RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THIS WEEKEND BASED ON THE TEST? “We were okay. We’ll make some changes based off California and what we’ve seen on some of the bigger tracks. This was our first test of two here in the West and in California I think we actually learned some things that we could apply here, so between the race, the 10 laps that we got in practice last weekend and in our test out there, hopefully we’ll come back with a little better package. I look forward to the race. I kind of liked the way the track was last year. It actually separated out and had multiple grooves in the first year, which we don’t typically see. I don’t know. I think our Penske Dodges will be good. I think the Gibbs cars and the Hendrick cars will be strong as well. From what I’ve seen at the test Carl Edwards had a really good package.”

YOUR PIT CREW SEEMS LIKE A LAID BACK, FUN GROUP OF GUYS. HOW IS YOUR INTERACTION WITH THE GROUP? “We’ve got them programmed that way. They are the same group of guys that we had last year, which I think is good. We had a good ending to the season last year. They did a good job in Daytona. They did a good job in California, between everybody not just the pit crew guys that go over the wall but everybody. They’re having fun and that’s what we’re here for, it shouldn’t be like working. I mean, we’re working, but it shouldn’t be like work. I think 99 percent of them have that attitude. That’s a good thing for me and for the team.”

WERE YOU OFFENDED WHEN WAYNE KNIGHT TURNED DOWN AN OPPORTUNITY TO MEET YOU LAST WEEK? “When who?”

NEWMAN FROM SEINFELD? “Oh – no, I didn’t know about that. At California?”

YES. “No, I wasn’t offended. He’s the original Newman. You guys copy him. Newman is only famous because of Seinfeld. If it wasn’t for Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld, if he wouldn’t have called him Newman then he wouldn’t be famous – he’d just be another character. I’m not copying him – you guys are the ones that call me Newman. You are the ones that copy him. I don’t call myself Newman.”

WHY DO YOU CONSIDER RACERS ATHLETES? “Because we are. Are poker players athletes? Yeah, they are. Because it is a sport. Not just poker players, but any thing that requires physical and mental characteristics to be able to beat your competitors, if you’re shooting a basketball through a hoop or driving a golf ball down a fairway – it’s athleticism and therefore it defines it as a sport and a sport makes it’s competitors an athlete. I don’t think that there is any sport out there that doesn’t have athletes competing in it. Obviously some athletes are better than others, but what we do mentally and physically behind a wheel is true athleticism. Now, am I in the same tip top shape as Tiger Woods or Tom Brady? Probably not, but we are for what we do. I think it would take those guys some training to do our job as much as we would theirs.”

IS QUALIFYING GOING TO BE A CHALLENGE WITH THE NEW CAR? “I think with qualifying you do the same thing just with a different car. This track changed more with weather conditions back when it was the original configuration to the point that we had to drive the car differently more so then, then we would with the old car compared to the new car. I don’t see it as a big difference other than the fact that you have to adjust. You have to adjust to the track, to the bumps, to the grip – those types of things with this new car. A qualifying run is no different than a race lap; you still try to do the best you can. You can move around a little bit more and there is an ideal line as we’ve always talked about and that’s what you try to take in qualifying. I don’t see it as being any more difficult. It’s not going to be easy. The cars are going to have to be on edge. The track is fast. It’s a quick race track and the tires are sticking pretty well, so you have to hang it out there.”

HOW DID YOU THINK YOU DID ON THE LETTERMAN SHOW? “It’s unique. That’s the first time that I’d ever met him. We were late getting there. We had some tailoring issues at a specific location and I had to get my suits fitted to me, because I didn’t have any. I had to go up there and get suits and get fitted and all of that stuff, so that took some extra time. I didn’t get to do the pre-interview stuff with him personally to kind of rehearse a little bit, so when I first met him is when I first met him. You saw it on TV. He’s a unique individual. I learned why they call it the Letterman Show. I learned why it’s his show because he runs it and no matter what anyone says or anyone does they follow his lead. As a guest you are kind of suckered into following his lead up until the point when you can kind of punch him a little bit. That was one of my goals was to make him think about what he was saying even after he said it.”

“I enjoyed it. It was fun. I didn’t want to offend anybody, but it was fun.”

HAVE THE ISSUES OF THE TRACK RECONFIGURATION DISAPPEARED DUE TO THE NEW CAR? “We as drivers will complain anytime there is a change – when they change the tires, when they change the cars, when they change the track, when they repave the track – we always complain. There’s never a time when I think someone has said, ‘man, I think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread’ when they make a big change like that. It was tough last year for sure with the tire combination, because we came back with a harder tire than we had in the test. So as a driver you think you can come back and approach the track a certain way as we were talking about in qualifying and when they change the tire or change the setup of the car to go along with it, it takes some time to get used to. I thought the race was good.

“There was a lot of cars that crashed in practice and I remember almost crashing quite a few times, but we’re reluctant to change as drivers, as teams, as people that are basically basing everything off of the past when it comes to cars, and setups and things that we do – we don’t want to see change. It’s difficult to take it for what it’s worth. I think that the tire, the car, and the track are better this year than they were last year, mostly because of the tire. The tire that we ran last year, because of the new surface it had to be that way just to make it on a fuel run which I commend Goodyear for. That’s something that we obviously had trouble with in Daytona, but as long as they make a tire that lasts a fuel run and we don’t have any tire issues going into and out than that’s all great. When we are boarder line crashing the cars because the tire is so hard it’s just difficult. That’s the frustration that comes out.”

ON JIMMIE JOHNSON’S SUCCESS AT LAS VEGAS: “We have to knock him off his thrown and I think that he knows everyone is looking at him for that, because I would be if I was in his position. It’s a new year with a new car and we’ve had a good start to the season with the Alltel Dodge and we’re just going to go out and do our best.”

IS JIMMIE JOHNSON THE DRIVER TO BEAT? “Everybody is the driver to beat, and more importantly you can’t beat yourself.”

WHAT KIND OF POKER PLAYERS ARE YOU? “I haven’t played in quite a while. We did a couple of those TV shows and stuff and I used to play all the time. When Matt was the crew chief basically anytime we flew anywhere we’d play cards up in the front of the plane, so I’ve played quite a bit. To answer your question, probably conservative. I play the odds probably more than I should versus just playing the player.”

COULD YOU PICTURE YOURSELF IN A HIGH-STAKES GAME OUT HERE? “I could picture myself – yes. I watch it quite a bit on TV. I like watching those guys. It’s pretty interesting. It’s a good people skill.”

HOW WOULD YOU DO, DO YOU THINK? “How would I do? I couldn’t tell you. You can think that you’re going to do well and then lose it all on the first hand because you’re over confident.”

YOU HAVE MORE MONEY AFTER DAYTONA SO YOU COULD GO TO A HIGH STAKES GAME: “The money to play with comment is kind of like, what do they call it, an oxymoron. To answer your question I don’t like to play with money.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

ON RACING IN LAS VEGAS: “It’s been an exciting week already with people coming out of the woodwork with people requesting pit passes and grandstand tickets, so my poor buddy Jeff Motley, I’ve been wearing him thin. It’s always great to come back home and see familiar things and familiar people. Last night we had an appearance at PT’s Pub. There were more than 400 people there and we had to start turning them away because we had too many people trying to get in the door. It’s great to come back home and see that. Tonight we’re busy over at The Palms. Miller Lite is heavily involved over at The Palms. I’m sure maybe on Saturday night Roger (Penske) may want to go out to dinner somewhere. Maybe if we go to In-and-Out Burger that would be perfect. That’ll conclude our Vegas weekend.

“Hopefully everything goes great for us. We’re fourth in points, but we’re parked in the wee back area of the garage area, because we don’t have any of the points from last year. So, we’re just trying to chip away at our points and make sure that everything goes as smooth as it possibly can for us in the race. The tough trick for us this weekend will be the tire. This tire is very hard and it doesn’t grab the race track all that well, but yet if you hit it just right you can carry a ton of speed. There will be some very fast race cars and some very slow ones, so we hope that we’re on the other end. The 400 miles here will come down to a pit stop at the end that’ll challenge your fuel mileage, because the tires last for so long that they won’t be an issue.”

AT WHAT POINT DID YOU SEE THE POTENTIAL IN KYLE BUSCH TO RUN AT THIS LEVEL? “I think it’s that urban legend of the first time he ever beat me. I think that’s when I saw that he had the talent to do it, but I don’t know if he ever did beat me legitimately when we ran legend cars together. It was a fun time that my Dad and I both taught Kyle everything we knew. It was great to have him as a student, yet at the same time I was learning as much as I could, and when I’d go race modifieds or late models even when I got called up to go run the Southwest Tour, that’s when he was really starting to find his game so to speak. That was 1998, and so when I came back to my legend car we would just dust it off, where his was running every week. He was keeping track of how the track was changing through the spring to the summer months, and he flat out beat me one night. It was 25 laps straight through – it was all green flag laps, there were no yellows – so as the older bull I just let him go ahead. He was the younger bull charging straight ahead to the front and he was like, ‘I’m going to go get everybody.” And I’m like, ‘alright, I’ll just take my time.’ By the time I caught him there was two laps to go and I couldn’t pass him. At that time, that was 1998, he had been racing for a couple years, but it was like he was on his own. He was on his own and it was time for him to get more of an opportunity to try different rides.”

HOW DOES THE AIR RESPOND TO THE CAR OF TOMORROW: “It’s punching a bigger whole in the air, but that’s because the windshield is so tall. It’s almost like the truck series has a big greenhouse to it, and so the new Car of Tomorrow has a big greenhouse to it, but what it’s missing is that element of drag in the rear spoiler. It’s just got a rear wing on it, and so the air goes right over the windshield and clears that rear wing. Instead of having a spoiler on there with the drag built in to it you can actually get side by side with people and slow them down when you put air onto their rear spoiler, where you can’t really put air on a rear wing because it’ll just go under it or over it, and so that side by side thing is missing a little bit. Maybe at Talladega when we saw the cars run there last year in October, maybe at Daytona a little bit of the single file. At California it was interesting, when you tried to race someone side by side whoever had the outside lane seemed to have the momentum to drive right on by, because you couldn’t slow them down by putting air on their rear spoiler. That’s something interesting and we’ll see how that develops.”

ON QUALIFYING AT THE END OF THE SESSION BASED ON LAST YEAR’S POINTS: “It’s definitely time for all of that to come into play now with California having the qualifying session rained out, this will be the first real chance to go out late in the session. Usually when you go late the draw helps you because the track is starting to cool down and you’ll have a better chance than some of the other guys. At the same time – we’re locked in. We’re guaranteed to be in the show. It would be great to get a pole here in one of the first few qualifying runs, whether it’s Vegas, Atlanta or Bristol I think is the last opportunity where we’ll be going late. The draw can really help your weekend as far as when you go out and qualify. It’s the same at every race track, when you go out late in the session usually you’re going to have a better shot at running a faster lap time. The only exception is Indianapolis and that’s because we qualify Saturday morning at 10 a.m., so you want to go out first at Indy.”

IS IT EASIER TO STAY OUT ON THE WEST COAST? AND HOW DO YOUR FRIENDS FROM OUT HERE REACT TO YOU WHEN YOU’RE HERE? “I think it’s an advantage to stay on the West Coast during these two weeks, just because for me I can park my plane and not have to fly it all the way back, so I save a lot of money that way. And then the other thing is yes, with the time zone I’m not waking up at 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. thinking it’s 8 a.m. or 7:30 a.m., so it’s easier and dinner reservations are at normal times instead of 10 p.m. East Coast time it’s 7 p.m. here. That’s nice. On the other side of that, catching up with all of my friends and it’s great that we’re able to still communicate and keep in touch. Texting is beautiful, because you can quick get to somebody and tell them where to meet you or where to grab the tickets, and so on and so forth. The tough part is I think the perception of me changing, just because now they are like, you’re some big time NASCAR guy and you’re still talking to me I feel nervous almost. I’m like no, just be cool. I’m Kurt – I’m the same guy that we used to race race cars together with or go to high school or play golf whatever it might have been.”

WHAT IS THIS CITY LIKE TO GROW UP IN? “As a local, as a kid, when you’re underage you don’t see The Strip that much. It was almost like when we packed the family car up to go down to The Strip for a prime rib dinner maybe once every six months. Maybe we did it three times a year – I don’t know. It was a special event to go down to The Strip as a family. As a kid growing up, once you get your drivers license that’s the first place you go. You’re there cruising The Strip, riding with the music as load as you can have it and just cruisin’ The Strip until the cops say, ‘okay, we’ve seen you too many times. Go somewhere else.’ And then when you become come of age it’s a brand new game, being able to come to the casinos and pop in a couple quarters and drink a Miller Lite and just have some fun. There is a life outside of The Strip. There is a great school system here with the Clarke County School District. My Mom worked there for 30 years, and the way that when you stay out of The Strip area it just feels like a regular community, almost like a Phoenix or a Palm Springs or something like that. It’s just a hot desert and you try to stay in the A/C.”

HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THIS FACILITY TO SOME OF THE FACILITIES IN EUROPE? “I like to look at this place as one of the top five Cup tracks to win. When you do something special here it feels that way because Daytona is Daytona of course, Indy is history and allure, and then there is Charlotte where we’re based out of, and Bristol is exciting, but Vegas is right in that mix. To see everything that’s been done here with the media center, the garages – it’s first class, top notch. The way that fans can have such a great time in the neon garage and be so close to the racing action of it. There are not many tracks where there are 60,000 people for a qualifying day. This place does that. I don’t know what it is. I think everybody just comes out for a three or four day vacation. They come out and they hang out in the beautiful sunshine most weekends and they enjoy themselves. The facility here is comparable to what we see at Indianapolis with those Formula One garages right there on pit road. I’ve been to ING MAGYAR NAGYDIJ, I’ve been to Hungary for that race. Those tracks reminded me a little bit of what our history is, like Martinsville and Darlington when I went to those style tracks. Now I haven’t been to the new ones in Bahrain. I’m sure that’s cutting edge. I’m sure the track in Suzuka is something special and I’m sure the one in China. This is Vegas. This is top five in American racing history right here.”

WHAT ABOUT NASCAR MAKES IT SO POLARIZING TO THE FANS? “I think it’s just the fact that it’s not two teams playing each other. It’s not the Giants against the Patriots. It’s 43 groups, 43 drivers, 43 teams, and so when you’ve got one to root for you’ve got 42 to root against, not just one or two. You can absorb teams. You can pick Penske Racing in general, because maybe you work for Penske Truck Rental, or maybe you work for one of his 250 dealerships. And then there is the Hendrick Motorsports clan, and maybe you want Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears or Dale Earnhardt, Jr. You can pick brands, for instance Dodge. You can root for a Dodge, but there is that many more guys to root against than it is to finding a combination of guys that you like. It’s great when households have a Tony Stewart shirt on the husband, a Kurt Busch shirt on the wife and the kids have the M&Ms stuff on because they love Kyle. It’s great.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR BROTHERS TRANSITION FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR? “I was really impressed with how he and his team handled the departure. They did really well with staying on the same page, competing to win races and it was very professional. I like to see that. The decision to go to Toyota, I think you can look at it with the new Car of Tomorrow is almost a wash. There’s still manufacturer support, yes, they’re still helping us understand Goodyear Tires and develop shocks that have more grip. Then engines are probably the biggest key with the manufacturer right now. The Toyotas love the high RPMs, the Chevorlets, Dodges and the Fords are a little different. Right now at Dodge we’re working on a new cylinder head and a new block. We’ve almost got what we had last year with the cars with running a regular car and a new car. At Dodge we’ve got the old engine and the new engine that we’re trying to faze in. it’s just a matter of going and racing your car. I don’t think that the brand matters in the long run, but it matters to the fans that want to see that American emblem out there, but I’m looking at more and more Toyota plants pop up in the U.S.”

TALKING TO YOU A COUPLE YEARS AGO YOU SAID, ‘IF YOU THINK I’M GOOD YOU SHOULD SEE MY BROTHER.’ HE SAID PEOPLE ARE COMPARING HIM TO TIM RICHMOND, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE MOST LIKE? “Wow, I was trying to sell him into the sport. I was like, ‘Okay, you think I’m good you should try him out.’ I was just trying to get him a ride. I think that worked. He’s doing okay. I think that having my father and myself helping him out, it’s definitely more than what I had. I just had my father. Don’t get me wrong, my Mom was there too. She was there cracking the whip on us and running the stop watches, but I just felt all along that he was going to have a great opportunity in this sport, and he has fallen into a category like Tim Richmond. I like his tenacity, his aggressiveness, his belief of, ‘hey man, I’m just here to win. I don’t care about anything else.’ And then the fact that he’s driving trucks, he’s driving Busch, he’s driving Cup – he’s driving anything he can get his hands on.

“The second part of your question - I don’t know who I would compare to. I’ve always looked up to guys like Mark Martin when I raced at Roush. Of course, Rusty Wallace, we know he had some rough beginnings, and then he was able to setting in and find his groove and people rooted for him. He’s a champion. He’s a 55 race winner. And then there are guys like Bobby Labonte. I always wished I could be quieter when I’m out on the track and kind of fly just below the radar, but yet still produce good results. I’ve always looked up to the Labonte brothers in a sense because Kyle and I almost fit that. I don’t know if the Labonte’s would appreciate being compared to the Busch brothers – I don’t know. It’s hard to really find a spot.”

HOW WOULD YOU RACE YOUR BROTHER IF IT CAME DOWN TO THE LAST LAPS HERE? “I think we would go back to our roots like when we were in Legend cars with each other, and that is to give each other room, race each other hard and to get into the element of trying to outsmart the other guy. The momentum on the top groove, whether it’s a slide job where you slid into turn one and slid up in front of him in Turn Two. I think that we would race each other to the bone – it’d be clean, it’d be fun and it would be something that people would talk about.”

WHAT DO YOU SAY TO PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT NASCAR DRIVERS ARE NOT ATHLETES? “It’s a tough sport, and it’s continuing to gain its flair and its color and to be compared to the NFL and baseball. It’s a sport that’s a little bit easier to get around. I don’t think that there is anyone in the garage area that’s on steroids, so we don’t have that issue around here. You want to go out there and prove to people that it’s a tough sport, because it is tough. You sit in a race car for four hours, it’s 130 degrees in there on those hot summer days, your body is dehydrated, you get cramped up, especially when it gets down to the end of the race. You’re nervous. You’re pushing the gas pedal through the floor board, but the biggest thing is wrestling that wheel all day long. You’re staying focused and committed with your team and what changes you need to make on the car, how many laps are on your tires, how many laps until you have to pit and you’re pushing yourself every lap to run the best lap time that you can. That would be the same as in any sport. Grabbing your glove and heading out to the field after the inning is over or when the defense has to take the field and put up a stand on the goal line. There are many comparable things, and yet at the same time we’ve got your team around you. You’ve got your pit crew which is very athletic and they can jump over the wall and you’ve got your crew chief who acts as the coach. There are those same elements that are there in any sport.”

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

YOU HAVE TO FEEL REALLY GOOD ABOUT THE WAY THINGS HAVE GONE COMPARED TO LAST SEASON: “I do. The team has done a really good job. This team is back to where it was. Our cars weren’t right last year, something was wrong with them. It showed. We had a great run at Daytona and California. It could have been a top five at either one of them. We’re excited and happy things are going good and Vegas will be another great track for us.”

YOU SEEMED TO BE ONE OF THE HAPPY ONES DURING THE TEST HERE WITH THE NEW CAR: “We had a really good test and we brought that same car here. We raced it last week in California and they turned it around real quick. That was a good job by those guys; a lot of work. We had a good test. We have things that need to be better in order to win this race, but we definitely have a good starting point. Hopefully, we can qualify well and have a good starting spot.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE DIFFERENCE PEOPLE WILL SEE WITH THE NEW CAR: “I think it’s tough to say. Last week, it was similar racing. I think this will probably be similar racing. Until we hit a lot of these tracks, it’s kind of hard to say what is going to happen with these cars, how they are going to feel all the time and how the races are going to be. Hopefully, the racing is great and we run side-by-side with a lot of lead changes.”

HOW ABOUT THE LINE HERE WITH THE NEW CAR AND TIRE WEAR? “The line seemed similar in the test, but it will move up some as the race goes on. This car to me seems like it likes the bottom of the race track a little more than what the old car did last year, but we will find that out. I think it did at California. We’ll just keep working on it. I don’t know how it’s all going to go. I enjoy driving it.”

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEK COMING TO VEGAS? “I’ve got a cold. I went snowboarding, snowmobiling, power gliding, a bunch of things at Grand Targhee, one of the Gillett’s resorts in Wyoming. Wednesday and Thursday were the two good days; we had a lot of fun.”

WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE TURNAROUND? “Focusing on one car, the car we’re racing and the Gilletts coming aboard. You know, we’ve changed the structure at the shop and I think that’s really helped. Just having Kenny Francis there and working with him and the people he’s put on our team. We had a great team and we have a great team. Once your car starts handling, all the communication stuff comes back. It should be fine. We (Kenny and I) communicate well. I’ve never had a problem with him; he hasn’t had a problem with me. We’ll race great if we have good race cars and they (the team) work really hard to give us good race cars.

DOES THIS CAR SUIT YOUR DRIVING STYLE? “Last year, it didn’t. I couldn’t get anything to work last year. This year, it seems like it suits my driving style a little bit better. You just have to have good race cars. If you want to go fast, if you want people to push you at Daytona, if you want to win races in Las Vegas, you have to have a great race car. That’s what we’re starting to have and we’re going to keep working on it until we have great race cars.

JIMMY JOHNSON WON TWO RACES IN A ROW HERE AND THEY CHANGE THE RACE TRACK, HE WINS THE THIRD STRAIGHT AND THEY CHANGE THE RACE CAR. WHAT IS THAT A SIGN OF? “A solid team and a solid driver. They do everything right. Last week, I was up front in the top five the whole race and I was watching Jimmy and his pit stops. He would be third, seventh, fourth, you know all over and then on the final pit stop of the day, he comes out first. They know when it’s time to step up. They’re a great team. They do everything right and together.”

YOUR NEW ‘ALLSTATE’ COMMERCIAL COMES OUT THIS WEEKEND: “They come out this weekend I guess. That’s what I heard. It’s a lot different. You won’t expect to see me doing the stuff I’m doing. I didn’t’ think I could do it. I was able to do some of it. I don’t dance very often. We had a chorographer and some dancers. I was working with them. It was a one-day deal. It was a lot of fun. They were really good at what they do. I saw the tape. It’s different. It’s pretty funny.

HOW IS YOUR NEW IDENTITY WITH BUDWEISER? “It’s been good. I enjoy the brand. I enjoy working with the people and doing the appearances and things with the fans. So far, so good. I like it. I like what we’re doing. It’s just going to get better as the season goes along and the Budweiser fans see we can win races and run up front.”

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE THE TEAM TO MAKE REPAIRS TO THE RACE CAR (THE NO. 9 CAR RECEIVED SHEET METAL DAMAGE TO RIGHT SIDE AT CALIFORNIA)? “They were here Tuesday morning and started working on it. I hit the wall at California, just rubbed it so the car needed a little work on the right side. They finished it yesterday. It’s the car we tested; we tested other ones against it and I always felt better in that car. So we thought California is definitely the place to take it because that’s a track harder to get a hold of than Las Vegas. We got through there fine and Kenny wanted to redo it. He feels confident with that car also. It’ll prove to be a good decision this week.”

MORE QUOTES TO FOLLOW AS THEY ARE MADE AVAILABLE.