MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS IMPALA SS:

NOTE: Truex, Jr. was involved in a multi-car accident on lap of the final segment of the Budwieser Shootout. The No. 1 Impala SS was damaged to extensively to repair and return to competition:

ON WHAT HAPPENED: "The No. 38 hit the wall and I was running wide open up against the wall and there was no where for me to go. I just hit the 38, he was up there up against the wall and nowhere to go. I was two car lengths behind him and couldn't get slowed down."

ON HOW THE IMPALA SS WAS HANDLING: "Not bad at all. My car was handling good. I kept getting in the wrong damn lane."

ON KNOWING MORE ABOUT THE CAR IN A PACK UNDER RACING CONDITIONS: "Yes, I think they are drivable. There weren’t any big issues out there."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST IMPALA SS, FINISHED 6TH:

"I am really happy with everyone on our Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet team. I mean, we just a lot of performance, that we were fast. We had speed, we had a good a good race, we were just in the wrong place in the wrong time. Guys got in the fence, guys checked up and we got dropped all the way to the back. We came all the way back up to sixth so that is good. I think we learned a lot for the race on Sunday."

MARK MARTIN, NO. 8 U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS, FINISHED 8TH:

“I’m doing good. I know we only finished eighth, but it was really a strong horse. I’m thrilled with my Earnhardt / Childress engine program. They’ve really stepped it up since the test. That’s a strong horse. I think we can give those U.S. Army soldiers something to cheer about on Sunday. I look forward to the Daytona 500. I love working with these guys. It was fun out there. It wasn’t as crazy as I thought it was going to be. It was fun.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS, FINISHED 3RD:

TALK ABOUT THOSE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS “I felt like Flint Flintstone in this thing trying to get this short track car to go (laughs). We had a great effort. The car really drove well and that’s what kept me in the game. I made some smart moves and good decisions and was up there racing with the guys. It was a lot of fun racing with those guys. Tony (Stewart) had a great car. Jeff (Gordon) had a great car. We came from the back a couple of times. I just had a lot of fun out there. I’m glad to see we had a pretty clean race and I’m definitely happy for Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. getting his victory in his first time in a Hendrick car.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT YOU CAN TRANSLATE TO THURSDAY AND TO NEXT WEEK? “It’s so tough to tell. The 500 car is much different than this car. So we’ll get into that next week, but I think having the car handle well and drive well is going to be really important like it typically is here. So, we’ll focus on that stuff and we’ll send this one back home and get it ready for another short track race and get in that 500 car tomorrow.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS, FINISHED 4TH:

TALK ABOUT THE RACING OUT THERE THIS EVENING “It was fun. It’s just really wild how you get momentum in these cars and you’ve just got to maintain that momentum. You get in one line and you think that one is going to work and then you get in another line and see if that one is going to work. Obviously handling is going to be an issue over the long runs, but I had a lot of fun pushing my teammates and I had a lot of fun passing them. So it’s just one of those things where it’s the Bud Shootout and you’ve got to go for it and go for the win. And we were going for it as well as everybody else out there. I’m really happy for Dale Jr. It’s awesome to have him at Hendrick Motorsports and I’m real proud of those guys to do that in their first race out.”

HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS THE RACING OUT THERE WITH THESE CARS TONIGHT? “Oh, it’s a lot different than what we’ve had here in the past. I’m glad that we had the experience to get out here and feel what it’s like. The daytime is going to be a real handful. Obviously we’ve got to get the cars handling really, really good. And I think we showed the racing can be pretty spectacular.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS, WINNER OF 30TH BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT:

ON WHAT IT MEANS TO WIN: "That was fun. The Shootout is a neat race. I had a blast those last few laps. I got some great help from my teammates. I didn't win the race without Jimmie Johnson) pushing me. Thanks to him and Chad (Knaus) and those guys for working real hard to get that car ready. BACKUP, BACKUP. Thanks up to my team, had a great pit stop, got us out second. Thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, the National Guard, Amp, Sony, Adidas - everybody that is helping us.

"I hope the fans enjoyed that. Wow, man that was fun. I am so happy. My new team. Victory lane, it doesn't get any better."

IS THE SLINGSHOT BACK AT DAYTONA? “I got it used a couple of times on me and I was able to make it happen (laughs). It looks like it. I had a blast. I had a really, really good race car. That was 50 percent race car and 50 percent teammate. Jimmie Johnson gave me a push there at the end and it helped me a lot. Him and Casey (Mears) were lined up there on the outside and that was great for us. I’ve got to thank those guys for the help. I’ve got to thank my team for building a beautiful race car and they did such a good job all winter and everybody back at Hendrick has worked so hard. This is great for us, man. This is exactly what we needed coming out of the gate. I hope the fans enjoyed that race. It was fun for me. And I’m just so proud of my team, National Guard, AMP, Sony, Adidas and everybody that’s helped us. We’ve had such a long off-season. This makes it all worth it.”

TALK ABOUT THE RACING WITH THIS NEW RACE CAR “My cousin and my crew chief, Tony Eury Jr. put a great set-up under the car that allowed me to drive it anywhere I wanted. It would draft really well. We’ve got some great air boxes and things like that that helped my car pull up. I’m just so surprised to be here. I knew I had good enough stuff and I just thought we would have to be patient to be able to really enjoy all the hard work and this is enjoying the hard work right here.”

TALK ABOUT THE LAST RESTART, KNOWING YOU HAD THREE OF YOUR TEAMMATES SURROUNDING YOU “I knew I could get some help but I knew they wanted to win the race too. I couldn’t count on those guys just dedicating themselves to me. But if they had an opportunity, they would try to win. That was totally what I expected and what I would do too. And unfortunately for Jimmie, I didn’t give him any opportunity or any room on the outside or inside of me and his only choice was to draft and push. He did a great job. He put us in the lead and I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. I’ve got to give this car a lot of credit. Rick and everybody at Hendrick has been such a joy to work with. To have this opportunity, I can’t thank everybody enough.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS, FINISHED THIRD
POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

ON HOW THE SHOOTOUT UNFOLDED FOR HIM: "We didn't practice with the car. At the start, we had some thing not exactly right with the travel in the front of the car. Really, I lost the draft. The car wasn't all that good and I lost the draft. We came in during the break and made some changes and got the car to drive better. I knew at that point to race in those final 50 laps, I needed somebody behind me. At that point, I did the best I could to not put myself in a position to not get hung out. My car drove really well, I could get through traffic, I found myself up there in the top-five, top-four and ended up having a good night.

"The car was off on pace. Being a short track car we were missing a little something. But it drove so well as a result, that I could really carve through traffic and run wide open all night long and it kind of worked out for me."

ON IF SITUATION IS THE SAME NEXT WEEKEND IN DAYTONA 500, WILL HE STAY BEHIND HIS TEAMMATE EARNHARDT: "I am going for it. But I have lost a lot of races by making a move too early. I thought I had the Kevin Harvick Daytona 500 winning move, but I didn't have the car to get it done. I waited and waited, got the huge push came from fifth and was rolling around the outside, but the car just didn't have anything left. There was a couple of times I had a chance to get inside the No. 88 before that when the No. 20 was on the bottom, my car just wouldn't lead. It was just barely hanging on in second. If I had pulled down and how aggressive Tony (Stewart) was and how good of a car he had, he would have put me in the middle and have gone to the back. So I felt like my safest situation was on the outside. I had teammates in front and behind me and I could just kind of wait until that scramble with two to go, or one to go it fortunately it worked out. I had to play more defense tonight than I want to, but it was what I had to do with a short track downforce car using for a speedway car.

"I was running out of steam before I got to Junior. If the No. 41 could have stayed with me a little longer, he hit me so hard I think it broke his momentum and it shot me off like a canon. If we could have stayed together for a little bit longer, or if I been in our intended car I would have been in good shape."

ON IF IN DAYTONA 500 YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOMEONE BEHIND: "I think that is the way our cars race. Talking to Dario (Franchitti) and some of the open wheel guys, they get more of a tow than a push. In Sprint Cup racing, it is all about who is behind you. Yes, the car in front of you helps, but it is more important to have someone pushing and how you control that space behind your car. That is not any different than years parts, I think my circumstances tonight made it more so for me.

“I saw the No. 20 car, he didn't really need any help. His car was good and slick and did all the things it needed to. He could run on the bottom with half the amount of cars against the guys on the top.

I think it will be standard racing and one thing I was real happy to see tonight, it seemed like a lot of thinking was going on out there. There was some hairy moments but it was much better in practice. I think we were all just too charged up yesterday when we took them off the trucks and it caused some problems."

ON TONIGHT'S RACING GIVING NEW INFORMATION ON THE IMPALA SS: "I was surprised of the finish of our run tonight. But, when it started off, we were in big trouble. I was losing the draft. I think the car reacted like it should have; this car does clothes that gap up a lot. There is no way you would bring the old downforce car here, it just wouldn't happen. It has certainly closed up that gap. But you still have a set speedway car and a set short track car which is what we had tonight. The thing about the short track car, the panels, you try to make it light and not brace every thing like you would on a different car. I thought the windshield, the roof and the sides were going to blow off the car, everything was shaking so bad when I got in the draft. Sounded like the body was going to blow off the car."

ON HOW MUCH THE IMPALA SS MOVES AROUND: "I think the cars move around more. I know for a fact that they do move around more. I think that at night, the grip level was better and it kind of masked some of the problems. When we start practicing for the 500 in the daytime it is going to be a handful again. But in general I found the car is much more sensitive with somebody on my bumper than the old car was. It is real easy to get someone loose and in trouble and as we make more laps each driver is understanding where that sweet spot is and how close you can get to someone and help them, and then where you get too close to them and get them in a bad situation."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS, BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT WINNER, JOINED BY CREW CHIEF TONY EURY JR. AND HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS OWNER RICK HENDRICK.
WINNER'S POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE:

ON THE WIN:

TONY EURY JR: “It was awesome. It felt really good to be back like we was supposed to be and Dale Jr. kind of showed it like what we were back in 2000 and just to come into Hendrick Motorsports and perform like this and the teammates that helped us out so much and there towards the end of the race were a big, big help. We knew we weren’t going to be able to beat them alone. Our car was good all night and Junior just drove his butt off and it was really pleasing.”

DALE JR: “Man, I don’t know where to start. It’s crazy. We had a lot of help at the end from Jimmie (Johnson). That really was half the credit to the win. The other half was the car being capable of being up there in the first place. I had a great handling package. It was really fast. I had great runs up off the corner and had a great motor. The car was just really good. I had a good car handling all night. And tried just to stay up in the top three or two and we did that. And we just got lucky at the end being in the right lane and getting the right help from the right guy. I think whoever wins the race, that’s the situation and we were able to be that person. I was just really lucky.”

HOW BENEFICIAL WAS IT KNOWING THERE WERE THREE OTHER CARS OF EQUAL CALIBER THAT COULD BE THERE AND HELP YOU AT ANY TIME TO GET THE VICTORY?

DALE JR: “That was great, looking up in the mirror and seeing teammates and seeing them pushing you and helping you. Jeff (Gordon) got a couple of runs and went around us but that’s what I would have done. Those guys work just as hard as they do at DEI. I learned this. And they go out to win just as hard as you do. You can only expect so much dedication when it comes to being a teammate and you’ve got to work together and we did. I got a lot of help tonight. There weren’t that many time when I was able to help them because we were out front so much, but that’s the way it should be as far as how it went tonight; being able to help each other and stay toward the front. But when you’ve got the opportunity to take the lead or put yourself in position to win, you do it. And it was great. They’ve got fast cars just like we do and if we work together, it would be harder to beat us and harder for us to lose.”

YOU CAME TO THIS TEAM AND EVERYBODY EXPECTED YOU TO BE FAST RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT A RELIEF IT IS TO GET THE MONKEY OFF YOUR BACK SO YOU DON’T HAVE ANY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER RIGHT AWAY?

DALE JR: “I don’t know, I never felt like I had a monkey on my back. I’ve always raced with pressure. I’ve always raced and worked and lived in tumultuous situations and I just got used to it I guess. And Tony (Eury) Junior working with me, side-by-side, we grew up through it even before we got to this level, life wasn’t easy. And it wasn’t ever a golden road and easy to travel. But it is what it is. There is a lot of pressure, I think, for us. But we’ve always delivered. And I hope we will continue. I’ve got to thank a lot of people for the preparation we had coming into this season, not just Tony Jr. and the team, but there were a lot of people throughout the sponsor ranks and the PR side of it, the personal side of it and family and friends. There are so many people who helped prepare this deal and hoping to get it right to where we could come in here and be able to work under this microscope, you know? And Tony (Stewart) and Kurt (Busch) getting into it the other day (during practice) took us off the front page. I felt such a relief after that happened. I wasn’t happy for those guys to be in that situation, but I felt like a load had been lifted off my shoulders when I saw them walking to the NASCAR hauler. And that was just as good as any push Jimmie could have given me (laughter). But me and Junior, we’re just lucky. We are so fortunate. We’ve got such a great team and supporting cast back at the shop. Rick (Hendrick) does a great job of putting great people in the right place and he has for years and we’re just so fortunate to be in the middle of it.”

THE NEW CAR OBVIOUSLY WORKS. HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR IS THAT GOING TO BE ON SUNDAY? ALSO, JIMMIE JOHNSON AND JEFF GORDON WERE IN SHORT TRACK CARS, YET CHALLENGED FOR THE VICTORY. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE CAR?

DALE JR: “The handling was great for me. I think the race will be fine. The race has always been slick. The cars have always had a little bit of handful to them. But I’ve got a great set-up in what I ran tonight. We should continue to have that the rest of the week. I don’t know. Tony Junior can tell you probably that them cars ain’t that much different than you would think.”

TONY EURY JR: “No, NASCAR is keeping us in such a tight box with the templates and the grids that they have, I mean, there is no difference between the short track and this car other than you might have a brake duct behind the nose or something. But you can take your Martinsville car and you can take your Daytona car and there might not be three counts of drag between them. So the only thing you can do is just slick it up, you know, put a nicer paint job on it and stuff like that and maybe mess with some crush panels. And when it gets in the draft, everybody knows it’s an equalizer. So probably the only place that you would see it is if you were doing a single car run. There’s not that big of a factor on tonight’s race.”

OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE PRETTY HAPPY RIGHT NOW. CAN YOU REMEMBER THE LAST TIME YOU WERE THIS HAPPY AND EXCITED AT A RACE TRACK? ALSO, DID YOU COME INTO THIS RACE FIGURING YOU MIGHT BE HERE RIGHT NOW?

DALE JR: “No. Every race I’ve ever won, I couldn’t believe it. That’s the feeling I get. I go to victory lane and I just can’t believe I’m standing there with all my friends and the people that I enjoy working with, and celebrating. It’s just hard to believe. But I think the Daytona 500 is hard to top. It ranks right up there with the Winston, and the races that we probably weren’t expecting to win or I didn’t expect to be. I knew going into this race that my car was fast. But there were so many other unknowns (like) the COT and the draft and how was the draft going to work and would we lead it? The whole race I felt like we were leading and we were leading and we’re going to get beat on that last lap by a slingshot. It’s great that we have the slingshot back. That’s pretty awesome. So even though I was enjoying it, I didn’t want to be the victim of it there. And fortunately we weren’t. We just got side-by-side for third and I knew as long as they stayed side-by-side for third, Tony wouldn’t be able to really get a good run.”

WHEN YOU SAT DOWN THE FIRST TIME YOU TRIED TO PICTURE THIS RACE, COULD YOU HAVE VISUALIZED A BETTER OUTCOME IN THE SENSE THAT YOU LED FOR MOST OF THE RACE, GOT BEHIND, AND THEN GOT THE WIN IN THE END? THIS WAS AN IDEAL SITUATION FOR YOU GUYS

TONY EURY JR: “I think it was. I’m like Dale Junior, I’m thinking how could you give this one away toward the end of the race. But we try to do everything that we can that’s possible during the race and that was kind of like a storybook ending for me. I’m sitting there with a new team and pumping these guys up, which we’ve got the old No. 25 guys, and just telling them hey, we need to go down there and start this week off right. It’s just a storybook line. Dale Junior looked just like he did in 2004 down here, feeing the draft and all those guys, just the fire in their eyes of like hey, we’re going to victory lane and it’s starting us off.

“I mean it’s overwhelming. That’s what gratifies me is when you help somebody else’s life, not just my own, but just you satisfy somebody else and that’s the biggest thing that I see on this team is I want to build a fire with them and win races with them and everybody just have a good time and enjoy themselves.”

ON THE RACE:

RICK HENDRICK: “It was an awful good race. I think it put on a good show. I don’t know what took him so long to win a race (laughter). It sure takes a lot of pressure off to come down and run good in the first race and get a win early and just have a long of fun. I think that’s the important thing.”

WHEN YOU JUMPED OFF THE STAGE AND DEDICATED YOUR TIME TO HUGGING THE GUYS FROM THE GUARD AND THE COLONEL TOLD ME THEY ARE GETTING ALL KINDS OF EMAILS IN D.C. -- GUYS OVER IN AFGHANISTAN. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU, DO YOU REALIZE ALL THAT’S GOING ON RIGHT NOW?

DALE JR: Yeah, I’ve got a buddy that left Iraq a couple of weeks ago to come to the 500. He’s only home for a month. That’s the kind of leave they get; they get about a month. And I’ve been emailing him and talking to him on IM and stuff the past eight months probably since he’s been there. It’s insane. He sends me the pictures and you talk and say and your sitting there in IM and there’s no visual and you just ask him questions and you don’t know what’s cool to talk about and what’s okay not to talk about. But I just kind of say, ‘When you look out the window right now what do you see?’ I just say things like that because I’m just trying to figure out what it’s like to be there. But he sends me pictures, crazy, crazy pictures. Just the ones he has taken and it’s insane that they’re there. He chose to do that; I just can’t believe it. I couldn’t give up everything that I got to go do that, I couldn’t. But, he does. Knowing people like that, that are close to you and you really get some inside information it makes you embrace the relationship and partnership and sponsorships like the Navy and the Guard that I have.

“It has helped me embrace those and really get behind them because I have an inside feel of what dedication is going on there and what sacrifices those guys are making. They like sunglasses because they don’t like the ones the military uses so I got Boris (Said) to hook them up with like 70 pair and he sent me a picture of a Sheik in their robes and everything wearing a pair of Spy’s. Some crazy Sheik guy. Two weeks ago, I just mailed that stuff to him and now it’s on a Sheik’s head. It’s just crazy how big, but yet how small the world is. I’m proud of him, I’m proud of my friend. I’m proud of everybody over there.”

ON WHETHER HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS IS AS ORGANIZED AS IT APPEARS

DALE JR: I think the answer to the question is the personalities, between the guys, between me, Jeff, Jimmie and Casey. Me and Jeff have always been competitors and always raced to beat each other, but now that we know we are on the same team, we know we need to work together for the better of the company, I mean it’s obvious. So that’s what we do. But he’s going to do what he can to win the race. His guys work hard to put that car out there to win. And me and Jimmie get along great. We always have, and I knew if I gave him an opportunity on the middle or the outside of me and if he had a run he would put it there. But I knew if I didn’t give him that opportunity his next choice would be to push me in the draft because he’s my teammate. And that’s what you do, that’s what I do. That’s the decision you make. You’ve got one or two and you pick between them in a split second decision.

“We had a green, white, checkered, we had three Hendrick cars on the outside line and first we had to get one of us out there and I just happened to be the guy in front of the line, so if the shoe had been on the other foot I would have pushed Jimmie. But it’s the personalities; we get along. You don’t mind helping a guy that you get along with and you respect and I hope that’s the way they feel about me because I have that same respect for them and when the situation comes we will all work together as best we can.”

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHOUT TO ALL THOSE ARMY NATIONAL GUARD MEN AND WOMEN? DO YOU FEEL ANY DIFFERENT REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL GUARD AS OPPOSED TO BUDWEISER?

DALE JR: “Like I said before, I’m proud of the commitment and devotion that it takes to be in the military and in the Guard and to devote yourself to do and go anywhere, anytime, at any moment’s notice to do any job. That takes an unbelievable amount of sacrifice from your family and friends and just to be out of the norm individually. Just to be in a situation and know what to do next. You know that’s insane. I’m just really proud to be a part of it. I’m proud to be doing what I’m doing here and I’m glad that they chose me to carry their name on our race car and I’m glad that they are happy that we’ve paired together. I hope that I can bring them more success. But it’s a different relationship. I’ve worked with the military before and I’ve heard nothing but great things about the Guard prior to working with them and how they do the motorsports program. I’ve heard some great things from Casey (Mears) and whatnot and up to this point they are true. We’re having a lot of fun and they get it. They come out here and their promotional getup and everything they bring out here is the real deal and it’s done professionally and I enjoy the way they represent us as a team at the race track, in and around the racetrack, outside the racetrack. It’s very important because it’s the impression the fans walk away with and they do a good job at that.”

HOW MUCH WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN WITH THIS CAR AT THIS TRACK THAT WILL HELP YOU NEXT SUNDAY?

DALE JR: Well I don’t know. Tony Jr. and I we never really talk about that. I don’t know what he got from it tonight or what he wanted to get from it. We were a little loose at the start, we made an adjustment and it seemed to help. The set up of the car seemed to change a bit. We’ll just look over the car really good and see if anything moved or whatever, but as a whole the car handled great. I want my car to drive just like that.”

YOU MENTIONED EARLIER, THAT YOU HAVE RACED UNDER PRESSURE ALL YOUR LIFE. ON THE MEDIA TOUR LAST MONTH SOME OFFICIALS SAID THAT THEY BELIEVE THE SPORT RIDES ON YOUR SHOULDERS. IS THAT THE KIND OF PRESSURE YOU ARE USED TO OR DOES TONIGHT ENORMOUSLY HELP THAT BURDEN?

DALE JR: The sport don’t ride on my shoulders. Jeff Burton said it best. If we weren’t here tomorrow there’s guys in this sport that would carry the sport to wherever it goes and it would continue to do great things and there would be personalities that come into this sport after most of us are gone that will be as crazy and as good and bad. I don’t know why I got chose to be in this situation but I thank the Lord for it every day and I’m really lucky. I’ve won some great races. I grew up watching my Daddy win all them races and I didn’t think I would ever be able to do it. So every one I win, I enjoy it like it’s the last. I just feel real lucky that I got the opportunity to be in good stuff and live how I want to live. I’ve got it made.”

ON THURSDAY YOU SEEMED A LITTLE BIT SKEPTICAL ON WHETHER NASCAR WAS GOING TO LET DRIVERS REALLY BE THEMSELVES THIS YEAR. IN THE WAKE OF THE KURT (BUSCH) AND TONY (STEWART) INCIDENT, GRANTED THERE HAVE BEEN NO PENALTIES COMING DOWN YET AND THERE STILL COULD BE, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF NASCAR’S REACTION TO THAT SO FAR AND DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE MORE LENIENCY?

DALE JR: Yeah, I think there will. I think the websites, the hits over the last 24 hours, 48 hours, I’ve heard some good things about that. It just brought a lot of attention to this race. Speedweeks you know, they needed a shot in the arm and what happened in practice gave it that. I think NASCAR will take those guys and probably do some things to make them think twice about getting physical with each other, at least on the race track grounds. Nobody was really put into any danger. We didn’t have anything like we had at Dover and things like that. Nobody is going to go down pit road and put anybody into danger. You’re not going to get away with that, but on the racetrack I think they are going to go back to letting us run over each other it looks like it, so just get ready. I’m going to walk around with my dukes up all day long. Be ready I’m telling you, you got to watch both hands.”

After references to Jim Hunter being in the room, Rick Hendrick and Dale Jr. invited him to join them on stage.

DALE JR: “That all was a joke. Didn’t mean a word of it, Jim.”

ON HAVING ALL FOUR CARS IN THE TOP-SIX IN TONIGHT'S FINISH INDICATING THAT JIMMIE'S TOUGHEST COMPETITION GOING TO COME FROM HIS TEAMMATES

RICK HENDRICK: "I wish it was going to be that easy, but that is not going to be the case. There are good cars that weren't out there in that race tonight. We were fortunate there at the end. It is going to be a very competitive year. These Toyotas are awfully fast. You have Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton and all those guys that weren't in there tonight.

“I think we are going to be real competitive, but it is going to be a tough year. I think this will be the best 500, most competitive 500 that you have ever seen. If you don't start up near the front, you are going to have a hard time getting to the front. I predict this will be one of the best years we have had in NASCAR, with a lot of different winners and a very competitive season."

ON THE PRESS CONFERENCE BEING A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN WITH OTHER DRIVERS AND EMOTIONS

RICK HENDRICK: "It was real special. I have never had so many emotions going through me at the end of a race. One, because I thought about Ricky, because he wanted this and they talked about doing this, and this happened. Then I thought about Robert G, because he and I came down here and raced together in a Busch car named Emma. The car he is going to drive in the 500 is Emma and I have his two grandchildren sitting here, so there is a whole lot of neat stuff going on, I mean we are like giddy. It is kind of like...well, I guess you might notice that. It’s a different feeling; we are having a lot of fun. I have to show you guys a picture of Tony Eury, Jr. when he was 14 when I was driving a Busch car at Atlanta, and that was the first race he went to, when I was driving that Busch car. His Granddaddy let him go, then to see him here, seeing these two guys, do what they did tonight, the first time out of the box, after all the heat that has been on them, boy they took a lot of heat off of me tonight. So, it is really special. We are really enjoying this, this is going to be a fun week."

ON SKY HIGH EXPECTATIONS WHEN SIGNING JUNIOR AND WEIGHT COMING OFF AFTER TONIGHT

RICK HENDRICK: "I think as much as the win, the test we had in Atlanta, the test in Vegas and California; the way Tony Eury, Jr. has interacted with the other crew chiefs and engineers, the way that Dale has worked with the other drivers, one of the things I was concerned about was chemistry more than winning. Because, I felt like we can win and I felt like we would be competitive, you know you have to get in a position to win. I think they went to the top of the board in Vegas right off the start, it feels good to answer the question can we win. Ok, we have done that. It takes a big load off.

"Man, if we had broke a motor out there tonight, I would have changed clothes and gotten the ambulance to take me out to the hospital. I was thinking about that too, man, don't break nothing. Please, don't break anything. It is a tremendous amount of pressure, but we knew that and but again, I can say this. The chemistry is unbelievable and that is something that you just...that is the hard part. You see all those other three drivers come in victory lane and you see him come down here early for the test, the commitment these two guys have put in. I mean he has answered the question to me with a bold statement. He is as hungry and committed as anybody that has ever sat down in one of my race cars. That question has been answered. It just feels good.

“Like he said. He has an awesome amount of talent. I used to hate to see him come to the front when I had a car down here. I mean, when you would see him get lined up; you knew you were going to have to deal with him. It is a whole lot better having him in our car, I will tell you that. I think everybody has said it a lot, but this feels so good, just to get it out of the way. I know from the other tests, that he is going to be strong and stout at the other places too and we have Nationwide race coming up, we have the big race coming up, the 500, we have the 150s and I can't wait for everyone of them. I just think it is going to be a show. I think we saw tonight, the fans are going to get their money's worth in these races."

ON COMBINATION OF NO. 25 TEAM MEMBERS WITH NEW MEMBERS FOR DALE'S TEAM

RICK HENDRICK: "I will tell you something, you look at that team and you look at those two cars and you got Tony Eury, Jr. and you have Darian Grubb who has won and was part of the No. 48 and the No. 24 sitting on the boxes, you have Brian Whitesell. That shop is loaded with talent; it is not just the No. 25 team; that is a blend of the No. 25 and the No. 5. We shuffled some people around and then Tony brought some guys with him, so it is kind of a mixture, but it is good to see. I think you are going to see some really good things out of the No. 5 and the No. 88, you have already seen it tonight. There is a lot of talent, there is an awful lot of talent but they are working together.

"Junior has made them all feel special. Everybody in that whole shop was over there tonight congratulating Tony Eury, Jr. and Dale, Jr. because it is about 80 or 90 guys that are working hard to make this thing work."

ON WHO HE DEDICATED THE RACE TO

TONY EURY JR: "My setup guy, Joey (Arnold), his kid was five years old and had terminal disease of some kind and died last Tuesday. I walked in there coming back from the California test; I said 'Joey, what are you doing here?' His kid had died the day before. He said 'This is my best chance to win the Daytona 500 and I want to be a part of it.'

"To me that kind of dedication from that guy, that meant a lot to me, so I told Joey that was for him. You put yourself in a position where something like that happens; it is unbelievable that there is that much dedication and that much want to win these races. A lot of people don't realize how big these races are. I mean there are a lot of families out here that don't get to come week to week and a lot of time...people say this sport makes a lot of money. The way I look at it, you get paid to not have a life sometimes.

"When things like that happen, it hits me emotionally and I am so thankful that I have people that dedicated behind me and I go out here and perform for them."

ON HIS FANS LOYALTY EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT WINNING

DALE JR: “The thing about it is that when we are not in Victory Lane they are supportive and they don’t give you this feeling of anticipation and they don’t burden you with the pressure of trying to get back into Victory Lane. They’re most supportive with that they know you will and they are with you until you do. That’s really the message I get from my fans. I might just be hearing from the ones that are only saying that. The funniest thing probably for me aside from the feeling of just being in Victory Lane and winning, is seeing the look on everybody’s face. You’ve got fans in the grandstands over there and even in the stands of the winner’s circle cheering and carrying on. It’s awesome. That’s such a great feeling that people get excited about it and you made it happen. You were part of it. I’m looking at my guys and they are excited and I want them to be more excited and enjoy it because I know how tough it is and I know how cherished those moments are. Me and Tony, Jr. we really have fun with this and hopefully we will have a lot more to be happy about. But the fans, they have always been behind us. They gave us great support at the intros tonight and that was the first introduction since the move and that’s a little bit of a thermometer if you will and there was great support there. So, I’m excited about the 500. “

ON TONY STEWART’S COMMENT THAT JUNIOR MAY BE THE BEST RESTRICTOR PLATE RACER EVER

“I had such a good time racing side-by-side with Tony near the end of that race. I enjoy racing with Tony. We show each other lots of respect in and out of the race car. He races me very hard but at the same time he makes it fun. He knows how to engage people on the race track and if he wants you to enjoy it and he can make that happen, if he wants you to hate it he can make that happen. Not many people know how to race and allow the other guy racing to enjoy it, but me and Tony seem to do that. We rarely have any problems or disagreements. I appreciate his comments. I have always had good confidence in myself at these racetracks. I’ve always had good confidence in knowing what to do. There’s times when I’ve come down here and I had cars that were difficult and that made me feel average and that made me feel like I wasn’t something special when it came to plate racing.

“And there was a time when it seemed like all I could win was plate races and I didn’t want to take credit for it because that seemed like that was all I was going to be was a plate-race winner, but I’ve embraced it. After I won four in a row in Talladega, beat (Buddy) Baker’s record, I started embracing it because it was special to me and Daytona is a special place. How many times has an Earnhardt won here? It’s like over 55 or 60 races maybe. I don’t know, that’s a lot of races, so I want to keep adding to it. Daddy won like 30 some, I won 8 or so maybe, I don’t know. Eleven races? That’s a lot; I didn’t think it was that many. So I embrace that. This is where we lost him and I want to keep whipping it, you know what I’m saying. I want to make it a special place.

"The race track has been good to me. I enjoy coming here and at Talladega we just have so many great fans there. It’s so fun to take lead at that place, come off of Turn 4. There’s nothing more fun than that. Yeah, Rick gets to enjoy that this year if we can make it happen.”

RICK HENDRICK: “Maybe they won’t throw anything at me.”

DALE JR: “I feel great confidence in my abilities at these places. Now with this type of equipment, I’ve had great cars in the past. To win the Daytona 500 you have to have a great race car and I’ve had them, but I came down here with pretty stout stuff this weekend and I’m looking forward to being behind the wheel of it.

ON THE CONFIDENCE RICK GAVE HIM THROUGHOUT THE RACE

DALE JR: “We were just talking about the pressure didn’t come until after the race when he told me when I was pulling into the front straightaway, he told me do something different. That’s when the pressure came because I didn’t know what to do. I was like how differently can I do a burnout and every other burnout I’ve seen.”

RICK HENDRICK: “I don’t even know why I said that.”

DALE JR: “He says do something different and I’m like oh dang. I thought if I don’t do something different what’s going to happen.”

RICK HENDRICK: “That was kind of stupid, wasn’t it.”

DALE JR: “Rick has been real supportive for me. This deal, it has some pressure. This whole situation can be difficult for me and Rick, for my teammates, for everybody really that’s close to it. It can get up beside you at times. We all comment once in a while to break the tension and to bring things back to ground zero and get things cooled down. There’s times when I feel a whole lot of pressure and I just get a word or two from Rick and I know where everything is at and I’m cool. Going into this race I got out front and I just tried to lead as much as I can. I didn’t know what was going on behind me, who was not coming, who was riding, who was racing. We just did what we had to do. A lot of it is just pure luck. I had a great push from my teammate. I had an awesome race car. If I just don’t screw up, we’ve got a shot at winning the race.

“It was so much fun though, out there. One of the best parts was when we were up on the high side and even though Tony was down there I never pulled down there. I stayed in front of my teammates and we all sort of sat there. With 25 laps to go and 30 to go Jeff (Gordon) passed me and I passed him back and he was pointing me by and I was pointing him by.

"Because we had these huge runs, we weren't going to push each other then because you get this monster run and you just got to go. It’s the racer in you that makes you do that. I had so much fun out there tonight, it was so much fun. The car handled great.”

WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF THIS BEING THE LAST SHOOTOUT WITH BUDWEISER AS THE SPONSOR, WAS THIS WIN MORE SATISFYING BECAUSE OF YOUR LONG ASSOCIATION WITH THEM?

DALE JR: There will be satisfaction if it happened. Bud had been an amazing sponsor to that race. Individually, asides from sports and motorsports alone they are a great addition to any and every bit of it. The Busch Clash . . . great races, great looking race cars for years and it was always a lot of fun. It’s fun especially when you are a little kid. You’re like all right I get to see a little racing and I don’t have to wait until the Daytona 500. I’m glad I’ve won it and I’m glad that I’ll be in it for a while and hopefully that will keep me in a job for a while. They are a big company and they do a lot for this sport. Hopefully they will renew it. I would like to see them renew it.