’t like, and whether they’re comfortable in certain situations or not. It kind of depends who you’re running with and the position you’re in. There are certain times when bump drafting is OK and it certainly helps you and somebody does it with you, but then there are other times when traffic is kind of tight and accidents can happen. The accidents have always happened at the speedways, even in years before bump drafting really came around, so I don’t think it really matters.”

DOES HE GET A LITTLE MORE LEEWAY WITH HIS CREDENTIALS AND THE WAY HE’S BEEN RUNNING TO MAYBE TALK OUT LIKE THAT? “I think that anybody can talk out. Anybody who wants to talk can talk. They never told us we couldn’t ask questions.”

WILL WE SEE SIDE BY SIDE RACING WITH THE COT TOMORROW? “They all handle equally as bad, so you’ve got to make yours handle the best. They’re slower than what we used to run and they don’t turn as good and all that, but you just have to slow down and wait for it to turn. I think the racing would be pretty good here no matter what kind of cars you’d bring here. The track is really great for that. There are always two or three grooves out there and I don’t think it’ll be any different tomorrow.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DARLINGTON NEXT WEEK? “It’s always fun to go there. It’s a challenge. I enjoy any track that’s different and that’s a challenge, so I enjoy going there. The new surface will be cool, but whenever they pave it, it only lasts a couple of years anyway and it gets pretty worn out with all the sand around there and everything. It’ll be different for a couple years, but it will go back to the old Darlington in a hurry.”

HOW IS YOUR LEARNING CURVE WITH THE COT? “I don’t know, I’ll tell you more after qualifying and after the race, really. It’s hard to tell. I think we ran pretty respectable at Phoenix – better than what we probably ran there in the standard car the last few times – so I felt pretty good about our run out there. I’ll really have a better idea after racing tomorrow. It’s so much different than our other cars that it’s hard to run practice and say, ‘Oh, I feel pretty good about our car running good’ because you don’t always really know until you get them all out there and race them.”

HENDRICK AND GIBBS HAVE RUN WELL IN THE COT RACES. HOW DO YOU COMPARE? “We’re behind a little bit, but we’re working hard to get caught up.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT CHARLOTTE TESTING NEXT WEEK AND THE 17 GALLON FUEL CELL? “That’s a good thing. That’s a great thing. I think the more fuel we have, the better, especially for us. The track has another year on it. Hopefully, we won’t run a tire that’s quite as hard. I really have no idea really what they’re bringing.”

THEY’RE BRINGING THE ONE FROM LAST MAY. “That’s not very exciting (laughing), but the track is a year older and as the tracks age they always get a little bit easier to handle and the racing gets better.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion

WHAT HAPPENED WITH KEVIN HARVICK LAST WEEK? “The unfortunate part of what happened with Kevin and I is the only reason Kevin was mad is because he felt like I caused the incident with the 38 car and, afterwards, he realized that I didn’t. First off, I bought a go-kart from a guy who works with NASCAR at the NASCAR Institute. When I went in to talk with him about buying it, he asked me if I talked with (John) Darby and I said, ‘Why would I talk with Darby?’ And he said, ‘Well, I think you might have got in trouble at Talladega.’ I said, ‘Well, no, I didn’t get in trouble. I didn’t do anything.’ And he said, ‘Oh no, I don’t think, I know you got in trouble. You probably need to talk to John.’ So I didn’t even think that anything happened bad enough that would result in a penalty or a fine. I’ve been involved in a couple of altercations that you kind of know at the time, you’re like, ‘Man, that’s gonna be a penalty,’ but what happened with Kevin and I, I didn’t think was really that severe. So when I spoke with John he showed me the tapes of everything that happened. I had already called Tony on Monday. I actually sent Tony a text message because his voice-mail was full, and Tony was like, ‘Hey, I’m not mad. It’s no big deal.’ I called Kevin and he didn’t answer. I actually called the wrong number initially, but I said, ‘Kevin, I just want to know why you’re all fired up.’ Sometimes when you cause an accident on the track, you know and you’re prepared for, ‘he’s probably gonna be mad when he catches back up to me,’ but I knew that Kevin didn’t have any reason to be mad at me. So when Kevin ran into me I’m like, ‘I just want to know why you’re fired up.’ Well, I didn’t get Kevin’s correct telephone number until I had already spoken with John Darby. When I called Kevin back I said, ‘What are you all mad about?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you caused that wreck and I just got hot-headed and just lost it for a second. It’s no big deal. I’m not mad at you now. I realize the 38 car did it.’ I said, ‘Well Kevin, it cost us $25,000 a piece for you to get hot-headed and then me not do anything.’ Of course he was like, ‘No way.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh yeah. It’s real. I’m positive. I just spoke with John and it’s gonna cost us both $25,000.’ The deal that happened with Matt Kenseth and I, you kind of know that’s coming, but what happened with Kevin and I should have been avoided and shouldn’t have ever happened.”

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED? “Well, what happened is Kevin ran into me going into the tri-oval – like side-swiped me – and initially when he did it I didn’t know if he was joking around like, ‘It’s over and kind of laughing’ because, like I say, when you run into someone earlier in the race and they come up and do that, you’re like, ‘OK, I know why he’s mad,’ but I hadn’t done anything to Kevin and he was like 10 car lengths behind Tony when he wrecked. I kind of knew where he was at and I thought he had no reason to be mad at me. So I’m trying to get in front of Kevin after he runs into me, I’m trying to swerve up and get in front of him basically so I can put my hand out the window and just kind of be like, ‘What are you doing?’ When you view the tape, I think if you heard my side of the story and viewed the tape, you would say, ‘Oh, OK, he’s trying to get in front of him.’ If you hadn’t heard my side of the story, which NASCAR hadn’t until after they had already viewed the tape, it looks like I’m swerving back at him. Basically they told me, ‘Well, if you hadn’t swerved back, you wouldn’t be penalized.’ Well, I’m like, ‘I’m not even mad at him because I haven’t done anything to him. I’m trying to get in front of him and everytime I move over to get in front of him, he’s swerving away from me and not slowing down enough for me to get in front of him.’ It was just one of those deals where Darby told me, ‘We’ve penalized everybody else for this and what’s done is done.’ So I just kind of agree to accept that.”