GORDON SCORES HISTORIC WIN AT TALLADEGA AND MOVES PAST DALE EARNHARDT, SR. WITH 77TH CAREER VICTORY

1-2 Finish for Team Chevy in Alabama

Talladega, Ala. - Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS captured his 77th NASCAR Cup career victory with his win of the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway and passed the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr to take sole possession of sixth place on the all-time list. The win came on the date that would have been Earnhardt's 56th birthday.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver crossed the finish line under caution ahead of teammate Jimmie Johnson, pilot of the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS, giving Team Chevy a one-two finish. Hendrick Motorsports has taken four of the last five races at Talladega and Team Chevy drivers have now won 16 of the past 17 races there. In all, Chevrolet has posted 32 race wins at Talladega, more than any other manufacturer.

The historic victory also marked the second consecutive win of the season for Gordon and tied Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s record of five wins on the 2.66-mile race track, the most of any active driver.

Leading the points for the past five events, Gordon leaves Talladega with a 203 point lead over Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS. There are now seven Chevy drivers in the top 10 in the series standings. Chevrolet has won 8 of 9 races in the '07 series to date and leads in the Manufacturer's Cup chase with 78 points.

The 36-race tour moves to Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night, May 5th for Round 10.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO - Race Winner:

CONGRATULATIONS, TWO IN A ROW: "All those marks I've got on my car are from all the cans that were thrown at it. But what a great day for this DuPont Chevrolet team. I know there are a lot of fans out there that probably didn't want us to win this race, but nobody had more respect for Dale Earnhardt than I did. Everything that I learned from him, I applied it out there on the race track today. It was a great victory and I know there are fans out there that are happy and love to see us win as well. I appreciate everybody that pulls for NASCAR racing. I hope they enjoyed the race today. It was a pretty awesome race."

TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TO THE FRONT: "I thought if we could get a top five or six out of this, that would be a good day. The cautions fell at some strange times that didn't work out in our favor, but the second to the last caution actually worked in our favor because we were sitting there lining up, getting ready to go, and I think a restart was a little bit better opportunity for me and Tony (Stewart) and Jimmie (Johnson) and maybe Harvick and a couple of other guys to get some runs going. Once it shuffled up, we were coming to the front. And I've got to thank my teammates. I have some awesome teammates. I hated to lose Casey Mears and Kyle Busch out there but I still had Jimmie Johnson and those guys were all awesome to work with today. We were all working really well together. You can't do it without somebody pushing you and helping you and this victory certainly would haven't been possible without Jimmie helping us there at the end."

HOW LONG WERE THOSE LAST FEW LAPS RIDING AROUND UNDER CAUTION WAITING FOR THE CHECKERED TO FLY? "Well, as much as Jimmie pushed me and helped me to get that lead, I knew he was going to be the toughest guy to beat there on that last restart.

"He had a couple of good runs. He obviously got to second there on that restart. Nobody does it better out there. He's learned so much on these restrictor plate tracks. And he's one of the best out there right now. I didn't know if we were going to be able to hold him off. That last caution worked out for us too."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 2nd:

TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY AND HOW YOU GOT BACK UP TO THE FRONT AFTER YOU WERE RUNNING BACK IN 13TH OR 14TH: "Well, I think everybody knew at some point we were going to get back down to the bottom and try to make up some ground. The race was at the top, and if you got down there weren't enough guys to work with you. I knew I had the No. 20 (Stewart) and the No. 24 (Gordon).the No. 29 (Harvick) was in front of me. I had some guys around me that I knew they had good cars. We just kind of timed it right and caught it right when everybody went to the bottom. We surged to the front and really got a good finish out of this. I can't thank Hendrick Motorsports enough for the great cars they've given us. We really showed today what these cars are all about."

TALK ABOUT THE CONTACT SITUATIONS WITH CASEY MEARS AND RICKY RUDD: "The situation with Casey Mears, I guess he was coming to pit road and unfortunately we didn't have any communication to my spotter and I didn't see his hand movements and I feel really bad about that one. He hit the brakes and I couldn't respond fast enough and I hit the back of him. On the incident on the backstretch, I got squeezed from the inside and unfortunately I just didn't have anywhere to go. I just got on the brakes and we all kind of smashed together."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 5th:

"We just got out-run today. We had a pretty good car, not the best. We worked out but off to get up there. We got up there a little bit but we weren't any match for who was up there, pretty much the whole top-10."

ON THE END OF THE RACE WRECKS ARE BECOMING COMMON HERE: "We had a great race today. Everybody runs a pace to the end of the race and on the last 10 laps everybody goes. We might need to change the (aerodynamic) pack a little bit, get us sliding us around this place a little bit, get us spread out and make it so the best handling car wins the race."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON JEFF GORDON PASSING YOUR DAD IN NUMBER OF CAREER WINS? "It was bound to happen. I told him this week, I said, 'You win this one and I ain't coming into Victory Lane this time. That caused too much trouble.' He's a great race car driver. I knew years ago he would eventually pass my old man. I think he has the opportunity to pass a couple more."

ON THE CAUTION AT THE END: "They don't always fall when you'd like them to. We run the race as best we can run it. It's a poker game out there. You get a good hand; you get a bad hand. You get several good ones and several bad ones throughout the race and you hope you get a good one at the end."

ON THE DEBRIS THROWN AT GORDON AT THE END OF THE RACE: "It don't look like it's something you can control."

THOSE ARE FANS WHO DIDN'T WANT TO SEE YOU GET CHEATED OUT OF A CHANCE TO WIN: "We didn't get cheated out of a chance to win, the cautions just didn't work out for us. We didn't have the car to get it done in the first place. We were just fortunate to be up there in the first place. On fuel strategy, we made it work for us and were able to get a top 10. I was pretty proud of my team and making it work. We need to get in that top 12 so we can get in the Chase. It looks like we need to work on our plate stuff so we can get back to dominating on those tracks."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 34TH:

HOW DO YOU THINK THE GREEN/WHITE/CHECKERED FINISH AFFECTED THE OUTCOME OF THE RACE? "I don't know. They had no choice but to go to a caution. They had cars wrecking. I have no idea how it affected the finish. They just have no way of knowing at this place."

DO YOU THINK THE WRECKS WERE A PRODUCT OF THE GREEN/WHITE/CHECKERED? "The wreck is a product of the people driving the cars. The green/white checkered puts you in a position that you don't want to be in but that's plate racing. Nothing you can do about it."

ON JEFF GORDON PASSING DALE EARNHARDT IN ALL-TIME WINS "He's an incredible driver and he's a multi-time champion and he's one of the best the sport has ever seen. He deserved it."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - FINISHED 28TH:

WHAT HAPPENED? "We just got crashed. We had the No. 26 just inside of us and the No. 38 inside of him. I really want to see the replay before I say anything though."

WATCH THE REPLAY: "(Watching replay) the wreck's behind us too but that's part of it that gets us in the wall and then we get hit a second time. We've already crashed here (at a point in the replay). And then the No. 38 car just plows us for no reason so I guess he's still mad for the Busch race yesterday but. no talent there, I guess."

LOOK AT THE IN CAR CAMERA: "Yeah, just like I saw it. We get hit and then pushed in the wall. We're done wrecking right there and then all of a sudden get jacked up by the No. 38 car for no reason. There was absolutely no reason for that to happen. He's just taking it out on us for yesterday when he turned down across the nose. Leapt into his Cup ride but I don't know, we'll see."

MCMURRAY TALKED LIKE HE WAS TRYING TO GET OVER AND GOT BUMPED A LITTLE BIT. "That doesn't bother me near as much as the No. 38 car plowing in the back after we've wrecked and we could drive a quarter-mile down the race track and I'm going in a straight line and he just plows into the back of us and turns us and crashes us. I don't know how else to describe it. That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life."

YOU'RE NOT MAD AT MCMURRAY? ON TV IT LOOKED LIKE IT. "No. I'm going to take that back because I don't know if the No. 38 pushed Jamie into us or what but Jamie was the one that ran into us. Jamie wasn't the one that plowed us in the back and took us out of the race. We crashed and we were going to be able to limp it back and get a reasonable finish out of it and David just plows in the back of us and takes us out for no reason. That's the guy I'm mad at, not Jamie."

IS THIS A PRODUCT OF THE GREEN/WHITE/CHECKERED FINISH? "No. This could have happened on any of the laps where we were running two or three wide. I don't know what caused the wreck behind us. There were two wrecks, obviously. I didn't see the bigger of the two. On our side it's just frustrating. You work all day and you've got all day to get to the front and you go to the back, you work your way to the front. You go to the back and you work your way to the front again a third time and a guy that got spun out in the Busch race because of something he did takes it out on me today."

ON YOUR SPEEDING PENALTY: "I can promise you I was probably 10 mph over the speed limit when I came in. I was 1,000 revs over what I was supposed to be. I just hadn't practiced it all weekend and I thought I was going to be all right. The biggest fear was that I didn't want to slide the tires because we were going to do a two-tire stop. That carried too much momentum into the pit box."

DID KEVIN HARVICK DESCRIBE THE WRECK TO YOU? "Yeah, I know Kevin was behind me; I wanted that perspective on making sure what I thought happened, happened. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't tick you off. You run 390-some odd laps and a guy crashes you after the yellow comes out."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 21st:

"You know, our FedEx Freight Chevrolet was really good. We battled all day trying to get track position and we stayed up front for most of the day. It ran great up front, and great in the middle. Just an awesome car. The finish is just superspeedway racing, just the way it goes. We picked it up today and our car is in one piece so I am happy.

"We really knew we were pushing it on fuel to begin with any everything was fine and would have been fine but we didn't count on that many cautions and that many caution laps there at the end. We had to pit and that put in the back for the restart and there just wasn't any time to get back."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTEL CARLO SS - Finished 2nd

THOUGHTS ON TODAY'S RACE: "I couldn't be more proud of our organization and the cars they gave us. The way all of the shops work together and give us great race cars. That same teamwork worked out on the race track and it didn't really get around Kyle (Busch) too much but with Casey and Jeff and myself, I think we really took care of one another out there and kept one another from falling too far back in the draft. It's just great to have the company all pulling in the same direction and I couldn't be more proud of my Lowe's guys and also real happy for Jeff (Gordon). Being able to take possession of sixth (on the) all-time win list is pretty special for him as well."

COMMENTS ON BEER CANS ON RACE TRACK: "That's terrible. They're going to hurt somebody. I just can't believe that people who love this sport would take the change to hurt a kid; hurt another person. I'm sure there were cans that didn't make it to the track that landed in the stands and a full beer can hitting somebody on the back of the head. On one level that's disrespectful and the other side of it, throwing them at the race cars and damaging our race cars, that's not a way to show that you support our sport and our racing. I'm just disappointed to see that and it's getting worse and worse every week."

WHAT WILL MONDAY BE LIKE AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CONSIDERING THE MISCOMMUNICATION THAT CAUSED THE WRECK BETWEEN YOU AND CASEY MEARS? "First of all, we need to figure out why I was never told he was pitting. I'm not sure why I couldn't see Casey waving me off. It's real tough to see through the back windows of the vehicles but at this point I literally had no idea he was pitting and it was just a major communication error. I guess the No. 24 knew but it never made it to me. When he came off Turn Four and hit the brakes to slow down, I just had no clue what was going on. I was all over him and spun him out."

DO YOU THINK THAT THERE WERE MORE BEER CANS HITTING CARS THEY WEREN'T INTENDED FOR? DO YOU THINK THIS BEER CAN SHOWER WAS WORSE THAN WHAT IT WAS IN 2004? "There were a few that made it over this trip and I could see in the mirror that there were a lot more behind so I'm not sure if they were upset the race finished under caution or if it was at Jeff. Because as you pointed out, they didn't throw them at Jeff, it was really for the whole field. I heard that the officials had missiles coming in on them, down there checking the spoiler. I don't see what would possess someone to throw a full beer can out on the race track or people or at race cars. I really don't know the logic behind it. I just hope it goes away."

EXPLAIN HOW YOU GOT TO THE FRONT: "I think everybody was wondering when the big group was going to get down on the bottom of the race track and start fighting for the win. Tony Stewart and myself and Jeff were doing some finger-pointing down under caution trying not to talk on the radio and I felt that Tony.It's tough to tell because if you make the wrong move they're not going to follow you. It looked like there was enough excitement and hand gestures that everybody was itching to make a move. I waited a lap or two after the restart, got a good run, went to the bottom and a fair amount came with me and we got the inside groove marching and unfortunately I stayed to the bottom and something developed behind me where Jeff got into the middle. Jeff was able to get by me and then I got up into the middle a few cars behind him and the middle worked out with him in the lead in front of the No. 26 and then I was in third at the end. I guess that's it. There's so much that goes on; I'm trying to remember it all. I think that's kid of how it developed."

WAS THAT 'TYPICAL TALLADEGA'? "To gain that many spots at the end it gives you the sensation of it being easy but it's only because of circumstances. There was so many times today where I was deep in the pack and would try to make moves but the right holes didn't develop and the right push. the scenario wasn't there to really advance myself. At the end of this race, every move I made ended up being a good one. I think Jeff could probably say something similar to that; nothing really broke his momentum, he was able to just keep weaving through there and get to the front. I know the No. 20 was with us and something happened that bottled up the No. 20 and he was eighth or ninth on that last restart."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT GORDON SAID AT THE DRIVER MEETING ABOUT NOT WANTING TO BE THE VOICE OF NASCAR LIKE THE LATE EARNHARDT BUT THEN SEEMED TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF TONY STEWART? "I don't think that played into Jeff's mind but I think that inside the garage area people have talked to Jeff or thought that Jeff would be the guy to have the voice for the drivers. And I wasn't around to see what affect Earnhardt had. I know that Jeff doesn't want to be Dale; he wants to be himself and do things his own way. I know he doesn't want to be in this position to be the voice of the drivers but he almost has this responsibility that's developing for him and he has the right approach on how to handle NASCAR and how to handle drivers and how to present things the right way. I feel if many other drivers would have spoken up today and said like what Jeff did in the drivers' meeting it would have come off wrong and people would have laughed. It wouldn't have come off the same way but Jeff is at that spot in his career and he's so well spoken and comes from a fair place when he's speaking about those things that people are listening. I think that role is developing for him whether he wants it or not."

SHOULD GORDON HAVE DONE A BURNOUT ON THE TRACK? "I'm not sure it was safe for him to be out there much longer. That and tearing up our race cars. Those full beer cans just destroy all the hard work that's gone into our race cars and I think for both of those reasons you don't want to instigate them and at the same time just wanting to keep his race car clean - it was in pretty good shape."

DO YOU THINK ANYONE ELSE WILL GET AS MANY WINS AS GORDON? "That's such a huge number. If you look back at the years that Jeff had, 13 wins and 10 and eight, it's so tough to do that today. I'm sure everybody said that from (Richard) Petty to the next driver that came in and had control of things and on and on. I think it's going to be very difficult. I don't want to say it's impossible. I like to set my goals high and I'd love to have more championships and more race wins than Jeff. I'm shocked that I have the 26 that I do but 51 more, that's a lot. So we'll just have to see. I think Jeff is doing a great job and the thing that I couldn't be more proud of Jeff for is the fact that he's been able to work through different crew chiefs and different types of cars, through different eras of racing and everything that comes with it. And he's still winning on all disciplines of race tracks. I think that says a lot for himself and his ability to lead his team. He's certainly been a big help to myself and learning how to come into this sport and do things the right way."

JEFF GORDON, STEVIE LETARTE, RICK HENDRICK, POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

JEFF GORDON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS
STEVIE LETARTE, CREW CHIEF
RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS

WITH YOUR 77TH CAREER VICTORY, YOU MOVE INTO SOLE POSSESSION OF SIXTH PLACE ON THE ALL-TIME WINNING LIST, BREAKING THE TIE WITH DALE EARNHARDT SR. THIS IS YOUR SECOND VICTORY IN 2007. YOU ARE THE POINTS LEADER FOR THE FIFTH STRAIGHT RACE. YOU NOW LEAD JEFF BURTON BY 203 POINTS. TALK ABOUT THE DAY:
GORDON (JG) : "Obviously, we're thrilled. It was one of those days where it seemed like we couldn't anything wrong and then at the end, I didn't feel like were going to be anywhere close to the front. That's how this race is. You try to maintain track position. I knew we had a strong car. We seemed to be able to get some help to get out there and stay there. But the race got really unique and different there at the end. The way those guys were lined up, nobody was able to pass and nobody seemed to want to get out of line. There were a bunch of cars that were pretty far back. I kept asking Stevie to tell me how many laps there were to go. It was hard to have patience. I wanted to get out of that line. I knew how fast my race car was. I thought if three or four of us could get together, I knew we could go up there. But it was really hard to be patient. The only thing that helped us one time was when Steve was asking me to save fuel, so we were just sitting there riding.

"But after the restart when there was about nine (laps) to go, I knew things would get shuffled up and that's when the whole race started to come to us at that point. Everything did get shuffled up and we were bumping and banging all over the place. I just happened to get a great push from Jimmie (Johnson) and we drove from about 5th or 6th all the way to the lead. I don't know who was behind him, but he must have had a pretty good line of them behind him as well because we had a heck of a run. And then the caution came out. It was all about that last restart. I knew those guys were going to be tough. They were laying back doing all kinds of things. It felt like we were pretty good once they dropped the green. But then when I saw Jimmie get inside of McMurray, I thought oh boy, we're in trouble. I knew how good his stuff is and how good he is on these restrictor plate tracks. So that caution sort of saved us. I hate to win one like that. But I felt like we really earned it to get up there to be in that position. So I'm real proud of it."

LETARTE (SL) : "I think Jeff said it the best. It was a very odd race for about the second two-thirds of the race. In the beginning, it was normal Talladega with two or three-wide most of the time. The new surface really promotes great racing. It's really smooth. The caution fell at a really odd time - right around a fuel window. It's a rare occurrence when you see everybody ride around until the end of the caution and then pit. That really set the tone for the whole race. And then I think everyone was forced to save fuel, including us. But it was very frustrating that nobody was making any moves. I thought at that point maybe we made a poor decision to lose our track position. It ended up working out okay. The caution, with about 12 to go, was like Jeff said, the turning point for the whole race. That forced everybody to show their hand and make their move. I can't say enough about our teammate. Jimmie Johnson gave us a couple of unbelievable pushes to pass some of those lapped cars and some of those faster cars. To get up there like that was really just a good day."

THIS IS YOUR TEAM'S THIRD ONE-TWO FINISH THIS SEASON. TALK ABOUT JEFF'S WIN AND THE RUN YOUR ORGANIZATION IS ON RIGHT NOW
HENDRICK (RH) : "I always enjoy watching Jeff drive these restrictor plate races. He did his job again today coming from the back a couple of times and working the traffic. There were a lot of good cars right there with him. At the end of the day he was where he needed to be and he made some great moves. Stevie made some great calls there at the end to protect us on fuel. It was a good day. All the cars ran good today. I hate it for Casey (Mears) and Kyle (Busch), but Jimmie (Johnson) ran second. We were really happy with that. It's been a heck of a year and you enjoy it while you can because you know a lot of these races we probably shouldn't have won. But we did. If we can be competitive, hopefully breaks will go our way. I just kind of wish we had the momentum in the last 10 (races) rather than the first 10."

ON THE FANS THROWING THE BEER CANS, SHOULD NASCAR DO MORE TO POLICE THIS?
(RH) : "You hate for somebody to get hurt. We're going to paint the car anyway. There are dents in it. But you think about people sitting on the front row getting hit with those beer cans. It's really for the fans protection and the NASCAR officials standing down there. I don't know what you do. If you get enough people there to watch it, but there were so many of them I don't know what you do to stop it. It is dangerous. The drivers and NASCAR have talked about it. If you can't bring cans in the stands anymore, then they'd do it to themselves, maybe they'd used paper cups. Maybe that's the next step."

IT SEEMS LIKE EVERY TIME YOU OR HMS WINS A RACE, THE FANS COMPLAIN ABOUT THE OFFICIATING. DOES THAT BOTHER YOU TO GET THIS REACTION FROM FANS?
(JG) : "You've got to look at the source. When Dale Earnhardt Jr wins and we don't, then my fans say ridiculous things. The majority of the fans out there - especially here - are huge Earnhardt fans, or just not Gordon fans or Hendrick Motorsports fans for that matter. You've got to be rational and use common sense. When somebody has a legitimate issue, I'll give it to them. But when somebody complains because their guy didn't win or somebody they don't like doesn't win, then that's when it gets a little bit silly. All I know is I was leading when the caution came out. I didn't know what happened or when it happened or when the caution should have been thrown. I can tell you that if NASCAR was ever going to fix things or lean in any direction, you'd think they would lean toward the majority. You've got to love the fans and the passion they have. You've got to let them express their feelings but you also have to use common sense. They've invited Steve and other people up to their booth for Busch races to see how they officiate a race and I'm sure that's for any driver or car owner or whoever wants to go up there. I think that's a good idea to see what kind of job they have because I don't think it's an easy one. And sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn't. We have them go all ways. We take them when we can and try not to complain about them when they don't."

CAN YOU DETAIL THE KEY MOMENTS IN THE CHARGE TO THE FRONT AND DESCRIBE HOW CHALLENGING THIS STRETCH WAS?
(JG) : "I've got to go back and watch the video. So much happened. When there are three or four (laps) to go and there is so much going on and your spotter is in your ear saying all kinds of things and Steve is saying how many laps to go and guys are making moves and swapping moves. It's a blur. Your job is to put your foot on the floor, pick the right lane with momentum, and push or get a push from the right guy. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is that we cleared the two or three wide, I got a pretty good push. Stewart was behind me and Jimmie was behind him and I came up on Stremme. And Stremme moved up the race track a full car width. I had momentum and I was coming. He came down on me and our fenders touched. I went onto the apron and I actually had to check up just a little bit. When I did that, Stewart jumped to the outside and when he did that, Jimmie had a great run coming. When Jimmie came, he had nowhere to go but to push me and he hit me pretty good and pushed me and all of a sudden, all the momentum I had lost, was just regained. I actually was leading by the time we got into Turn 1. That's how big of a push I got. But it was because that momentum was broken, I was going to have a hard time getting to the lead at that point. I might have gotten to third or fourth and didn't know what would happen after that. Usually that kind of momentum change kills you. But because I had a guy like Jimmie behind me, it propels us to the lead. That's all I remember. Other than that, it was just crazy."

ON SPEAKING UP TO NASCAR DURING THE DRIVERS MEETING
(JG) : "I was waiting for them to address what we all saw in the Busch race, which was out of control. I didn't hear it addressed. And so it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. After I watched the Busch race, I wanted to go see them before the driver's meeting. I didn't get a chance to. But I jut had to say something. I don't know if that made a difference or not. But today was one of the best days. Guys, yesterday, were bump-drafting. But they were doing it in a way that wasn't out of control. There were still crashes and things happened. When you get to the end of the race, all bets are off. It's going to get crazy. I wasn't surprised by the reaction from NASCAR saying we've got to police. It's going to be an ongoing battle we're going to have as drivers and competitors with NASCAR. How do we manage that? You want them to make the call to force us into a box, but then you don't want them to make a judgment call. You want to be able to police it as a driver, but your mindset is not capable of doing that out there on the race track. We're certainly not thinking rational. But it had nothing to do with trying to set an example for others of how you go about it. I always try to go about saying things to NASCAR as gingerly as I can to try to get my point across, but not put anything down or take away from anything or anybody."

AFTER HAVING ALL THOSE BEER CANS THROWN AT YOU, YOU STOPPED AND DID A BURNOUT. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
(JG) : "It was probably a bad decision looking back on it and the safety of the fans. I can't get past remembering when I won this race with the battle with Junior and having the pictures of the car been showered by cans and things. I wanted to do a burnout and I felt like that was the best place to do it so I could get to pit road, but it was probably wasn't the best decision to do it where I did it."

ON LAP 123 YOU WERE LEADING A FIVE-CAR TRAIN, YOU WERE CLOCKED JUST A LITTLE UNDER 200 MPH. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE AT THAT SPEED?
(JG) : "It was a very rare situation. There were two or three cars that were a little bit slower than us that I was drafting and at that time, I had a couple of guys lined up that were giving me a really good push at that time. So I got the draft off the cars ahead of me and the push from behind. I could see the rpm's really increase. At this track, we're always in control and comfortable when we're going in a straight line.

"It's not about safety of racing. I don't know if I'm the best one to address and decide that. These teams do such a good job that the cars have really picked up. We have a smaller restrictor plate. I don't know where they find the speed, but they seem to find it. The Car of Tomorrow can take care of a lot of those issues here at this place. We're not going to be able to run restricted like they were trying to do at Daytona, but I think with the right plate on it, as boxed as that car is, that should police itself.

"And Daytona is not an issue. One of the biggest problems you run into is that they want to run the same restrictor plate here that they run in Daytona and they're like two opposite race tracks. One is a very abrasive, narrow race track with handling being an issue. We're in and out of the gas. Here, it's smooth as glass, lots of grip, big sweeping corners, and maybe we need a little bit smaller restrictor plate. But I felt very comfortable out there. I thought everything was good other than maybe the speed we ran that lap."

ON YOUR BURNOUT, WHEN NASCAR TOLD YOU TO COME ON TO VICTORY LANE, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU MIGHT JUST GO ON ALONG THE FENCE AND LET THEM HAVE THEIR FUN. DID YOU CONSIDER COMING ON DOWN OR WERE YOU GOING TO GO ONTO PIT ROAD ANYWAY?
(JG) : "Well, I kind of got a message about coming to Victory Lane. I thought they meant not to go out on the grass and spin around and all that stuff. I'm horrible at burnouts anyway, so I try not to do them very much anyway. I have my fans out there too. My fans want to see me celebrate. At that point, I wasn't thinking about the safety. I admit it was a bad decision."

TALK ABOUT WHAT 77 WINS MEANS TO YOU
(JG) :"I'm thrilled to death to drive for Rick Hendrick. He's provided me and so many people awesome opportunities to go out there and have a lot of fun. I want to appreciate it and enjoy it and I also want to keep it going (laughs). We've got some tough competitors. I just don't think at this point I've taken enough time to really reflect on it. In the next days I'll think about and think how cool it is to have 77 victories. But I can tell you that shortly after that, it's going to be business as usual. I'm going to the shop after that - probably on Tuesday - I've got a bunch of stuff going on Wednesday and we're preparing for Richmond. But one day, I hope I'll have the opportunity to look back on every one of them and realize just how special it's been and the career I've had and the wins I had."

HOW EMOTIONAL IS ALL THIS FOR YOU? DID YOU EVER THINK IT WOULD HAPPEN AT TALLADEGA?
(JG) : "On one side I want to just jump up and down and be fired up about winning 77 here at Talladega - knowing that three-quarters of the grandstands are pulling against us. And then on the other side, I respected Dale (Earnhardt) so much and learned so much from him and today being his birthday and knowing how many of those people up there would have loved to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. win this race today, it's tough. We come out here to win. And I'm trying to do the best job I can with the equipment that I've got. And these guys are giving me too good of stuff right now to not try to get everything out of it that I possibly can. I certainly didn't want to start a riot today. Hopefully nobody got injured with what happened. But I wanted to break that record and it's pretty awesome to do it here today. So I keep going back & forth. It's cool. Oh, man. Why did it have to happen at Talladega you know? It just goes back & forth."

HOW HAS RICK HENDRICK'S BUSINESS MODEL CHANGED THE SPORT AND HOW ARE YOU CHANGING THE SPORT THIS YEAR WITH WHAT YOU'RE DOING?
(RH) : "We're having a lot of success this year. But we've also had some times when we haven't run as well. A year or two ago, Jack Roush had five cars in the top 10. The Gibbs cars could easily be sitting here with three wins. And we'd be sitting here with three. You enjoy it while you can. It's too competitive out there. There are other situations in the garage area that people are looking for partners and things. There are reasons for that. I don't think it's all that different in our situation. We've worked hard. We've made changes. We've brought in new people. We've had people leave us to go to other teams because they thought they could do better. So we just go about our business the same way every day - trying to be a little bit better each and every day. I think if you have two or three that are not working together, four are not going to fix it. I'm very fortunate to have the drivers and crew chiefs that I have. A lot of people questioned Stevie being the right person to step in with Jeff. He waited a year. He could have had an opportunity with one of the other teams, but he elected to wait for Jeff Gordon. We've kind of done our own thing. We don't let other people drive us into doing things that we don't think are good for our organization.

"We've been very fortunate. But we're sure not dominating. We've got the wins in the column. But if you look at some other guys that should or could have won some races and they had problems. Somewhere during the stretch here, you're going to ask us what happened. We were on such a roll that it just stopped. The problem is you can't maintain. It's too competitive out there."

DID YOU GET EMOTIONAL IN THE CAR? WERE YOU EMOTIONALLY EXHAUSTED?
(JG) "I've got a headache, I'll admit it. I don't think it's sunk in yet. I really just don't think it has. I think you hit right on it that this race is so mentally draining that you're just looking in your mirror, just trying to do everything right. You just feel like so much of it is in your hands as to the decisions you make that you have to live with. Throughout the race you're making good decisions, bad decisions and you're going forward or backwards. And it's amazing to me that you could be up there leading and everything's just going perfect and one little thing. All of a sudden I'm like 'uh oh, I'm going backwards'. That's frustrating and draining and I really don't think what today really means and what we accomplished, I can't say that it's sunk in just yet. I'm looking forward to taking a few breaths and getting away from the race track and really starting to think about it. To me, one of the things I look forward to the most in my life is that day where I can reflect on everything that's happened because it's been an incredible life. Don't get me all emotional now (laughs). Now it's starting to sink in a little bit more."

YOU TALKED ABOUT DISCOVERING JEFF.
(RH) "I was thinking about that right after I finished talking about our success. You look at the wins and I'm just fortunate that I was able to hire Jeff. He came into the organization and the talent he has and the leadership he has. absolutely. If I hadn't been at Atlanta that day and hadn't seen him - he didn't have a contract - a lot of things have fallen our way like that. When you look at all the wins. it doesn't seem like it was that long ago to put that many wins together but I think he's done a lot to change the sport. I know one thing he's done a lot is to build our organization so we're very thankful to have him in the car."

COMMENT ON WHAT YOU SAID AT THE DRIVERS' MEETING:
(JG) "I think the thing that NASCAR struggles with the most is that they want to police it but they also know that it's hard to stop it. I think that if you look at the Busch race yesterday, you just had guys slamming into one another through the corners and just doing silly things. Getting a run from 10 car lengths back and carrying momentum and never checking up and driving into the back of a guy and turning him into the wall. I think my whole point was that even though I knew it wasn't going to stop bump-drafting altogether, I was hoping that it would make guys in NASCAR think about if they see someone being aggressive that they get on top of it right away and as drivers, we can use our heads to do it in a softer manner, to do it not through the corners or tri-oval. I saw a lot of that today. But I can also tell you that you can say all that and do all that all day long and with five to go, that's all out the door. It's going to happen. It's just part of restrictor-plate racing, part of Talladega and you're probably going to see some accidents because of it. I can tell you that when it comes time to get that push to win the race at the end, absolutely I want it to come. But as long as NASCAR does not stop that then it's going to continue to happen and that's the way you're going to have to win the race.

I'm just glad that all the way up to maybe the last lap or two, guys really used their heads very well and realized that you didn't have to slam into the guy ahead of you to make a pass, to make a good race out there."

HAS THIS BEEN AN UGLY WEEK FOR THE SPORT? WHAT HAS BEEN THE EFFECT OF THIS WEEK?
(JG) "Personally I think it's an issue that we have in America and the world today period. Controversy draws more attention. Look at the shows on TV - reality shows. It's the way our marketing and entertainment world is changing. Let's be honest. To us, this is hard-core racing but it's still entertainment. People are looking for ratings; people are looking to get the attention. I don't think that was necessarily Tony Stewart's intentions with some of the things that he said but to me the downside to a lot of this is that because it's gotten so expensive - the whole sport in general - we have to have companies that sponsor this sport and they need to get their value worth of it and it's got to be entertaining. Sometimes, unfortunately - and it seems to be more and more - controversy is drawing more attention than anything else. I wish more than anything, great finishes like what happened at Martinsville is what got the most attention and people doing positive things in the world instead of the people that do the negative things. I don't think that's in our control. It's whatever people want to see and want to hear and what gets ratings."

HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT TO WIN UNDER YELLOW? SOME PEOPLE WERE SAYING THAT THEY WERE FRUSTRATED THEY COULDN'T FINISH UNDER GREEN
(JG) "I think maybe you're talking to the wrong people. NASCAR makes up the rules and it used to be that the first caution would have been the end of the race and we would have never even seen a green/white/checkered. I commend that NASCAR had at least given us one opportunity do a green/white/checkered and put on a show and put on a green flag finish for the fans. That was attempted and that didn't work out either. I think eight times out of 10 it might work out. At restrictor-plate tracks, maybe not so much. It's tough with as tight as these cars are down at the finish. I think they're doing the right thing. If we had multiple green/white/checkereds, who knows how many cars would be tore up before we leave here. I think NASCAR has a good balance on it and sometimes it works in their favor, sometimes it doesn't."

IS KYLE BUSCH ON A BAD ROLL?
(JG) "I don't think yesterday was his fault at all. I don't know what happened to him today. The toughest thing for a young, talented guy like Kyle is the frustration level and sometimes it gets him eager and wound up. But that's his personality and I'll leave those things to Rick. Rick's the best at dealing with the young guys. What are you going to do, Rick?"

(RH) "Going to build two new cars (laughs). He didn't cause those accidents. He was a victim and I think he's done well this year. We've talked to him - Jeff's talked to him. He likes to run flat-out and he likes to lead and that's just part of it. He's figuring it out and I hate he's had the bad luck. I'm glad he wasn't hurt. That speaks a lot for the safety in the cars, to go through what those two. that crash Saturday was a pretty bad crash. What do you say when it's not his fault."

WHAT HAPPENS TO GORDON'S RACE CAR NOW?
(SL) "Might have to ask Mr. Hendrick who gets it. He owns all the cars but I think this car will go to Daytona. We have three speedway cars and we destroyed one in the (Daytona) 500 and we chose not to build one to come here and so we re-bodied that one. It's something that Jeff and I will discuss..."

(JG) "We're going to talk about that. This car is great for here but I don't know how good it's going to be at Daytona. We need a handling race car at Daytona. We can fix this one though."

(SL) "That's the difference. If this car does go to Daytona it won't look anything like it does here. The first thing we would do when we get home is cut the entire body off of it and start over. As they were saying earlier, Talladega and Daytona, they're as different as Martinsville and Bristol. They're both half-miles but they're nothing alike and these are both superspeedways but they're nowhere near the same track."

(RH) "I do like to keep those cars but if they need to race it. the chassis is the most important thing."

(SL) "It's historic that it's the first time this car finished. Out of six times" (laughs).

CAN YOU FORSEE ANYONE CATCHING UP TO YOU ANYTIME SOON?
(JG) "I'm still trying to figure out how I got to 77. If you go through some years, we went through three years in a row where the least amount of races we won were 10. When you have three, four years like that where you win seven to 13 races a year they stack up quick. I think that it's competitive. I've been saying this for years, people ask 'can you win 10, can you win 13 races? Can anybody in a season?' I've always said it, as competitive as things are, that yes, if the right driver and crew chief and team combination get on a roll and have things going their way, yes, it's still possible. Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have that capability and I think we have that capability this year. There's a time where Ryan Newman and Matt Borland had that combination. I think Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli. there's certain guys that have that combination that can still do that and if they put some years together like that, yeah. Absolutely. Who knows what's going to happen when I'm long gone - there's some young hotshoe that Rick's going to hire and he's going to win a lot of races and I look forward to watching it. I'm just still blown away. I just don't know where they came from. I have no idea. I haven't been able to reflect to even understand where 77 have even come from. It's pretty unbelievable. In the 15 years I've been in this series we've won races 14 season and that's to me, one of the impressive things that we've done and continue to do. Those are what build championship teams; those are what put those win numbers up there. It's been a lot of fun to be a part of it and I hope we can keep it going for a little bit longer. If someone else can do that as well then I'm going to applaud him and enjoy watching him do it because it's been a lot of fun for me to be a part of it."

WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT IS MAKING THE DIFFERENCE FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS?
(RH) "They're working together and we've been together a long time and we've got a lot of depth and a lot of talent. As Jeff says, when you click and you've got good communication and you're sharing information - and I mean really sharing information - with all the teams - and everything's an open book - I think you see what the engine shop's been able to do with the other cars that are running good and have been able to run up front. We give them the same stuff we have. Our chassis shop - again, a lot of people have tried different things but we've stuck with what we had. Nothing replaces talent. You can have all the money in the world but talent is going to get you there and I think from the depth of the organization. the marketing guys, everybody works hard and I just think it's the chemistry inside and when you've got a guy like Jeff who has kind of set a high watermark and you've got Jimmie in the same shop, and you've got the other two teams working together the same way and everybody sharing and Jeff talking to the other drivers before practice, after practice and the crew chiefs, the momentum is there. I told them I don't think it can be torn down from the outside, it can happen from the inside. So we've just got to stay on course."

YOU SAID YOU HAD SO MANY THINGS WORKING AGAINST YOU TODAY.
(JG) "I guess I just meant that the majority of the fans out there I'm pretty sure weren't pulling for us. The other competitors I'm sure weren't pulling for us. Then to get back in the field, when we were anywhere in the top three, four or five, I thought we had a shot at it. When we were sitting back there in 20th and couldn't seem to put a run together or a group of cars to get up to the front, that was seriously working against us, I can tell you that. I knew that if we could ever get to the front we had what it took but I just meant all those factors."

YOU'VE BEEN WITH THE TEAM FOR MOST OF THE WINS JEFF HAS HAD. CAN YOU PUT THEM INTO PERSPECTIVE?
(SL) "I've been there since 1995 so I missed a couple wins in 1994 but have been there for most of them. It's different for me because I've got to win at different levels of employment. I was just a parts runner when I started, then I was a tire man, then a mechanic and then a car chief. So they all have different significance to me. But it means a lot. We make a living doing this and I enjoy it. I was kind of raised here. I'm 27 years old and have never got a paycheck from any other company in my life. So to come and win, it's more the winning. When you have someone like Mr. Hendrick who's kind of taken you in and raised you up as a young kid in high school and taught you everything about racing, it's hard to give those guys anything so to win for them, that's really the only thing you can do. I think that drives a lot of the employees at the company and I think that's what a lot of people underestimate. It's motivation from within. You don't have to put prizes or goals up, people want to win because they want to see the people around them happy and I think that's what makes a difference."

HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO TALK TO CASEY MEARS AND JIMMIE JOHNSON AND FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED? HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU ABOUT THE NO. 25 PROGRAM?
(RH) "I did talk to Jimmie and I talked to Casey and Jimmie feels horrible and Casey's team needed a good run and they were getting it. That was a problem somewhere in that organization because everybody knows when we're pitting and we relay that information to the spotters. I think Jeff's spotter and Stevie knew that Casey was pitting that lap and Jimmie said he didn't see his hand and Casey said it was up. They're best friends and I think the disappointment is for me and for Casey and the organization as in Jimmie, is that that team needed a good run. They sat there and watched all the other three teams do real well this year and they're gelling now and they're starting to get their stride but they can't get any luck. I told them this morning that before the race started, I said 'you can't have bad luck all the time'. The blow was that it was our car that took them out. Jimmie could have wrecked himself so it was just a mistake but we're going to work on better communication starting in the morning."

CAN YOU ADDRESS HOW BIG IT IS FOR 77 WINS?
(RH) "I think we went through a period where we didn't give him what he needed. We had some changes - Ray goes and does his own thing and Robby comes in. We were maybe behind a bit a little, as an organization. He's got to have the horse to ride to keep that kind of momentum we had going. And then everybody else catches up. There's just so many good teams in this garage area. That's what I see today. Anything could have happened out there and we could have not won this race. I think putting themselves in position to win - you've got to do that every week to get your share. I think a smart race car driver - and I'll tell you who told me that, Dale Earnhardt said to me one day, about one of my other guys - I won't mention a name, and he said he's fast, he just doesn't know how to race. This guy knows how to race. He knew that before we got him. He just doesn't make very many mistakes. I want to say something about Stevie too. There's probably as much pride looking up there on that box and seeing a guy - I can remember, was cleaning up the shop - get up there and call the shots and do what he's doing. And Alan (Gustafson) is that way, Chad (Knaus) is that way. It keeps guys there because they know the have opportunities. Stevie said they've been there from the beginning and I'm super proud of him. He's amazed me. As much as Jeff has, Stevie has amazed me because you don't know if a guy can be a field general if you put him on the box and he gets a little nervous at the end and I'll tell him what he does wrong on Monday but he's amazed me, what he has done as a crew chief as well as Jeff has."

HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY THOUGHT ON HOW LONG YOU WILL KEEP RACING?
(RH) "A long time" (laughs).

(JG) "I've got to be careful what I say when I'm sitting next to the boss (laughs). No, I don't even want to think about it right now. Life is good on and off the race track. I know that having a child is certainly going to change my perspective on a lot of things and I'm curious to know which way that changes it, whether it only makes me that much hungrier and more driven to do things and appreciate what I have. Opportunities that I have on the race track might make me want to do it longer, might make me want to do it shorter. I'm not really sure. I've always said if I'm competitive and healthy and enjoying what I'm doing out there then I want to keep doing it. I've never put a date on it or an age or anything like that. I do think that careers are shorter today. I think you're gradually going to start careers being shorter for a couple reasons. It's intense on and off the race track. I think the competition is really intense. 38-week schedule and then everything that happens off the race track, I don't think guys are going to have a quality of life that they'd like to have or be able to enjoy some of that which they've worked so hard for as long as they used to. Because we're getting paid pretty darn good now too so we can have this life after racing. Some way, somehow, I always want to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports and I hope that I'm a competitive driver for Hendrick for a long time. I just don't know when that's going to be so I haven't thought about it a whole lot."