JIMMIE JOHNSON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS AND JEFF GORDON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS were among other former Daytona 500 winners that met with media members and talked about what winning the Daytona 500 means, taking chances to win the Daytona 500 and more. Transcript:

ON WHAT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 MEANS:

JEFF GORDON: “I don’t know how to put that into words. I just remember the very first time that I ever drove through the tunnel to come here and test the Busch car and how in awe – of course the track is legendary and has a lot of history, but you really have no idea until you drive through that tunnel and see the steep banking and just an incredible race track. Of course you go into it and they’re just like you run wide open. Maybe Eldora in a winged sprint car was maybe the only place I could ever think of running wide open and that wasn’t exactly easy, so I was like man I hope I can do that. I just remember getting out there and in my first lap I was running along there and I was like okay I’m ready, I think I can do it and I was already wide open. So I was like okay this isn’t going to be as difficult as I thought to run wide open. That first experience to me is what set the tone and every single time I drive through that tunnel I get that same feeling that I did the very first time.

“It’s just a really awesome, very cool place to race to perform and then over time you learn the history of our sport, the history of Daytona from the beaches over here to this incredible speedway. Who’s won it, who hasn’t won it. When you do go to Victory Lane for the first time, it’s very, very special. I feel like the third time was even more special than the first time because I have a greater appreciation today than I’ve ever had not for just the sport and the history, just how competitive and how hard it is to go to Victory Lane especially in this race.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON: “I couldn’t agree more. The only thing that I would add is for myself growing up in southern California and racing in the off-road industry, NASCAR was worlds away. So to find my way into this sport and to drive for Hendrick Motorsports and all the things that take place and then to win the Daytona 500, I never thought it was attainable. To be able to experience it and go through it, it’s impossible to put it into words. There’s nothing like it.”

JEFF, YOU’VE WON TWICE HERE BY MAKING RELATIVELY BREATHTAKING MOVES GOING INTO TURN ONE, CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THOSE TWO INSTANCES. DID YOU MAP THOSE OUT A LAP OR TWO BEFORE OR DID THEY HAPPEN WHEN THEY HAPPENED?

“Well I think one thing I learned early on in Daytona was that the momentum that you would get off of turn four through the tri-oval into turn one is where most moves used to happen more frequently before the yellow line rule.

“When they paved all that down there, then what happened is you could get the momentum to run high and get out of the guy’s mirror in front of you and then shoot across his rear bumper before he could really make a move and be inside of you. As long as you got position, you just had to figure out how to get back up on the banking before you got into turn one. While it looked pretty hairy from outside and at times it was pretty hairy from inside, it just kind of was the norm. It just was the way you saw the guys do it and the way you did it. When it’s for the Daytona 500 in the closing laps, I mean right now we still see extremely bold moves, it’s just in a narrower window and we know where those boundaries are and before that, there were no boundaries. If you could have gotten away with the move on the apron, I think you would have pulled it off. Maybe that’s why they changed the rule, I don’t know.

“I think that time when (Ricky) Rudd was running off of pit road there kind of slow and we went to make that move on Rusty (Wallace) it looked worse on TV than it was in person, but it could have gotten pretty nasty. I think the Daytona 500, that’s what it brings. That’s what big races bring. The intensity level rises, everybody is pushing as hard as they can and you’re hungry and you want to get that win and you’ll do just about anything to get it and hope that it works out and for me it has worked out.”

ABOUT GOING FOR THE THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP IN A ROW IN ’99:

JEFF GORDON: “We didn’t have a chance in ’99. I don’t really remember thinking about that a whole lot. I guess I was remembering too much about that lost opportunity in ’96 that we could have had four in a row. I think that ’99 we had such an incredible ’98 that I really didn’t know what to expect in ’99 other than it was going to be hard to top ’98. In ’99 we just weren’t together. We won some races but we just didn’t have the consistency. You could tell there was a transition period at that time for our team. That was our seventh year together between me and Ray (Evernham) and there was a lot going on with him with the Dodge stuff. There was a lot going on with me with contracts and I don’t know if those were distractions or what they were but ’99 to me, I remember it just being a transition year.

“I think that Jimmie and Chad (Knaus) and those guys are in such a different position. I feel like yeah there’s pressure but they’re so together, they’re so on top of their game and Hendrick Motorsports is on top of their game as a whole better than we’ve ever been. The only thing that can throw a kink in there is this new car. That to me is the variable that we really don’t know 100% about. I have a lot of confidence in our organization but I’ve seen what Jimmie and what Chad and that team can do. Throwing out the three-in-a –row, I would pick them to be the team to beat for the championship this year and give them a very good shot at doing three in a row.”

ON 50 YEARS OF RACING AT DAYTONA

JIMMIE JOHNSON: “It’s special to see the names that built this sport and made it what it is and to hear the stories. I wish I were here throughout the morning to hear these stories. I’m too new to the scene to really have these great stories and someday I’ll be up here hopefully telling great ones and keeping them laughing. These guys, the stuff they did. They raced without roofs, wore leather caps for the most part and raced on the beach, that’s amazing. That’s what our sport was built on and they’re true characters and put the sport where it is. I’m honored to be a part of it. I’m honored to be a champion and a Daytona 500 winner and I can remember watching this race and how big and impressive it’s been in so many fronts. So to be a part of it is very special and to see these guys. Some of them, it’s the first time I’ve met them and it’s been a pleasure.”

JEFF GORDON: “I think Dale (Jarrett) is probably the best guy to talk about this. Nobody understands the history better than Dale does with growing up in it. For me, I grew up in California and sprint cars and the Indy 500 was what I grew up with. It’s just the type of racing that I followed. I didn’t know a lot about stock car racing so that’s been one of the biggest challenges for me since 1990 when I really first started paying attention to NASCAR and stock car racing. Of course I knew the Daytona 500, really the only race I knew was the Daytona 500. So I remember ever year watching the 150 or the 125’s and you always paid attention to Ken Schrader because Ken Schrader was an open-wheel racer. He was really the only name that I really knew. And it wasn’t until I really started driving, I would say 1991 or the transition between ’90 and ’91 when I got that call from Bill Davis, from Ford to come drive their car that I was all of sudden wow I need to educate myself on these cars, on these tracks and this team. So I started watching footage and old races and things of Busch races and that’s when I became aware of who Mark Martin was and Dale Earnhardt, from the Busch races that they were running. You know that’s always been a challenge for me because my history, growing up as a kid, was always open wheel racing and a little bit of the Daytona 500. So I look at my knowledge and history and being in awe around all these great champions is what I’ve seen on TV since I’ve been here in ’91. And that’s why I say my third Daytona 500 was that much more special because it gave me the time to really learn more about the history of the track and the sport and these great names that I’m very fortunate to have my name listed right along with them.”

SEVERAL FORMER DAYTONA 500 WINNERS INCLUDING DALE EARNHARDT, JR. DRIVER OF THE NO. 88 IMPALA SS AND KEVIN HARVICK, DRIVER OF THE NO. 29 IMPALA SS met with media members and discussed what it means to win the Daytona 500, the early years in their racing careers, and more.

DALE, HAD YOU EVER MET CALE YARBOROUGH) BEFORE TODAY?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “Yeah, we’ve met a couple of times. Really the first time we really got to get around each other was at a fundraiser in South Carolina to put a field down on a football field for a team to be able to practice a little better. Yeah, at Newberry College.“

ON WHAT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 REALLY MEANS:

Kevin Harvick: “I think obviously everybody freshly remembers what happened last year. The best moment for me was pulling into Victory Lane and seeing Richard Childress’ face and really understanding what the Daytona 500 meant pulling in. We have been fortunate to win a lot of races with Richard and I’ve seen him in Victory Lane a lot, but it’s just the emotion and the excitement knowing that he’s only been able to win the race twice now and to see that look on his face was the ultimate memory for me.

"My first Daytona 500 was a lot different than everybody else’s just because I came after a whole year of the first season and wound up at the front of a 22-car pile-up. The best memory was just the fact of seeing Richard’s face just knowing what he’s done in the sport and seeing that emotion. For me that was the best moment.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “You know you do about anything in the world just to get into the race and once you’re in the race there is no feeling like it. You’re sitting on the starting grid and - you know with Daddy running here 20 times and the first one I saw was the first race I was in. Really intimidating but you know it’s just a crazy feeling to be in that field, yet alone win that race. Winning it is just potluck mainly. You got to have a fast car but circumstances and variables throughout the race dictate whose going to be around at the end with a shot to win. I just had an amazing race car that day. It’s an incredible feeling. There’s no way to describe it and I get asked it all the time, what was that like and I can’t answer that question. It’s impossible.”

ON HIS DRIVING STYLE COMPARED TO CALE YARBOROUGH’S:

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “It’s hard to put a description on your style. I think we change as the cars change and you do whatever you think the car needs. You see people that you admire when you are growing up and you see them do things. You see them act a certain way and you take little pieces of that maybe from each guy and when you come across a certain similar situation maybe you handle it the same way, do it the same way or remember they came out okay with this approach or what not.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Cale (Yarborough) and how he was and how he handled himself. I didn’t really come to appreciate that until after he had finished driving. When he was driving I was just kind of starting to pay attention and realize what was going on around me. You know it’s a lot of fun to go back and look at the history really closely and see a little bit more and learn a little bit more about Cale and Bobby (Allison) and those guys and what the sport was like. You know, try to imagine what it was like to be around at that time. But it must have been interesting, kind of neat.”

WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO MYRTLE BEACH, IF YOU TORE IT UP YOU HAD TO FIX IT DIDN’T YOU?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “Yeah, I didn’t have it that tough. I didn’t have it as tough as Cale did obviously. We would drive down to the beach and we would drive home after the race, we didn’t get a hotel room. I didn’t have any money to myself and Daddy wouldn’t give you any more than what it cost to buy the tires and you couldn’t lie to him because in ten minutes he could make a phone call and find out what they really cost. So he would ask you and you would tell him $400 and that’s what you would take down to the beach. I was lucky, I had him helping me get my tires and getting my pit passes and stuff. But when it first started I was working with Gary Hargett and he worked with Gant on that red No. 77 sportsman car and he worked with my Daddy in the 70’s. My Daddy introduced me to Hargett. I was working on my street stock car and I was working at my Dad’s dealership making minimum wage, changing oil every 29 minutes. They put me on commission and that lasted a week. I had a little bottle full of transmission fluid that seemed to get sprayed on everything on new cars.

“Anyway, I was going down to Hargett’s Wednesday nights after working in Denver. Hargett lived in Union County. So it was about all I could do to afford to pay to go down there and back on Wednesday nights to work on the car and then I would drive back on Friday, spend the night and we would go to the race on Saturday. We didn’t have any money from Daddy. Hargett had a car and a motor. It had a little stock clip on it and I think it was the last stock clip race car that they ran in South Carolina. Hargett would borrow $800 maybe $600 from the bank on Friday and we would take that $600 or $800 if we were lucky back on Monday. One week we didn’t make it and we got down to where we had to sit out a couple of weeks. Definitely like I said it wasn’t nowhere as hard as what Cale and those guys had to come up through, it was just a tougher world back then.

“But it was a good lesson and Gary taught it well to me. He showed me everything when it came down to how tight the books were. I got to see it all. You would be surprised how long diesel oil would go. They say to change it every 6,000 miles but it will go 20,000 (laughter). We finally got us a little bit of money from SunDrop, believe it or not, to finish the season out and then we got a better sponsor the next year. It was a good lesson and Daddy always said he was going to make it as tough as he could on me when we first started but he wouldn’t let me starve so I never really had to worry about that.”

DO YOU HAVE SOME MEMORIES?

Kevin Harvick: “Well I think for me, you know my father and I, we raced. My dad was a fireman and on the side he would – you know he started off drag racing and then he went to working on stock cars and that was the money we raced our go-karts on from the time I was five until I was 15. As I got closer to being old enough to drive in the late model cars we started acquiring parts from the cars that he worked on and the people didn’t want the brake rotors or brakes or whatever they didn’t want any more that’s how we built our first car. So we got to the point where we got the car done and he always wanted to have a ’55 Chevrolet so he found one that he liked and he put it in the garage. He put it right next to the race car and he says you can have one or the other. We can sell the ’55 and you can race that or that and we will be done racing. So we sold the ’55 and we kept racing and we went out and raced the next year. We didn’t have enough money to buy tires and luckily the Collins family, they owned Mesa Marin Raceway at the time, they would give us tires here and there to show up at the race track. We basically raced off of the $600 or $700 you would win from the late model race that week. I didn’t make many races the first year. I think I ran seven races in the whole year because we spent more time fixing the car than we did racing the car, so we ran seven races the first year and that was probably the best thing that happened to me.

“When you got to go back and fix them yourself and you couldn’t afford to go, we didn’t have a trailer, we had to borrow a trailer, we had to borrow a truck and we didn’t have any spare tires. We didn’t have anything, but the next year we went out and won a championship. We just tore one fender off the car and I think that first year really helped us understand. As we went through the years, my Dad and I, we couldn’t afford to go on so I went to school for about six months and luckily got the opportunity with Wayne and Connie Spears. All those times of not being able to afford to race and the lessons that he put me through, help us take care of our stuff now. That was good and lessons that you can’t ever give back.”

CLINT BOWYER, DRIVER OF THE NO. 07 JACK DANIELS IMPALA SS MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA FRIDAY and talked about starting in the rear for Sunday, track conditions, what it means to race in the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and more. Full Transcript:

ON NOT RUNNING PRACTICE TODAY: “I’m just going to sit this one out. We don’t want to put too many miles on our 500 motor. Just going to sit it out and watch what goes on, try to learn a little bit. Really happy with the way my car handles. You know we blew up that motor in practice and the back-up motor wasn’t exactly what we all wanted. It really isn’t a big deal. We’ve got a lot of practice tomorrow and I’m not worried about it at all.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN YESTERDAY THAT MIGHT BE INCORPORATED INTO SUNDAY? “I feel like we handled really well with the Jack Daniels Chevrolet. You know come Sunday, that’s what you’re going to have to do. Like I say, we don’t want to mile up our 500 motor too much and I’ve got 100% confidence that one is going to be a bullet so I’m excited.”

ON STARTING THE RACE AT THE REAR OF THE FIELD: “I started in the back and finished upside down last year. (Laughs) No, my teammate Kevin Harvick started in the back last year and won the race. That’s what’s neat about this race; you can manipulate a lot of different things about this race. It can be won with not the fastest car out there. It’s a lot of fun to be able to race and draft at this place and I’m looking forward to Sunday’s race and everything that is ahead of us.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CAR FOR SUNDAY? “I’m excited. I feel like we really have a handle on our car. I feel like it’s handling well. When we get that 500 bullet in there, I feel like we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

WHAT’S THE ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE YOU SEE IN RACING THE CAR OF TOMORROW? “Just the travels, the bumps and the swells are a lot more harsh and you feel them a lot more. It’s the same for everybody. Everybody has been given the same kind of guidelines and you have to make the best of your resources and make your car handle better than the next guy.”

ON STEWART’S COMMENTS THAT THE RCR CARS LOOKED REALLY STOUT FOR THE 500: “I feel like us and the Jack Daniels car we are a little bit behind, but like I said I’ve got new faith in things that are coming motor wise for the 500. I know that our engine guys are the best in the business and they’re going to have us good steam come race time when it really counts. They always seem to pull out and we run well down here so I’m optimistic and looking forward to running the race.”

WHAT BROKE IN THAT MOTOR? “I don’t really know. I just know that no more power.”

ON THE IMPACT DALE EARNHARDT, JR. HAS NOW THAT HE’S WON AGAIN: “I guess he learned how to drive again, didn’t he? (Laughs) Forgot how to drive for two years, but I guess it’s good. Like I say, we just worry about what we worry about and I don’t really care what he’s doing.”

ON EXPECTATIONS FOR THE DAYTONA 500: “I’m optimistic. I’m looking forward to Sunday’s race and what’s ahead of us. I really think that we can still win this race given the right circumstances. In the right situation anybody can win this race, so I’m looking forward to what’s ahead of us in Sunday’s race.”

SO YOU’RE NOT LOOKING AT IT AS A SET BACK AT ALL, JUST A LITTLE HURDLE? “We always run better with a little bit of adversity and this is a little bit of an obstacle to overcome and we always have overcome a lot of things and this isn’t going to slow us down one bit.”

YOU TALK ABOUT YOU ALWAYS HAVE THAT LITTLE ADVERSITY, THAT HICCUP. IS THIS THE HICCUP? LOOKING NOW IS IT SMOOTH SAILING ALL THE WAY THROUGH? “Everybody knows this place, anything can happen.”

HOW’S THE TRACK FEELING NOW? SOME OF THE GUYS WERE SAYING IT’S REAL SLICK BUT THEY WERE HOPING AFTER TONIGHT’S RACE AND TOMORROW’S RACE THERE WILL BE ENOUGH RUBBER COMING INTO TURNS THREE AND FOUR. “It just seems like as we continue through Speedweeks and every time we come down here it gets slicker and slicker. I don’t think it‘s going to gain grip, I think it is just going to keep on getting worse. Come Sunday and 500 time, the cars that handle are going to be the ones that prevail at the end of the race.”

ON THE FACT THAT THIS IS THE 50TH RUNNING OF THE DAYTONA 500 THIS YEAR, DOES IT MAKE IT ANY MORE SPECIAL TO BE IN IT: “Absolutely, just to be a part of the Daytona 500 it’s a dream come true for me personally and my family and what we’ve been able to accomplish in my career. It spells out NASCAR. Daytona is what NASCAR is all about and it’s certainly a lot of fun to be a part of.”

DO YOU EVER LOOK BACK OR DO YOU JUST LOOK AHEAD? “You never look backwards. If you’re looking backwards you’re going to be behind. We’re looking ahead and looking forward to the 500.”

JEFF BURTON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 31 IMPALA SS MET WITH MEDIA MEMBERS ON FRIDAY and talked about RCR’s chances for Sunday, which line to race in, track conditions, the Junior factor, probation and more. Full Transcript:

ON TONY’S STEWARTS COMMENTS ABOUT HOW ANYONE CAN WIN THIS RACE BUT REFERRING TO THE RCR CARS AS REALLY HAVING A CHANCE TO WIN. “I know we’ve got a chance. I’m obviously disappointed with yesterday and not being able to run the whole race. I think that was a great learning experience that kind of got away from us. I thought our speed was good. I don’t know why we can’t qualify, but once we get in race trim our stuff runs fast. We were a little bit behind on knowing what to do with our cars. The 07 had a problem with his race; he didn’t get a full race in even though he finished. The 29 was really the only one that got his full race in, so that’s going to handicap us a little bit. We just have to make sure we are smart today in practice and again on Saturday.”

HOW MUCH OF A DISADVANTAGE IS THAT FOR THOSE OTHER TEAMS TO GET THE 60 LAPS? “I think it’s a big disadvantage. I thought not making the Shootout was a disadvantage and we could make that up in the 150’s and of course we only got eight laps in or whatever we got in there before our problem. I was extremely encouraged with what I saw in our eight laps but the big question is what does it do on the 20th lap. That’s the difficult part. You know lap 25 is pretty difficult with these cars and we never got there. You’ll never get that race condition again. You can practice all you want but it’s not the same as racing.

“But we’ll pay close attention to what we did in those six or eight laps and then we’ll pay really close attention to what the 29 did. We’re very familiar with what we all have in set-ups. We just have to learn the best way we know how.”

WHEN WE CAME AND SAW YOU GUYS IN JANUARY YOU WERE SO OPTIMISTIC AND SO FULL OF CONFIDENCE. HAS ANYTHING HAPPENED HERE TO CHANGE THAT? “No, not at all. I didn’t come here expecting to qualify well at all. I think a real case can be made, Harvick and us. We passed more cars in a shorter period of time than anybody else did yesterday, we just didn’t get a chance to see it through. I have reason to be optimistic even though we had a bad event. I have reason to be optimistic.”

KEVIN ONLY LED SOMETHING LIKE FOUR LAPS LAST YEAR, DOES THAT LEAD TO THE PREVIOUS THEORY THAT THE RACE DOESN’T BEGIN UNTIL ABOUT 25 OR 30 TO GO? “Last year’s race was a pretty unique race. The last 40 laps were just incredible and to have as much to do with surviving as anything. The race is important. The only way to figure out what you’ve got is run in the front and people need to see that you can run fast and that they’ll go with you when it’s time to go. It worked out last year for Kevin and for us too. We finished third and I’m not sure we ever led a lap. And Mark for that matter, I’m not sure until 20 or 30 to go we never saw him. A lot of that is situational and some of that is waiting until the right time.”

ON KNOWING WHICH LINE TO DRIVE AND WHICH GUY TO GO WITH: “I think we saw yesterday that the top line would get moving pretty good and you had a choice. You could stay in that top or you could go to the bottom and try to make something happen. Sometimes guys would go to the bottom and make something happen and it would work out for them, sometimes it wouldn’t. It’s hard to know what the guy behind you is going to do. And making the right move has as much to do with the guy behind you as the guy in front of you and it’s hard to know until make a move. Understanding what your car will do is very important. If there is any way to figure out what the guy behind you is going to do, that’s exceptionally important as well.”

ON FEWER OWNERS IN THE FUTURE OF THE SPORT: “I think that we are to the point where there are, what is it, six or seven owners that are highly vested in the sport and that are building engines for a lot of teams and doing work for a lot of teams. I don’t know that’s a bad thing or a good thing, I don’t know. Obviously it provides some financial stability by having teams with solid financial background other than just the sponsorship on the race car. I think what really matters is what is the competition on the track. In a perfect world I guess we would have 43 car owners but the problem with that is that there is a lot of instability with that. When you have Hendrick, and you have Roush, and you have Childress, and Gibbs and those guys that have well run businesses with a tremendous amount of stability, I think that provides stability for the sport as well. I understand the nervousness about not a lot of car owners and I think it’s justified, the nervousness. But there are positives to it as well. I do think we get closer every day to having less teams in the future than we had in the past.”

DO YOU APPRECIATE HOW DALE JARRETT MUST FEEL TODAY? AFTER RACING INTO HIS LAST DAYTONA 500? “I can appreciate how good he feels about getting into the race with all the pressure. That pressure has been on him for a long time. It’s been on him for eleven months, ten months. It hasn’t just been this week. Those things have a way of snowballing and getting bigger, and bigger and bigger. To be able to get into the biggest show of the year, that’s pretty important. I’m glad for him. I think Dale Jarrett has been an incredible figure for our sport. He’s done good things off the track and on the track. I think the garage in general is glad he’s in it.”

ON THE CAR OF TOMORROW: “I think the Car of Tomorrow has a lot of promise. I think the more teams learn about the car, the better it’s going to get. I feel like the racing down here is going to be exciting. I think it’s going to be an opportunity to have a great finish. And there’s going to be a lot going on in the middle of the race even though I think there’s going to be times its going to be single file, there’s still going to be a lot going on. The strategy of what we saw yesterday with the top and the bottom, that’s going to come into play. I think that bottom is always going to be open and there’s going to be times when people just don’t want to ride around anymore they want to make something happen. I think the two-grove racing is going to be pretty exciting.”

IN THE PRE-SEASON BRIAN FRANCE SAID THAT DALE JR. RUNNING WELL WILL MAKE THE TELEVISION RATINGS GO UP AND THE MERCHANDISING SALES GO UP AND ALL THIS OTHER STUFF. HIM RUNNING WELL, DO YOU THINK IT MAKES THE SPORT THAT MUCH STRONGER, HIM BEING COMPETITIVE? “I think there is certainly a Junior factor. I don’t think we can deny that. He is obviously the most popular driver and he has a huge following. If our sport is not stronger than just one person, then we have major problems. I mean our sport can’t be about one person; it’s got to be about a group of people as any sport. It can’t be about one. He is a huge factor. I’m not sure his souvenir sales and that retail side of it helps anybody but him and the people that are selling the product. It certainly doesn’t help Matt Kenseth or me that he is selling more product.

“Certainly the more people who tune in the better it is for all of us, there’s no question about that. But that whole retail business, that’s a whole other animal that’s a pretty big problem at the moment. It’s gone downhill rapidly and it’s not doing what it ought to be doing.”

ON THE LIKELIHOOD THAT THE TRACK CONDITIONS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY SLICKER ON SUNDAY AND HOW HE EXPECTS THE CAR TO PERFORM: “I think it’s going to be harder. This track gets slick and it gets real slimey. These cars don’t handle all that great and the challenge is only going to get bigger. In addition to that you are going to have 43 cars on the track. There is a major difference between 28 and 43. It’s a big difference and that’s going to make it harder as well.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW THE CAR SEEMS TO SUCK UP FASTER THEN WHEN YOU GET CLOSE IT BOGS DOWN? “I think that’s common with any car that we’ve had down here. The closer they get to a car they kind of bog down. I don’t think that’s unique to this car. You do get a bigger run with this car, which opens the door for more good things to happen as far as passing. They do drive different and they do draft different.

“There’s no question, but it’s not a whole world of difference. The strategy is going to be different. The opportunity to pass is different. We saw two races yesterday that had almost the exact same ending, like a two-lap shootout at the end. In one of the races the front two cars just drove off from the others and in the other race the guy leading the race didn’t win it. It’s very situational and learning what these cars need is going to be very important.”

DID THEY ASK YOU IF YOU KNOW WHAT PROBATION IS? “What is probation?”

WELL, WE APPARENTLY HAVE A NEW PROBATION RIGHT? “I don’t know. My belief is that probation means if you get in trouble you’re in bigger trouble. I hope I don’t get myself in that situation to find out. I’m not real sure what probation means. It seems like there’s probation and there’s double probation and then there’s double secret probation. I don’t know what it means. I guess the fines get bigger. That’s the only thing I can figure out.”

ON THE FACT THAT NASCAR SAID THEY WERE GOING TO BE A LITTLE MORE LENIENT AND HIS THOUGHTS ON THE PENALTIES ISSUED THIS WEEK: “Had the on-track stuff happened during an event, the leniency would not have been there. With pit crews on pit road, I don’t think the leniency would have been there. I think the factor that it was during practice made a huge difference there. Then what goes on in the trailer stays in the trailer, that is a new strategy that I support. I think when I go up to have a conversation with NASCAR or with another driver I believe that conversation should stay there. Whether I’m being asked to have the conversation or whether I’m holding the conversation, I think that conversation ought to stay there. It’s my opinion that we can resolve differences and deal with issues better when we can shut the door somewhere and have the conversations. I support that. I do think there is a line that has to be drawn in the sand, what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. I think the drivers need to understand what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable and it’s a little gray right now. I want to make sure I understand the rule.”

CAN YOU PROVIDE SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT WINNING THIS RACE IN 2002 MEANT TO YOUR BROTHER AND WHAT IT MEANS TO HIM NOW? “Obviously he would be a lot better answering that question. It is a different deal to say I’m a Daytona 500 winner or to be introduced as a Daytona 500 winner. That puts you in a different category. Ward didn’t win a lot of races but he won some big ones. He won the Southern 500. He won the Daytona 500. Those are big races. It without a doubt puts you in a different category.”

PAT SUHY, NASCAR GROUP MANAGER FOR GM RACING participated in a Manufacturers' Panel in the infield media center at Daytona International Speedway and discussed the ’08 season, the return on investment on the new race car, the Nationwide Series, and more. Transcript:

ON LOOKING AHEAD TO '08 SEASON IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES COMPETITION: "I am really excited for this year. As you know, at Chevy, we have a pretty hard act to follow after last year. I am hoping we can back it up with a strong performance again this year. I think with the Car of Tomorrow being across the board for this year giving our teams an opportunity to focus on a single type of car and really hone the mile-and-a-half stuff as we go through the year. I think it is going to be an exciting and telling year. We are going to see who the strong teams are and who the strong organizations are that can support those teams and they are going to be the ones that shine, just like the guys that started to focus on the car back in 2006, before it ever raced. I hope that those same teams can surge ahead this year and make it happen in 2008 for us."

ON ENCOURAGING TEAMMATES AND DRIVERS FOR SAME MANUFACTURER TO WORK TOGETHER TO WIN: "As much as we like to think we can influence what our teams do between teams, it is a pretty hard thing to tackle. The team work here, with the car being as maneuverable as it is and able to drive up through traffic, they can get together easier maybe than they could in the past and work together. But, when the fast guys float to the front, I think that is really going to be where it is at is trying to hook up with those guys and try to get up there yourself."

ON HOW MARKETING FEELS ABOUT GETTING RETURN ON INVESTMENT WITH DESIGN OF SPRINT SERIES CAR: "We learned by doing the Impala SS last year. As we get in to the Nationwide project, we certainly said, we would like to have a little more freedom, can you help us out. NASCAR, to their credit, gave us a little more freedom. They have learned a little bit more about what attributes they need to control to keep the parody they have got, that we all like. But, our marketing guys, I am an engineer so marketing is a little foreign to me, but I know they would always like to the thing to be exactly what you run on the street if you could. We all know that can't happen, we couldn't have the quality of racing we are going to have this year and that we had last year if you did that. I just think that we keep working with NASCAR, working with our teams trying to get as much identity in them as we can."

ON MODEL TO BE RUN IN THE NEW CONFIGURATION OF THE NATIONWIDE SERIES CAR AND IF WANTS TO SEE IT ROLL OUT COMPLETELY IN 2009: "At this point, we are really not ready to announce what we are going to run as far as the model, name or designation. But as far as rolling it out, I think, we learned in Cup last year that once it got going, the teams got on board and decided it would be better to focus on one.

“I really think that with the resources that the Nationwide teams have, if they are going to do it at all, they might as well just do it and be done with it and let those guys focus on one package for a year, in all reality. I think some of them would disagree with me and some of these guys up here might disagree with me, but I just think to divide their efforts between two very distinct packages and two distinct sets of requirements would be very difficult and might hurt more than it will help.

ON DIFFICULTIES FROM THE MANUFACTURERS' SIDE: "This is still the best job I have ever had at General Motors and I enjoy going to work every day. As far as difficulties, we struggle with trying to figure out ways we can constructively help our teams go faster. We are pretty good at doing science projects, even a lot of teams get in to the same trap. They can do science projects all day long. But taking that and turning it in to something that makes the cars go faster is not always an easy thing to do. So, we struggle, probably the biggest thing we struggle with, is trying to identify things we can do that we and our teams all think will add to their performance on the track."

ON DETERMINATION PROCESS OF DETERMINING WHAT BRANDING TO USE ON RACE CARS: "Our marketing group has struggled for months now, we knew this was going to happen, I don't know when exactly, but we brought it up that there is going to be a new car, a new opportunity to do something branding wise. They are trying to do, like was said, kind of a scientific job of understanding what do we need to go and do. Does it need to be a Camaro? Or Malibu? Or Impala or whatever? And what is the return on investment in that band name when you go and do that? At this point, we aren't ready to announce what it is going to be, I guarantee that a lot of thought has gone in to it. It is more than the simplistic 'Hey, we have the 18-34 market that we are going after.' Frankly, I don't know if an18-34 year-old is going to be able to afford a Camaro. I am excited for just the opportunity to do another new car like we did the Impala SS last year. Our marketing guys will tell us what it is going to be and that how we are going to operate."

ON IF CAMARO IS A CONSIDERATION: "I think I can safely say that the Camaro will be racing somewhere. From the nostalgia perspective, it is going to race against its peers I think. We are going to have a lot of fun racing it where our leadership thinks it should race."

ON IF THE BALL FOR NEW NATIONWIDE CAR IS IN OUR COURT: "I think again, it comes down to analyzing the market. Who are we going to sell to, how do we help the image of the particular product we are racing. How do we help the image of Chevrolet? What is the right thing to do? You don't want to dilute a brand. You wouldn't want to have Camaro, necessarily. I think you pick your spots strategically and see this is what we are going to do with it.

"There are limits what we can do. Chevrolet is our NASCAR brand. So it will be a Chevrolet, it is going to be a passenger car, but what it is, it is not irrelevant, but the fact of the matter is that NASCAR, again, what they learned with the Cup last year in managing the hard points and managing the body details like they do. From a technical standpoint, you can have a lot of variation on that theme and still be very close competitively.

"We have looked at a lot of different noses on the Nationwide cars as you can imagine. I think once you figure out how to manage the hard points and do all that stuff, there is remarkably little difference among them."

ON IDENTITY OF NATIONWIDE SERIES: "I think as long as the races are like they are, companion races, I don't stop the Cup guys from wanting to get laps and wanting to learn something from being a part of it. So there is always going to be the argument that it is Cup Light? Or is it a learn on Saturday; win on Sunday kind of thing? I don't see how you stop that. I don't think whether we run a Malibu or Impala; a Camaro isn't going to change any of that."

ON IF THEY LET MANUFACTURERS JUST BUILD RACE CARS LIKE BACK TO BASICS: "That would be cool and there are race series you can do that in. But, we are here in NASCAR and we are playing by their rules. It is their baseball diamond, their bat, their ball?

"It gets back to the return on investment question. How much can you invest and how much can you reap from your investment. Where we are at, is where we are at."