Jimmie Johnson Wins from the Pole at Kansas; Takes Lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with Fifth Victory of the Season

KANSAS CITY, KS - Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, captured his fifth victory of the 2008 season by a mere 0.280 seconds at Kansas Speedway.

Starting from the pole, the two-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion led five times for a total of 124 of the 267 laps in the Camping World RV 400 Presented by Coleman.

With the victory, Johnson took the lead in the Chase to the NASCAR Sprint Cup by 10 points with three races completed and seven remaining in the season.

The win is the 38th in Johnson's NSCS career and his first at Kansas Speedway.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, finished fourth at Kansas. The four-time champion, who has battled illness the entire weekend, jumped from eighth to sixth in the standings.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Impala SS, scored his ninth consecutive top-10 finish coming to the checkered flag in the sixth position. Harvick remains fifth in the standings, just 15 points out of fourth.

Jeff Burton, No. 31 AT&T Impala SS, finished seventh in a rally from the last starting spot on the grid. The crew was forced to change the tachometer in Burton's Chevy as the field rolled off of pit road prior to the start of the race. He remains fourth in the point standings.

Hometown favorite, Clint Bowyer, No. 07 Jack Daniel's Impala SS, finished 12th and is seventh in the standings for the Chase. Bowyer fought back from a pit road penalty that mired him deep in the field to score valuable points in the Chase.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Impala SS, fought an ill-handling race car to finish 13th in today's race. Junior moved to eighth in the standings with seven races remaining in the season.

Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth completed the top-five in the finishing order.

Round four of the Chase will be Sunday, October 5 at Talladega Superspeedway.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWES IMPALA SS – Race Winner

WALK ME THROUGH THAT LAST LAP, WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND AS THAT NINETY-NINE WAS COMING ON STRONG? "Where did he come from. Those last two laps, he figured out something and got a bunch of grip. Man he was there I just didn't know. I thought I had him under control and I just didn't know he was there. Great race, I saw the slide job coming and dodged it and got a one."

HOW IMPORTANT WAS THAT LAST PIT STOP TO GET YOU OFF PIT ROAD AND GET THAT CLEAN AIR? "Yeah that really was the difference. The ninety-nine was probably better on the long runs at the end of the race and we did a great job of closing the gap. That pit stop from those guys really made the difference. I can't thank all the employee-owner's at Lowe's for their support, Chevrolet, this Impala has been awesome and all the hard work at Hendrick Motorsports. We're doing all the right things. We're just plugging along on our stuff."

TELL US ABOUT THAT LAST LAP. "Man those last two laps I'm not sure where that ninety-nine came from. Before that I got through traffic a little better than he did and thought I had stuff under control. Started getting tight and was nervous about that but he found some speed somewhere and man he closed up on me. I knew he was a dirt track racer and the slide job was coming so I just got ready for it. He went in there probably thirty car lengths too far and pounded the wall. Watching him I was more impressed that he didn't wreck and he stayed int he gas and didn't hit the wall and I'm like oh yeah this is for the checkers I've got to keep my focus where I need to. Just an awesome race and the fans got what they paid for today."

YOU GOT THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE ON THAT, IT WAS FUN TO WATCH BUT TALK ABOUT THE TWO DIFFERENT RUNS. ONE WHERE HE CHASED YOU DOWN AND THEN RAN AWAY FROM YOU AND THEN THE OTHER LOOKED LIKE HE WAS CHASING YOU DOWN AND YOU PULLED AWAY THERE TOWARD THE END WAS YOURS THAT MUCH DIFFERENT OR WAS HIS THAT MUCH DIFFERENT? "Well I know what happened to us. The run before was too loose the start of the run and by the time the tires came in and things worked out for me he had five or six seconds on me. This last stop Chad (Knaus, crew chief) made some great calls on the chassis and what we needed over the run. I got some clean air with the pit stops and off we went."

YEAH THAT PIT STOP ON LAP 219 MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD AND NOW YOU ARE THE POINTS LEADER GOING FOR THREE IN A ROW, ITS ONLY BEEN DONE ONCE BEFORE BY CALE YARBOROUGH, YOUR THOUGHTS WITH SEVEN TO GO. "We're getting closer and we're going to have start thinking about that. I keep dodging this question every week. Seven to go. We still have a lot to figure out. I think today we were able to gap some of the other guys in the Chase but they can't say we're not trying to win three in a row. These guys on my race team are committed, I'm committed. The problem is we've got some tough competition out there and it's making it hard on us and making it real good for the fans."

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS, RACE WINNER:

"It was exciting. I really like racing with Bob Osborne and Carl Edwards; they are really hard-nosed racers. That was good stuff. That was a lot of fun.

"We had checked out a little bit and Carl he just laid it out there and went for broke. He looked out there on the high side and made up a lot of ground on us. I talked to him after the race and he said 'I was driving it in, I was going to clear him, I was going to hit the wall and stand on the gas and see what happened.' That is what he did. It was great.

"Jimmie just did a fantastic job and everybody on the whole Lowe's team and everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports, you know, they are on it right now, doing a great job for us."

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THOSE LAST 300 YARDS? "I didn't like that a whole hell of a lot. What a great race. Jimmie has just done a great job. I love racing with Carl Edwards and Bob (Osborne). They're gentleman racers, they dig and they want it really bad. It fun when you can beat guys racing like that. That's one for the highlight reel there. Jimmie just did a great job, the pit crew was just incredible today. Great pit stops and we made some adjustments and it all came to light. We were a little off in the beginning but great job by my engineers. Those guys did a great job."

YOU NOW HAVE THE POINT LEAD WITH SEVEN RACES TO GO. "It doesn't matter. Doesn't mean anything right now. Right now all we've got to do is win races and finish in the top five, the rest will fall in place."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS – Finished 6th:

“Our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet was strong all day except in the middle of the race, where we started to fall back a little bit and the car was a little loose. But then that last adjustment we made was great and the car was a lot better. But the No. 17 (Matt Kenseth) was just a little better than us and we just couldn’t catch him. So all in all, it was a decent day.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 AT&T IMPALA SS – Finished 7th:

“We had a good car; not a fast car, but a good car. We just needed to find more speed. We have good race cars on lap 20, but not fast race cars. We’ve got to find a way to make some speed.”

DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING THAT THERE ARE SO MANY 1.5-MILE TRACKS LEFT IN THE SEASON AND THIS IS A 1.5-MILE TRACK? “I think it does. I think it matters. Again, it’s been our weak point. We ran well today. We ran third to sixth most of the day. When they drop the green with that many laps to go, it just kills us. But we’ll keep working on it and we’ll get better.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS – Finished 4th:

ON HIS STRONG RUN: “I guess I need to be sick more often. Yeah, that was a good run and a good car. I know if I had been healthy, I would have gotten more out of it. That was a tough day. I’m real proud of this DuPont Chevrolet team. They were awesome in the pits and they were calm and made good adjustments. It was a good car. Hey, I gave that position up to (Greg) Biffle there in the end. I came up on the No. 96 (Joey Logano) and he went high the lap before that so I thought I should go to the middle and then he went to the middle and Biffle got a good run inside of me. So it was a great race. We’re real proud of that effort. We’ll take it.”

HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER 400 LONG AND HOT MILES AT KANSAS? “Well, I’m going to be pretty sore tomorrow. I’m just aching all over but hey, when you’ve got a car and a team that’s as good as this one, you can’t let somebody else get in there and drive it. So I’m very proud of this effort today. We had a great race car and great pit stops. All around it was a great effort. I wish I’d have been a little healthier. I think I could have contributed to a little bit better finish.”

ON MOVING UP IN THE POINTS “Right now we just want to be competitive and today was a competitive day. We didn’t have enough for those leaders, but we had a really solid and strong effort. We were racing all the guys we’re racing in the Chase anyway, so it’s just all about solid performances and trying to get that win.”

A GREAT FINISH FOR YOU; YOU’VE GOT TO BE PROUD OF THIS TEAM “I was. I went to pit practice with them this past week. All that stuff like that practice and building that team spirit and camaraderie makes a big difference and I think our pit stop showed for this team. I really owe them a lot. They really did an amazing job sticking with me all weekend. I haven’t been feeling good, but I also haven’t been in a very good mood. So those guys, to put that kind of race car and that type of effort in today with those pit stops, was fantastic. I’m very happy to get out of here.”

WERE YOU FEELING SICK IN THE CAR TODAY? “You know, the best I’ve felt all weekend was in the car (laughs). There are a lot of things that go away when you get in the car. I felt it before and I feel it now and I’ll feel it a lot later tonight and tomorrow.”

YOU STARTED THE DAY SAYING HE'S NEVER FELT WORSE GETTING INTO A RACE CAR, INCREDIBLE RUN ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW WELL YOU HELD UP? "I think I did better when I'm sick. I might need to be sick more often. The car was just so good. Track was slick so it played into not feeling good because you could just drive so easy just had to be real careful getting in and real careful getting off the corner and that definitely played to our favor.

“The team was just unbelievable. They were great on pit road, Steve (Letarte, crew chief) was calm. You know I owe a lot to these guys, they stuck it out all weekend long when I was not feeling good and was pretty ill as far as my mood. Great effort and I hated to give that spot to (Greg) Biffle on that last corner but other than that I was very happy with the way the day went."

THEY PUT A SIGN ON THEIR PIT BOX THIS WEEKEND WITH NO EXCUSES WITH A PICTURE OF THE CUP ON THERE, HOW MUCH DID KEEPING THEM PUMPED UP PLAY INTO YOUR MIND NOT GIVING THEM ANY KIND OF CONDITION REPORT OR FEELING BAD TODAY? "That's the thing about a great team. When one team member is down other guys rally and pick up the pace and that's what they did with me today. I'm very thankful for that. We had some pit practice this week not to mention the test in Charlotte. I think all of it paid off even though I'm sick it all paid off. Great top-five effort."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS, FINISHED 13TH: ON TODAY'S RACE:

"I think an average driver would have finished about 35th. I told my guys that, I don't know, we had fun regardless. The car wasn't that good. We just made the best of it.

"We aren't dialing our car in We were real bad in the second practice. The track gets slick, we ain't workin' the car in to get it comfortable. That was the best I could do.

"We made light of it though. I told them the were lucky to have me."

HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT FIGHTING THE CAR? "I toned it down a lot today. I've been trying to be better on the radio and be more productive. We kind of gained on it in the center of the race and we were kind of getting better. It just went away, it got so loose at the end, I didn't know what to tell them."

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT TALLADEGA? "I think we will be fine there. I am looking forward to it. Hopefully we have a couple more in the bag that we can run good at."

IS IT A THREE-MAN CHASE NOW? "I hope not, hell. Unless you are counting me in."

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS IMPALA SS, FINISHED 43RD: NOTE: Retired from the race on lap 229 with a broken transmission:

"It is so frustrating, but that is how our entire season has gone. Every time we get a good car and are running good, something goes wrong like this.

"We had a good, strong car the first part of the race. Then started to get loose and lost some track position but we were still ok, but started to have transmission problems. Then it just completely broke. It’s just disappointing and frustrating. It has been that kind of a year."

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS IMPALA SS – Finished 12th

YOU HAD ONE OF THE FASTEST CARS AT THE BEGINNING BUT A HEARTBREAKER RIGHT AT THE START, WHAT HAPPENED? "Yeah, it was just the forty-five was slow getting going and I just went around him. Not supposed to do that but you know its I just kept making mistakes all day long, guess I sped off of pit road there at the end and pretty much ruined our chances at a good finish. I just didn’t have my head into it today. I just kept making mistakes and paid for them all day. Car was fast, we tried hard and dug deep and the driver kept making mistakes."

JUST DIGGING DEEP BECAUSE IT’S YOUR HOME TRACK? "Yeah, just trying too hard, that's what it's all about."

"I made a couple of mistakes today and it cost us. The Jack Daniel's Chevrolet was a top-five car so it's tough to swallow 12th. I feel terrible for my team because they brought me a great car to my home track and, if things would have gone our way, we might have been able to race for a win. It could have been a lot worse but that doesn't make me feel much better. We're not out of this Championship yet so we'll go to Talladega next week and try and gain some ground on the guys ahead of us."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 5 CARQUEST / KELLOGG’S IMPALA SS – Finished 14th

ON HIS RUN TODAY. "It was fun. We've made a lot of progress the last few weeks. The results haven't really shown for it but I think we finally found some speed and found kind of what I'm looking for on these bigger tracks. The Charlotte test went well. Today was a good run for us. We had some trouble there and lost the track position and once we got to the back it was pretty difficult getting back through the pack. Once we got up to the top five we showed we were a car that could run up there. It was a fun day for us. I want to apologize to Matt (Kenseth) too. I was the one that started that with Matt getting him sideways there in one and two and he just checked up a little bit earlier than I thought he was going to. I was hard on the brakes but still got into him. Fortunately he did a good job sliding all the way through the corner, saving it and coming back for a good finish. It was a good day for us, I'm happy."

YOU SAID YOU FOUND SOME SPEED, WE HAVE FOUR MORE TRACKS THAT ARE 1.5-MILE COMING UP CASEY, YOU SAID YOU HAD A GOOD TEST, WHAT DID YOU LEARN THERE THAT MAYBE CAN HELP YOU IN THOSE NEXT RACES? "You know we were just looking for something that can kind of put the whole corner together and by that I mean we've been really loose in, really tight in the center, really loose off and we've kind of found something that's kind of mellowed that all out, just making it a little bit more easier to drive. I'm real excited with what Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) all the guys have done on the team. Recently we've really found some things that are making it a lot more fun to drive and I think we'll have something for them these last few races."

MARK MARTIN, NO. 8 U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS – Finished 18th:

“It was just one of those days,” said Martin. “I just didn’t have a good day out there. We had good car, but I got caught speeding on pit road and then I overshot the pit and that hurt us. The team gave me a much better car than the finish. I’ll take the responsibility for what happened out there today. I just made too many mistakes.” “It was just really difficult once we got back there in all that traffic,” added Martin. “I’m just proud of everyone on this U.S. Army team. They continue to put me in good cars each week and it’s a lot of fun to drive them."

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS
RICK HENDRICK, OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined in the infield media center by today's winner, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, Jimmie Johnson. Jimmie, tell us about your run.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: You know, great performance all day long, led a lot of laps. Hopefully we led the most. Did we? Sweet. Just a strong performance, great stops. We had to work on the car throughout the day, make some adjustments. Chad made some great adjustments at the end that really got us on par with the 99.

I thought I was sitting in great shape with two to go. Had a nice, comfortable lead. Next thing you know, that No. 99 (Carl Edwards) is all over me. I had a battle on my hands.

Just a great day and exciting finish for the fans. I'm not looking forward to Talladega, but I'm looking forward to everything else after Talladega (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: We're also joined by today's winning crew chief, Chad Knaus. Tell us about your view from on top of the box.

CHAD KNAUS: It was a great day. Everybody on the whole team really played a part in what we had going on today. The engine shop brought something a little bit different this week. That was good. Definitely showed some fruit there. The car is actually a car we raced a couple of times and won a couple races with. So that's good. It's kind of a proven thing. Our pit crew did a great job on pit road. I just can't say enough about Jimmie. He drove his heart out today. It was a great day. It was a lot of fun. Really enjoyed it.

THE MODERATOR: We are also joined by the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick. Mr. Hendrick, tell us about your thoughts on today.

RICK HENDRICK: Well, I think this was probably one of the best examples of a total team effort from Jimmie just driving the wheels off the car, to Chad making the right adjustments when we were a couple or 3/10ths off, and the pit crew getting Jimmie out when he needed to. I think this just kind of shows why they're champions, and I'm really proud of them because it was a hard-fought deal today.

Q. Where did you learn how to defend against a slide job? I don't think you get a lot of slide jobs in off-road. Seriously, the last lap, did you see what was happening or did Carl surprise you a little bit?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: You know, in the off-road ranks, stadium trucks and stuff, slide job was a common move, kind of like dirt ovals. To be honest, I was cruising down the backstretch, had a decent lead. I knew he would go to the bottom. My concern was just making sure I was at his quarter panel coming off of turn two. So I was thinking through what I needed to do.

Next thing you know, that car goes flying by. I knew instantly, there was no damn way he's making the turn. Just stayed on the brake, tried to get redirected and turned down. I was so in awe of how fast he drove it in, I watched him pound the wall and jump back on the gas. I thought, Man, he's serious about this win, I better get back on the gas myself (laughter). Got off the turn well and got back to the start/finish.

With two to go, we had a nice comfortable lead. Thought we were in great shape. He found a line or found some grip somewhere, and just destroyed us those last few laps. Just thankful we got it done.

Q. You and Carl were 1-2 in points. Came down to you and Carl at the end. How nice was it to know he was making every move he could on you but you were able to come out with the win and take over the points lead?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I'd say winning the race is a huge boost of confidence for the team, for myself. It helps beating the No. 99, without a doubt. I kind of looked back on that last segment in general to feel really good about us closing the gap. We were 2 or 3/10ths off the No. 99 before that. Chad made some great decisions on the car. I’m real proud of that, knowing that we could fine-tune and find more speed in the car.

To be honest with you, looking up at the board, the way we finished, man, it's hard to get any points on anybody. Five or 10 here or there is nothing. At this pace, it's going to take somebody having some bad luck to get a gap. You're not just going to outrun people week to week like we're all performing right now.

Q. What does it feel like to know you're very close to matching Cale Yarborough's record of being able to have three championships in a row?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I'm not thinking about it yet. At some point it will hit me like a lead balloon. But as of now, you know, I don't even know what the points spread is over Carl. But I think with two, three to go, that's when you really start worrying about your position and protecting. Right now we're all just running as hard as we can, paying attention to who has bad luck, how the points gaps develop from there.

So right now, I mean, my biggest concern is outrunning the No. 99 and No. 16 (Greg Biffle). The No. 31 (Jeff Burton) is hanging right in there as well. I haven't thought much about Cale yet.

Q. When you heard that Montoya's car failed inspection, did you change your race approach at all or did you just figure you've been in that position, just do what you usually do?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: No, it didn't change anything. The only thing it did was affect our pit road decision. We just moved up to the first pit stall. Didn't change strategy, car setup, any of that stuff. Put a smile on my face knowing we got another pole. Outside of that, same old stuff.

Q. Did you lift against Carl or hold your usual line?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: As I entered the turn, I was running my normal line and rhythm that I had. I was tight. I was concerned about overdriving the entry, sliding up on that last paving seam, not having the right side grip I needed to. I got in a little cautious, not soft by any means, but wanted to make sure I had the car pointed for a drag race to the start/finish line.

At that time I think Carl probably recognized what I was trying to do and then took it in way far beyond any sense of normal thinking and was committed to it. I still can't explain to you how surprised I was and shocked, and in some ways thought it was pretty damn cool to see him bomb it in there and see it skipping off the wall.

But it caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to come in there and put the slide job on me with that much conviction. I figured he would stay on the bottom and try to drag race me around to the start/finish line.

Q. When you're plugging along, doing the right things, you didn't seem extremely excited over what had just happened, is that by design that you don't want to get too caught up in the closeness of the Chase, keep focused on what you're doing?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I don't think so. I don't know where my crew guys were when I got out of the car. I think they were trying to get to the Victory Lane area. I was just kind of relieved they got the job done. The last few laps, having the No. 99 run us down like he did, then that big slide job, I was evaluating things in my own head and looking at what I was doing in the car and thinking, Man, I almost gave up 10 points and a win right there.

I was probably beating myself up a little bit and critiquing what I had done in the last couple laps. But still I need to go back and look at the video and understand where he came from because the line that I'd been running, the rhythm that I had, was keeping a nice gap to him. In fact, I pulled away from him a little bit as we got through some traffic. I thought I had it in the bag.

It was more me, just kind of evaluating the day and trying to sharpen up for next week, or the next 1.5-mile I guess.

Q. Rick, the bottom three cars in the Chase are all Joe Gibbs Racing cars. I know a couple years ago your team got off to a similar rough start, still managed win the title with Jimmie in 2006. What do you think is going on with Joe Gibbs and that organization? How do you get your team back in it?

RICK HENDRICK: You know, number one, I think they're the same guys that won all the races Kyle did early in the year. I think in our position, some of the other guys, we worked hard to try to catch up. They just had some really bad luck. I mean, you know, it's going to happen to some other folks. It could happen to us next week in Talladega. You're going to have mechanical failures. You just can't do anything about that.

I think they just had a run of bad luck. They had a run of good luck for 26 races. So this thing isn't over. It's not just three or four guys that are going to decide it now. Mathematically, you have an accident at Talladega, it takes out five or six of the frontrunners, a couple bad weeks, they run good. Anybody can still win this thing.

It's hard when you run good all year. We have done that. We have gone into the Chase, had bad luck, some of it self-inflicted, and then regrouped. You know, there's no way to explain how to do it other than the way they've done it all year. Just go back, work on what they've got, don't change anything, come back and they'll be good again. Tony was real good. Denny was good. I don't know about Kyle, I think he was pretty good in practice. Things just happen.

Q. Jimmie, how close did Carl clear you by? Did it affect your entry or exit in that turn?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: It certainly affected my entry. It affected the whole turn because he went by so fast. I quickly recognized that he wasn't going to make it. I needed to get turned, get away from him so he couldn't side draft me. I didn't know how well he was going to be back on the gas.

When he went by, I saw him whiz by, I changed my entire line through the corner, all the way to the start/finish line for that matter. But I think he cleared me by quite a bit. It wasn't close. I mean, he drove in there so hard, it seemed to me he had me by six or seven car lengths, but I'm sure it was closer than that. I mean, I could see all of his car when it went by. Normally when you're close to other people, you can just see the top of their car from the wing up, just from our vantage point when we sit in it. I could see the whole car when he went by, so he had to be pretty far in front of me.

Q. Jimmie, how aware are you of all the issues that are happening, you try to focus on your own program, but the tachometer for Burton, and when people fall back, how cognizant are you of that? There were a lot of incidents on pit road. I'd like to talk about how close it is coming in and out of pit road, how that might figure into the Chase.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: A couple things. One, pit road, when you come to tracks where two tires are an option, you're going to have problems on pit road. The line of cars coming to pit road are so long, somebody comes in for two, they leave, there's guys still trying to get in and out. It's a mess. That's why qualifying's so important. If you can have an opening, be down there at the end of the line, it just takes you out of harm's way.

As far as knowing what goes on with other cars, I can say when I started, I was really concerned and worried about every point. Somebody would have a problem, I'd get excited. Even we talked about it on the radio. But somewhere in those first couple years, when we would see something happen to someone, get excited, something would then happen to us. So it's funny, we'll all watch somebody have a problem, and we will not talk about it on the radio. You just focus on your game, focus on your car, your stops, your stuff, and at the end of the day on the plane ride home you take the points sheet and look at it. Until then you almost bring something upon yourself if you're paying attention to those things and worried about those things.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the appeal of this sport as opposed to the stick and ball sports. What do you think the biggest difference is for you?

RICK HENDRICK: Well, I was a part owner of an NBA team when they first came to Charlotte. I think you find a lot of fans that are race fans are also football fans, baseball fans, basketball fans. But a lot of folks are car nuts. I mean, I'm one of 'em. Terrible. I got all kinds of cars. I grew up in the muscle car era. You raced on the street, drag racing, any kind of racing.

I think it's the gladiator type atmosphere where fans love to see guys kind of rub on each other, race like the last lap here. That's what they come to see. I think it's a love affair with the automobile. That's why you see all these manufacturers here. That's why you see all these guys with Chevrolet or Ford or Toyota or Dodge license plates on their car.

I think that's the attraction. But the drivers are the real gladiators. You see these diehard fans, man. I tell you, you know, I don't know how many football teams there are, pro teams, but all those pro teams have a bunch of ball players. We've got instead of 40 teams or 30 teams, there's 30 drivers or 40 drivers that are really the stars. I can tell you from having some superstars drive my cars, their fans are passionate about their drivers. I hear that a lot. I think that's the appeal.

Jimmie, you tell me what you think.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: You did a great job (laughter). The only thing I was going to add was the fact that all the stars are on the field all the time. You don't have one given game, you have a couple stars. All of them are on the track, and that makes a big difference.

Q. The conversation you and Carl had, were you just basically saying, Did you believe I tried that? What was the deal there?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: He stuck his head in and he goes, How far did I clear you by? I said, Seven car lengths or so. He goes, Damn it, I got in there too hard. I said, You think?

We didn't talk that much. It was kind of a laughing moment at that point. I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to win. I think it probably upset some people that we didn't get out and want to fight and all those things. You can have rivalries and respect one another. I think Carl's going to be one of the guys I've got to worry about. I'll sit there and obsess about beating that No. 99, beating that No. 16, not giving them an inch. He made me mad early in the day. I lifted his rear tires up off the ground on the backstretch because he tried squeezing me into the wall. Those are things that still exist, but you still respect each other. I hope and do believe that you will see that throughout the Chase. Maybe some of the hardcore fans won't like it. They want to see us all brawling on the frontstretch. But with the guys that are racing for the championship right now, I think you're going to see just hard-nosed racing and a great deal of respect for one another.

Q. I've noticed you tend to be relaxed with things. There's drivers that get angry, mad. How did you get that mentality to be so relaxed and respectful to the rest of your drivers out there?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I sucked my whole life until this level of racing. I took a lot of looks in the mirror, dealt with a lot of kind of looking through my own head, trying to understand what I was doing as a driver. Never wanted to blame anyone else. I just looked at myself. I keep a lot to myself and internalize what I do.

The second part of that is I have a crew chief that worries about everything, gets riled up about everything. If both of us were wound up all the time, we would be a disaster. I've found more success in taking a backseat and letting him get crazy from time to time and talking him off the ledge. It's worked well.

I mean, I certainly do get upset from time to time, but it doesn't last long. I know it's going to affect what I do in the car. At the end of the day, I want to be sitting here talking to all of you. I just know myself, if I'm obsessing over something that went on or mad about a stop or a driver or pit road or whatever it may be, I'm not focusing on driving that car to its limit.

Q. I know this is the kind of question you hate to hear. Two championships in a row. You're going for a third. Invariably a lot of your fans say you're still in the shadow of Jeff Gordon. Would a third championship this year break you out of that shadow? Do you even care when people say you're in Gordon's shadow?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: He's a little dude. I don't know how I'm in his shadow. He's kind of short (laughter).

People that still can't see the differences between Jeff and I, see us as our own individuals, they just don't get it. I mean, we both drive for Rick. We conduct ourselves in a certain way. We care for our sponsors. We care about our fans. We choose to say the right things most of the time. I mean, if that's going in a guy's shadow, then I just don't think those people know what they're looking at.

Q. YOU ARE GAINING ON JEFF GORDON’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE SPORT

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I haven't thought about that. Look at what he's accomplished. Four championships to tie him or five to surpass him, that's lofty. I'm looking at it. If we're fortunate enough to get three, obviously you look to four. I think looking at his win total and setting that as a mark to try to break is lofty, but may be a more reasonable goal to try to attain.

I've been very fortunate. I've had a lot of success. It means a lot to me to see how I continue to elevate my status with race wins and laps led and the other stats compared to some of my heroes. Jeff inspired me as a kid when I was racing off-road trucks. He wasn't from the South. He grew up racing on the dirt, got a shot. I've looked up to him. He's been one of my heroes as a kid growing up.

Q. Rick, you have a lot of dealerships here in Kansas City, employees that work for you here. When your team wins at Kansas Speedway, does that mean a lot to you? How many of your employees were up in the stands today?

RICK HENDRICK: I don't know how many were in the stands, but there were 50 in the garage area. I know that. They're still waiting out there to take pictures.

It's really neat. When this race came to Kansas, we had dealerships. Ricky won the truck race. Jeff won the first race I think. It really fires our people up. We got dealerships here, a lot of employees. The pride of being involved with the teams, I can't tell you how important it is to the employees, how proud they are. It's like a basketball team to a college. They have something for their kids to get behind and be so proud of. We used to have family days here. We'd have 2,000 people, kids. We skipped a couple years here, but we try to do other things with them. This is a special market to us. We have a big Chevy store here a lot of other franchises, too. It's been a good place to do business. Our employees take a lot of pride in the race teams.