JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 AT&T IMPALA SS met with media and discussed the progress of the new race car, the economy and how it affects the sport of NASCAR, sponsorships, and more.

HOW CONFIDENT WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE RIGHT NOW WITH THE COT PROGRAM AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON? Not very. I think it's clear that the COT thing is difficult and we'll see teams that run really, really well one week, then run very poorly the next.

I think we're still in a learning phase, a lot of learning. So, you know, every week's kind of an adventure. So I wouldn't say real confident at all.

THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON, YOU GO TO SOME TRACKS YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN TO, BUT STILL A COUPLE YOU HAVEN'T, INDY BEING ONE OF THEM. ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS THERE? I think all the work that we've done, you know, I don't have COT concerns, per se, for Indy. I have competition concerns. You know, the COT ain't going to be a problem getting around Indy. The question is: How we gonna do it better than anybody else? That's the question. The car itself I don't think will be a problem at all.

TAKE ABOUT TRACK POSITION THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS. TRACK POSITION IS IMPORTANT HERE, BUT IT'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRACK POSITION. IT'S HORIZONTAL, NOT VERTICAL. Yeah, track position here is defined definitely different than other racetracks. Other racetracks, track position is being in the right place with 50 to go so you can be in the right place on the last lap. Here it's more about being in the right place on the last lap versus 50 go. You can be running dead last here on the lead lap and still win.

You know, as in every race, you got to have track position because, you know, that's how you determine the winner. But it's a completely different world of what we've seen, especially the last few weeks.

HOW DO YOU GET YOURSELF IN POSITION? I've only won here once, so you might ask somebody else. I don't know (laughter).

Typically, you know, I've tried to not be, you know, like leading with two to go or something. In the 500, I found myself leading with eight to go. I thought, Oh, boy, we're in trouble. And we were based on where the cautions fell out. However, if the cautions hadn't have fell the way they did, we might have been in the position we wanted to be in.

So a lot of it is determined by what kind of race you get when the cautions come out. But if you don't have a real fast car, being in the front's maybe not in your best interests.

IS THAT A FEEL THING? Some of its ego. To be honest, some of it's ego. Some of it's -- I think driver's egos get them in positions they really don't want to be in sometimes. It's not always in your best interest to be leading. But the competition side of you and the ego side of you puts you there because that's what your whole life you've been trying to do. But here it's much more like chess. You know, you really want to be in the right place at the right time so you can strike when it matters.

WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING (IN THE GARAGE) BETWEEN THE MOST POPULAR GUY AND ARGUABLY THE MOST HATED GUY IN THE SPORT? It's a pain, to be quite honest, because wherever Junior's car leaves or my car leaves, my car gets full of people. My garage gets full of people trying to take pictures. I like the position we're in on this side of the garage. But logistically, it's been tough.

DO YOU THINK THE DRIVERS OF TODAY HAVE TO HAVE MORE SKILLS THAN, SAY, THE DRIVERS OF YESTERDAY? No, I don't think that at all. I think the skill set's different. I think that a driver today -- you know, the great question is, you know, the best driver today, how would he go against the best driver of the past. And I don't have that answer.

I think the racing's so different than it used to be, the cars are so different than they used to be. I think that there's some attributes that the previous drivers could bring that would make us better. On the other hand, I think there's some attributes this generation could bring, too.

But in no way do I mean we possess a skill they didn't possess. I don't believe that at all. I believe that Richard Petty in his prime, or Cale Yarborough in his prime, or David Pearson in his prime, you could pile them in one of these cars, and they'd be extremely competitive. Also if you put Tony Stewart and Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon in their cars, they'd have been extremely competitive, as well.

GETTING INTO VICTORY LANE, IS IT THE CAR OR THE DRIVER? That question's been going on since the beginning of time. You know, I don't know. I know that a great driver can't take a bad car and win with it. And, by the way, a great car can't take a bad driver and win with that.

I think you have to have both. And that combination, you know, that percentage, has to be -- I think it has to be close. But, you know, there's days that the car is better than the driver and there's days that the driver is better than the car. The best teams match that up more often than not.

DO YOU FEEL YOU'RE STILL ADJUSTING TO THIS NEW CAR? I think everybody is still adjusting to it, become much more familiar to it. I'm much more comfortable with it than I used to be. But I think we're all still adjusting. I mean, if you think about it, we are going to a lot of racetracks still. We got Kansas, we have Chicago, we have Indy that we've never been to with the Car of Tomorrow. Homestead. You know, we still have four or fives racetracks to run this year that we've never been to.

So I think everybody's still adjusting.

HOW DISAPPOINTED ARE YOU THAT YOU HAVEN'T MANAGED TO GET MORE WINS THIS SEASON? I'm not disappointed. You know, my theory about racing is, if you keep putting yourself in position to win races, then you'll win 'em. Our goal is to keep putting ourselves in position.

I think that we've executed when we've had opportunities. I feel like we've gotten a lot out of our year so far. But I'm not disappointed at all that we have one win and somebody else has four.

I think we can get more wins. If I didn't think we could get more wins, I'd be disappointed.

DO YOU THINK AS LONG AS A DRIVER MAKES THE CHASE, THEN IT'S ANYBODY'S GAME? ANYONE CAN WIN? Oh, I don't think there's any question about it. I think maybe more so this year than ever. With the Car of Tomorrow going to so many racetracks we've never been to with it, I think a team can get hot and really be good. You know, the way you ran in May isn't necessarily going to be indicative of how you run in November. So I think it's anybody's ballgame. Whoever gets in the Chase will have an honest shot.

LATE IN THE RACE DOES A DRIVER GO FROM A DEFENSIVE OR SORT OF A SURVIVAL MODE -- AT SOME POINT LATE IS THERE A TIME WHERE YOU HAVE TO BE AGGRESSIVE AND LOOK FOR THAT LINE THAT MOVES? There is a time to be more aggressive than others. You know, some people flip that switch. You have to turn that switch on when it's appropriate. You have to be willing to give some room. I mean, really, from my seat, we have a lot of accidents prevented because a driver let another guy in that needed some help. A lot of that goes on. These races get very intense at the end of the race because nobody does that any more.

So there is a time that you have to be willing to just say, Okay, regardless of the consequence, we're gonna stay in here. But lap ten is not a time to do that.

RANDY MOSS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED HIS VENTURE INTO MOTORSPORTS. IS IT SURPRISING TO SEE SOME OF THOSE OTHER ATHLETES TRYING TO GET IN NOW? THERE HASN'T BEEN A LOT OF SUCCESS WITH THOSE GUYS IN THE PAST. GIVEN MAYBE THE ECONOMIC STATUS RIGHT NOW... Well, I think it's a tough time right now to try to break in. There's no question. You know, this sport I think offers a lot. It's one of the sports that, you know, a car owner can still get involved without really any experience, without a tremendous -- you know, you got to have a lot of money. But at the truck level, you don't have to be, you know, Bill Gates kind of rich. So there's still an opportunity for investment by young owners.

And, you know, Randy's an example of that. Obviously, Randy has made a lot of money playing football, but he would have a tough time going and buying an NFL football team. He can get into this sport at the truck level without, you know, near the investment.

But it's a tough time for anybody. The economic status that we have today in our country's really tough. And the sponsorship game is really hard right now. It's a really tough time to break in.

COULD YOU SEE THAT ON THE CUP SIDE THIS WEEK WITH THE NO. 40? I think you're going to see a lot of it. I mean, the reality of it is that, you know, we're gonna have -- we're probably gonna have less sponsors in this garage than we did last year, which is common. If you track our sport, you follow it, it ebbs and flows with the economy. You know, we came down here a few years ago, and there was 44 or 45 cars attempting to make a Daytona 500. We come back a few years later and it's 52.

You know, we're at a point where, you know, the economy's down, and less companies are going to be willing to make that investment. So that means you're gonna have less teams that are going to be able to be funded, so you'll have less teams here. It's always been like that. And I suspect it always will be, as long as we have a system that, you know, we have 52 teams. I think if we had a system that had 43 teams every year, I think our car owners would be much more secure and our sponsors would be much more secure.

IS THAT WHY YOU THINK YOU'RE SEEING MORE DUAL SPONSORSHIPS? The cost is up. The cost is up. Revenues are down. You know, economy's tough. People are less willing to make the investment because of the economic times we're in. People are looking at a way to spread out their expenses.

DO YOU THINK WITH THE 40, THOUGH, THE FACT HE WAS AN OPEN-WHEELER DRIVER TRYING TO ADJUST TO THE NASCAR, DO YOU THINK THAT PLAYED A PART? I think a couple things happened. I think that, you know, Dario is an accomplished racecar driver, and I think he can get it done in the Cup Series. But it's gonna take time. And the question is, how patient can people be? And at a time where we don't have a lot of new sponsors coming in, it's hard to build a company that wants to be patient. People that are wanting to make that investment want success right now. You know, I think a lot of things stacked up against him and it made it harder for him if he would have been able to have success sooner.

But, you know, unfortunately Ganassi has been a little down, too. Ganassi hasn't been as good as you would expect them to do. They would admit that, too. It's not because they haven't worked hard and haven't tried. They haven't been as successful as they wanted to be and that's made it hard for him, too, because he hasn't been able to sit down in real, real fast racecars. And every team goes through that. I mean, every team in the garage goes through times where they're not as good as they want to be. Theirs just happened to be at a time when they were trying to bring in a new driver without much experience at this type of racing. So that made it harder, too.

DO YOU THINK JUAN PABLO MONTOYA HAS ADAPTED QUICKER? I think he has. I think there's still -- you know, I think that the length of these races and the number of cars that can compete and how hard it is to run 20th, I think that still is probably surprising to him. But, you know, I think, again, I don't believe that Cup drivers are the best drivers in the world. I think that we have a particular skill set that makes us very good at these kind of cars. But I do believe that good racecar driver's a good racecar driver. You just have to be able to hone your skill at whatever it is you're driving. It just takes time to do that.

ARE THE OLD BOYS HAPPY WITH NASCAR GOING GLOBAL WITH MORE FOREIGN DRIVER, MORE FOREIGN MANUFACTURERS? Some people don't like it, some people do. The reality of it, the way I view it, if you've exhibited the skill and the ability to be here, then you shouldn't be precluded to be here because of where you're from or anything else. All that matters is do you have the skills to do it. If you ask me, the people that have come in here definitely have the skills to do it.

ARE GOOD RESULTS HARD WORK MEETING GOOD LUCK OR HARD WORK OVERCOMING BAD LUCK? Most of the time you make your luck. There's certainly things that happen to you that are completely out of your control. You know, there's no question about that.

But most of the time you had a play in the outcome. So, you know, people that subscribe to bad luck all the time I tend to buy into being people that don't take responsibility very well. So I do know that there's bad luck, and I do know that people go through periods where they don't have things going well for 'em, and it's completely out of their control. But for the most part this sport, you know, a lot of it is what you make of it. You know, and that bad luck tends to balance itself out with good luck. People forget about the good luck; they only remember the bad luck.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD / AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS met with media and discussed Jay Leno, Mark Martin, racing at Daytona in July, on Randy Moss joining the sport of NASCAR, the Montoya/KyBusch incident at Loudon, the performance of the new race cars, 4th of July holiday and more.

TALK ABOUT JAY LENO. YOU'VE BEEN ON A SHOW THE COUPLE TIMES, RIGHT? Yeah. You know, Jay Leno's a car guy. Got quite a collection. Maybe a more elaborate collection of cars in the United States. You know, I admire his passion for automobiles. Being on the show's fun.

DID YOU ENJOY DOING THAT? Yeah, sure. Being on the show's been fun because he's a car guy. You feel more comfortable with him. And, I don't know, just a real neat guy. Very gracious as a host. Takes care -- he knows that that's pretty far from your territory and he makes you feel pretty comfortable.

(QUESTION REGARDING MARK MARTIN.) They haven't announced anything yet. Mark's a great racecar driver. He's done a great job driving the No. 8 car this year. He's a veteran that all the guys look up to. He's a great tutor for the sport, for young guys. I think that anybody that gets a chance to work with him can learn a lot.

(QUESTION REGARDING RETIREMENT AND KEEPING GOING.) A lot of different reasons. You know, it's really hard to put it down, I suppose. As tough as the schedule is, it's pretty hard to just stop and not do nothing or do something else, I suppose.

(QUESTION REGARDING DAYTONA IN JULY.) I've been coming down here since it was the Firecracker 400. This was the biggest weekend of the year for me when I was a kid. The summer is what you looked forward to. This was the best part of the summer.

It's a great area with the beach and the restaurants, and the racetrack itself has a lot of history. You know, to me it's a little bit funner than the Speedweeks. This is definitely the weekend that I look forward to the most on the whole circuit.

I just met Randy Moss. He's getting ready to announce some kind of a deal going on. So that was kind of cool. You know, just like the 500, you get celebrities and such coming down here for this race. Daytona's always entertained a lot of good celebrities. And it's fun for the drivers, and everyone else for that matter, to interact with them.

(QUESTION ABOUT CASEY MEARS) I'm sure that when Rick hired Casey, he would have hoped that that would have been a fruitful deal and it worked out. I'm sure Casey wished it would have worked out.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE TO DO THIS WEEK WITH THE RAIN, WHAT ADJUSTMENTS DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS WEEK? It's tough here. It's hard to tell really what the rain does to the racetrack. But, you know, it should be fine. It shouldn't be too big of a deal. It doesn't really affect you as much here as it does other places.

WHAT DO YOU THINK DRAWS A GUY LIKE MOSS INTO THIS SPORT? I don't know. I'd like to ask him that question. I guess he's got some interest in racing and probably got some rather unique investment advice. So, you know, it's interesting. We'll all get to learn that, I guess, over the next day or so. I'm excited about that. You've seen a lot of people from football especially, but other areas, you know, owners of sporting franchises, come into the series. It's pretty neat. I think it's great for us to have a guy like Randy Moss interested in being involved in the sport and getting in as deep as he is. So that's pretty cool for me. I'm really excited about that.

LAST WEEKEND JAMIE MCMURRAY SAID IT WAS COOL YOU CALLED HIM WITHIN 20 MINUTES OF WHAT HAPPENED. WE WERE ALL SCARED FOR YOU. THAT WAS A BAD ACCIDENT, HARD HIT. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT COULD BE DONE DIFFERENTLY? Yeah, I just wondered -- me and Jamie are good friends. You know, if you don't call him, he probably thinks you're mad at him or whatever. But I ran into Tony Stewart a couple years ago in the same situation. And it's just tough getting onto pit road there. I was trying to get off the racetrack as fast as I could, to get out of those guys' way. But, you know, you can't speed on the pit road. It's just a difficult situation.

I waved down the back straightaway. I couldn't wave through three and four. There's no way he could have seen me waving on the back straightaway being as far behind me as he was. But I weaved down to the apron on the back straightaway, too, which is kind of common. If you want guys that are a hundred yards or further behind to see, that's sort of international move, let people know you're coming in. They're expecting pit stops around that time anyway. If a guy drives the apron on the back straightaway, you definitely notice it and understand what's going on. Just unfortunate.

But, you know, in certain cases like that, you know, it's good to clear it up as soon as you can.

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE HOW HAS DEI MOVED ON SINCE YOU LEFT? Seems they're doing really good. They fielded four race teams rather competitively. You know, Paul has really improved his ability to be more competitive each week. If you really look at where he was last year, I think he's improved quite a bit. Mark's done a great job helping the No. 8 team remain competitive. They're a great group of guys and deserve an opportunity to run good. And it was great of Mark to get in that car and give them that opportunity. I think Eric is going to do a good job. He's a good kid with a lot of attitude and a lot of heart. Really, you know, he's a good student of the sport. He really etches out things that's happening to him and tries to understand them. And, you know, Martin Truex was an awesome teammate; he was a great friend. If there's, you know -- I miss being teammates with Martin pretty bad. But, you know, he's a great racecar driver and you can put him in any one of those four cars and he's gonna help carry that company, you know, just like Mark is helping doing that.

So I feel like they've done a lot with really -- they've done a lot with a lot less, in my opinion.

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO MONTOYA'S RETALIATION TO BUSCH? I was really surprised. I hadn't seen that since East Carolina Motor Speedway in '94. You rarely see guys wrecking each other under caution. Juan is a real firecracker man. He's a good guy, but you just don't push his buttons. You got to respect him on the racetrack. And he has to sort of have that sort of mentality coming from Formula One. He definitely doesn't want to get pushed around. He's not having the best season. You know, obviously not very happy with how his car's running up to this point. So he's got an even shorter fuse due to that.

HOW DO YOU CATCH BUSCH? How do I catch Busch? You just try to run as good as you can. You don't wish anybody to have any misfortune. Hopefully we can beat him on the racetrack week after week.

But, you know, he's having a great season. He's got a lot of points ahead of everybody and doesn't seem to be really faltering much. You know, he had a little bit of a struggle last week. But I don't expect to see too much more of that out of that whole team up until the Chase starts. Hopefully by that time, we'll have all our ducks in a row and be ready to give him a good run for it.

ARE YOU A SUPERSTITIOUS GUY? Just the standard stuff. You know, when a black cat crosses the road in front of you or walking under ladders, things like that.

DO YOU ABIDE BY ANY OF THE RACING SUPERSTITIONS? No, huh-uh.

HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR COT PROGRAM? I'm real happy. I landed a hell of a good job with a good company. Got a good program, great crew chief, really innovative. He's got other great crew chiefs around him to work with, learn and feed off of. We're just trying to be a really -- you know, just trying to be a sponge the whole time, learning as much as we can from the other teams in our organization. I feel fortunate, really fortunate.

THERE'S ONLY A COUPLE TRACKS YOU'RE GOING TO GO TO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON YOU HAVEN'T BEEN TO YET WITH THIS CAR, INDY BEING ONE OF THEM. ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS WITH THOSE TRACKS? I tested at Indy for Goodyear. That give me a good idea of how the car's gonna drive, things about the car I need to work on to help it. So we got a little leg up on the rest of the guys. So hopefully that will help us

INDEPENDENCE DAY IS TOMORROW. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR OUR NATIONAL GUARDSMEN OUT THERE? All the National Guardsmen and all our sailors in the Navy, you know, this is -- July 4th kind of snuck up on everybody. It's kind of hard to believe it's the middle of the season. But, you know, we're trying to do our best job to represent both those branches of the military, you know, at the racetrack. So we're trying to work hard, represent 'em well, make 'em proud.

DO YOU THINK DRIVERS TODAY HAVE TO HAVE MORE SKILLS TODAY THAN THE DRIVERS OF YESTERDAY? No, I don't think so. I think the cars, from the '70s and even before that, were more difficult to drive, for sure, more challenging to drive. So I think it took quite a unique person to be able to make that work, so... I would say that David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, those guys would be able to give us one hell of a run for our money today, and we would find it quite a challenge to keep up with 'em back in the '60s and '70s if they were to put us in those cars.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT WORKING WITH MARK AND CAN HE HELP YOU AGAIN AS A TEAMMATE? Mark, in his history, especially of recent times, Mark's really taken on that role of being -- he's very gracious, you know. He wants to help. He wants to be an asset. He wants -- whatever he's got within arm's reach, he wants to have a positive effect on it, if it's a driver, a team, a crew, a crewman. You know, he just has a good work ethic to him.

I think him and Jeff Burton are very similar. You know what Jeff did for RCR. You know how hard Jeff works for RCR. The guy's on the racetrack every minute of the day, if he can be. Regardless of whether Mark went to a partial schedule, but he still has that same work ethic. You know, he's just very gracious. You know, if he can help you, he's there. He really, really goes out of his way to try to add something to the whole puzzle, he really does.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS met with media and discussed Jay Leno, typically rainy weather in Daytona, charities, sponsorships and the economy, racing in the Rolex 24 Hour, season to date, the new race cars, the importance of track position and much more.

TALK ABOUT JAY LENO I mean, I think he's always been kind to me, he's been very kind to our sport. I certainly love the show. I think he does an awesome job.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BEING ON THE SHOW? I think, you know, being on Leno, being on Letterman, highlights my career, because it's more a symbol of what you've accomplished in your life, in your sport. To get the opportunity to go on a show like that, you know, there's a lot of pride for the sport, pride for your team and your sponsors. Certainly very proud of what I've accomplished to get that opportunity.

(QUESTION ABOUT CHARITY WORK.) Well, I think, you know, there's a couple things that really stand out in my mind. Obviously Ray Evernham's son was diagnosed with leukemia, that's what really inspired me, to see somebody close to me going through something so tough like that. You get close to it, your heart breaks for them, and you want to know how you can help.

So, you know, that's what started a lot of the work for the leukemia, lymphoma society, bone marrow transplants.

You know, Geoff Bodine, I give him a lot of credit for being one of the pioneers in bringing the Make a Wish for children here at the racetrack. I've had an opportunity to meet a lot of kids from Wake a Wish over the years. When I started my own foundation in 1999, I made that one of the charities that I wanted to support and continue to meet kids out there.

FOR THOSE COMING DOWN TO DAYTONA, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS EVENT, HOW IT DIFFERS FROM FEBRUARY? Obviously, the temperature's a lot hotter. So the track is much slicker. It's hard to get ahold of the surface. The cars are slipping, sliding around. So I think the driver plays more of a role. And the setup, you know, what the team puts out there is crucial.

You know, it's not just about having a slick car in the wind tunnel and power under the hood, you know, it's hard to hold the pedal down and, you know, put the power to the ground.

So, you know, I think that makes it a pretty exciting event, and one that I always look forward to.

YOU GUYS HAD TO DEAL WITH THE RAIN LAST WEEK. IS THAT MUCH OF A CONCERN COMING DOWN HERE? Yeah, you know, you always have these late afternoon thunderstorms, so you never know what you're going to get, whether you're going to get practice in, whether you're going to get qualifying in, or how much of the race you're going to get in. So strategy-wise, that's certainly what the crew chiefs are going to be thinking a lot about, especially, you know, when you saw what happened last week.

You know, I think that everybody's in different situations. You know, we're in a situation right now, and the points are so tight where we're at, we can't afford to take those kind of big risks. You know, I felt like the 18 car was really the one that lost that race last week. They were in a position to take big risks, and for whatever reason didn't do that.

And you know what, the 2 car was in a position to do it and it worked. And if you can be in that position, if you're outside the Chase or you're comfortably into the Chase, you can do that. For those of us who are like 5th through 12th or 14th, you know, you got to be careful taking some of those risks.

YOU'VE HAD VERY SOLID SPONSORS. DO YOU EVER WORRY LONG-TERM NOT SO MUCH ABOUT YOUR OWN SITUATION BUT THE SPORT IN GENERAL? You know, I've been so fortunate. Not only have we had solid sponsorship ever since I came into the Cup Series, but it's been the same sponsor, you know, with DuPont, and even Pepsi's been with us a long time, Chevrolet. You know, we've been very, very fortunate.

And you go through -- the economy goes through tough times. You know, a company goes through tough times. And you never know. And that's one of the things I love about Rick Hendrick, you know, he's a great businessman, you know, but he's humble, he's thankful, and he really considers those types of situations. And there were times where we could have maybe pushed the issue and put DuPont, you know, in sort of a tough position maybe to negotiate against another sponsor. And, you know, that's the type of leader and owner Rick is. You know, he was like, You know what, we've got a great company here. He's been supportive and loyal to us. We're going to be loyal to them. We're not going to put this thing out there and try to negotiate it. We're going to make it work for them and for us.

You know, when you look around, you see teams struggling and you see, you know, the economy struggling, I tell you what, we're very thankful, especially this year, to just sign the extension with DuPont. You know, that's a tough thing to see happening right now.

YOU RACED THE ROLEX 24. DID YOU ENJOY THAT EXPERIENCE? WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER GETTING BACK IN THAT SERIES AT ALL? I loved it. It was awesome. The car was so amazing to drive and a lot of fun. You know, I did not do it for years just because of the commitment that it takes, the practice that I wanted to get behind the wheel and put the laps in because I wanted to be competitive. And, you know, I'm really proud that we finished, you know, third that year that I did it.

But, you know, to do it during a Cup weekend, I mean, everybody kind of knows how I feel about racing the Nationwide Series on the same weekends. I feel the same way about the Grand-Am Series, especially after seeing Jimmie last year in the shape he was in. He got really dehydrated. His drink system failed in the car and he got really dehydrated. Man, I don't know if I've ever seen anybody in that kind of bad shape. And that was, you know, what was that, two nights before the race.

You know, I certainly wouldn't want to put myself in that position either.

ARE YOU ANY WORSE OFF THIS YEAR THAN YOU WERE GOING INTO THE SECOND HALF AND INTO THE CHASE NOW? I wouldn't say that we've got the confidence or the momentum that we had this time last year, but I feel like our teams are still really solid. I just think that we've gotten a little bit behind versus the competition competitively. You know, that's something that we're working hard on. You know, last year, as strong as we were going into the Chase, you still had no guarantee once you got into the Chase what was going to happen.

As it turned out, we had an incredible run really throughout the whole year. You know, this year, who knows how it's gonna turn out. You know, we might get in the Chase and all of a sudden be on fire. I hope that's the case. But we won't know till (indiscernible).

(QUESTION ABOUT WORKING OUT ALL THE KINKS.) If we knew, we'd fix it in a hurry. There's really nothing wrong. It's just finding all those little pieces to make the car, you know, go a little bit faster. You know, like last week in New Hampshire, we ran just like we did last year. You know, it wasn't an issue. We were strong and good, very competitive, very happy with that.

You know, it's really been more the mile-and-a-half's that we just need to work on. And we've been doing that. We've tested at Kentucky. First time I've ever even been to Kentucky was a couple weeks ago. And, you know, I hope that we can continue to, you know, find things at tracks like that that make us better. If we knew the answers, we wouldn't be struggling.

YOU'RE GOING TO TRACKS THAT HAVEN'T RACED THE COT YET. ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS WITH THAT? I mean, any time you go to a track that you haven't been to with this car, then you're always gonna have questions, you know, what's gonna work, what's not gonna work. The 88 did the tire test there. You know, so we've got a little bit of information from that, which is helpful.

But, you know, until we go there, it's really hard to answer the question. You know, it's a flat track. It's a fast track. So I would imagine that track position, you know, is going to be extremely important there, as we've seen at a lot of places.

HOW DO YOU THINK THIS CAR IS GOING TO RACE HERE SATURDAY NIGHT? I feel like it probably does better at this track and at Talladega than any track that we go to. So, you know, I so handling is going to be important as it always is here. That's what we're going to go to work on right here.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU DO DIFFERENT WITH THIS CAR IN TERMS OF STRATEGY THAN YOU WOULD HAVE WITH THE OLD CAR? At this track?

YES. You need to ask the strategist, (crew chief) Mr. Letarte. I leave that in his hands. We haven't really talked strategy. I think it's going to be very similar. It just depends on tire wear, fuel mileage, track position, how important track position is.

Track position was pretty important here in February. I would think it's going to be really important again. But maybe a little less so. I think handling is going to be really important. If you have a good-handling racecar, you might be able to make some moves.

TRACK POSITION IS IMPORTANT HERE BECAUSE YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF WHERE YOU ARE HORIZONTALLY ON THE TRACK. That's true. I think if it's a five-lap shootout, absolutely. You know, you got to watch your mirrors.

If it's, you know, a 25-lap or however far we can go on fuel, then it's gonna be about handling. And that track position's not -- it's only going to be important as far as the guys you're battling with might spread out a little bit.

LAST TIME RACING HERE, WE HAD GUYS JUMP OUT IN FRONT OF LINES, MOVING ON THE OUTSIDE. IS THAT A FEEL THING? DO YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP A KNACK OR THAT IS A WILD GUESS WHICH LINE IS GOING TO MOVE? Well, I mean, I think, you know, that's where experience I think works out pretty good here. You know, you get a sense of when a line is starting to fade and when a line is, you know, picking up.

The thing about this car, though, is the momentum gets picked up so fast that you can't just jump up in front of a line. I think that's why Tony Stewart lost this race. I think he knew if he jumped up in front of that outside line, there's possibly going to be a big wreck. You know, we saw -- it kind of happened to Casey Mears here, as well. He lost some momentum. He jumped up in front of that line, and they ran over the top of him. And that's kind of the nature of this new car.

So if you could sense the momentum shifting and changing, you got to get there in a hurry. You know, you got to make sure those guys have nowhere to go but your rear bumper, and make sure when they get to you and hit you, it doesn't spin you out.

DID YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH MONTOYA'S RETALIATION AGAINST BUSCH LAST WEEK? WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? You know, I just saw it for the very first time. I think that's between those two guys. Doesn't have anything to do with me. So I think that we've learned over the years that, you know, in the heat of the moment we all do and say a lot of crazy things. You know, it's up to NASCAR to kind of monitor and be the ones that decide how to handle it, not me.

(QUESTION REGARDING MARK MARTIN.) I love Mark Martin. I think Mark Martin is probably the most awesome racecar driver I've ever raced with. I think that, you know, when I think of guys that should have won multiple championships, you know, he's one of them. And I think it's unfortunate that he hasn't because, you know, his track record, his talent, his commitment certainly deserve it.

But, you know, I had an opportunity to race with him early on in the Busch Series, had a blast, learned a ton from him. You know, I always knew he was one of the most talented racecar drivers I've ever seen.

IS THERE STILL SOMETHING YOU COULD LEARN FROM HIM? You know, I learn from everybody. But I absolutely will learn from Mark. Mark has amazing patience, but he has amazing drive and commitment. You know, you look at the shape that he's in. You know, there's not too many guys - I'm not saying he's old - I'm just saying not too many guys are out there, you know, or have been out there in the past at his age that are as competitive as he is through all the changes that have gone on through cars, teams, everything else. You know, that to me is one of the many things I admire about him.

DO DRIVERS TODAY HAVE TO HAVE BETTER SKILLS THAN THE DRIVERS OF YESTERDAY? No. I mean, you had guys that, you know, didn't have power steering and didn't have a lot of the safety features that we have today. You know, I think you've always had to have talent. I think that today you don't have to have the brut strength that you maybe had to have, you know, years ago. But talent is something that's always been an important part of racing, and you either have it or you don't.

HOW ABOUT LUCK? You know, I have interesting views on luck. I'm sure not everybody shares my views. But, you know, I believe you make your luck. I mean, throughout my whole career, the times when I look back and said, Boy, that was really lucky, you know, if you take the math and, you know, everything that went into what happened, to me, you know, it was about putting yourself in that position to have good fortune go your way, whether it be a great call, whether it be, you know, just circumstances, having a great car, not having a great car, whatever it may be.

I believe that, you know, preparation, commitment, and a lot of hard work is what makes a lot of times you appear to be very lucky.

AS A GUY THAT HAS BEEN LOVED AND HATED IN THE SPORT, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE FANS' TREATMENT OF KYLE BUSCH, AND THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM, JUNIOR? One of the things I love about our sport is the passion that our fans have, and it's all over the place, you know, from love to hate to no reaction at all. I think that's one of the things that sets our sport, you know, puts it in a really unique position and situation because I don't think there are any fans out there - maybe the NFL - but I don't think there's anybody that has the avidness, the passion and shows, you know, their displeasure or support the way that NASCAR fans do.

BRIAN FRANCE SAID HE WANTED TO GET THIS BACK TO BASICS. FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, IT'S ALWAYS PRETTY COMPETITIVE. The thing is that I would say that this year's been more competitive than it's ever been.

You know, I would say that because of this car, you look at practice times, qualifying times, race speeds, the one thing about it is all these cars are all basically running the same speed when the green flag drops, and I think that's what's made passing so difficult. You know, we talk about aerodynamics. But sometimes you forget about competition, how competitive it really is out there. Because we just don't have as many tools to work with, you know, it's really hard to separate ourselves from the competition.

And so in one sense I think it's been the most competitive year, but on the other, you know, I think the racing has suffered a little bit because of it. And I believe and feel the same way that Brian does, you know, getting back to the basics is important and having great racing out there. I think that's one of the things you're going to see this week, you'll see some great racing.

IT'S FAIR TO SAY THAT GREAT RACING WHEN YOU'RE IN THE RACECAR, THE FANS MIGHT NOT THINK IT WAS? Oh, absolutely. Hey, I've been to Talladega and thought it was the worst race I've ever been a part of, but the fans were standing up, cheering, throwing stuff, whatever. Yeah, definitely the driver's point of view on a lot of those things is much, much different than the fans' point of view.

I mean, I think we know a good race when we see one. But when you're inside the car and you're driving, sweat's just rolling off your forehead, you've got your hands full, you're in a tight battle with a guy every single lap, you know, it's hard to say that's not great racing. But I do think that, you know, we need to have more lead changes, we need to have more passes happening. And I believe, as a driver, as well as a fan, you know, that's something we all need to see more of.

WITH THIS NEW CAR, WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG TO ADJUST TO SOME RACES THAN OTHERS? You know, it's just hard to say. I mean, it's a tough racecar to get a handle on. I mean, if you look at, you know, this car, the tires, the higher center of gravity, the aerodynamics, it could be driving styles, and it suits some guys' driving styles better. It's could be just that, you know, we haven't been able to get the right combination of the setup together.

ON THE TEAM’S PERFORMANCE AT VARIOUS RACE TRACKS. Well, it's all over the board. I mean, we ran great last week at a track we ran great at last year, and then we go to Phoenix, a race we won at, and we were terrible. You know, that's probably been the biggest frustrating thing is that we don't always know. We go to a track thinking we're going to be pretty good and we're not. We go to a track thinking we're not going to be very good, like maybe Dover, and we're great. It's hard to really say. If we had a better answer, it certainly would make my life a little easier.

HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT FOR YOU? It's frustrating. We got to work harder, you know. We just got to, you know, keep communicating and just putting the effort out there and, you know, do all we can to find it. And that's why I'm proud of this team, is they haven't given up. You know, they just keep marching forward, continue throughout the week to find those answers, try to understand this car, the tires, the shocks, the bump stops, all those things better, and apply it to the next race.

WITH THE CHASE, DOES THAT MAKE IT A WHOLE LOT MORE NERVE-WRACKING TO YOU? Yes and no. I look at our season to date, and we probably wouldn't have any chance at the championship with the old points system. And I still feel like at this point we've got a shot. Last year it was frustrating because we probably could have won the championship under the old points system. This year, you know, it's not as frustrating because I feel like, you know, we still are in it.

DID YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO TALK TO DARIO AT ALL? DOES WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT TEAM GIVE YOU PAUSE OF WHERE THE ECONOMY IS WITH THIS SPORT? I think it's certainly a wake-up call, you know, any of us are vulnerable. You know, I would have never thought that they would have struggled getting sponsorship. I'm sure Chip Ganassi thought they wouldn't struggle getting sponsorship. I'm sure they probably didn't think they'd struggle on the racetrack as much as they have either, especially the road course.

So, you know, again, we all can be vulnerable and it just makes you, you know, appreciate what you have, the sponsors that you have, and it makes you just work that much harder to try to stay competitive.

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS IMPALA SS met with media and discussed contract renewal with RCR, superstitions and more.

WAS THERE ANY THOUGHT ABOUT GOING ANYWHERE ELSE OR WERE YOU COURTED BY ANYBODY ELSE BEFORE RESIGNING WITH RICHARD (CHILDRESS)? "That's a very, very unfamiliar situation with me. You owe your whole livelihood right now to Richard Childress, everything that's happened to you, everything that's become of you in the last four or five years since I've been at RCR and been a part of this sport to that man in particular. All of a sudden your contract is up and you have people calling that you never would have dreamed in a million years would express interest in you. That's a hard situation to go through not only for myself but for my family and everything else. You owe it to Richard to always stay there and be behind him because he took a chance on you and nobody else would but you owe it to yourself to see what's out there, see what the options are for you and try to better your program as much as you can. You don't have a long time in this sport and as the old saying goes you gotta make hey while the sun is shining and I think that's certainly the case. Very glad that I'm still at RCR, very gratifying to go through and have the offers that came across the table but like I say I think we have a good thing going at RCR. They're very good people. They treat you like family there. Richard has always taken me under his wing and treated me like a son. My teammates, Kevin (Harvick) and Jeff Burton have been great. Looking forward to the next addition with the fourth driver. Anxious as you are to see who it's going to be. How they're going to help our program."

JUST TO CLARIFY, HE PICKED UP THE OPTION FOR ONE MORE YEAR BUT HAVE YOU SIGNED ANYTHING LONG-TERM OTHER THAN THE OPTION? "Yeah."

YOU SIGNED A THREE-YEAR DEAL WITH HIM? "Yep."

DO YOU THINK THERE'S GOING TO BE A LOT OF SHUFFLING BACK IN FORTH IN THE LEAD HERE WITH THIS CAR? "I think so. Daytona has always been a very fun plate type of racing for me. You have Daytona and Talladega obviously for restrictor-plate racing, but to separate the two, I mean Talladega is so all about drafting where Daytona because of the character the old girl you're slipping and sliding around. You're having fun out there and you got to make your car handle and you got to pick and choose your battles a lot more than say Talladega where if you got a fast car you're going to be at the front. You're going to push them out of your way anyway. This place, by the end of a long run you're lifting, you're changing your line up a little bit and timing where you catch cars because when you come off right in their wake you could be in the fence off of two. I think it just adds a little more element to the race and it's a little bit more of a challenge."

ARE YOU A SUPERSTITIOUS GUY? DO YOU HAVE ANY RITUALS YOU GO THROUGH BEFORE THE RACES? "I am but I've pretty much exercised everything you can think of. We race so much and do so many things whether I'm racing dirt cars during the week or my Nationwide car or my Cup car you run out of options. I tell you for whatever reason, if I find a penny heads up on race day things have always went well and that's the truth. That's the last good thing I've got going in this superstitious world so don't be throwing pennies in front of me, don't be jinxing me. They got to be legit."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS met with media and discussed upcoming race tracks, his confidence in his team's COT program and more.

HOW CONFIDENT WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE WITH YOUR COT PROGRAM? "I think our cars have run fine we just haven't had a whole lot go right. I've wrecked a few cars and we've run out of gas and rained last week so it's just kind of been a lot of things that's gone wrong. We just keep doing what we're doing. I've been through the highs and lows of this sport so you just go out and race as hard as you can every week and go from there."

ARE THERE CONCERNS WITH SOME OF THE UPCOMING TRACKS LIKE INDY, KANSAS AND WATKINS GLEN? "I don't think so. Obviously we raced this car at Watkins Glen last year. Kansas, we've been to a few 1.5-mile race tracks this year. We're going to Chicago next week, that's a lot like that. We kind of have a system down of what we do and don't run. We got some new cars that we're taking to Chicago next week that are different than what we have been running. You just keep gathering information and keep doing the things that we've been doing."

ARE YOU WHERE YOU THINK YOU DESERVE TO BE AT THIS POINT OF THE CUP SEASON? "That's hard to say. Some of the things that we've done are kind of self-induced. We're in the failing part of the report card at this point."

BEING AN OWNER IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES, YOU PROBABLY SAW THE NEWS ABOUT THE 40 TEAM OF CHIP GANASSI AND DARIO FRANCHITTI SHUTTING DOWN, IS THAT JUST A SIGN OF THE TIMES RIGHT NOW? "I really didn't know where they were at with the sponsorship but as far as sponsorship goes right now it's hard to get somebody to commit and we're working on all of our programs to get them where they need to be for the years to come. In that particular situation it's hard when you're competing against NASCAR for the same sponsor and there's got to be a better communication I think between the two sides for NASCAR to help the teams and try to keep that stuff from happening and having teams shut down."

ARIC ALMIROLA, NO. 8 U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS met with media and discussed running full time with DEI next year, Mark Martin as his teammate, how the opportunity came to be, and more.

ON GOING FULL TIME RACING IN CUP WITH DEI NEXT YEAR “I’m really looking forward to next year. It’s something I’ve been wanting for a long, long time. When I ran a Busch car at Gibbs, I had to share it. I’ve always run partial deals. So for the first time, I’m going to get to run a full schedule. I’m going to get to run every week. I’m really looking forward to that. I’m really looking forward to working with all these guys on this team every single week because it’ll help when we have good weekends, build on the momentum, and when we have bad weekends (it will help) to try and make it better.”

WAS THIS AN EASY DEAL TO WORK OUT OR WERE THERE A LOT OF COMPLICATIONS? “No, it was really easy. I was going to get to drive a race car full time and better yet, it’s going to be the No. 8 car at DEI. I’m thrilled to death. It was very simple to work out and I just can’t wait for February to get here. So, I’ve been telling everybody that if I could go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow morning and we’d be at Daytona testing, I’d be happy.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT THIS OPPORTUNITY CAME ALONG? “Yes and no. When I ran well at Bristol earlier this year, and that kind of jump-started the talks. So we began talking about it more and about trying to get me more races. And fortunately the way all the circumstances worked out, it worked out perfectly in my opinion, to where I’m going to get to run every week.”

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING DURING THE WEEKS WHEN YOU HAVEN’T BEEN RACING? “I’ve been doing a lot of testing. And I’ve been trying to do odds and ends stuff here and there just trying to stay in the race car. I did the Prelude (to the Dream) deal for Tony Stewart, and during our off-weekend in July I’m going to go to Nova Scotia and run a Late Model. I’ve just been trying to stay in a race car and stay active and race as much as I can.”

HAS THAT BEEN DIFFICULT, EMOTIONALLY, TO NOT BE IN THE RACE CAR EVERY WEEK? “Yeah, but I’ve dealt with it almost now for so long that I hate to say it, but I’ve sort of become accustomed to it. So I’m just so excited. Now it will be even more emotional because I know what I have to look forward to. So that’ll be a big deal for me. Coming every week and hanging out with these guys and that’s what it’s all about for me.

“I really enjoy being with Tony Gibson and the whole crew that he’s put together this year are a lot of fun to work with. It makes it fun to show up to the race track.”

LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME, A LOT OF THINGS WERE UP IN THE AIR. DID YOU EVER THINK THAT A YEAR LATER YOU’D HAVE A FULL-TIME CUP RIDE? “No, I would have never imagined that I would have an opportunity like I’m going to have next year. I’m thrilled to death. I can’t explain how excited I am. It’s something you dream about when you’re a little kid is to race at the highest level of your sport every weekend. I’ve enjoyed the times that I’ve gotten to race this year and in the previous years. But to actually walk in the race car shop and have all the cars that have Number 8’s on them have my name on the roof and to work with my guys every single weekend and them not have to work with Mark (Martin) one weekend and me the next, will be a big help for our race team and for everybody involved.”

WAS THERE ANY POINT WHEN YOU DOUBTED YOUR DECISION TO LEAVE JOE GIBBS RACING, ESPECIALLY WITH THE RUMORS THAT TONY STEWART MIGHT BE MOVING ON? “No. I made a decision back then based on what was best for me at the time. That’s part of what we do out here is try and make decisions based on what is the best for you at that moment. And at the moment, that was the best decision I could make to continue to drive race cars. I’m very happy the path that this has led me down because now I’m going to be getting in the No. 8 full time next year. I think that’s a really good opportunity for me.”

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL PICK UP ANY NATIONWIDE RACES THIS YEAR? “We’re working on that but we haven’t come to anything really that’s set in stone as far as anything like that goes. But we are working on it and we are working on trying to get some sponsors to run some Nationwide races. We have a Nationwide team that is at the shop in Mooresville that is very capable of going out and running very competitively. We’re just trying to get sponsors for it. So it’s been tough. The economy is pretty tough right now. We’re trying to make that work.”

ARE YOU TRYING TO PULL THE LAST FEW PIECES OF ADVICE OUT OF MARK MARTIN BEFORE HE DOES WHATEVER HE IS GOING TO DO? “Yeah, but I’ve talked to him about it and he is still the same Mark Martin. He’s going to be at the race track and if anything, it would almost be better because now weekends that I’m in the race car, he’s going to be in the race car too so I can walk over and grab him and speak with him for a second and ask him if his car is doing this or that or whatever. He’s been a big help for me this year with stuff on and off the race track, but I think he’ll be just as much of a help to me for the rest of my career. He’s a phenomenal race car driver and he’s taught me a lot and hopefully he doesn’t stop teaching me.