KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

HOW HAVE YOU HANDLED A BUSY WEEK AFTER LAS VEGAS: “It was a busy week with testing in Phoenix and that provided us with some great information at Penske Racing. To have a test there to back up some of the ideas with some of the ideas that we’ve had over the off-season and to get an actual raced track that we race on seemed very beneficial. At the same time, we still have all of our notes that we ran here last October during the test session for the new car. We learned some new things – we thought we were fast – and yet learned some new things in Phoenix that we’ll try to blend in together. At a track like this it’s tough because every time you pull out on a new set of tires, that’s the best feel you’re going to get for your changes. With a limited number of tires for practice, we’ll just have to focus heavily on our big changes and see how it goes from there.”

HOW DOES THE INFORMATION LEARNED FROM PHOENIX TRANSLATE TO AN INTERMEDIATE TRACK LIKE ATLANTA? “Eventually what you’ll have for a front-end geometry package will be about the same every weekend like it was with the old car. But because you continuously learn things so rapidly, it’s tough to sit on October’s news when the 1st of March is here right now. That’s the balance - we’ll shake our car down with how we tested last October – quickly put those things that we feel were very important and decide if they are going to help us this weekend or not.”

DO YOU ANY REACTION TO CARL EDWARDS PENALTY? “I don’t really have much on one. NASCAR is getting steeper with their penalties - that’s due to trying to even out the playing field. You have to look at it as the competition wants to get an edge on the next guy – at the same time NASCAR doesn’t want you to step out of the box to do so. And so it works in both favors – at the same time we want our fans to be happy. We want fans to watch our cars race around the race track in a legal position and know that when that car won the race -it’s because he was the fastest, not because he did some other creative things. It’s a tough double-edge sword – you’re racing out there trying to beat the other guy, but you have to stay in the box.”

WHAT IS YOUR POSITION ON THE WALLS BEING UPGRADED AT NASCAR TRACKS? “I think if we rewind 10 years from what had happened to Jeff Gordon’s car on the back straightaway in Las Vegas, would he have been able to walk away? Would he be jumping in his car this weekend for practice – feeling a little tender but ready to go? I don’t think we would have had that 10 years ago. So we have made the cars safer. We have made steps forward to that have helped made drivers feel safer in the cars and bounce back from tough wrecks. Should we have all the race tracks evaluate again where they stand with soft-wall technology on the inside as well as the outside? Yes. We had an incident last year at Kentucky Speedway where we had an opening just like Vegas on the back straightway and a race car is going to get in that opening. Do we see spins in the exit of Turn 2 – the immediate exit – end up in the inside fence? Not usually. Their momentum carries them to the back straightaway. That’s where we may need to move some of these openings at theses racetracks so that cars can’t find them when they’re wrecking. There is enough technology out there to find out where cars impact the inside fence. If there’s an area that has had zero to 10 percent impact – that’s where those openings need to be moved to.”

DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD YOUR WRECK REGISTERED LAST WEEKEND IN LAS VEGAS? “I don’t know the actual numbers and directional angles of the hit just yet. I’m going to the NASCAR hauler to talk with Steve Peterson just after this press conference. It’s never fun recording data for them I can tell you that. The flip side to it, I feel surprisingly well from that type of hit. The direction it went in and the speed that I decelerated when I did hit the fence was probably fairly significant. What’s more confusing is that it’s on a tire that the hardest tire we run on. We shouldn’t have tire blow-outs on that style of tire. We’ll see. NASCAR has done an incredible job with the safer barrier – with the cars – I actually have my seats are composite seats from Hendrick Motorsports and so I talked to those guys on Monday and said ‘listen, I don’t have any bruising up and down my whole right side’ – and they were really surprised by that . (Hendricks) got some good data as well to help them understand the seats better. But it’s great when you can disperse as much energy as you can over larger square inches of your body, not just one certain point. It’s great that we’ve made all the improvements we have since 2001.“

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

YOU’VE HAD SOME GOOD RUNS HERE AT ATLANTA, IS IT BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT AFRAID TO RUN TH HIGH LINE? “Yeah, I think the high line definitely is a good spot a lot of the time here. When you run there (high line), you can look around. Actually the last couple of times here – the win in ’06 – I was running right in the middle of the race track in 1 & 2 and high in 3 & 4 or right on the bottom. It’s different – it changes - it moves around depending on how your car is. I think that’s why I like this place so much. Because there are so many lines -so much race track for a driver to find the best spot for your car.”

WITH THE JEFF GORDON’S CRASH LAST WEEK AT LAS VEGAS, SOME SAY THE TRACKS ARE BEHIND THE SAFETY CURVE, WHAT IS YOUR TAKE? “We get in these wrecks and we walk away from them – and everybody is - and that’s very fortunate and it shows a lot of what NASCAR has done. When Jeff Gordon speaks, he usually speaks because it’s something that needs to be spoken about and that was a really, really bad wreck. Without the safety stuff that he has now, he would have been injured – but if they had a little more safety stuff like those the (soft) walls, it wouldn’t have been nearly as bad. If you’re going to put them (soft walls) up, I think you need to put them up everywhere a spot can hit. And those little openings – we’ve seen two in the last couple years that are just terrible wrecks in terms on impact.”

WHO SHOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE? NASCAR? TRACKS? DRIVERS? “I think the drivers just get in and race. Obviously we want to be safe and do everything we can to be safe. We get in a race we want to put on a show for the fans and that’s what NASCAR wants us to do. NASCAR definitely needs to look at their race tracks, the tracks need to look at them (safety barriers) and make sure they’re ready for everybody to race at. Those little openings with curves on them with no soft walls – if he (J. Gordon) would have hit much straighter, it could of just about just stopped him. He was lucky it was no worse than what it was.”

IS THE CONSISTENCY YOU’VE SHOWN SO FAR THIS YEAR WHERE YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD BE? “The consistency is what I expected. I knew that I needed to be more consistent – if the cars were better- it would be much easier to do working with everybody. As far as where we would be consistent with top-10s or top-5s or top 20s – I really didn’t know until we got into the season. As far off as we were at times last year, it was kind of tough to now exactly where we’d be this year. I think right now, we’re from fifth to 10th and maybe better. I think this would be a great weekend to step it up and get into the top-five this weekend."

HOW MUCH DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS CAR OVER THE LAST THREE RACES? ":We learned a lot. We tested at those tracks and we’ve tested at this track. All these tracks are tracks that everybody has had the same amount of time on. We keep learning more and more about what were working with. We’ve go to learn how to work these bump stops and the whole Car of Tomorrow the rear wing, the splitter on the front, there’s just a lot to it. It’s been pretty fun, pretty exciting and when you have a good race car it makes it more fun to drive.”

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE AND CONFIDENT WITH THE CHANGES YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE DURING THE RACE? “Definitely during the race, I feel really confident with the way the cars felt. The feeling it’s given me I’ve given them the information and we’ve usually made it better. That side of the things has been really good.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger)

TALK ABOUT BEING IN THE TOP-12, IT’S GOT TO FEEL GREAT: “It feels great, that’s what we all live for – to try and make the Chase and be there after 26 races. We’re just trying to be consistent and run every lap. I think over the last couple of years, 80 percent of the teams that are in the top-12 after Atlanta – the fourth race of the year – make the Chase. We want to make a good run on Sunday- get all the points we can - and just keep digging. We’ve had some great race cars and overcome some adversity in some of the races. Especially in Vegas last week coming back from a pit road speeding penalty and come back to finish 12th. We’re very happy about that and feel like were in good shape right now.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY REACTION TO NASCAR OVERTURNING ROBBY GORDON’S PENALTY? “I think it’s good for Robby Gordon Motorsports and good for Gillett Evernham those guys (NASCAR) overturning the penalty like they did. Honestly, it was just an honest mistake made by Gillett Evernham Motorsports. They just sent the 2008 nose, which the only difference between the 2008 and 2007 nose is just the character line. Last year, Dodge used the Avenger as the Car of Tomorrow choice to run that – this year they went back to the Charger. The only difference is where the stickers go – so it’s not much difference in it – and being Robby never haven driven a Dodge before, they didn’t know what nose to put on. So they just put the incorrect nose on - but actually – in the rule book, the 2008 Charger nose is approved for this year. So I think that’s what NASCAR went back through it and decided to take the 100 points backs and give it to him (Robby). I understand the fine which is pretty much of ‘be more careful with your stuff’, but it was not worth taking the 100 points away.”

WHAT DO YOU SEE THE OUTLOOK BEING FOR SOME OF THE HIGH-PROFILE OPEN-WHEEL DRIVERS THAT ARE CURRENLTY DOWN IN THE STANDINGS? “There is only so many pieces of the pie. I know Dario (Franchitti) and (Sam) Hornish got a lot of hype and I think both are with two really good race teams. And they both have a pretty good advantage over my teammate where they’re both locked in the top 35 the first five races. That helps them for the Rookie of the Year and helps them for the top-35. Sam (Hornish Jr.) had some problems in the first couple of races – maybe wrecking a little bit and not finishing. We’ve been trying to talk to Patrick (Carpentier) about - run every lap, run every race you can, run every lap you can, every mile you can – just try and be there in the end. That’s something that Dario and Sam are struggling with – if they ever get on the outside after Bristol, I think that it’s going to be tough for those guys to get back in.”

HAS THE PENDULUM SWUNG TOO FAR WITH PENALTY POINTS IN NASCAR? “No. I honestly think that NASCAR’s penalty on the 99 was not severe enough. I think that if you are going to deliberate cheat and try take advantage of something, than you should be penalized or sit our a race. As a driver, you want to think that you have an honest - good shot of winning – and that you’re running against 42 other cars that are legal as they can be – because you know your car is legal. That’s all you ask for as a driver. So I applaud NASCAR for going in there and digging and finding things wrong and I applaud them for doing points and doing fines and sending people home. We tried defiance for such a long time and it really didn’t slow anybody down from taking advantage of breaking rules. I think this point’s thing is getting peoples attention and I think you need to keep going make it higher and higher. Make it 200 points. Make it $200,000. Money’s not that much as the points. We’re all trying to get every point that we can each and every week. If they start to adding up the points every week, I think it will clean things up right quick.”

DO YOU THINK THAT ROUSH WAS TRYING TO CHEAT WITH THE 99 CAR LAST WEEK IN VEGAS? “I think that it insults my intelligence as a race car driver when you try and tell me that you accidentally left the oil tank lid off. If you go to any owner, any engineer, any driver any crew chief and ask them is that an advantage, ‘heck yeah it’s an advantage’. I’ve been doing that half of my career. When driving the 21 and 38 car, we pulled the shifter boot off and the oil tank lid off until NASCAR started to tech it. It’s 100 lbs of downforce.

“Let me try and put this in perspective for you. We spend three to four million dollars a year going to the wind tunnel trying to change body shapes, trying to do underneath the car, changing crush panels and doing stuff like that all the time – trying to get a gain and trying to get and advantage - when all you have to do is take the oil tank lid off and you get 100 counts of downforce.

“There’s a beautiful picture of Carl Edwards doing a back-flip – I’m not taking anything away from Carl Edwards, he’s an amazing race car driver. But someone took a picture of him doing a black-flip in the right side of the car and the oil tank lid is eight inches off the top of the tank. That’s not just one bolt. And the right side safety window latches were loose – that’s were the hot air was going. They did a good job and figured it out and made it work. I’m impressed on how they did it – it was smart and it worked out for them – they won the race.”

DID THEY LEAVE IT OFF BY MISTAKE? “One bolt isn’t going to raise it up seven inches off the top of the lid.”

SHOULD THERE BE A DISTINCTION WHEN A RULES INFRATCTION IS OBVIOUSLY UNINTENTIONAL? “Yeah, I think there should be differences between pre-race and post-race. If they’re pretty happy with 100 points and 100,000 pre-race, make it 200 points and 200,000 after the race being the one you got to race that way.

“When you present a car for inspection I understand slapping you on the wrist and saying ‘look, let’s make sure this doesn’t happy again’. I think that it should be more. If my team cheats this weekend on Sunday and I get a competitive advantage – and I get caught with it – I think that it should be more than what it is when somebody gets caught before the race. I just think that it keeps it all in line and keeps it all fair because you actually didn’t get to race with a competitive advantage.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON MANUFACTURER PARITY SO FAR IN 2008? “I think that it has a lot to do with the Car of Tomorrow. It’s put everybody in a very small box. We all pretty much have the same body. We all have pretty much the same downforce that we’re working with. All the engines run – one might have more peak power – one may have more torque – they all pretty much level out to the same playing field. We’re all playing on the same playing field more this year than I ever think we have been.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TAKING A VICTORY AWAY FROM SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T PASS INSPECTION? “I think you should take a victory away. If I cheat and win this weekend, that puts me in the winner’s circle for the rest of this year and next year. Do you know how much money that is worth? I’ll give you a $100,000 for that. Do something to discourage these people from doing what they’re doing in trying to get a competitive advantage. If that means taking a win away, then ‘yes’.

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 Valvoline Dodge Charger)

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY THINGS WORKED OUT WITH YOUR APPEAL? “I feel good about the points. The one thing you can’t buy in this world – I guess some people can buy them for the first five races – are NASCAR points and time. The money, we’ll figure out how to work through that side of it. The points are what’s important to us. The biggest thing that I still stand by is we didn’t don anything wrong. Somebody made a mistake a delivered us a wrong nose. We believed it was a certified part because of the 2008 rulebook, blah, blah, blah. It was a complete surprise to us when we showed up in Daytona.”

WHAT WAS THE KEY TO CONVINCING THE COMMISSION? “The word we’ve gotten good with is ‘intent.’ We’re not just getting good with it, it’s the truth. There was no intent to gain a competitive advantage, no intent of anything. It did fit all templates, including the identity template fit as well. It fit them all when we put them on at the shop. There was no intent when we put them on. I think that intent was a big part (of the appeal) and the fact we didn’t take a pre-certified part and modify it. We took a part that was given to us by the manufacturer who is really responsible to make sure the parts are certified. It’s not the teams. They (Dodge) present it to NASCAR. The rule is written if you take a certified part and modify it and then go, that’s what that rule is for. That was the rule that stood out. That rule didn’t apply to the (No.) 7 car in this circumstance.”

HAVE YOU TALKED TO DODGE ABOUT THEM PAYING THE FINE? “We haven’t got to that level yet. The biggest thing we worried about are the points. Now that we’ve got those back, we’re 50 points out of 12th. That’s our focus right now. If you run in the top-12, the money will come.”

ARE THERE SYSTEMS IN PLACE AT ROBBY GORDON MOTORSPORTS TO MAKE SURE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN? “Yes, not only our team but Hendrick’s team and everyone else. Wow, these guys aren’t jacking around. We got them back, but trust me there was a lot of effort to get them back when we could have been using that towards selling sponsorships or making our race car faster or being better organized. There was three weeks put into how we were going to get out of this. There are certain things you don’t go and appeal. This is the first time I’ve ever gone and appealed something at NASCAR in the eight or nine years I’ve been participating in NASCAR.”

WHAT WAS THE APPEAL LIKE? “It was one at a time, all the parties you bring in. If you went in and two guys had different stories, it wouldn’t help. Because you are one at a time, you don’t know what the guy before you said. Even though he’s on your team, you don’t know what he said.”

IS THE PROCESS FAIR? “Yes, I’m pleased. On the other side, you look at the money and now we’re the highest contributor to NASCAR Foundation at this time of day. It goes for a good cause.”

WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY YOUR FAN BASE RESPONDED? “It’s great we have the fans we have. That’s why all of us have sponsors and it’s why NASCAR is what it is. You appreciate the fans getting involved. At the same time, sometimes they get involved the other way and they keep pounding you. I’m already down and they keep beating me. This is the first time we’ve had a lot of real support.”

DOES THIS MEAN YOU WON’T ATTEMPT THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 THIS YEAR? “It was more of a fact if we’re on the outside of the top 35, we really weren’t going to have a shot at making the Chase in 2008, we needed to do something big. Let’s go try to win Indy or something. That’s the pure racer coming out in me that wants to succeed. That deal is off.”