KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL IMPALA SS met with media and talked about how special Atlanta is to him, his KHI Nationwide teams, the IROC Series and more. Full Transcript:

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW THE RACE IS GOING TO BE ON SUNDAY AFTER TESTING BACK IN OCTOBER. “I don’t really think anybody knows right now just because the tire is different, all the cars a different, set-ups are different. So I think today’s practice is important just to understand how much different our cars are from where we tested. At the test the cars were kind of a handful and wearing out the tires a lot. We’ve obviously made a lot of difference. Goodyear made an adjustment on the tire, came back and did another tire test. Probably everybody is still going to have some tire trouble until the track gets rubbered in but I don’t foresee any tire trouble as we go to Sunday.”

ON HIS REACTION TO THE PENALTY THAT THE NO. 99 TEAM RECEIVED FOLLOWING THE VEGAS RACE. “When you look at all the stuff that they did with the side window and the oil tank lid and the way the lid was designed to come off it sounds, I think the intent was for it all to happen. When you start messing with the safety devices and things on the side window, you’re doing things that are a pretty big no, no.”

THE PENALTY YOU GUYS HAD WITH THE NO. 77 NATIONWIDE CAR, WAS IT SIMILAR? “It was similar. Obviously the lid wasn’t off there were just a couple of bolts that had come out of the oil tank lid, but it didn’t fly all the way off like that. It still wasn’t right.”

DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH CHARLIE’S (WILSON) APPEAL AT ALL? “He doesn’t work for us anymore.”

HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE IROC SERIES COMING TO AN END. “I think the IROC Series has kind of been a place where a lot of guys got to race against other people that they normally wouldn’t race against. I actually bought one of the IROC cars that I won my first and only race in several months back.

“Jay and Bob Signore are great people. It’s kind of a shame that’s it’s going away. It just shows you how tough it is in our world right now to keep things headed in the right direction and it just seems like they got behind a little bit on the sponsorship. That makes everything suffer and you just can’t seem to ever catch up, but you couldn’t have two nicer people than the Signores.”

WHAT DID YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT RUNNING IN THE SERIES? “I just liked the different types of people that you got to race against.

“Seems like now everybody is in the Cup Series, its kind of your own weekly IROC Series that you get to race against all those guys. You just got to race against guys that you normally would race against and that was the neatest part about it for me.”

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT IN THE SERIES? “I think the first time that I got invited, just to know when I won that first Nationwide Series Championship. That was one of the things I looked forward to was just going to the IROC Series and being able to race against different people and that was just something not a lot of people got to experience and we were fortunate to experience winning the championship and winning a race, doing those things. So I feel fortunate we got to experience all those things.”

ON HIS 2001 WIN IN THE CUP SERIES AND HOW SPECIAL THAT DAY WAS. “That was a big day for our company at RCR. We didn’t all really know where we were going and what we were doing and what was happening with the company. To come and win the race it kind of gave us some momentum to turn things around and really get us headed in the right direction. We really suffered more in 2002 than we did in 2001 because we were able to win that race so early and it just seemed like we got momentum and everybody was kind of on an adrenaline high after that point.”

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE FOR THAT SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND THAT DAY TO SINK IN? “I don’t think that day will ever really sink in because that part of the season was just so strange. That whole year was just strange. None of us really wanted to be in that position. I know that was the first race that I was, you know you can only do that once and you remember that every time you come back here. You go back and you still remember that day. Just something just really strange about the way the whole year went and I don’t know it just never really sunk in like a lot of other things have in my career. I don’t know why that is.”

DO YOU REMEMBER ANY SPECIFICS ABOUT HOW YOU WON OR THE MOVE THAT YOU MADE? “Oh yeah. The move that won the race was the three-wide move coming off of two and Dale Jarrett and Jerry Nadeau were side-by-side and we were able to get by them off of Turn 2. So that was, a lot of people don’t go back that far in the race but there was a heck of a race that day between the five of us trading the lead back and forth. It’s actually a pretty fun race to watch.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT KHI DRIVER CALE GALE AND WHY HE CHOSE TO PUT HIM IN A KHI CAR. “We just think Cale has the potential to go do things. He’s a very good young person, he has a good feel for the car and hopefully we can get him enough experience to where he can show case what he can do.

“That’s the hard part is it cost so much to do these things you can’t get him in there every week. We just need him to have one or two good weeks and hopefully get him in there full time at some point.

“The good thing about it is I’ve got a sponsor that’s willing to take on that risk with Rheem. They like Cale and that he’s young and taking a chance and up and coming. They like the fact that he’s in that position and were willing to take that gamble. So you have to have a sponsor that’s willing to take that gamble with you.”

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN HIM (CALE GALE) FULL TIME IF YOU COULD? “Our goal is to eventually, once we get everything settled with what types of cars we’re gonna race and how we’re gonna phase all that in. Once they decide all that it will probably be a couple of years down the road but I intend on this 33 car being the car that I drive with somebody. Obviously Hornaday will be in that mix because he wants to run Nationwide races. That would be the goal, to have one full-time car racing for the championship as well.”

ON HIS CONCERN WITH THE CORNER SPEEDS AND THE SPACER. “I’m not very concerned after watching Truck practice. They slowed down about a second. I mean Atlanta, it’s going to grind the tires off. But I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”

WHAT ABOUT THE SPACER IN GENERAL? “I don’t think it’s really fair to analyze it yet. We haven’t been to too many race tracks. Obviously the speeds are way slower, the racing style is a lot different but it doesn’t seem like we’ve really had any issues. The intent of the rule was to save the owners money. I don’t know if that was 100% the right way to go about it. I would have put a weight rule or something on it, but they had to take a direction and go with that and they went with it and I don’t think the racing has suffered any from the spacer.”

ON HOW SPECIAL ATLANTA IS TO HIM WITH GETTING HIS FIRST CUP WIN HERE AND A WIN WITH HORNADAY AS AN OWNER AS WELL. “Yeah, that was Hornaday’s first win here so that was pretty neat to be a part of in the Goodwrench Truck and see him win his first race for us. Obviously he’s won a lot of races, but we’ve been fortunate to have some pretty neat moments here. We’ve had some disappointing days here, but we’ve had some really neat moments here on the Truck side with Ron and on the Cup side with our first win, so we’ve done a few things here. Had a lot of bad days, had a lot of good days.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE NEW CAR WILL BE PHASED INTO THE NATIONWIDE SERIES? “I think the main focus is just to decide what style of car they want to race; and get all that situated first.

“It all just depends, that’s where we’re at with our second team is just kind of waiting to see where the rules go and how much work it’s gonna be and how much testing we’re gonna have to do. We’re geared up to do all the testing for the car but just waiting on NASCAR’s decision as far as how that phasing is gonna take place. It would probably be more work up front to phase it in and be running two separate cars so it probably would be better just to phase it in all at once.”

ON THE IMPROVEMENTS WITH HIS KHI NATIONWIDE TEAM. “We’ve made a lot of improvement. Last year we started the year and didn’t run very well. I felt like we’ve been competitive every week. We’ve got to do a lot of small things better. I don’t think we’re capable of winning every week yet, but I think we’re capable of running in the top 10 and that was our goal. To get it to where it would run in the top 10 every week and then get it to where it would run in the top five. Once you start putting yourself in position to win, then you’ll start winning races. So we just got a lot of little things left to do. It just takes a little bit of time but I’m happy with the progress so far.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 AT&T IMPALA SS, MET WITH MEDIA MEMBERS AT THE ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY and talked about his busy week, going for three in a row in the Nationwide race, safety issues resulting from Jeff Gordon’s accident last week and more.

ON GOING FROM VEGAS TO THE PHOENIX TEST THEN TO ATLANTA. “It has been a long week. Honestly it’s been a long year. This is only the fourth race but with the testing schedule this winter then all the stuff we have been doing, it’s been really hectic. I’m a little glad to get back to the race track. The weeks are pretty busy right now so I’m looking forward to this weekend. I thought Phoenix went okay, not great but okay. I thought we ran well last weekend. Looking forward to getting back on another 1.5-mile track. I think this is where every team has got to run well. There’s so many of these races that if you don’t run well you’re in trouble and I’m looking forward to being able to test ourselves again.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE OIL TANK LID COMING OFF THE NO. 99 AT VEGAS AND IF HE BELIEVES IT CAUSED AN ADVANTAGE. “Taking the oil tank lid off of the oil tank is not something new. That’s something that has gone on for a long time particularly at Daytona and Talladega qualifying. You know people used to take the shifter boots off; they take the oil tank cover off, that’s not new. I can’t tell you by any means exactly what happens when you take the oil tank off, oil tank lid off rather from a down force or drag perspective. In the past we do know that it added down force and it decreased drag. Those are two things that typically don’t go together. Typically when you decrease drag, you decrease down force or when you increase down force you increase drag. Having said that, in no way do I believe is the 99 not going to run well this weekend because they have their oil tank lid taped down. It probably is an advantage.

“Is that why they won the race? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. One thing that I have learned about these race cars is typically things don’t fall off of cars that hurt the cars. That’s one thing I’ve learned. Crew members don’t typically leave a-frames loose, they typically don’t leave brakes loose, gauges don’t fall out of them. We have highly trained mechanics that have checklists but mistakes do happen. Mistakes do happen. I certainly don’t know if they did it on purpose or not, or nor would I claim to. It did happen and I guess that’s the end of the story.”

ON HIS CONFIDENCE LEVEL OF GOING FOR HIS THIRD WIN IN A ROW IN THE NATIONWIDE RACE WITH HAVING TO RUN THE SPACER THIS YEAR. “It opens a lot of questions honestly. The spacer is, all it is essentially is a little restrictor plate, or a bigger restrictor plate. It definitely decreases straightaway speed but the corner speeds get much higher.

“We don’t know what to expect, we’re learning a lot now that we’ve run California and Vegas we’re learning a lot with it. It has created some interesting racing. It’s a lot different than it has been in the past with the way you have to drive the car. We can’t use the set-up we’ve used here the last two years, we are going to have to be innovative and find a way to do it differently than the way we’ve been doing it hopefully with the same result. It has been a challenge. We didn’t run very well at California, of course I got into the wall and that didn’t help us any. At Vegas I thought we had the fastest car, but we had mechanical problems. It’s a challenge, but our Nationwide team I’ve already paid in advance. Our Nationwide team is really strong and I feel pretty confident about what we can do.”

DO YOU FEEL VETERANS HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER INEXPERIENCED DRIVERS WHEN IT COMES TO RUNNING FLAT OUT IN THE CORNERS IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES? “I don’t know. It’s difficult because I honestly don’t know. I think what it favors is people who can adapt quickly; teams that can adapt quickly and teams that have used our testing the best. I drove straight into the wall at California, Kyle Busch drove straight into the wall at California, just because we were trying to find that edge. When you run so close to wide open, the edge you’re way closer to it because in many cases when you have to come off the throttle and go back to the throttle, more than you do in a Nationwide car, it talks to you more. With the Nationwide car sometimes you’re pointed in the wrong direction before you knew it because you have to be in the throttle so long.

“The best way I know how to describe it is it takes full commitment. When I say full commitment, in qualifying you have to drive into the corner expecting to run wide open which means when the car moves you haven’t slowed it down any, so now the opportunity to catch the car is much less. Some people make the case and the claim the more wide open you can run the more it benefits the younger driver, the more it benefits the inexperienced driver. That might be the case if you can truly run wide open but we have not been anywhere yet that you can run wide open every lap. It’s just you’re on the throttle so long that the opportunity to catch the car is much less.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF HAVING YOUR CREW CHIEF SUSPENDED FROM COMPETITION AT THE RACE TRACK, DOES IT HURT A TEAM? “I think that depends on the team. It depends on what the crew chief’s involvement is with the team. There is no prototype on this is the way a crew chief operates within a team, nor is it with coaches or anything else. The more involved the crew chief is with making decisions on a minute-to-minute basis from a technical stand point the more it impacts the team. In the 99’s case, they are going to bring in two guys that are extremely experienced to help.

“Robbie Reiser can call a race as well as anybody in the business obviously and Chris Andrews has a tremendous amount of experience from a technical standpoint. The end result you never know, but it just depends. It depends on how the team is set up and what the structure is. Ultimately it probably doesn’t help but in today’s world with the technology we have access to, it’s not the same penalty it was 10 years ago.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT JEFF GORDON’S ACCIDENT AT VEGAS AND IF THERE ARE ANY CONCERNS WITH A SIMILAR INCIDENT POTENTIALLY HAPPENING AT ATLANTA. “Without mincing words, last week’s incident and how Jeff hit the wall in a word is inexcusable. I will give, and the race tracks deserve, a tremendous amount of credit to the investment they put into development of and installation of the safer barriers. They have worked extremely hard at making things safer for the fans, for the drivers, for pit crew members. There has been a tremendous effort to make things better. The thing that I’ve been saying for seven years, six years is that we can never be as safe as we can be. If we ever get to the point where we quit looking to be better we’re going to quit being better and the wall last week is a good example of that. We know that a wall that is shaped like that is wrong. We know that. But yet it was still there. Our sport, NASCAR, our tracks have looked at things to make them better and the drivers and the teams have too. That’s an example of all of us dropping the ball. We as drivers need to be willing to look at the walls and say that’s potentially a problem. The race tracks need to do it and NASCAR needs to do it. So we had three groups that in my opinion drop the ball. That includes me. I put myself in that category and that’s an inexcusable mistake. As seen by me, we had a fatality at California, you have to excuse me on the dates, 10, 11, nine years ago with Greg Moore hitting a wall that was shaped similar to the wall we had in Vegas and we have to be willing as a sport to change things immediately and never repeat the problem.

“When we don’t let history teach us, then we’re being hard-headed and that’s what happened last week. The implementation of soft walls on the interior wall is something we have to move toward and the continued study of the shape and design and the impact angle of the wall is something we have to move forward with. This is something that is inexcusable to me. I can’t tell you if there is a wall here at Atlanta that is wrong. One doesn’t jump out, but I haven’t looked. That’s my fault. I should look. There are places that need work. There’s a back straightaway at Charlotte, the inside wall needs work. Pocono is inexcusable with guardrails backed up by the state of Pennsylvania and also grass on the back straightaway that’s inexcusable and it’s been like that for years. Pocono has got to step up and fix that. We have to push to make ourselves better and again, I’m not blaming that wall on NASCAR, I’m not blaming it on Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I’m not blaming in on the drivers, I’m blaming it on all of us. We all three dropped the ball and that’s the way I view it. I know some people will disagree with that.

“Some people will say the drivers shouldn’t have to worry about it and I guess in a perfect world maybe that’s the case, but if we’re not going to take interest in our own safety then why should we expect anyone else to take interest as well. So I believe that we are part of the issue and we should be willing to help with that.”

THE TRACK SAID THAT THEY GET THEIR DIRECTIONS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AND NASCAR, THEY DON’T MAKE THOSE DECISIONS. SO I GUESS THEY WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT THEIR OWN WALL, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR INSTRUCTIONS FROM SOMEONE AS TO WHAT TO DO, DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? “No. Honestly no. I think that when you own a facility, I don’t care if it’s a baseball field or a race track, you have to be willing to get information from the highest trained, smartest people in whatever you are doing without a doubt, but that doesn’t give you a break from taking accountability. You have to be willing to look at your own race track and the property you own in order to make it as safe as possible if you want to own a race track. Is it logical to ask for advice – there’s no question. Is it a good idea to try to push yourself to make yourself better by getting educated advice – there’s no question. Does that mean you are able to say well that’s his fault it’s not my fault - that’s passing the buck. That’s not willing to stand up and say we own it; we take accountability. It’s our responsibility to make it as safe as possible.

“That’s my point when we’re talking about making things better. We have to be willing to be accountable. We have to be willing to not let things get back not being safe. The answer, and I didn’t hear that answer, but if an answer was well we didn’t know, well then look. Did anybody watch the race from Kentucky last year with Jeff Fuller – did anybody watch that race from the race track. Did anybody look at that and say can that happen at our race track. If it didn’t, then that’s inexcusable. And again, it goes to me too. I watched that race at Kentucky. I watched Greg Moore hit the wall at California. I’ve seen those things. That falls on my shoulders too. They own it; ultimately it’s their responsibility. We as a community need to work together to make it the best we can. At the end of the day, it’s their responsibility. If I build a race car to NASCAR’s standards and I get hurt, do I blame that on NASCAR or do I look at it and say maybe I need to do better. How do you want to do this, do you want to do it 100% the right way or do you want to do it 80% the right way.”

SHOULD THERE BE GRASS ADJACENT TO ANY RACING SURFACE? “We should never have grass in an area that’s near a wall. I’m not opposed to grass in some places on the race track. We have not seen many cases where grass is a bad thing on the front straightaway like here. The grass on the back straightaway at Pocono is inexcusable. How many years ago did they pave off of turn four at Daytona. Remember how Daytona used to be, it had all that grass.

“How many years ago did Daytona pave and how many people has that prevented from hitting that wall. So there should never be grass adjacent to a wall, never. I’d assume there would be no grass on the front straightaway anywhere on a race track, in this case at least you have grass then asphalt. Given my choice, I don’t think there should be any grass. I think there should be no grass because grass doesn’t slow the cars down the way that asphalt does. I’m not sure that had an impact last week, as a matter of fact that was all asphalt but grass at a race track is not a good thing.”

ON THE EQUALITY BETWEEN THE FOUR MANUFACTURERS IN THE CUP SERIES. “I think that we’re closer today with all of us having to run similar technology than we have ever been which means we will be closer today and how we can perform. I still believe at restrictor plate races that Chevy and Ford are not playing on the same level that the other two makes are. I believe that wholeheartedly, but I believe NASCAR has done a tremendous amount to make it fair. For the most part I think we’ve seen a great deal, it’s hard to argue with the success level of different teams. I think it’s pretty fair.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS IMPALA SS met with media to discuss racing at Atlanta with the new car, the penalties handed down by NASCAR to the No. 99 team, current safety issues, and more. Full Transcript:

HOW TOUGH IS IT TO KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE THIS YEAR? “It hasn’t been bad. We’ve been somewhat happy with the way we’ve run. Last week in Vegas I felt like we should have been in the top 10. We made some poor decisions on our race car throughout the race and lost some spots, but overall it was a pretty good run for us there. We’ve always struggled there with those tires and that track. So, to come out of there with a top 15, I was pretty happy with that. At California I was pretty happy with my car. At Daytona we kind of just were in the middle of everything. So with all the circumstances and the way they played out, we’re pretty happy with where we’re sitting and how things have gone. It certainly started off a lot better than last year did, so that’s promising.

“And we’re just working our way through this car at tracks we haven’t been to. Here, we were really, really happy with our test last year in our Impala and we came back here with a different tire and it’s completely different. I never thought we would go this slow at Atlanta and the cars feel this bad on brand new tires. Usually you go out here on new tires and you feel like Superman and they get worse and worse as you run. You make your money on the long runs, but right now, you go out there on new ones and they don’t even feel good. So it’s kind of something different. They’re just throwing curve balls at us all over the place.”

ON GOING TO BRISTOL NEXT WEEK, ONE YEAR AFTER THE CAR OF TOMORROW DEBUT, IS ANYTHING SURPRISING ABOUT THE CAR? “These things surprise you all the time. Every time we go to the race track there is something surprising about them, something we learned about them that we didn’t know. It’s just that they are really, really difficult to get right. They’re hard to drive even when they’re close you know. They definitely make us earn our pay, I can tell you that.”

WILL IT BE NICE GOING BACK TO A PLACE WHERE YOU’VE RUN THEM BEFORE? “Yeah, but I’m sure it’ll be different. They’ll bring a different tire or something. They don’t keep much the same anymore. But yeah, I look forward to it. We ran good there last year at Bristol. The track is a huge improvement over the old track, so it should be even better this year. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

YOU’RE GOING TO BE RUNNING THE NATIONWIDE CAR THERE FOR JUNIOR. IT’S LIKE GOING FULL CIRCLE “Yeah, everybody said that last week was his first win as an owner with the Nationwide car, but that’s not true. He owned the car I drove when I won it and he won in it too when he drove it. So, it’s not his first win as an owner. But it was cool to see him win. We were just kind of joking around on the Internet one night and he said he had to run a handful of Nationwide races and he said he really didn’t want to run that many and I said, heck I’d run one or two of them for him. So we worked on it and I asked Max (Siegel) and they were real cool about it so I’ve got to thank them. So it’ll be fun. It’s something to do on Saturday night.”

BECAUSE OF YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JUNIOR, IT PROBABLY WASN’T THAT WEIRD TO THINK ABOUT, RIGHT? “Yeah, I had to ask permission obviously and I appreciate the way they went about it, but they don’t really understand that me and Junior just want to go have some fun. We’re just buddies who like to hang out. It’s a little different not having him as a teammate anymore but I’m just ready to go back and race with him a little bit. It’ll be fun to do that and just hang out. Hopefully he’ll be on the radio like the old times yelling at me and I’ll be yelling right back at him (laughs).”

ON THE PENALTIES HANDED TO THE NO. 99 TEAM OF CARL EDWARDS BY NASCAR “I think it was the right thing to do. NASCAR has been pretty straightforward about these cars. They don’t want you to mess with them, period. If you mess with them you’re going to get in trouble. You’re going to get a fine; you’re going to lose points and all that. So, he still won the race and they’ll be fine.”

ON JEFF GORDON’S HARD HIT AT LAS VEGAS AND THE SAFETY ISSUES SURROUNDING THAT “What he said was right. When Jeff Fuller hit at Kentucky last year, when he hit the opening in the wall, there should have been a fix then. There is no reason to have the walls like that. And it’s not going to cost them much to just change them around the way they’re set up. They can still have a way in and out of the infield; just make them so you can’t hit them straight on like that. It’s pretty dangerous.”

IS GRASS A SAFETY ISSUE? “Well you need someplace to do donuts when you win, so you need some grass. I don’t know how much. Probably the less amount of grass, the better.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 88 AMP/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS met with media members at Atlanta Motor Speedway today and talked about Sunday’s race, the saga surrounding the No. 99 team, appearing before the National Stock Car Racing Commission and more:

ON HOW HIS CAR HAS RUN SO FAR AT ATLANTA: “The track is really in good shape. It’s really slick, but we tested well. Real fortunate to be able to come here. They changed the tire a little bit, I was really glad my set-up was pretty close. It’s a handful but I guess not as bad some other guys. My laps that I’ve run even the fast ones, they were nowhere near perfect or good or laps that I was satisfied with as far as my performance goes but they were still good laps.”

ON HOW EDGY THE CAR IS DRIVING: “Yeah, the car just slides across the track. If you drive in too hard it loses the nose real bad. Won’t turn and on exit, you can lose the back real easy. They changed the tire and took out about 400 pounds of grip in the car, which is fine. I think it will make for a funner race, it being as slick. I think it will be good, we’ll see.”

ON IF HE IS SATISFIED ON WHERE HE IS RACING AND PERFORMANCE WISE WITH FOUR RACES INTO THE SEASON: “I would have loved to have had that California race back. I think everybody knows that. Considering that circumstance I’m pretty happy having run second last week, that was a real good finish for us. We’re excited. We hope to show up every weekend with that opportunity, being that competitive. If we can, we’ll be able to determine on fate if we can show up every weekend like that.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SAGA SURROUNDING THE 99 THIS WEEK AND IF HE’S EVER LOOKED AT SOMETHING LIKE THAT: “We tested in the wind tunnel and it does add down force, about 19 pounds to our car but I’m not sure. I applaud them for being creative and that’s how we got to where we are today because guys are creative to find ways to get an advantage. That’s what makes our cars drive better, drive faster. Like I said, I applaud them for doing that and trying to get that edge. Mr. Smith or the guy that runs Roush, saying it was a bolt failure, that was ridiculous. He should just come out and be honest about it. That was unfortunate and turning the blame on NASCAR saying NASCAR assures every bolt won’t fail. The guy doesn’t even know how many bolts hold the lid on so how can he make any comment on it. I thought Carl (Edwards) drove a good race, he’s a great race car driver. Even with the lid on, he probably wins the race. We’re all out there trying to get an unfair advantage and you can’t hang one guy for it. You can’t really come down on one guy because we’re all trying to do that. If you’re walking around looking at all these cars you’d find little things that you wouldn’t like, you probably wouldn’t pass inspection on every one of them if you had them for a couple of days. I got to applaud them for being creative and trying to get that extra advantage. That’s what you try to do.”

ON IF HE THOUGHT HE WON THE RACE AT LAS VEGAS OR SHOULD THEY TAKE THE WIN AWAY UNDER THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES: “It wouldn’t matter to me because that wouldn’t a great way to win one. I wouldn’t find happiness or pride in that so it makes no difference to me. When it comes down to it you line them up and you race and the guy that crosses the finish line first is the winner. If you got out-cheated you didn’t do your homework. You know what I mean; you didn’t do your homework. That’s just the way it is, so I do feel like guys should keep wins like it is now. If they want to strip the wins, they have to do it all the time even for an eighth of an inch low at Talladega and places like that. Even though I’ve been caught like that, if they’re going to strip the wins they have to do it all the time. It can’t be like a severity issue that’s a judgment call; it has to be across the board. And I don’t think that’s fair for an eighth of an inch at a Talladega race to lose a victory because of that so you really can’t do it that way.”

ON IF HE WOULD TAKE THE 10 POINTS IN THE CHASE THOUGH: “Absolutely, I would love to have the points.”

ON IF HE COULD HAVE BEAT THE 99 WITHOUT THEIR OIL TANK LID BEING OFF: “It won’t give you horse power it just gives you grip. I don’t know if I could have beat Carl or not with the lid on his car. Did ya’ll see the picture of him doing the flip where the side window is unlatched as well; you know that’s not by accident. Those guys are learning things and doing things and they were wild and crazy enough to try it. I gotta applaud them for the effort that they made to try to win the race. I myself have been guilty of pushing the rule book and breaking the rule book and I can’t stand here and be hypocritical toward how Carl won the race. We got out ran and we got out foxed not only just behind the wheel but in the shop as well. We just have to figure out a way to get that advantage within the rule book. I’m sure that’s what Carl and them will do; they’ll find a way to find that advantage within the rule book. The frustrating part for me was what’s his name, him saying that there was a mistake in the bolt failing, that’s ridiculous. That’s comical, that is really comical actually and they should not allow him to make those kind of comments. They should have the crew chief get in there and state an honest answer and they would be better off. But I enjoyed reading his version on the story.”

ON IF THEY TOLD THE TRUTH, THE N THE SPONSOR IS PROBABLY NOT GOING TO BE TOO HAPPY ABOUT IT: “Everybody knows the truth anyways.”

ON ADDING SOFT WALLS TO CERTAIN PLACES AT THE TRACKS: “Well, it would be nice if they would fix the openings. Those are kind of dangerous. We’ve seen cars hit them over the last couple of years and I think that they will. I think they’ll fix them. Once they fix them, they will probably put soft walls up more as they start to make a little bit more money where they can afford it.”

ON WHEN HE CHANGED TO THE 88 WERE YOU CONCERNED THAT FAN SUPPORT MIGHT CHANGE: “I wasn’t too worried, my fans are really loyal. They’re great in this sport for their loyalty for all the drivers. Our fan base, they’re as hungry as we are to have success and for us to win. So I knew they would be excited. There was an adjustment, even for me. I knew it would be an adjustment for them but there was an adjustment for all of us. Its things you’ll get used to, its things that you’re happy are new and exciting. There’s things that you miss, that you wish you weren’t going to change. That’s the price you pay when you make a switch. There’s ups and downs and good things and bad things about it. I think the fans have responded in an awesome way for me. I expected to have the support and the fans would be there but I didn’t expect them to be as vocal and be as positive about it. They really are and they’re really excited about it. That’s a fuel to motivate us and make us want to do better.”

ON WHETHER HE THINKS SUNDAY POTENTIALLY CAN BE THE BEST RACE OF THE YEAR WITH WHAT EVERYBODY HAS LEARNED SO FAR IN THE FIRST FEW RACES: “Well I don’t know about that. They changed the tire and it’s really slick and we’re going around the corner pretty slow. I think it will be funner for drivers to race like that without grip, but I believe it will be harder to make passes. A lot of guys running around the top where there’s grip and being forced to run there because it’s hard to pass on the bottom. It’s a fun track, drivers love it. Everybody always says how great it is and it is. It’s a great race track. It’s a shame it’s not as popular with the fans and there’s not grandstands down that back straightaway like there should be, full every weekend because that’s how much we enjoy it. That’s kind of frustrating. It’s one of my favorite tracks, and I hate hearing all the time that it may lose a date or whatever and if there was a way a track was going to change dates Atlanta would be on that short list of tracks that might lose one or get moved and that’s frustrating to hear. It’s a great place to race.”

ON HIS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO APPEAR BEFORE THE NATIONAL STOCK CAR RACING COMMISSION AND HOW THE PROCCESS OF AN APPEAL WORKS: “When I went to get my appeal heard, it was for the curse word that I said in Victory Lane and I felt for sure that I was going to get it overturned because I said it when I was excited. I wasn’t cursing anyone or saying it in anger. It wasn’t necessarily a real bad, it wasn’t the worst case example to set for a little kid all though it’s not great to say it anyways. I didn’t feel like I wasn’t given the least amount of opportunity. I felt like before I even went in there they knew what their decision was going to be. The whole time I was there all they did was really try to convince me why they weren’t changing their mind from the start. It wasn’t like, all right let’s start with an open mind, a clean sheet and you tell me why you want it overturned and then we’ll think about it and come back and tell you. The whole time I was in there they were just trying to convince me why they were not going to change it. But, since then and I was frustrated with that because I felt like and I still feel like that that was wrong for me. But you hear guys getting their stuff overturned, like the seven car. I don’t even know the particulars, but if the manufacturer is calling in and saying look man this is wrong, ya’ll need to change it, that’s a big deal. I feel like that in the past year, that the commission has been more effective and done what it’s there for. I think there are penalties that should stay and it is what it is. If you got caught messing around or whatever, but they have heard some and overturned them and I’ve liked those decisions and felt like the commission over the last year has seemed to be willing to look at both sides of the story.”

ON WHY THE CHANGE: “I don’t know. For a long time it seemed like they were in NASCAR’s pocket and that was the way it was. They were just going to back up everything that NASCAR did. I don’t know here lately it just seems like it’s a lot more level playing field between NASCAR and the people that are being penalized.”

ON CHANGES TO ACCESSIBILITY FROM FANS AND MEDIA, HAS THERE BEEN A GREAT CHANGE: “Not a whole lot. The fans still have a great access to the garage area during practice and great access to pit road. That’s probably key, allowing them to have the ability to come down here and really getting close to the cars and drivers and see how we work. It’s an environment that’s interesting and unique and it’s good for them to really see it with their own eyes.”

ON IF IT HAS CHANGED MUCH FROM WHEN HIS DAD WAS RACING: “It was a lot easier to walk around the garage area. Not really many people in here, nobody wanted to be in here other than working people and people on teams. The fans weren’t drawn to this area like they are now.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS met with media and discussed the penalty for the No. 99 Carl Edwards, current safety issues, the Atlanta track and more. Full Transcript:

YOU TESTED HERE IN OCTOBER. WHAT IS THIS RACE GOING TO BE LIKE ON SUNDAY? “The No. 48 car didn’t test. The No. 5 (Casey Mears) and I guess the soon to be No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) at the time did test. I know Casey was here for the tire test as well and they both were surprised with the grip we had here with the Car of Tomorrow. Hopefully the banking and the tire combination that’s been selected will work and will give the cars the grip that it needs.”

WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THE PENALTIES ISSUED TO THE N0. 99 CARL EDWARDS AND HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS OIL COVER DOWNFORCE EQUATION AT ALL? “We’re all aware of it, especially for Daytona and Talladega. That’s been a tool for years that people have used. NASCAR has gotten on to it and we saw a lot of fines there earlier in the year. I can’t say that we’ve seen it on a downforce track. So maybe there is more there than when we first saw it. But from being in that position before, NASCAR is not in the position to really defend or understand what you’re doing. It’s either right or it’s wrong. I’ve been there. I know how difficult of a time it is. It’s no fun. It’s something that no team wants to go through. So you’ve just got to take your lumps and move on. And it’s certainly going to affect the way the team runs.

“At the end of the day, I know from my experience that it’s made us stronger as a team. And with how those guys have been running, from a selfish standpoint, I hope it doesn’t make them any stronger (smiles) because they’ve been awfully tough already this year.”

YOU’VE RUN THE IROC SERIES IN THE PAST. THIS WEEK THEY ARE AUCTIONING OFF ALL THEIR ASSETS. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO MISS MOST ABOUT THAT SERIES? “That’s too bad. I actually bought the car that I won the Brickyard IROC race with, I think it was ’04 or ’05 that I won there, and I had it restored. I was very happy to get the car but very sad to see it go. I ran it just a few years, but I know people like Mark Martin and Big E and a lot of drivers were very, very fond of it; including myself, but drivers who has more history in it I should say, some of the older drivers. It’s really sad to see the IROC Series go away.”

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT RUNNING THE IROC SERIES? “I really liked being around the other drivers from different disciplines. I have a great deal of respect for other drivers in motorsports. So to have a chance to meet those guys and spend a little time with them and get to know them was probably the highlight for me.”

YOU’VE WON ONE IROC RACE. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MOMENT? “Yeah, that was it. At the time, and since our one and only win at the Brickyard, that place is awfully tough on me. So to win something there meant a lot to me. It (the car) was pink and now I have it fully restored and it’s sitting in my warehouse. It’s crazy looking at that pink car and it makes me smile knowing that I won with a pink car.”

TALK ABOUT THIS ATLANTA TRACK AND THE NEW CAR AND WHAT YOU ARE EXPECTING HERE “I don’t really have a clue what to expect. We didn’t test at the end of last year. We decided to stay focused on the championship. And so I have a big question mark in my mind right now. I’m just eager to get out. Hopefully the rain stays away.”

HOW DO YOU APPROACH IT? “This will be the first track we haven’t tested at this year. So we should go out and maybe hold back 10 or 15 percent and make sure that you don’t put yourself and the car in a situation that it can’t keep up with and really try to find out where the baseline is and what you can do and what you can’t do and reevaluate from there.”

COULD THIS BE THE WEEK THAT YOU GUYS BREAK THROUGH? “We had a great race at California and at Vegas, thing didn’t go as we wanted. And we had some back luck in Daytona. We’d prefer to be in the No. 99’s shoes and winning race after race. But we knew that the competition was closing up. We knew that this year we were going to have challenges with the Car of Tomorrow on larger tracks and we’re not where we want to be but we’re working very, very hard to get on top of things. I wouldn’t expect us to have a poor performance much longer.”

HOW WAS THE PHOENIX TEST? “It went well. In some ways we’re more confused. The car is just tough to understand. The first day was so-so. The second day went really well for us.”

REGARDING SAFETY, SHOULD THERE BE MORE SOFT WALLS ON THE INSIDE AND ALSO ON THE BREAKS ON THE INSIDE, TO YOU HAVE ANY STRONG OPINIONS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER? ”I certainly do. We know there have been a lot of advancements made. But it’s frustrating to know that there is still a lot left to go. We need to look closer yet from soft walls on the inside, the breaks in walls, and also the grass.

“There is no reason to have grass on the inside of a race track. It should be asphalt from wall to wall. But if you look at every car that flips on a superspeedway race, it’s because it gets in the grass and tips over. So those are hopefully areas we can look at and work on. I hate the fact that there has to be such a nasty wreck and that somebody has to get out of the car and say awful things about a track to get it motivated and get it going. Sometimes that’s the only thing we have to really have to vent and show our opinions.”

WHAT MAKES THIS TRACK SO UNIQUE? WHY DO THE CUP DRIVERS LIKE IT SO MUCH? “The transitions that are worked into the track give us options and give us the ability to run side-by-side. A lot of the tracks we go to, the transition in the corner only really provides for one racing line. At this track you can be three or four wide and it’s all because of the transitions in the turns.”

MARK MARTIN, NO. 8 U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS met with media and discussed driving for DEI, racing at Atlanta, giving Dale Earnhardt Jr and JR Motorsports their first win, safety at race tracks, the No. 99 Carl Edwards penalty, and more. Full Transcript:

ON DRIVING FOR DALE EARNHARDT, INC. AND RACING A PART TIME SCHEDULE: "The Army is supporting the scenario of me racing part time and I am doing the same schedule as last year. I am really happy with it. I couldn't possibly have a better life. Aric (Almirola) is going to be fine. This is such a great team and they are behind him 100%. I think Aric is going to have a career around there."

ON RACING AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY: "I love this place, I think everybody does, I don't think that is unique to me. It is a great place to race. I happy to be here and can't wait to get out there.

"It is the size and the shape, the banking, the transitions - the old pavement, thank goodness. I hope they never pave it, or at least until after I completely and totally quit driving and hang up my helmet. But not before then."

ON HAVING A QUIET WEEKEND AT ATLANTA: "I am really taking it easy this weekend, just the Cup car. I will stay in tune with Tony Gibson and the Army team here and try to get us a win on Sunday. I would be nice for us to get our first win as a team here, but it just depends on how strong we can be."

ON GIVING DALE EARNHARDT, JR AND JR MOTORSPORTS THEIR FIRST WIN: "it was my first NASCAR win in a Chevrolet too, I am pretty sure. It really means a lot to me because Dale, Jr. has given me way respect that I deserve all through the years. I really don't know what it is. It meant a lot to me for Dale, Jr. and Rick Hendrick. I know he wanted that so badly. We were close last year with two second-place finishes. I look forward to being a part of that hopefully more than four more races, that is what we have on the schedule now. Hopefully I can continue to be a part of something that huge for years to come."

ON WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE REGARDING SAFETY AT RACE TRACKS INCLUDING SOFT WALLS ON THE INSIDE: "I really think, the soft walls would be nice, they would be nice. But I don't think there should be any discussion about the breaks in the interior walls. It just looks like a no-brainer to me, and it should have been done a while back when Jeff Fuller, or whoever it was, hit that one wall there at Kentucky, or wherever it was, the opening. He is so lucky to have survived that. It is such an easy fix. It is so much easier than soft walls, for example. I just don't know why that couldn’t be done in a week. Just take the openings and turn them, it just seems like a fairly easy fix to me.

"Instead the opening being parallel to the race track, it needs to be outside and inside. You need to drive the vehicles out parallel to the track. Then there is no opening. That to me is just easy compared to some of these major undertakings. I think that is something that should have already been done and could be done very easily."

ON PENALTY TO 99 CAR: "That is not my area of expertise, I am a competitor. That is NASCAR's deal."

ON HAVING EVER HAD AN ISSUE WITH LID ACTUALLY COMING OFF THE OIL RESERVOIR: "No, I haven't. That is not my area. I am a competitor. We race. NASCAR officiates. That is the way it has always been. I have been on that penalizing side before myself as a competitor and it is what it is. They are the ones that handle all of that."

JEFF GORDON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS, met with media members at Atlanta Motor Speedway and talked about expectations for Sunday’s race, his accident at Vegas last week, safety concerns, the IROC Series and more.

ON HIS EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY’S RACE. “Man I tell you what, today was an eye opening experience for us. The car was much, much different than what I anticipated. We’re having a lot of struggles getting comfort and grip. This is a track, you know it’s a very fast race track and even with the older car it’s tricky to get the car to really get the good feel that you want. So with this car it was a real challenge even though we moved our way up the board on times, it never really felt the way I thought it was going to feel. I thought it would be stuck a lot better than it is. I understand that Goodyear changed the tire and I’m not sure. I didn’t test here so I don’t have anything to compare it to but it’s a handful.”

LAST WEEK YOU TOOK A VERY HARD HIT, HAVE THE G FORCES COME BACK ON THAT HIT YET? “They measure it different. I think in like Delta V’s or something like that, so it’s not necessarily g force, its load and how it’s spread over time and stuff. It was I think a 50, but it was the matter of how long it was spread out and they liked the way it was spread out. It was pretty big. It was the hardest frontal impact I’ve ever experienced. I hit the wall harder at Pocono and probably Texas years ago when we blew the right front, just not with that same angle. So there’s a lot different things that your body goes through, that the car goes through in that angle of an impact. It was pretty severe.”

HAVE YOU WATCHED THE WRECK AT ALL, HAVE YOU SEEN REPLAYS? “I’m a little disappointed I can’t find the in-car camera from it. We had an in-car camera and I want to see what went on inside, but I’ve definitely seen the video from the outside.”

ON CHANGES HIS TEAM MADE TO THE INSIDE OF HIS CAR AFTER LAST WEEKS HIT. “Yeah, we actually have a few things in the car today. Actually nothing that affected me in that crash, just things that you look at when you go through crashes. You start thinking about things a little different. We definitely padded the seat in some areas a little bit more and then I have an arm board to the right where if your arm ever came off the steering wheel it will pick that impact up as well.”

DO YOU GUYS GET THE CAR, OR DOES NASCAR TAKE A LOOK AT IT? “I think it’s going to be both. They’ve asked us for it. We had to get it back to the shop and we do some things to it to go through the crash as well and then we are going to give it to them.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE IROC (INTERNATIONAL RACE OF CHAMPIONS) SERIES COMING TO AN END. “It’s disappointing. It’s a lot of fun to watch. For me to participate in it was a thrill of a lifetime. To be able to race against guys you don’t normally get a chance to race against. You know Al Unser, Jr. and guys from other series was a lot of fun and we’re all going to miss it. It’s just a shame that it couldn’t continue and continue to bring drivers from all over the world together and race. It really had been turned into kind of a NASCAR series and I think that it’s really hard to get everybody’s schedules, get a car that is common, to get all the ingredients that it takes to truly keep it balanced out for all different types of drivers and racers all over the world.”

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT IN THE IROC SERIES? “Well I won one race, it’s the only race I ever won. The rain delay at Daytona, we had a strong car that day and we were leading at the right time. I didn’t have the best record in IROC and just the way the cars drove it didn’t fit my style for whatever reason and so I’m very, very proud of that one IROC win that I have.”

DID YOU HAVE ONE FAVORITE THING ABOUT RACING IN THE IROC SERIES? “I think that the cars are very equal and you’re driving the car. There’s no real team, you don’t have spotters it’s all about what you did as an individual and how you maneuver to get to some position to win. There’s a lot of thought that went into it. The driver’s talent, so I don’t know. I didn’t have a lot of great moments in IROC and probably one of the reasons why I stepped away from it you know I felt like it was taking away from my efforts in the Cup Series. I wanted to go out there and have fun. I didn’t have as much fun as I wanted to, but the few times we were competitive it was a blast just racing with different drivers.”

REGARDING THE DEPARTURE OF IROC, IS THAT THE CHANGE IN LANDSCAPE WE ARE SEEING IN MOTORSPORTS PARTICULARLY NASCAR? “NASCAR certainly has become a power house in auto racing in America. I think that if you look at right now, the drivers that we have in this series, the open wheel drivers coming over. Formula one drivers, and champions coming over that’s pretty impressive. I think it speaks volumes about how competitive, how exciting, what type of fan base that we have here in the Sprint Cup Series and that Formula one itself really can’t even get the numbers to compete with us over here.”

ON THE EVOLUTION OF HOW THE FAN-DRIVER- MEDIA RELATIONSHIP HAS CHANGED IN THE SPORT. “There’s just a lot more attention. There’s a lot more media, a lot more fans and certainly a lot more scrutiny when it comes to all the details, positives and negatives that happen on the race track. It’s way more competitive. There’s more teams that are capable of running up front. Obviously it got a lot more expensive to operate the teams. Probably the biggest change that I’ve seen is that when I first came in to Hendrick Motorsports I think we had maybe 250 employees and we now have almost 600 employees. That’s been the biggest change that I’ve seen.”

IS THAT A GOOD THING? “It is, but you got to make sure it doesn’t get to be too much. This is a sport that budgets verses income, sponsorship wise, purse winnings has done okay for the top teams that have been successful. But we’ve seen some teams that were really the backbone of this sport, that got it to where it is that have either gone away or have struggled. So I don’t think that the business model isn’t perfect but I’m fortunate that I’m with a team like Hendrick Motorsports that’s been able to stay financially sound.”

ON WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND ON A RESTART AND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT WHEN YOU ARE COMING DOWN TO TAKE THE GREEN FLAG. “I really think it’s going to come down to them making a move because they want us to police it on our own but really what happens is you come down there, you look in your mirror, you’re trying to get a good start. I can tell you that my goal on a restart is really never to make the pass when the green comes out. I want the pass to happen as I get to turn one. Some guys think the opposite way, some guys are thinking I just want to get side by side with them as fast as I possibly can when the green comes out and basically take advantage of the situation. Most of the time I’m also thinking I just don’t want the guy behind me to get a jump on me or try to take advantage of me. When we’re rolling down there, I usually roll up to the guy’s bumper in front of me. I will leave a little bit of room, you know I don’t like to get right up on them. I think that you have to anticipate it a bit and they usually allow a half of car length or less so I try to keep it at that. But if I look at my mirror and the guy behind me is laying back then I’m going to back up to him. And when I look at last week’s situation it looked to me like the 29 was laying back on the 16, the 16 was laying back on the 24, the 24 had to lay back on the 17 and it was just an accordion effect. So while Matt (Kenseth) may have looked in his mirror and said Jeff’s laying back, I was looking in my mirror thinking (Greg) Biffle was laying back and he was looking at something similar. When you get down to the closing laps like that, those restarts are pretty crucial and you’re trying to make sure no one gets an advantage on you and you get the best restart that you can.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT SAFETY BECAME AN ISSUE AFTER YOUR DEAL LAST WEEK? “I wasn’t anticipating hitting that wall. You know the day before when I saw (Clint) Bowyer spin and he spun down to that inside wall he didn’t hit it very hard but he still hit it. I remember saying something like I can’t believe he even got to that part of the wall. Then I noticed that there was no safer wall barrier there and I was surprised by that. After what happened in Kentucky, I thought that was enough of a red flag that all the tracks should be aware of it. And I know Kentucky was a severe situation.”

WILL YOU GUYS BE MORE AWARE OF STUFF LIKE THAT NOW AND GO TO NASCAR? “You’d like to think that you could anticipate all those things, but we’re focused on making our cars as safe as we can make then, make them as fast as we can make them. Make our team the best we can make it and be safe within our own group. We can’t constantly be thinking of things that are going on. If I see something, I usually

say something to NASCAR. But I saw it the day before, there was nothing that was going to happen in 24 hours and I probably, even if I hadn’t of wrecked, I would have probably said something to NASCAR maybe like this weekend. Say hey, did you see that 07 got to the wall. Maybe do something about that, if he had hit any harder it would have been pretty nasty. Now I hit it, it brought it up and now you’re going to start to see the actions taking place. I got to say, Bruton (Smith), I’m really proud of the way they’ve handled it. They got on top of it right away and I think you’re really going to see his tracks step it up. I just hope all the other tracks follow as well.”

ON JEFF BURTON’S COMMENTS ON CONCERNS ABOUT HOW DANGEROUS GRASS CAN BE ON A RACE TRACK AND IN PARTICULAR HIS COMMENTS REGARDING POCONO. “I think that Pocono is one of the tracks that needs to be looked at in a lot of ways. That is not a track that you want to spin off into the infield. We saw that terrible wreck with Steve Park there several years ago. I love the Mattiolis. I like racing at Pocono, but there are certain things about safety that we’ve learned that should be no exception. It should be absolute, whether it’s an ISC (International Speedway Corporation) track, one of Bruton’s (Smith) tracks, or an independent like Pocono, it needs to be the same for everybody, same standards.”