RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel/Samsung HDTV Dodge Charger)

WHAT DOES YOUR WIFE THINK OF THE VICTORY AND ALL THE WORK THAT GOES WITH IT? “She traveled with me and we did all the things together. She’s a trooper. She was definitely more emotional on Sunday when I won the race than I was and my father was too. It was nice having her around. She had been gone. She had actually missed the shootout, which is the first race she’s missed since we’ve been together. She was in Belize with her aunt celebrating her 40th birthday, lying in the sun, soaking up some heat. It was nice to have her there and nice to have her back. I’m just very grateful for her support. We got here at the track yesterday at about 10 a.m. and basically passed out. We woke up and went to dinner about 6 p.m. and then came back and went to bed about 9:30 p.m. and woke up at about 9 a.m., so it’s been a lot of work.”

HOW DO YOU THINK KURT BUSCH’S REPUTATION WILL BENEFIT AFTER DAYTONA? “I wouldn’t always say he’s had (a difficult) reputation with me. We basically have continued to do things that we’ve done in the past, going back to Talladega and our drafting experience. Going back to Daytona last year when we ran up in the top-five all day. Obviously his reputation with other drivers and sometimes with the media is different, but I respect Kurt as a teammate and as a person, and we’ve always had a great relationship on and off the race track. I take him for what he’s worth to me and let everyone else deal with him the way they want to deal with them.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE GOING ON THE DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW? “The hardest part for me was is to maintain a good conversation and keep looking at the cameras at the right time – doing all those types of things so you look like you know what you’re doing – which is sometimes difficult. You do definitely learn when you go on the Letterman Show that they call it the ‘Letterman Show’ because it is his show – he runs it. Similar, I’ve got a lot of experience with that in talking with Roger Penske and having conversations with him because (Roger) can have 10 different conversations in one sentence and at the end you’re like ‘what just happened’.

ARE YOU JUST HAPPY TO GET BACK IN YOUR CAR? IS IT A SAFE HAVEN FOR YOU RIGHT NOW? “It was fun, but it was a lot of work. We left Connecticut at 5:30 a.m. for LA and it was non-stop being busyness – that’s the work part of it – that’s what we as driver’s call work. The rest of it is coming into the garage and having fun and relaxing when you’re sitting in the car. Obviously, it helps to have a good car.

“For me, it was my first time to have such a big honor – as far as representing NASCAR and the 50th running of the Daytona 500, so it’s something that I put a lot of emphasis on trying to a good job. Sometimes when we do things we act like we don’t car – and we don’t – but I definitely care.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GET BACK INTO VICTORY LANE , ESPECIALLY AT THE DAYTONA 500? “Let’s just try and make a note – that’s the last time I’m going to try and do that. It was tough at times to fight through the winless steak. Last year when we were close so many times – even if it was just three times – some people don’t even get a chance to win let alone end a winless streak. To do (win) it (Daytona 500) the way we do it was awesome. I look forward to keep the ball rolling – taking all the positive energies from that 500 win on Sunday and spreading it out through the entire year. That’s sounds easy to say, but it’s hard to do.”

WHEN YOUR ROUTINE GETS BROKEN LIKE IT DID THIS WEEK AFTER WINNING THE DAYTONA 500, DOES IT AFFECT YOU ANYWAY PHYSICALLY? “I knew on Sunday that I was catching a cold and I knew it was tough because I didn’t say anything to anybody because that changes their attitude of ‘the drivers sick’ or ‘or he’s getting sick’ or ‘the car’s loose’ or ‘he’s complaining just because he doesn’t feel good’. I never said the first thing but I knew as the week went on that it was getting worse and actually yesterday was the worst it was and today it’s actually getting better. I sound a lot worse than I feel.

“The biggest things that I miss is just being home and seeing the dogs and spending time relaxing. We’ve got a brand new big house with a big ol’ fireplace that we burn a lot of wood and listen to the wood cracking’ sitting back watching TV – that’s a lot of fun for me – at least when you can sit down and relax and do it. There’s no specific thing that stands out that says ‘man we have to adjust here or there’”.

AT WHAT POINT IN THE DAYTONA 500 DID YOU FINALLY FEEL YOU COULD WIN THE RACE? “I knew at the half-way point when I pushed Kyle Busch into 2nd into the lead past Jeff Gordon at the half-way point that I knew I had a car that was capable. Everybody tries to be up front and when you’re up front at the half-way usually it’s a good sign that you have a capable piece and our Alltel Dodge Charger I thought was that. Down the backstretch when I saw Kurt (Busch) push me – and when Tony (Stewart) pulled down that was the ultimate eye-opener for me. Obviously I’ve been in that position before and you never know until you cross the finish line.”

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD A CAR GOIND DOWN IN THE RACE. HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO COMING IN? “The cars were a handful all day. I felt that I had a tire going down and got real loose two corners in a row and then in the third corner it kind of came back and it was fine. If it was off-set a half a lap, I might have come in. I went into Turns 1 and 2 and everything felt fine and I just rode it out.”

IS THERE A CONCERN FOR A DAYTONA 500 HANGOVER? “Just do it. As a team you just have to do it and focus. When the car fires up for practice today - were not back to zero – I don’t think that we’ve accomplished zero - but we have to look at it that way as a team and take all the momentum mentally and harness it.”

DO YOU EVER CATCH UP WITH THE TEXT MESSAGES AND EMAILS? “I got them all taken care of. Sunday night I had 92 text messages and my mailbox was full (I think it holds 15) and I had 63 emails and have had a bunch more that have trickle in since then. So I’ve had over 150 texts and 30-40 phone calls and probably 100 emails. That’s all the friends that I’ve got.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

THOUGHTS ON DAYTONA: “It was a great week and I know that I’m not as tired as Ryan Newman is with all the post-race excitement that happens with a Daytona 500 victory, but it was great to have a small little part in that and to be able to pull together a Penske one-two finish. It’s a dream come true. To go work for the guy is the first part of the dream, and then secondly to go and help him win Daytona. It means a lot to me. It means a lot to the team. We’re excited for the way that our season started. With the points situation it’s great. I thought that my poor guys were out in the rain this morning without a garage stall, but luckily we ended up with one of the last garage stall that they had available just because we don’t have any points. It’s a little odd to be second in points and not have a garage, but hey, that’s the way it goes. That’s the sacrifice. I guess I’ve been a real team player by handing over points to Sam (Hornish, Jr.) and pushing Ryan to victory, but it’s a great start. Penske Racing has got a lot of great things going on right now.”

HAVE YOU PICKED UP MORE FANS OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS BY HELPING RYAN NEWMAN AND SAM HORNISH? “It’s been overwhelming, having the fans support and people talking about what happened at Daytona and the excitement of how that race ended. To me I was just doing the best thing that I could for me to win the race, and secondly the next best thing happened, my teammate won the race. So yeah, it’s been great. The points swap was something that I thought was beneficial to Penske Racing all the way around. It guarantees Sam into these races. We have a guaranteed spot due to the Champion provisional, so if it rains qualifying out today we should be looking good for the Waste Management award for picking up places, because we’ll be 43rd again. We’ll weather the storm here, literally, and hopefully after the first five races are in the books we’ll be back up in the top-10 in points.”

WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT KYLE BUSCH COULD HAVE DONE TO HELP TONY STEWART THE WAY THAT YOU HELPED RYAN NEWMAN? “I’ve been having that question a lot this week as far as if it was your brother or it was Ryan Newman and who would you push, and this opportunity gave me the opportunity to push Ryan Newman. Kyle wasn’t in front of me. I wish I was in front of everybody else and they could have pushed me, but the way that the track and everything shook out there at the last few laps – the outside groove had everybody stacked up together. On the inside lane there was distance between Tony and Kyle, and then whoever was behind Kyle wasn’t right up to his rear bumper. That’s why those guys just couldn’t get hooked up. It wasn’t that they were fighting each other on who was going to win; it was just that the momentum was on the outside lane. If we look at the last few Daytona races, back in July (Jamie) McMurray won. He beat my little brother. I was third and that was because the outside lane had the run. If we look at Kevin Harvick, he had the run last year in the Daytona 500, so that’s what I think played out for us and pushing Newman to the win is that we were outside.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE OPTIMISM SURROUNDING DODGE AFTER DAYTONA? “Yeah, I mean it’s just Daytona, but you work just as hard every off-season to have the best season that you can, whether it’s at a restrictor-place race, a short track or the intermediate tracks. For Dodge to win three times last year, yeah that was bit under average from where we wanted to be. Years before I won a race, Kasey Kahne won six – when you’re getting close to double-digit wins that’s more what a manufacturer wants. Chevrolet just had a strangle hold on the competition last year. They did really well. Hendrick Motorsports seemed to just click with the new car and so that is what I believe is the new focus with the car, and now we’re racing it at places like California, Vegas, Atlanta and so it’s going to the bigger race tracks and I hope that the Dodge teams can break through and win some more races this year. We’re working just as hard as every other team.

“I’ve always thought that I’ve had a piece that’ll win races. The manufacturer is there and they support us. They give us great information as far as tire data. Primarily it’s up to the teams to do the win tunnel testing and now with the COT the wind tunnel testing is taking a back seat. I switched and Dodge was there. I felt like we were competitive right away no matter if the outlook was the same or the results were different. I thought that we were competitive cars.”

HAS THE DAYTONA EXPERIENCE HELPED FORGE A TIGHTER BOND WITHIN THE TEAM? “Since I came to Penske Racing it’s been a great relationship that I knew needed to develop over time. I couldn’t just come in and say who was at fault for why Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace didn’t get along, but with Roger Penske changing the whole program around when I came in. What I mean by that is that he bought everybody’s shares out and now Roger owns 100 percent of Penske Racing’s NASCAR program. So, now it’s Roger making the calls. It’s not Rusty, it’s not Don Miller and Roger over here - it’s Roger. When I came over I was working with Newman and showed him that he could trust me, and that there is going to be that belief in one another that we need to get our teams that our running 10th and 12th every week up to one and two. It’s always tough when the teams are on top. Like at Roush Racing back in 2005, we put five cars in the Chase. That’s when everybody is on top of their game and that’s when you start holding back information is when you have to beat your own teammate if you want to win. Now that our teams are doing better we’re not at that point, but we’re sharing information. We’re helping Sam get up to speed and the way that our drafting connection has gone over the years at Daytona and Talladega – Ryan Newman and I are on the same page. It feels great. That relationship really came forward at Daytona. With Roger you know he wants to win Daytona, but he doesn’t tell you and beat it into the ground that we have to go and win Daytona, but in the back of my mind on the last lap it was great to push Newman to victory because my shot at winning wasn’t quite there and his was.”

DO YOU THINK THAT RYAN NEWMAN TRUSTS YOU MORE NOW THAT YOU’VE DONE THAT? “I don’t think that the Daytona race is going to be that big changing moment. I think that we’ve worked on it the last three years together and he’s seen the trust that we want to have in one another. I’ve seen it in him. This is three years worth of work finally paying off is what I think it is.”

DO YOU WATCH REPLAYS AFTER A RACE TO SEE HOW THE WHOLE THING UNFOLDED? “Yeah, I try to let the restrictor place race just kind of fade away and then focus on California, Vegas, and so on. But then right before the next restrictor place race – Talladega – that week of, and then when we go back to Daytona in July, that week of is when I pull out the last restrictor place race at that track and review it. That’s how I get mentally focused and pumped up for the restrictor place races. What can I do different? What went right? What went wrong?”

HAVE YOU SEEN A REPLAY? “I’ve just seen the quick replays that ESPN has had and all of the news channels across America have had, but it’s almost fun to leave that book open right now for me and my mind. To go, ‘what could I have done better to win?’ because I really want to focus hard on the next restrictor plate race, which would be Talladega in April – that’s when I’ll look at the tape.”

HAVE YOU NOTICED A NEW LOOSENESS IN ROGER PENSKE OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS? “I was blown away when I saw Roger Penske in denim jeans at a Dodge appearance in Daytona. He didn’t have his boat down there, so maybe he didn’t have quite the same wardrobe packed in his bag I guess. There is that atmosphere around Penske that things are good at the race shop and everyone is feeling comfortable. Maybe it’s gotten to the point that Roger feels so comfortable that he’s wearing jeans – I don’t know. It’s just great to see him – his birthday was this week and to be able to celebrate his birthday with a Daytona 500 victory after 30 years of trying the guy is on an all-new high. It’s just a pleasure to work for him and to be around him and put that smile on his face. I couldn’t be happier.”

WHEN YOU CAME TO PENSKE DID YOU SIT DOWN AND TALK TO RYAN NEWMAN ABOUT HOW TO BE TEAMMATES TOGETHER? “I wouldn’t say that I just sat down with him, no. I just observed at a distance on who reacted to whom and which way. How did Ryan accept me as a new teammate? I just didn’t go in there and say hey this is how we have to do things. It just took time. The first six months were a circumstance of hey how are we going to get along. Then the next six months you’re like, hey this guys isn’t so bad and everything is going to be fine. Then we helped each other draft at Talladega in the next race and it was like, oh, okay – he is my teammate. He is going to be there for me. He is going to be my wingman. We really got a vibe off one another. It happened right away, but then it just takes time to develop. It wasn’t just a sit-down meeting. It was just continuous efforts on both of our parts to be better teammates.”

COMMENT ON THE MOMENTUM GOING INTO THIS WEEK FOR YOU. “I hope that we can carry the Daytona success everywhere we go. Finishing one-two is special and I know the few times at Roush when I finished one-two the team is just on cloud nine. Everybody is pumped up about what happened and the next week leading up to the next race it just seems like you’re job goes easier. It didn’t matter who finished in front of whom whether it was myself and Kenseth, or Biffle and then me. It’s always great when your team finishes one-two because it doesn’t happen all that often.”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE TONY STEWART? “I went up to him and shook his hand based on the job that he did at Daytona and told him that he was close. I was pulling for him because he had a strong car. We as drivers like to see who has the best car win races. My little brother definitely had the best car at Daytona and Toyota was really strong. He and I have always raced each other hard and we will always continue to do that. I see Tony as a two-time champion. I think the media does that as well and I think the fans do. I think that I see him in the same way that most people do and that he has a very colorful persona about him and he’s very marketable. He has all kinds of sponsor deals going on, he owns his own race track in Eldora, he has his own radio show – he has a lot of things going on that I choose not to do because I like to focus my racing on race cars, where he is able to do it in many different areas.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE CAR IS GOING TO PERFORM HERE? “I think that this is the first track that the car should he help up against a report card. Daytona is always exciting. The draft is something that keeps the cars equalized and the cars closer together for more exciting racing. This is the first track that I think we can grade this car on. It did well last year on a bigger track like Dover. It did well at Darlington, but now it’s really time for this car to shine. The teams have had more than a half-year to prepare and to be ready to go, so it’s time now for this car to shine and I hope that it does.”

ON RYAN NEWMAN SHOWING APPRECIATION: “I’m so appreciative of what he’s said and what he’s done in his interviews. I think our relationship is shining through. He knew that he won that race and I give him all the credit in the world for positioning himself in the high groove at the right moment, so that I could push him. I love the fact that I was a small part. He took the car the way that he needed to do to win that race and I’m sure that he’s just exhausted the fact that I’ve helped him this week and I’m very happy that he’s given me some of that credit. He’s given me all of the credit. He needs to just absorb it more for himself and say you know what – I won the 500. Years from now it’ll be that same scenario, everybody remembers who won the race and nobody remembers who finished second. In this position right now the weekend after people are remembering the nobody that finished second and that was me. I’m just happy that I’ve had that small part in pushing Penske to win and that he’s been very gracious to give me all of these shout outs in his interview is great team camaraderie. To get a phone call from the CEO of Alltel this past week saying thank you. That was nice. It was a very nice surprise and then the next call was ‘Hey, where do you want these two free cell phones from Alltel to go?’

“It’s just been a great week. When you’re on top of the world things are always good. I’m happy that Newman and I have developed the relationship that we have over the past three years.”

ARE YOU HAPPY TO GET INTO THE REGULAR SEASON HERE IN CALIFORNIA? “It’s always good to finish well at Daytona and to get to talk about it and to run to the bank and cash the check. Now to start the season, I’m excited to be at California Speedway. The regular season now really begins. We’ve got a long way to go before the Chase gets under way. Now this is what the core of our season is about – the two-miles, the mile-and-a-half, and the newness of the Car of Tomorrow on these new styles of tracks and what the season has in store for us. Now it’s finally time to start to work on it.

REED SORENSON (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger)

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FINISH IN THE DAYTONA 500- WHAT A GREAT WAY TO START THE SEASON: “Obviously, starting off the season was good for everyone on the No. 41 team. We tested here (California) and tested in Vegas which are the next two races. I think the main goal here this weekend -and next weekend- is to get a decent finish so we can gain some momentum heading into the thick part of the season. This week we’re just going to try and be smooth in everything we do and try and be smart in practice, in qualifying and be consistent over the weekend and get a top-15 finish and we’ll be happy.”

CAN A LAST PLACE FINISH LIKE YOU LAST YEAR HERE DE-RAIL MOMENTUM YOU GAINED FROM DAYTONA? “I know that we got caught in wreck last year and that stuff is going to happen. Everybody in racing knows that you’re going to get caught up in an incident every once in a while. That’s fine, we understand it. We ran a lot better this year at Daytona then we did last year. The two weeks in Daytona we just ran good.

“We tested here and I thought we were average at the test. We learned a few things from the test and now. So if we can be a little bit better than average that will help out. We need to try and qualify a little bit better than we did last time because the wreck we got in was in the back. You don’t feel as bad getting in a wreck when you’re closer to the front, but a lot of stuff you can’t control. We’re just going to make sure that we do everything right with the things that we have control of.”

“During these practices with these new cars, I think that it’s very easy to over adjust sometimes. I think the main thing is not to do that. You can take a car that is really tight and make it too loose. You have to be careful with these cars and make sure that you don’t do that.”

“We want to make sure that we have a good weekend, I think that’s the main goal for all of us and to get a decent finish. We know that we don’t have to win the race – we want to – but we want to make sure that we stay high in the points and gain some momentum.”

YOU SAID THAT YOU’VE LEARNED SOME THINGS FROM THE TEST; WHERE AND WHEN DO YOU LEARN THOSE THINGS? “We went back and put the car on the shaker rig. We tested from 9 am to 9 pm and I felt like we didn’t really learn that much during that whole day. We learned how to make it worse rather than make it better. The next morning, we tested for three hours and learned more in those three hours than we did the whole day before of doing things to the car. So we went back to the shop and changed some things on the front end and learned some things about more getting grip. Things like that make a big difference.”

IS DARIO (FRANCHITTI) AND JUAN (PABLO MONTOYA) GETTING MORE ATTENTION THAN YOU- DESPITE YOUR SUCCESS- AN ISSUE TO YOU? “Obviously the attention they get is deserved. Dario has won the Indy 500 and was a champion and Juan is a champion as well. So they’re going to get a lot of attention for the stuff that they’ve done. I think as a team, we’re more concerned about the attention that we can get up-front then what we’ve done in the past. I think (Juan) and (Dario) feel the same way. We’re trying to get attention by running good and outside that – best way of getting our No. 41 Target car attention is just running good. That’s what our media plan is so if you usually do that, media attention will follow us and we’ll be fine.”

WAS THE STRENGTH OF THE DODGE TEAMS IN DAYTONA SOMETHING WE SHOULD KEEP ON SAYING IN THE NEAR FUTURE OR WAS THAT SPECIFIC TO DAYTONA? “It was kind of strange because we were running 10th with about 10 laps to go. The 9 car was there, the Penske cars were there, Elliott Sadler was there and we all ended up on the outside where we could help each other out. Usually we’re all spread out, one guy here and one guy over there, but we were all together on the outside and we committed to each other. My spotter talked to the No. 19 spotter before we went green and he said he’d stay with me, so I kept pushing the No. 9 car. I just think we had good race cars.”

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT’S LIKE TO RACE ON THIS TRACK AT CALIFORNIA? “The first cars on the track – when it’s cleaned off- when it’s green- is the fastest the track is and the best grip, and it will change real quickly here. It will change all weekend long regardless of the rain and every time we got on the track it’s going to be good. So we’ll just have to stay up on that and see what the weather does.

HOW COMFORTABLE ARE YOU WITH YOUR ENGINES AND YOUR PACKAGE HERE AT CALIFORNIA? “Pretty confident. We had some testing here at the test session. From where were today from where we were in Homestead last year or at the test, we have a lot more power. I think that it’s pretty obvious that the Toyota’s have a good start – there were a few of them (Toyota cars) that were real strong at Daytona. But we were all right there – all our Dodge’s were right there we all handled greet and we’re fast. It’s going to be something that we’re going to have to deal with all year long – trying to keep up with the Toyota’s and their power. As far as handling, I think we can handle them, if we do the right things. But our engine package is going to be real good.”

DOES THE SEASON REALLY START THIS WEEKEND IN CALIFORNIA? “Yea it does. This is a track that I’ve ran real for a long time – it’s good for me, it’s good for our team- we’ve won here - we just have to find a way to put it all together this weekend and keep doing the same things that we did in Daytona.”

HOW HAS ROBBY GORDON FIT IN AS A TEAMMATE IN TERMS OF LEARNING HOW GEM DOES THINGS SO FAR? “Gillette Evernham obviously has a way of doing things and Robby Gordon has his way of doings – but they (BAM) have done great job as a single car team. I think when you put the good side of Robby’s team with the good side of our team and you can definitely gain from both sides. I think that we have more to offer because we’re a bigger organization and have more people - an engine company – we just have a lot more to offer. Can we learn from Robby (Gordon) to? Yes, we definitely can.”

BEFORE HE BECAME YOUR TEAMMATE, WAS ROBBY (GORDON) ALWAYS ONE OF THOSE GUYS YOU HAD TO LOOK OUT FOR ON THE RACE TRACK? “Yea he was (laughing). I’ve always got along with Robby Gordon. As far as on the race track, when he’s around, you have to race differently. He has a different style of racing that is really aggressive. He does things that say ‘I’m not going to do that’ and you have to say ‘I’m not going to take and get a wreck’ and try and pass him on the next corner and get on with your day. That’s just Robby Gordon and the way it is – you just have to hold your ground.

IS IT GOING TO CHANGE NOW THAT HE’S YOUR TEAMMATE? “I would certainly hope so – I mean if it doesn’t, there’s going to be some problems (chuckling). But I think that Robby’s the type of guy who wants to be a teammate and wants to be part of our company. He knows that he gonna race us like were gonna race him – and if that happens – we’re not going to have any problems.”

DO YOU HAVE A REACTION OF THE PENALTY THAT WAS HANDED DOWN TO ROBBY GORDON? “I don’t know a whole lot about it. There’s a lot more to it than from what I understand, so I haven’t got involved too much. But from what I hear, it’s (NASCAR penalty imposed) kind of outrageous from what’s happened so far.”

WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE DODGE’S DECLINE IN PERFORMANCE IN ’07? “We were going down hill at the end of 2006. We ran pretty good at Homestead, but other than that, we were on a decline. We just never had it figured out. There were things that were kind of off at Gillette Evernham for a long time and they all kind of caught up and we had a rough year in ’07. We changed a lot of things over the off-season and we hope not to have that kind of year. We’re gonna race and see what happens. I have a lot of confidence in our team and our company in it being much better. We ran seventh at Daytona (500) last year too and Elliott (Sadler) ran sixth, so it’s not like we have some huge difference in the season so far.”

YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT THIS TEAM CAN BE, WHAT IS THAT? “I just know that we can win. I know that we can make the Chase. I know that we can win. I know that we can win at just about any track that we go to and as a driver, you feel good…confident.. when you can say that.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger)

IT’S GOT TO BE A GREAT FEELING SEEING YOUR NAME UP THERE IN THE STANDINGS? “It’s a great feeling. To be in the top- 10 in points you don’t feel like you’ve dug yourself a hole. You can come to California and just relax and just put in real good race weekend. It’s real good momentum to build off of- I’m proud of my guys – it’s a great first step for Rodney (Childers) and the Best Buy team to get there best-ever finish in the sport.”

HAS THE ENGINE PACKAGED CHANGED THAT MUCH WITH THE NEW CAR? “We’ve come here with a conservative package to make sure that we’re gonna run all 500 miles. This is a tough place – and it’s usually pretty dry here – so you really have to get your fuel mixture right. We’ve come in with a lot of horsepower, but we’re not going to try and tweak it in terms of timing. We’re gonna try and get real good fuel mileage. We really think that these new cars are going to have a lot of green flag pit stops at a lot of race tracks we go to so want to make sure we get good fuel mileage to - so hopefully we have our motor stuff taken care of.”

IT COULD COME DOWN TO A FUEL MILEAGE RACE COUNDN’T IT? “I think big time. I think if you look at the average number of cautions that we have with these new cars as compared to our old cars, a lot of the race tracks that we go to this year – especially the 1.5 and 2.0-mile tracks are gonna be a lot of green flag runs and a lot of fuel mileage races. You’re going to see a lot more of that this year.”

IS LAS VEGAS THE RACE WHERE YOU’LL KNOW IF DODGE IS BACK BEING COMPETITIVE? “I agree with that. Dodge had a great showing at the Daytona 500. We were just able to find each other and get in line and push each other. We won’t know much until after Atlanta. We have three really fast race tracks in row and we’ll see where our engine program is. We’ll figure out where our engineering is with these cars- talk to me after Atlanta and I’ll tell you where we need to be to compete with Toyota and Chevrolet who I think are going to be the two real dominant teams to put up with this year.”

WITH ROBBY GORDON NOW A TEAMMATE, DO YOU STILL HAVE TO ASK YOUR SPOTTER WHERE THE NO. 7 CAR IS? “That’s a good question. The 7 and I worked real together last week at the end of the race. We hadn’t really raced each other yet- not in a drafting circumstance – we’ll see how that plays out. But yea, everyone knows when the 7 car is out on the track. (Robby) is coming into a real good situation over here with three guys who really care for each other. I hope he fits right with the style where we really try and look to for each other.”

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 Jim Beam Dodge Charger)

WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ON THE PENALTY? “Well, I think I’m more than surprised at the severity of it to start with. Second would be the penalty in general because it was something we didn’t build, we didn’t make, we didn’t supply. It was completely a clerical error from the manufacturer and the manufacturer’s supply warehouse who delivered it to us and all we did was install it on the racecar. We’re going to jail for a crime we didn’t commit. It’s almost like putting yourself in the position where someone steals your car, robs a bank and because it’s your car, you’re going to jail. I don’t think this is a fair penalty and obviously we will have to appeal it. My sponsors, Jim Beam, and everybody else are behind us as a race team and feel that we have not done anything wrong and are confident NASCAR will make the right decision once they hear the whole appeal process and move forward from there.”

GIVE US AN EXPLANATION ON HOW THE PART GOT DISTRIBUTED: “Because they have the same part numbers on the part, that’s how they got distributed to us. This one has a dash at the end of it and we wouldn’t know the difference. We went off the part number. The part numbers are the same. It was clearly a clerical error. I believe the parts warehouse was told by a representative of Dodge that part had been approved when he distributed it to us. Right now, today, I don’t know how many of you guys know this, but we’re actually running Avenger noses with Charger decals. NASCAR, for no reason whatsoever, has not approved the Charger nose yet. It’s been submitted and it fits the same template. Even thought the part was changed before practice, it fit the template before it was changed. It was basically an indention of a detail line; there was no competitive advantage or intent to cheat or do anything like that. The penalty that was passed our obviously was as severe as mixing fuel or blatantly getting more wheel travel to have a performance advantage where that was not the case here with this situation. That’s why we’re going to appeal it.”

DID IT EVER NOT FIT THE TEMPLATE? “No. It fit the template leaving our shop heading to the race track. It fit the template there (at NASCAR inspection station at Daytona). It was clearly a detail line at most. It’s nothing, at the end of the day, that would be a performance advantage or anything like that.”

WHAT IS DODGE TELLING YOU? “That they made a mistake and that they are willing to do whatever it takes. I believe (Chrysler Chairman and CEO Robert) Nardelli himself has even had a conversation with (NASCAR President Mike) Helton explaining the situation. Obviously, I have caused trouble in the past, but this time was not a causing trouble issue. It was clearly the amount of time to get ready to go to the racetrack and compete at the highest level which for us only having the car for five days before qualifying and qualifying as high as we did and racing as good as we did, it’s a huge disappointment. We’re obviously disappointed as a race team that has put us in this fashion and we should be focusing on the positives and now we’re focusing on the negatives. It’s a negative that has been dealt to us and what’s really awkward is it is now putting us in a position where, publicly, we’re out there on the edge because we’re going to Atlanta with a car unsponsored. And NASCAR put us in a position, to the world, that (makes us ) looks like we’re cheating. So now they’re putting us in a severe business situation as well.”

WAS THERE ANY WAY TO CHECK THE PART NUMBERS? “Like I said, it had a dash number at the end. If you read the part number, the part number is the same. I believe it had a dash-A at the end. Ours had a dash-A, but if you read the part number, the part numbers are the same. So that’s another part of the confusion. It was clearly a clerical error. The whole thing again, there was no intent; there was no intent, no rhyme for the reason and the severity for the penalty just doesn’t blow us away, it blows a lot of other crew chiefs in the garage away. They’re very surprised that it is as steep as it it. The consistency is not there. I brought up in a conversation with Helton, take Tony and Kurt a year ago, that was a hundred points, a $100,000. Today, that’s nothing and this is over the top. In my opinion, Daytona wasn’t exciting enough, so they needed something to talk about this week.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD IT MIGHT BE THIS SEVERE? “I’ll be honest here, as a mistake, I hate to lose any points, but I was kind of content with OK, well I guess if we get 25, that will drop us to 16th in the championship and we can probably deal with that. A hundred could be life threatening for our race team.”

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT LOOKING FOR A SPONSOR, NOT BEING IN THE TOP 10? “With the appeal) I believe the points get reinstated, the crew chief gets reinstated. I see my crew chief (Frank Kerr) over there so obviously they got my letter and they approved that certain process of the appeal. This is new to me. We’ve never appealed anything. We’ve talked about appealing it, but we’ve never appealed any of the things in the past. We’ve taken our lumps and moved on. On this one here, obviously, we feel that we’re getting done wrong and we’re going to stand up for ourselves as a race team.”

HAVE YOU FILED THE APPEAL? “Yes, we filed the appeal. Mike Kerr is in the garage area, so I’m sure they’ve accepted our appeal, and accepted appeal request to allow him to be on the box this weekend.”

WHEN WILL IT BE HEARD? “Basically, they got our Fed-X package to them on Thursday, yesterday, and I’m going to expect with the testing and the schedule we’re all on right now, there’s a lot of us on a west coast schedule through the Phoenix test…I don’t know when because I don’t make the rules, but the only time I can see it happening is the Wednesday before Atlanta or Monday or Tuesday after Atlanta. We’re in the meat of the season here where we have guys flying back and forth and we’ve got schedules and stuff like that. One thing that they did say is they would work with everybody involved. It’s not just one person that has to be there; it’s a whole group of us. My opinion, after Atlanta works the best but even Wednesday before Atlanta works fine.”

SO FRANK (KERR) STAYS WITH THE CAR UNTIL THE APPEAL IS HEARD:. “Yes and I believe the way it’s written, the points go back until the appeal is heard too. Basically, I’m charged for a crime, I’m not convicted of a crime. I believe we have to go through their internal court hearing, whatever they want to call it, I’m not sure what NASCAR uses for a term here, but they get with their three board members and we present our case and they present their case and we see what happens. I’ve never been to court before, so I wouldn’t even know what that’s like. This is going to be interesting.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST IMPACT? “Perception. Perception. Being labeled as a cheater where we have not cheated. Where the problem comes into play is with sponsors. When you start impacting our sponsorship opportunities, you start getting into the root of the real situation here and we’re in trouble for something we didn’t do.”

IF THIS STICKS, IS THERE A CHANCE YOU WILL SIT OUT ANY PART OF THE SEASON? “If this sticks, I don’t know what our plan will be. I’ll be honest with you…I think open wheel got back together last week and I know I can drive one of those cars.”

BOBBY LABONTE (No. 43 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Dodge)

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE YEAR SO FAR? “For the most part, we’re all real excited at Petty Enterprises - through the transition that we’ve had- to get to the point we are at today. We feel like we’ve got a lot of good things happening in the off-season and hope that it translates on to bigger and better things on the race track.

IS THIS THE MOST HAPPY YOUR’VE BEEN SINCE BEING AT PETTY ENTERPRISES? “I think so. When I first went there (Petty Enterprises) it was a change, it was new and that was really good. Throughout the last couple years we’d have spurts of ‘hey we made a couple changes and it’s looking good’. As far as total pattern, we may not be good here (at certain race tracks), but as far as the longevity of it, we’re getting better. Before, it was a ‘happen right now this week, but we have to get to next week’. Now we’re thinking a little bit further ahead- things are happening a little bit further down the road- so that’s encouraging knowing you’ve got some stability built into things to progress week-in-and-week-out and try to improve week-in-and-week-out instead going good one week and going ‘oh my god, we’ve have to race next week.’”

DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS GOING TO BE A BREAKOUT YEAR FOR PETTY ENTERPRISES THIS YEAR? “Me and about 50 other guys are optimistic about the same type of thing. But as far as the approach this year, I’m really optimistic about that. There’s a lot of excitement going through the shop as far as a pattern of how they way we’re going to do things and they way its going to be done that is different than it’s been in the past. That’s what we’re looking for to make the difference.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TRACK AND HOW THE WEATHER (POTENTIAL RAIN) CONDITIONS MAY BE A FACTOR THIS WEEKEND? “I’m surprised that it’s not dry yet. I know that they’re calling for some more rain throughout the weekend – I wasn’t sure it was ever suppose to rain here (California) but I guess it can. We’ll just have to play it by ear and see what happens. You never know what’s going to happen – first things first – get on the track and get some practice in.”

HOW IMPROTANT ARE THE FIRST FIVE RACES TO YOU AND THE TEAM? “I know that they’re real important. We definitely want to see some positive racing to get us started for the year. I know that the top-35 rule is always a challenge, but if you can get yourself in pretty good place in the first-five races, you can kind of control your year as far as the pattern you’re going to take and the chances that you’ll have to take later in the year to make changes or not make changes. After the first five races, you’ve kind of set your pattern for what you did in the off-season to get yourself going for the year.”

SO IN A SENSE, YOU KIND OF CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR? “A lot of times it does – anything can happen and that’s the beautiful part of the sport. You’re obviously trying to establish a great good base and hopefully get yourself in a position after race 26 and a better position after race 36.”