JEFF BURTON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 31 AT&T IMPALA SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and talked about what he likes about Michigan, the heat in the new car, teams taking on investment partners and much more.

TALK ABOUT RACING AT MICHIGAN, WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT IT? “The thing I really like about Michigan is the multiple grooves. I think it’s cool that you can run the very bottom and you can run the very top. To me, that’s what I like about it the most. It’s a really smooth race track. It doesn’t have a lot of grip, it gets pretty slippery. Pretty slick, to me that’s what racing is supposed to be. But the fact that you can run a lot of different places on the race track, I really like that.”

A LOT OF REALLY GOOD DRIVERS HAVE NEVER WON HERE YOURSELF INCLUDED IS THIS TRACK ANY HARDER TO FIGURE OUT THAN ANY OTHER TRACK? “I don’t know that it’s harder. It is a unique track. We don’t have many tracks that are like this. It looks like California but it’s not. It’s not like Charlotte, It’s not like Atlanta. This is a pretty unique race track. I think when you hit up on something here it probably lasts for a long time. I think that’s why you have seen a lot of drivers not win here.”

WHEN YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR LAST WEEK YOU LOOKED BETTER THAN MOST, HOW BAD WAS THE HEAT? “You thought I looked better than most and I’m 41? Okay, just wanted to make sure I was right about that. These cars are hot and the insulating materials and the things we’ve done in the past in the old car are not adequate for this car. This car is going to require more stuff to cool the inside of the car down. I heard a comment, someone in the media said they didn’t feel sorry for drivers that are making millions of dollars, if they’re hot who cares and I guess that’s a good point but at the same time it’s to the point of being ridiculous. It’s really hot and each team’s out looking now trying to figure a way to do it better. It is a problem. It hadn’t got hot yet, it’s not August at Indy. You catch a hot day at Watkins Glen, you catch a hot day at New Hampshire, you catch a hot day somewhere like that I’m telling you they’re gonna get really hot. We haven’t had the hottest day ahead of us just yet. Pocono is a long race and that adds to it but the worst is yet to come.”

IS IT DANGEROUS? “I wouldn’t use the word dangerous but I guess in the right situation it could be dangerous. It needs some additions made to it.”

YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO CONSISTENT THIS YEAR AND YET YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO TAKE THAT NEXT STEP. HOWEVER THE LAST COUPLE OF RACES YOU SEEM TO HAVE FOUND SOMETHING, WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE TEAM THAT YOU FEEL IS TAKING YOU TO THAT POINT? “I’ve said all year long that we’re a really good race team. I think we’re really solid but we have some room to improve in. I believe that’s the case today. I think we’re making honest tries. I think our best is yet to come. We run well every week. We haven’t run great every week and by the way very few teams have. So we are a real solid race team that has some ground to make up in some areas. We do a lot of things better than some in some areas and we’re focusing hard on where we need to be better. I think we can be. I really believe that our best is ahead of us and I’m real comfortable with where we are.”

YOU’VE HAD STRETCHES LIKE THIS BEFORE, WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO KEEP DOING THIS AS WE GET TO THE CHASE? “You just got to run well. You just got to have good performance. If you have good performance than typically things will go your way. We’ve obviously had some fortune. We’ve had some things go our way this year. We’ve caught some breaks here and there without a doubt. The first thing you have to have is good race cars and good decisions being made, so far to this point we’ve done that. But for us to continue we got to continue to improve. The level of competition will get harder as the year goes on. People will get better, people will improve and we have to improve more than they do if we want to have a chance to number one make the Chase and number two contend for a championship.”

WHAT DOES IT SAY IN YOUR OPINION THAT SO MANY TEAMS HAVE TO GET OUTSIDE MONEY AND INVESTMENT PARTNERS TO STAY ALIVE? “This sport has become a multi-team ownership, really high dollar game. The Petty’s have had their multi-car team but they’re only two. They haven’t had the funding that certainly a Hendrick (Motorsports) has had. It’s really hard to compete. You’ve got to have the funding to compete. The interesting thing about the investor thing that I still haven’t quite figured out is bringing money in from the outside is great, but if you’re an investor you invest because you believe it’s going to be profitable. At some point that has to work out. Not just at Petty’s we have an investment firm too. What you have to make sure you do is that you have to make sure that having a partnership gives you the ability to bring in more funds long term, not temporarily. If it’s not long-term than it does you no good, it’s a short-term burst. But the key is being able to build a team that has the funding that a Hendrick has, that has the funding that a Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing) has or that has the funding that a RCR has. If you don’t have that you can’t compete. So the partnership thing works only if the new partner can bring relationships to the table that will enable you to generate more funds.”

HOW DO YOU MAKE YOURSELF THAT ENTICING? “I don’t know. What sponsors want is to be part of is a winning organization. They want to be part of an organization that does things right. They want to be part of a professional organization that puts all the effort in. When you do all those things then the sponsorship game becomes easier. The recruitment of employees becomes easier. The recruitment of top drivers becomes easier but it’s hard to do those things without the right funding. You got to have it to create that environment that can succeed. That is the beginning and the end of it. If you don’t have that successful environment then there is no long-term success. There is no long-term business plan that will let you sustain a business.”

HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE RUNNING THIS WEEKEND? “I anticipate running well but this is a highly competitive garage area. There’s a lot of great teams in the garage and great drivers. You never know. When you unload you never know what you have until you start running. We have high expectations. I can’t make those decisions on where I think we are until we get to Sunday.”

ON THE LAWSUIT THAT WAS FILED AGAINST NASCAR THIS WEEK, IF THE ALLEGATIONS TURN OUT TO BE TRUE WHAT DO YOU THINK THE DAMAGE WILL BE? “Honestly before I comment on that, the only thing I’ve seen is what I’ve read in the media. I have not actually read the entire lawsuit so I don’t really want to make comment on it because I’m not as educated about the thing as I should be. I’m best not making a comment because I don’t want to say something without understanding all the facts as they are currently. Ya’ll know me well enough, I don’t mind commenting but I’m only going to comment on something that I know something about and I don’t know enough about this to make a comment about it.”

DO YOU THINK THE SPORT HAS MADE STRIDES AS FAR AS DIVERSITY OVER THE PAST FIVE OR TEN YEARS? “I know that Brian France is committed to this being a diverse garage and a welcoming garage and a welcoming sport. I know that Brian France is committed to this being a diverse garage and welcoming to anybody and everybody. I do know that. Whether we’ve had enough success at it or not, I don’t know, but I have had conversations with Brian in the past and I know he’s committed to it and that I know. I know that I want this to be a garage that is diverse and is a cross section of America. I can honestly tell you that I’ve never spoken to anybody that doesn’t believe the same thing. I can honestly tell you that.”

IT SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF THE PROGRESS THAT NASCAR HAS MADE IS AT THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL AND THE PROFESSIONAL LEVEL, THE GENERAL PUBLIC DOESN’T SEE THAT ON T.V. WOULD YOU AGREE WITH THAT? “I don’t know. I know how I want it to be and I shouldn’t comment about anybody else. I did comment about Brian because Brian and I had a conversation about it several years ago. I do know that Brian is committed to making this garage and this sport diverse. I know that for a fact. I know I support that. I shouldn’t have spoke for Brian but the only reason that I did is because I have had the conversation with him. That’s really all I should say I guess.”

ON EXECUTIVES FROM OTHER MANUFACTURERS SAYING YOU’RE THE GUY THEY’RE KIND OF WATCHING IN REGARDS TO YOUR CONSISTENT RUNS. NO MATTER WHERE YOU QUALIFY YOU ALWAYS FIND YOUR WAY TO THE TOP OF THE PACK. “Well that’s good (laughs). That’s what we want. This is a tough sport and people get on rolls, good and bad. We’ve been on a good roll for sure. We have to continue to improve. We have some areas that we definitely need to improve in. I feel like we are improving in those areas and that’s what I’m focused on. I’m not focused on any one team in here other than us. It’s nice when you’re competition and your peers respect what you’ve been able to do and what you may be able to do. That’s a good feeling but there’s a lot of work ahead of us.”

WHEN YOU’VE BEEN RUNNING LIKE YOU ARE, IS THERE A DIFFERENT FEELING WHEN YOU CLIMB INTO A RACE CAR THAN WHEN YOU CLIMB INTO IT WHEN YOU’RE STRUGGLING? “I’ve learned a lot over my tenure in this sport. The thing that’s clear to me is what you did last week really doesn’t affect what you do this week. What you do this week has to do with the preparation, the effort, the desire, the dedication that you put in. If we had failure last week that doesn’t guarantee failure this week. Definitely when you’re having success you tend to have more success because you’re doing the things that are requiring you to have success. When you’re not having success it because you’re not doing those things. People call that momentum. They call it you got your mojo, there’s a thousand different phrases for it. At the end of the day you’re doing the things that you need to do to be successful and that puts you in the position to be successful. It really has nothing to do with momentum. I don’t believe in momentum. I think that’s a way overused phrase. I don’t think there is such a thing as momentum. I think there is such a thing as preparation and doing the right things, coming together at the right time to allow you to be successful and you are doing the right things at the right time and that allows you to continue to be successful. I think momentum, I don’t believe there’s such a thing. That’s my opinion.”

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MOMENTUM? “I believe you control your destiny. I believe that in the sports world there are some things that happen that you’re out of control of, there’s no question but by far the majority of things are within our control and if we want to throw it up to momentum then what we’ll do is we’ll just play pin the tail on the donkey. We’ll put on a blind fold and we’ll just stick something up on the wall and hope it sticks. That’s not how we choose to do it. We choose to try to take control and take accountability for our actions, that’s how you have success. I just don’t believe there’s some invisible force out there that’s says okay we’re tired of Kurt Busch running well so we’re going to not let him run well for a couple of years. It doesn’t work like that. It’s all about preparation; it’s about having the right group of people together and the right time. All those things matter much more than playing pin the tail on the donkey.”

LAST WEEK AFTER THE RACE BOTH BRIAN VICKERS AND DENNY HAMLIM COMPLAINED ABOUT THE HEAT INSIDE THE COCKPIT, SEEMS LIKE THE NEW CAR IS A LOT HOTTER, DOES NASCAR NEED TO DO SOMETHING TO FIX IT? “NASCAR needs to participate with it. Ultimately it’s up to the teams as it always falls on the teams to figure these things out. NASCAR does have a dog in the fight because they created the environment. They created the car with little input from the teams. They created the car so they helped create that problem so they do have a dog in the fight. As with the old car, we had had that type of car for so long it had fallen on our shoulders. This car is really new and it’s more of their creation so they have a dog in the fight. That’s the way I view it.”

WHY IS IT THAT MUCH HOTTER? “The only thing I can figure is there is less air under the car. The only thing I can figure is it all has to do with air and the splitter’s doing something with the air underneath the car. The body shape is doing something to the air underneath the car and it’s not blowing air so everything is hotter. The steering wheel on my car last week was just smoking hot. When the race was over I took my gloves off, I could hardly hold the wheel. The steering wheel was so hot. I could not put my hand on the shifter without my glove on. I couldn’t touch it. That’s a new thing. Same engines, same exhaust system, the pipes are bigger than they used to be so it has to be an air thing.”

I THINK VICKERS WAS SAYING THAT IT’S THE WAY THEY RUN THE EXHAUST UNDERNEATH THE CAR THAT SEEMS TO MAKE IT A LOT HOTTER. “The first generation of the car the exhaust pipe ran through the frame rail. It’s not like that anymore. The floor plan is actually further from the exhaust pipe than it’s ever been. Both pipes run out of the right which we’ve done for a long time. He might have a point, but there’s actually more area underneath the car than we used to have. I think it has to do with air that’s underneath the car, that’s my opinion. I’m no aerodynamicist but.”

HAVE YOU WATCHED ANY OF THE NBA PLAYOFFS? “I tuned in enough just to see whose winning and generally wake up in the morning and saw who won. The games are too late. I mean who starts a game at 9:30 at night, it’s ridiculous. The games are all so late. I can’t stay up until midnight watching a ballgame so I don’t ever see the end of them.”

I KNOW YOU’RE NOT AN EXPERT ON THE INTERIOR OF THE CAR, BUT SOMEBODY MIGHT SAY IF YOU PUT AN EXTRA HOSE IN DO YOU THINK THAT MIGHT HELP? “One of the things that I think that we found with the car too, if you look at where we’re picking the air up. If you look at the 18 car and you go to the 31 car, we’ve got the naca ducts in the right side window and that’s where we’re picking the air up. I think there’s less air there than the old car. If you move those naca ducts further back then you’re starting to pick the exhaust up and you don’t want to blow the exhaust fumes in the car. So where we’re able to get air there tends to be less air there in this car than the old car. We really can’t put it in that right rear quarter panel window, because that will pick up the exhaust. We can’t move them further back in the right side window because then you couldn’t get out of it. That would be in the way. There may be a way, but the cars are in yaw all the time. If you put something on the left side you don’t get any air. You got to do it on the right side but you got to do it forward right behind the a-post but there’s not much air there either.”

SO ITS NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN SOLVE BY JUST RUNNING AN EXTRA HOSE? “We’ve made ours bigger. We have a summer cooling package and a spring and fall cooling package. We were on the summer package last weekend and I didn’t see much difference at all.”

YOU DON’T EXPECT IT TO BE AS BAD THIS WEEKEND WITH 100 LESS MILES? “The race is shorter. The temperatures should be cooler. When it’s 75 degrees outside and something gets hot it’s hotter than it used to be but it’s not to the point where it’s a problem. When you reach those hot days, there is a lot of braking in Pocono, those are the days it gets hot.”

CHEVROLET HASN’T WON HERE SINCE 2000, IS THERE A FOCUS FOR YOU TO FIX THAT. “I think it’s more of the teams haven’t done as good of a job. I think the Roush cars have been really good here in that period of time. I think its more the teams haven’t done a good job than say it’s a Chevrolet problem.”

DOES FATHER’S DAY HAVE A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE FOR YOU? “Now that I am a father it’s definitely a different perspective. We have a little tradition at the track. We do a Father’s Day Olympics every year and that’s always pretty interesting. Watching some of the older drivers in the past, some of which are no longer here act like 12 year olds that’s pretty interesting. I have those things in my head. They won’t go away.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY / NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and talked about the Michigan track, the drivers meeting with NASCAR about the development of the new race car, racing last week at Pocono in the heat, and more.

HOW ABOUT IT SO FAR? “It’s a little slick. We’re working on it though. Our teammate is really good. We went in that direction to make my car a little better. In race trim, I was real, real happy. We ran a lot in race trim the first of the practice and I was pretty happy with that.”

IS MIS A FUN TRACK FOR YOU? “Yeah, it’s a good race track. It’s pretty fun. It’s getting a little bit rough. It’s got some bumps on the front straightaway pretty bad, but they could fix those with patches. They wouldn’t need to repave it. The track is pretty fun.”

HAS THIS PLACE TREATED YOU PRETTY FAIRLY OVER THE YEARS? “I like driving on it. We ain’t got all the finishes we feel like we should have, but that’s the case everywhere. A driver ain’t never satisfied. But I’ll put this on the list of tracks I really enjoy running on, sure.”

WITH HENDRICK’S LEVEL OF SUCCESS, DOES THIS BUOY YOUR CONFIDENCE FOR THIS WEEKEND? “Well, it has all year, every week; everywhere we’ve been going.”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT IT WAS ONE YEAR AGO TODAY THAT YOU MADE THE ANNOUNCEMENT YOU WERE GOING TO HMS? “I know, I didn’t realize that we had done so much so early last year. That was a big surprise to me. But it doesn’t. It feels like six months maybe.”

ON HEAT ISSUES WITH THE NEW CAR? “It was also really humid and 90-some degrees outside (at Pocono last weekend). The car shouldn’t be a whole lot different than the other car. Our vents are the same. Our approach is the same. We’ve actually made some gains in ability to cool the…..I guess she got all the answer she needed (laughter).”

WERE YOU IN AS GOOD SHAPE AS YOU THOUGHT OR WAS POCONO SORT OF A WAKE-UP CALL? “Was I? C’mon man! (laughter). I was at peak physical condition at (age) 1. It’s all been down hill since then (laughs). No, you do what you can. You hydrate. I could do a better job of drinking more water during the week and prepare myself. But I physically didn’t feel tired until I stopped. And that’s really how it works. You really can go further, but It’s really just when you stop. You know how a runner sort of has to jog it off after. You can’t just come to a dead stop and have a conversation with anybody. And that’s the way it is in the race car when you’ve been running and running. You have to walk it off and there’s really no way to do that. You can in the garage a little bit if you run poorly and nobody is around, but when you’re in the top five and you’re crowded by crews and media and whatnot, it makes it worse. There is really no way of moving around and no breeze. Everybody was very, very hot last week. Hopefully that was just a coincidence with the weather and humidity. It gets like that here in Michigan too, but we’ve been pretty fortunate, temperature-wise, for the past several Sundays up until Pocono.”

WHAT IS YOUR INTERPRETATION OF WHAT WAS SAID IN THE MEETING THIS MORNING? “My interpretation was that the drivers should be thankful for the position they’re in and should be more positive in where this car is going to be in a year or two. It reminds me a lot of working with video game developers. The reason why the analogy works is because the public wants to know how good the game is. The public wants to know what’s being fixed. Once the game is released there’s a lot of bugs and stuff, just like with this race car. And the public wants to know when is it going to be fixed and what’s being worked on and what’s going to be added. And a lot of companies are not eager to give that information out until it’s done and finished.

“And I see NASCAR with that same attitude. I think that they do a lot of work behind the scenes and they probably agree with us more than we tend to believe. And they understand that the car is new and it’s going to evolve and we’re going to learn more. Maybe three years from now we’ll look back at what we have today and go, man, can you believe we had that car and that was the way we did it? Because they’ll be some things we’ll find that will be just like man, that’s way better. Let’s go in that direction. So I think they’re doing more than we give them credit for. They’re thinking and working and trying and wanting to improve; and that us drivers should do less complaining.

“I think it’s always great to be reminded. In my experience with Mike Helton, if he ever says anything, it’s been very valuable to me. And every time that man has spoke, I’ve benefited from it. It gave me a whole lot clearer view of the situation than I had. And I appreciate Mike and NASCAR for thinking it was a good opportunity today to have that.”

JIM HUNTER SAID IT WAS ONE OF MIKE HELTON’S BEST CONVERSATIONS IN WHAT HE SAID AND HOW HE SAID IT “Sure. Well, I don’t know what you mean.”

WELL HE SAID IT WASN’T ELOQUENT, MEANING THAT HE SPOKE STRAIGHT UP AND STRAIGHT ON AND SERIOUS TO YOU ALL “He always does.

“I don’t know what the other drivers think. I just know what I think and what it did for me. I was pretty critical and overly critical at times. And the only reason why the drivers are like that is because we feel like our best avenue is through the media because it’s very effective. But at the same time, NASCAR reads those opinions and it’s not good for the sport. If I enjoy what I do and I’m having fun and want to be here and want to be around for a while, I shouldn’t tell people not to buy tickets.”

ON THE TIMING OF THE MEETING WITH THE GRANT / NASCAR LAWSUIT BEING FILED THIS WEEK “Well, there was nothing spoken about that in the meeting and I think that was merely coincidental. The CoT is in a critical phase right now and I feel like NASCAR wanted to put the drivers in the right direction, mentally, not only for the critical phase to get worse, but also because it’s frustrating a little bit for us to be out there and want more out of the car. But they’re open to allowing the car to evolve and there are probably some future opportunities to test some new ideas with the car to make it more raceable.”

WITH THE PRICE OF GAS AT $4 A GALLON, TALK ABOUT THE FANS COMING TO THE RACES. “Yeah, I’m glad I don’t have to pay for it, the miles I burn this weekend, or I probably wouldn’t be here. But gas prices are ridiculous. It’s unfortunate.”

WITH NASCAR TELLING THE DRIVERS TO LAY LOW ON THEIR CRITICISM OF THE CAR, DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO BE MORE RESPONSIVE TO BEHIND THE SCENES COMPLAINTS NOW AND BE MORE ACTIVE IN DOING THINGS? “Yeah. They will. I think that they were. As a driver you just pent up the anguish that you have about the situation and you misinterpret NASCAR’s position and their approach and what they’re really doing. Like I said, they’re doing a lot with the car now. They are coming up with some new ideas and new ways to make the car not quite as sensitive in dirty air and they’ll be testing that soon hopefully. I think it’s great that they feel like the car can evolve. It should, as every car has evolved in the sport, this car should as well. I feel like they know that and they’re open to it. You want to make the car to where it has more front grip and drives better in dirty air and turns down in the corner better. But at the same time, I like the way the rules are stricter on this car. It’s a very difficult situation to have both.”

WHAT’S THE UPDATE ON THE PURCHASE OF ALABAMA MOTORSPORTS PARK? “I’ve been pretty busy.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? “As far as I know, it’s 100% going to happen.”

ANY MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT HAVING A CUP TEAM? “Oh, he (Brad Keselowski) is going to have to win a whole lot more races than that for me to go into that kind of money-spending spree.”

HAVE YOU HAD CONVERSATIONS BEFORE TODAY WITH NASCAR REGARDING COMPLAINTS FROM DRIVERS ABOUT THE CAR? “I hadn’t directly talked to Mike (Helton). I haven’t seen Mike quite as often as I normally have seen him in and around the garage. I think we’re both busier this year. But normally, I try to talk to Mr. Helton once a month on the telephone. And if I have any comments or input, I normally give it to him. But I’ve always had an open door to Mike’s office. He’s always been great top me, as has (John) Darby and all those guys. But they’re in a difficult situation. There are ideas to propose on the car and it’s just a situation where you need to be patient. It can’t happen overnight.”

HAVE YOU CHANGED FROM LAST YEAR? “I don’t know.”

DO YOU FEEL DIFFERENT? IT’S ALMOST LIKE YOU ARE A LITTLE MORE SUBDUED “Yeah, I had all that stress on me. That’s about it. I’ve got a job, and it’s stressful and I put a lot of pressure on me. I thought we’d run a little faster than we did today. Just little things like that get you frustrated, but I like that. I’m competitive, you know. I’m totally less stressed this year, but I haven’t changed a whole lot I don’t think.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and talked about never winning at MIS, road course racing at Sonoma, racing in the summer heat, momentum, and more.

ON NOT WINNING AT MICHIGAN YET: “To be honest with you, I’m shocked that we haven’t won here. We’ve had very good cars and have been in contention a couple of different times. It always seems like there’s a crazy strategy at the end that keeps us from winning. It’s either a two-tire deal, we’ve taken no tires when we’ve had a great race car and been leading and lost to guys that have had tires. We’ve also lost to fuel mileage before. So it’s just a weird finish to this race. In some cases the best car wins here but in other cases it’s something strategy-wise that plays out and it just hasn’t worked for us here.”

DO YOU ENJOY RACING AT MIS? “Yeah, definitely. This track is a lot of fun from the inside white line all the way up to the wall, you can find different lines to run on. It’s probably one of the early forms of a progressively banked track and it’s worked out really well over the years.”

DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE ON THE ROAD COURSES NOW? “I do. Sonoma is one of the tougher tracks for me. I love road course racing. I run the Rolex events and do all that other stuff on the side and really enjoy it and run well, but I just haven’t figured out Sonoma yet. But this year I’m feeling good about it and we’ll get out there and see what happens.”

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT SONOMA THAT YOU STRUGGLE WITH? “If I knew the answer, it would be nice. It seems that we can run a fast lap for qualifying and be competitive on the short runs, but keeping the rear tires on the car is the hard part for me. I’m thinking I’m probably a little impatient and burn the rear tires off, so I’ll work on that when we get out there and hopefully we’ll be competitive in the long haul.”

STORMS ARE POSSIBLE TODAY. HOW DOES THAT AFFECT THE SET-UP ON YOUR CAR? “It just depends on how much track time we get. We’re used to being in a holding pattern and when we get on track you just get everything that you can at that point. At least tomorrow looks good. So I think a lot of guys will focus on qualifying trim today.

“If there is rain again in the forecast for tomorrow I think you’ll see a lot of guys in race trim trying to make sure that they are prepared for the race. And I haven’t seen my guys yet to know where we’re exactly at and to know their thought process, but we’ll get whatever we can today. And the track usually dries out pretty good here. Coming in this morning it looked like there were some clear skies, so hopefully we get on track.”

HOW BAD DID YOU STRUGGLE WITH THE HEAT LAST WEEKEND AT POCONO? AS SUMMER GOES ON, WILL THIS BE AN ONGOING CONCERN WITH THE NEW CAR? “Yeah, I think it’s something we need to look at. There are some things that the team can to to allow some more air in the car and I think that’s a big part of it. I know some people feel that there is a carbon situation and we’re getting fumes. I personally don’t think that’s the case. I had a really tough night at Darlington when the alternator went out. I had to turn my fans off probably 30 or 40 laps into the event. And afterwards I was tested for carbon and all that stuff and I was fine. It was really just the heat. So for whatever reason, this car is holding a lot more heat inside of it and we’re not venting it out as good as we did with the old car. So, we’ve made some changes on the No. 48 car and I’m sure a lot of guys are thinking about it right now, especially with summer coming on. Pocono was warm and more humid than anything. That humidity inside the race car creates its own little climate in there and it just cooks you.”

LAST YEAR HMS WAS WINNING EVERYTHING. THIS YEAR, HOW MUCH OF IT DO YOU PUT DOWN TO THE NEW CAR AND HOW MUCH TO CATCHING UP WITH THE OTHER TEAMS? “We don’t know exactly what’s all going on. We’re working really hard to get the big track stuff sorted out. At short tracks we’re still as competitive as we were last year with this car. If you think back, last year we ran the old style car on these big tracks and we had it pretty well scienced out. Right now we’re just playing catch-up a little bit. There are guys who have figured it out and who are doing a great job with it, and we’re working hard to figure it out.”

HAVE YOU PLAYED TORREY PINES GOLF COURSE WHERE THE U.S. OPEN IS THIS WEEK? “No, I haven’t had a chance to play. I picked up golf back here on the east coast and wasn’t out there to really have a chance to play. I watched some of it yesterday and it was interesting to watch Tiger (Woods) come back and see what he’s up to. And I loved seeing the fact that he had some double bogies, that’s fantastic.

“It makes a terrible golfer like myself feel good that he could have double bogies (laughs). It’s a good event and a great community out there. I have a lot of friends that live in San Diego. So I know it’s going to be fun.”

DID YOU SAY YOU DON’T THINK THE NEW TIRES ARE HOTTER? “I do. They are holding more heat in them somehow. I’m not exactly sure why, but they’re much warmer than the older cars.”

DO YOU KNOW HOW HOT IT IS IN THE CAR, TEMPERATURE-WISE? “I don’t. Our guys put temperature strips on different things and you see some pretty warm temperatures on floorboards and stuff; you could certainly cook eggs on it to say the least. But what happens is that with all the radiant heat from the tubes and steel around you over the course of the race, you just can’t get away from the heat. There is very little air coming inside of this car. We’re making some changes to get more air circulating inside of the car to hopefully keep that radiant heat down.”

WHAT DO YOU DO, DIET-WISE OR MENTALLY TO DEAL WITH THE HEAT? “You’ve got to stay hydrated. You’ve got to prepare a couple days in advance. A big part of it is drinking enough fluid during the race. It sounds crazy but you’re not hungry or thirsty when you’re out there. You’re focused on other things. So Gatorade has a really cool in-car system that has been very helpful for us. Last week I drank five liters of Gatorade during the race at Pocono and I was out of Gatorade on the last pit stop. I was just sitting there the whole time forcing yourself to drink. Also eating during the event it helpful so you keep your energy up.”

CAN YOU EAT DURING THE RACE? “We try to. They make me eat stuff during pit stops. As they’re changing the right side tires they’ll set some food in there and I have a little pouch on the side of the door I can put it if I can’t get to it, or if I can get it into my mouth before they’re around jacking the left side of the car, I’ll try to eat it. It’s power bars and stuff like that.”

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL DIET LIKE PASTA A COUPLE OF DAYS BEFORE THE RACE? “I don’t see a lot of people focused so much on the diet side. Diet is a big part of it and carbs are in everything. Hydration and making sure you get the right fluids in you during the course of the race is important.”

MARK MARTIN TALKED ABOUT BEING 49 AND BEING IN SHAPE. HOW MUCH PREPARATION BEFORE RACE DAY DO YOU DO TO DEAL WITH THE HEAT? ”He’s by example. He’s in awesome shape. And at 49 he climbs out of the car looking like he didn’t even run 500 miles. He’s done a great job.”

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE STORY ABOUT RACING WITH YOUR DAD? “Really it’s growing up and going to those short tracks when I was a kid. I can remember my dad picking me up on Wednesdays from school. His truck would be sitting out in front of the school. He’d pick me up and take me to Ascot or Ventura to watch the dirt cars or whatever it was. My dad was such a race fan. And I really wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for his passion for the sport and the fact that he loved to be around it and watch it so much. I have a lot of great memories sitting there at the race tracks with my dad.”

ON THE SUCCESS THAT OTHER MANUFACTURERS HAVE HAD AT MIS “I think there is less of a brand being favored in today’s world of racing than there has ever been. I know that the Roush guys and Ford have had a lot of success here. We don’t like that being a Chevy team. We want to win in Chevrolet’s backyard. But for whatever reason it’s worked out that way. I think it’s more team-related than manufacturer-related. We’re hopeful of getting that Chevy bowtie up front.”

ON THE GRANT/NASCAR LAWSUIT THAT WAS FILED THIS WEEK ”I was shocked. I was totally shocked to see that. I didn’t see anything yesterday on it, so I’m not sure where it is now. I was certainly shocked to see that.”

HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED ANYTHING IN THE GARAGE AS FAR AS LACK OF DIVERSITY OR A MINORITY ATTITUDE? “No, I really can’t say that I’ve ever seen any of it. And I don’t think it exists in our garage area. Our sport is a big sport and I don’t think matters, race or gender. We see it work in the sport every day. So I’m very shocked to see that.”

DO YOU THINK KYLE BUSCH HAS WANTED TO PROVE THAT HMS WAS WRONG FOR LETTING HIM GO? “No, Kyle has always been fast and I think Kyle has figured out how to make 500 miles now. If you look at the last couple of years and who has run the fastest lap or who has led laps at tracks, Kyle’s is in that top percentage of guys.

“But if you looked at guys that crashed out or if there were such a status, guys would knock the right side off their car. Kyle would go through three right-sides in a weekend; practice, qualifying and then the race. So I think a lot of it is him maturing. He’s always had that raw talent but he’s now figured out how to make it 500 miles.”

DOES HE SEEM BUFFER TO YOU? “Buffer?”

YEAH, HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A SKINNY KID TO ME ANYMORE “He still looks like a skinny kid to me” (laughter)

HE JUST SEEMS TO HAVE MORE STRENGTH TO DO WHAT HE’S DOING NOW, LIKE RUNNING ALL THREE SERIES LAST WEEKEND “He’s 23? And all that youthful excitement and energy and all that comes with it is great. He’s a racer at heart and you can’t deny that. That’s what’s really cool to watch him go through those experiences and try to run so many races. He’s doing it because he loves to race. I don’t even think he’s being paid to run in some of the cars that he’s driving, he’s just doing it for the trophies and that says a lot.”

WOULD YOU DO THAT STILL? “You know there are times when I watch it and I’m jealous; but there is so much that goes with it. If I was just driving the car, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But there’s so much more to it. He probably has two to three times as many sponsor obligations to worry about and team members to worry about. It’s just a lot of extra stuff. I think there are times when he looks himself in the mirror and says, ‘Why in the world am I doing this?’ But when he’s in the car, I know he’s enjoying it.”

HAVE YOU EVER EXPLORED GETTING INTO THE NATIONWIDE SERIES AS AN OWNER? “There have been opportunities. There have been conversations and thoughts. But it’s just something I’m not interested in being a car owner. I’ve always been a driver. I’ve watched car owners and I see how hard they work and how hard it is to manage people and sponsors and keep technology flowing through the company. I just don’t think that as a driver, I can spend the time and effort to do it right. It’s not a huge goal of mine to be a car owner. I want to be a race car driver and race until I can’t walk, but I don’t have that burning desire to be a car owner.”

DO YOU THINK THAT MIGHT CHANGE? “At this stage, I don’t think so. I mean I was questioning myself a few years back thinking maybe that would come along, but especially when you start tearing stuff up and you give your stuff back and you say hey, thanks boss (laughter). That makes it a little easier, you know?”

ON JEFF BURTON’S COMMENT THAT HE DOESN’T BELIEVE IN MOMENTUM AND THAT SUCCESS IS A RESULT OF THINGS YOU’RE DOING RIGHT “I think that you need to create opportunities and a team needs to be prepared. A driver needs to do his part. Pit stops. There are a lot of things there that are dependant upon the performance of the team and what would you do as a group. Luck does come into play from time to time and it may help a guy win a race from time to time, but it doesn’t let somebody win 80 races like Jeff has or the four championships. That comes from talent and skill and from everyone.

“The momentum you feel, when you can’t do anything right, you feel like it’s raining on you day after day, and then when you’re on the other side of it and things are working right, the sun’s always out and birds are chirping and everything is great and you can’t make a wrong move. And even if you do make a wrong move, you can recover from it and recognize, okay, we didn’t need to do that and let’s go in this direction and everything is a little easier. So I can sense when it’s coming, good and bad, but don’t know how to created it, good or bad, and don’t know how to stop it, good or bad. It’s just something that when it’s there, you roll with it and hope that if it’s on the positive side when it’s there that it never ends.”

JEFF GORDON, DRIVER OF THE NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and talked about why he likes racing at Michigan, struggles with the new car, keeping his team together and focused and much more.

HOW IS YOUR CAR TODAY? “We’ve been trying some things this week and did a little testing and brought it here. We had a race set up in and I really liked it and were happy and tried to do that same thing for qualifying and it wasn’t working so we’re definitely going to have our hands full here for qualifying. Obviously we go off our notes of what Jimmie’s got. He seems to be pretty good and we’ll make the best of it and see what happens. So qualifying should be pretty interesting.”

ON WHY HE IS HAVING SO MANY ISSUES WITH QUALIFYING AT THIS STAGE OF THE SEASON. “It’s because we’re trying stuff. Because what we had from last year, what we started the season off is not working. We didn’t have a very good test at Pocono so we didn’t really leave there with any good information from the 24 team, but the 48 was good. We actually did have their set up in and were pretty good with it in practice and the sun came out and made a few adjustments and I got really tight. I think somebody had said I didn’t like his set ups because it was loose, I was never loose with Jimmie’s set up at Pocono it was pretty surprising because typically I have been but not there. He qualified up front and we didn’t. Pocono or any of these tracks that’s how easy it is, you make one little bobble and I did off of the first turn and it ruined the whole lap and we were way behind. We were really good on short runs in the race at Pocono and we got our track position, we tried to play some different pit strategy that didn’t work out for us so we had to get it switched back over and we were looking really good until Kyle Busch spun out. For some odd reason he spun out and it kind of messed up our whole pit strategy and we had to fight hard to put four tires on and come from the back. My fans are awesome, they’re unbelievably supportive and loyal and so loyal they want to point fingers at everybody else but me. Sometimes that’s not always fair. We’re just working really hard trying to find what we need to go faster and be better. With the Chase format and also with we got ourselves up in the sixth position in the Chase, we’re not solidly in but it does allow us to experiment a little more than we have been able to up to this point. Before we were like hey we would just be happy to get to 15th, now we need to be 10th or fifth. We’ve gotten some top fives and that’s gotten us up there and now we got to get better. We’ve got to be competitive enough to win races.”

IN SPEAKING WITH THE OTHER DRIVERS IT SEEMS LIKE YOU GUYS HAD A LITTLE BIT OF A SHUT UP AND RACE MEETING THIS MORNING, WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF NASCAR’S CLOSED DOOR TALKING TO WITH YOU GUYS? “I think it was just that. I think it was a closed door meeting and I wish they would have more of them to be honest with you. Wasn’t a whole lot of comment and reaction type of meeting. It was 30 minutes before practice. I guess you can call it that but to me we need to have more drivers meetings. The sport is important to all of us and we want to make sure we are all doing our best in playing our part in it. I wish we had more meetings like that but I don’t think they are meetings that need to be discussed.”

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO LEARN IN THE TIME PERIOD BETWEEN THIS RACE AND THE RACE HERE IN AUGUST? “We try to learn every time we come to any race track. It’s what can we take from this race track that’s going to apply to other race tracks or what can we take from other race tracks and apply here in Michigan and try to win. Our goal is every time we come to a race track we want to be competitive, we want to lead laps and we want to have an opportunity to win and hopefully pull off a win. Right now it’s about getting bonus points for the Chase. It’s about being in the Chase so that’s what we’re looking at Michigan at. This is one of my favorite race tracks, I love coming here. We want to run good and try to get a win. If not, we’ll try to take what we can from here and apply it to other tracks. Kind of hard to do, I think you can take more things from other tracks to bring here. It’s a two-mile race track and pretty smooth. Grip level is down but it’s still fast. Unrestricted and I think you can probably apply more things from a 1.5-mile track and other tracks we’ve been on and make them sort of work here than you can learn something specific and make that work at a 1.5-mile track.”

TALKING TO OTHER DRIVERS ABOUT THE MEETING THIS MORNING IT ALMOST SEEMS LIKE NASCAR WANTS DRIVERS TO BE A LITTLE MORE RESTRAINED ON SOME OF THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NEW CAR UNTIL NASCAR WORKS SOME OF THE KINKS OUT, IS THAT FAIR STATEMENT? “I didn’t really know it was specifically geared toward anything like the car. Again I don’t think it’s a meeting that needs to be discussed. If you want to get that from other drivers then get that from other drivers. I want to continue to have those meetings. I think it’s important for NASCAR to get us together and share their thoughts and ideas about where we’re at whether it be with the car or race track safety all those things. I hope those meetings turn into something on a more regular basis and that we can have input into it. I think the only way we can do that is to not necessarily make those meetings public.”

THAT BEING SAID, AS A DRIVER DO YOU FEEL THAT THE OTHER DRIVERS MAY BE TALKING ABOUT THE CAR TOO MUCH NOW AND NOT LETTING THE KINKS WORK OUT THEMSELVES? “I can just tell you from my own personal experiences that there are guys out there that are making it work, certainly making it work better than we are. I’ve just gotten to the point where I just need to shut up and drive because other people are making it work. We are not and we’re one of the best teams out there. I feel confident in my driving and my team and that we can get it and find it. I don’t think that there’s anybody else out there that’s doing anything that’s magic, they just found some things and gone in that direction and its working. We keep our eyes and our ears open at all times. We pay attention. We look at what we’re doing. We communicate with our teammates and we do everything we can. There’s no secret that his car is not perfect and I think that you can always go back and look at the beginning and how it all started and say we could have done it this way or that way. In my opinion, we don’t know if the racing would be better, worse with the old car. Racing is always changing constantly. I think it’s still entertaining. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little bit of controversy from time to time. We’ll leave that up to Kyle Busch and Tony (Stewart) but for me this is the car we have and I don’t want to dwell on it more than the fact this is what we have. This is what we’re working on and this is what we have to try to win a championship this year with and we need to make it work.”

HAS THERE BEEN INSTANCES IN THE PAST WHEN CHANGES WERE MADE TO THE PREVIOUS CAR AND YOU FOUND YOURSELF IN A SIMILAR POSITION? “I can honestly say that this is not similar because in the past I felt like we always evolved in a way where we were putting more grip in the cars and going faster. The little tiny things that NASCAR would do to us over the off season to slow us down and to try to prevent us from maybe abusing tires too much and having failures, carrying too much speed, safety wise they’re always doing things to slow that process down and you always knew it was coming but yet we were always one step ahead. Even though they would cut the spoilers off of it, we’d come back and be faster. Now there have been times in my career when the car has evolved to go faster that it’s taken some adjusting on my part. When they started getting into the big rear springs and there’s less body roll in the car that took some time for me to adjust to. Again we got there and boom we starting going fast and we won the championship, so that was 2000 that we struggled with it, 2000 when we won the championship. This is so much different because it’s so many steps back and we’re in a box so it’s been the biggest challenge that I’ve ever seen any of the teams go through and that’s exactly what we anticipated it would be a big challenge. Last year wasn’t so big because we were on the shorter tracks, now we’re on the big fast high speed tracks and it’s a real challenge.”

YOU SAID EARLIER THAT YOU WEREN’T TERRIBLY HAPPY WITH THE QUALIFYING SET UP BUT YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HAD IN THE RACE SET UP TODAY, HOW IS FIXING THINGS ON THE QUALIFYING END GOING TO TRANSLATE INTO THE KIND OF SUCCESS YOU’RE LOOKING FOR ON RACE DAY? “I would say of all the tracks that we go to this is probably not easy, I’m just saying easier to come from the back to the front here or the middle of the pack to the front here. I want to start up front so we’re going to work hard. We always do every single week and no matter how good or bad we are in practice, I drive the car down into the first corner as hard as I can and if it sticks then we finish the corner and make the next corner and that’s what I’m going to do the next time. But if we don’t qualify good I’ll say this is one of those tracks where if you do have a good car it’s so wide, there’s so many different lanes and grooves that you can pass and come to the front. That’s why I love this race track so much. Unfortunately because of that sometimes you see less cautions here so the excitement factor is hit or miss here from a spectator stand point. From a driver, racers stand point to me this is one of the best places we go to race because there’s so much room to race on.”

AS YOU TRY TO FIND YOURSELF ON THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS WITH THIS CAR, HOW MUCH MORE IMPORTANT DOES THAT MAKE THE TRIP TO SONOMA NEXT WEEK FOR YOU, A PLACE WHERE WE EXPECT TO SEE YOU COMPETING FOR WINS? “Yeah, it’s important. We know that. We know our road course program has always kind of bailed us out when we needed it most in the past. Not saying we need to be bailed out right now but we definitely could use some bonus points going into the Chase and could use a win. It’s not going to be easy, there’s pit strategy. To me the 20 car was the best car on the road course’s last year, Sonoma as well as Watkins Glen. But because of pit strategy and Juan Pablo is really fast on the road courses as well they pulled off a great victory. Anybody can win that race. There’s a lot more competitive drivers on the road courses than there used to be and so we don’t go out there feeling like we have the edge that we used to have. I do feel confident that we’re gonna be strong there and that we don’t have to think and worry about a lot of this towed reared housing and cars running sideways down the straightaway, whether we got the right bump stop on and all those things. We’re just going to try to go there and shift and brake and make our car work the best we can. Hopefully not make any mistakes.”

HAS THE LAWSUIT BEEN TALKED ABOUTHIS MORNING AMONG DRIVERS AND ALSO WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE LAWSUIT? “I haven’t spoken to any drivers about it. I’m pretty sure I know less about it than you guys do and I’d like to kind of keep it that way. I’m just going to watch it play out like you are, not as much detail into it like you I’m sure. Just let the courts decide or see how it plays out before that even happens. That’s all I can add to that. Sorry I don’t have much information for you today. You’re asking all the brave questions I just don’t have good answers.”

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR TEAM TOGETHER AND MOVING FORWARD THROUGH ALL OF THE OUTSIDE CRITICISM INCLUDING CRITICISM OF YOUR CREW CHIEF AS YOU GUYS TRY TO WORK THIS STRUGGLE OUT? “We don’t pay attention to outside criticism. We know what we’re capable of doing. We focus internally. I think Steve Letarte is one of the best crew chiefs out there and I’m confident in that and I would say that being a crew chief these days takes a lot of different elements. There are guys out there that are just super smart. There’s guys out that that are incredible engineers and there are guys out there that are great organizers. In my opinion Steve Letarte across the board is one of the best because he understands where his place is. He knows how to motivate people, he know s how to organize them. He knows how the read the information. He knows how to work with me, communicate with me, with the team. He knows when to crack the whip and when not to. He’s worked with some of the best crew chiefs in the business and he gets a chance to work side by side with Chad Knaus who I think is one of the best out there as well. He’s got to deal with me and that’s not an easy thing. Sometimes I’m not the easiest and he’s got to deal with exactly what we talked about, he’s got to deal with extreme criticism from very loyal, avid fans of mine. It’s a tough job and not anybody can be in that position and I think for his age and his experience I think he does an unbelievable job. I’m confident in that and that’s why that doesn’t change things outside of our shop. They don’t affect us because they know what we’re doing and what direction we’re going in and how hard we’re working and confident that we can get where we need to be. It’s funny that when you’re not running where you need to be how quick people are to point those things out, but how quick they forget about the fact that we were basically one of the best teams out there on the track last year and there’s a reason why we were as good as we were last year and there’s a reason why we’ll get back there hopefully before the season is out.”

TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION SOME OF THE STRUGGLES YOU HAVE HAD THIS YEAR AT THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS, DO YOU THINK THAT SPEAKS MORE THAN JUST A NATURAL FLOW OF THE SPORT, THE UPS AND DOWNS VERSES ANY SPECIFIC ISSUES YOUR TEAM MAY BE EPERIENCING WITH THE CAR IN GENERAL? “Yeah, absolutely. Every driver drives different. Every crew chief has different theories on how they want to go about operating the team or setting the cars up. When you’ve been in this series as long as I have,16 years you’re going to go up and down and you’re gonna have those times and moments and there’s going to be changes in this sport that you’re gonna adapt to quicker than others and some slower than others. When you go through a big change like this, sometimes it’s easier to be younger and less experienced with less knowledge and less bad habits or habits of any kind because then you have to change. If you don’t have to change as much sometimes it makes it easier. I’ve been through a lot of great years and feel like we still have great years ahead of us and I don’t think this year is a wash. I think we still have it left in us this year. I’ve been through enough tough years to know how you got to fight through those years and understand them and just get through them. If I wasn’t at Hendrick Motorsports and if I didn’t have confidence in myself or my team then I would be singing a different tune right now. Unfortunately I have to answer the questions because you just want to work. You just want to test and you want to go out on the track and try things and when you’re not running good it’s frustrating but you just want to focus on your job and your team. This is a big sport and it’s gotten a lot of media attention and attention from the fans so we don’t have that luxury. We have to deal with the criticisms and just know that’s a part of it too.”

MARK MARTIN, U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and talked about racing at Michigan, Father’s Day, Kyle Busch, Richard Petty, physical preparation for a race on a hot day and other topics.

FIRST OF ALL I WANT TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE HEAT LAST WEEK IN POCONO. YOU ARE KIND OF THE STANDARD FOR PERSONAL HEALTH AND WHATNOT. WHAT DO YOU DO PERSONALLY TO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR SUMMER HEAT? “I live every day like its going to be Pocono tomorrow. Every single day. I don’t think there is anything in particular that you can do you know. In the old days people thought you could have a bowl of pasta and a good night’s sleep before the race and you’d be ready. But I never subscribed to that.

“It takes so long for your body to change like making a weight loss or anything else. If you notice it takes a long time and a long term commitment to get in top physical condition. “

MARK, TALK ABOUT GETTING TO MEET MARY KAY ON SUNDAY. SHE HAS SIX SONS IN THE ARMY. “Well, I look forward to it. It’s a great opportunity and you know, she must be one heck of a woman and I look forward to meeting her.”

MARK TALK ABOUT THE NEW CAR AND JUST IN GENERAL HOW MUCH MORE OF A STRAIN IT IS. “They are a little hotter, the COT is. You know the rest of it’s all determined by a good day bad day on handling and humidity. A lot is determined by the handling of the race car and how difficult it is, and how tough it is. I don’t think in general it’s tougher today than it ever was.”

YOU TALK TO SOME DRIVERS AND THEY SAY THE NEW CAR JUST SEEMS HOTTER. “They do. They are certainly, but like I said before, in general, generally speaking they are not significantly tougher than the cars that I drove when I started Cup racing in the early eighties. A lot is determined by the humidity, by the handling of the car and then the only other thing is the intensity of the racing from green flag is higher. The first half of the race is just like the half of the race today, whereas you used to be able to pace yourself.”

HOW MUCH TOUGHER IS IT MENTALLY OR PHYSICALLY? “I live everyday like tomorrow’s Pocono. And that’s all I can tell you. Everyday. I don’t even think you can load up on water and make a difference. I myself don’t think that works. I’m forty-nine years old and I have experimented quite a bit with all that stuff. I don’t see an appreciable difference in a tune up before the race. You can’t tune your body up like you can a car. It’s not the same thing.

HOW MUCH OF IT IS MENTAL? “I don’t know. It’s hard when it’s hard. No matter.”

MARK, YOU AND YOUR DAD WERE SO CLOSE. FATHER’S DAY IS ON SUNDAY AND IT’S A SPECIAL DAY AND IT’S A TRADITION TO BE HERE ON FATHER’S DAY. “Yeah, you know I’m going to be up her by myself this weekend but in spirit we are all together. It’s a real privilege to be a dad. And you know I am real lucky to have Matt and have such a fine young man and a wonderful wife for twenty-five years and you know, for me it doesn’t matter that we are not in the same place together because our hearts are together in the same place.”

I WANT TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE PETTY IMPACT ON THE SPORT. WHERE DO YOU THINK THE SPORT WOULD BE IF THE PETTY’S WEREN’T INVOLVED? “You know, Richard Petty was the king of the era that I came in. You know I didn’t know about NASCAR racing prior to Richard. Richard Petty was the guy that I pulled for and he brought the sport you know, to another level based on his popularity and his success, his appeal, the way he handled people set the standard for any kind of sport.”

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE TRACK AND WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO HAVE SUCCESS HERE. “You know this is a really big race track and they say you need horsepower and it doesn’t hurt to have it. But really one-hundred percent key is going through these big turns. The corners are huge here and that makes it fun and challenging for the teams and drivers. Just making the cars go through the corners better. “

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SOME OF THESE INVESTMENT GROUPS THAT ARE NOT NECESSARILY “RACERS” COMING INTO NASCAR FINANCIALLY? “It’s different for sure. I am not really sure how to answer that. You know the old school in me wishes it was back the way it was in 1980 or 1981 when I first came here. On the other hand, nothing stays the same and nothing is like it was in 1981. So its progress. Its good things and bad things. The positives are that it’s all about more job opportunities for people that want to be involved in racing and there is so much more opportunity than there was back then. And you know, when you bring investors in it helps the Petty’s and it helps the teams, it helps Roush move to the next level and continue to compete on the level that they were competing on before. Otherwise it’s very difficult and winds up forcing you out the way it did Larry McClure, Morgan-McClure for example.

FUEL MILEAGE IS ALWAYS A TOPIC WHEN WE COME UP HERE CHEVY VERSUS THE COMPETITION DO YOU GUYS FEEL LIKE YOU ARE GETTING AS GOOD OF FUEL MILEAGE AS MOST EVERYBODY? “You know, no we could probably use just a little bit better, but we’ll probably be okay. We’re middle of the road. You know not bad, but certainly not top of the heap either.”

IF THE CREW CHIEF SAYS SAVE SOME FUEL HERE, CAN YOU GIVE US AN IDEA OF WHAT YOU MIGHT DO TO DO THAT? “If you want to put it simply, don’t give it as much gas. Which equals slow down, which isn’t a great option either. Only if you have the fastest car by a bunch like we did at Phoenix is where you can afford to do that. Most of the time you don’t have the significant car that you need to be able to make a difference.”

MARK YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU TRIED EVERYTHING YOU KNOW AND YOU TRY AND KEEP IN GREAT SHAPE EVERYDAY. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS IN THE PAST THAT YOU TRIED? ”You know a bowl of pasta. You can’t have a bowl of pasta and be okay tomorrow. You drink a gallon of water and what goes in has to come out. There’s limits and it just needs to be a lifestyle.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COME BACK AND TO KEEP RACING AND RACE HERE AT MICHIGAN? “This is my family and it’s all I have known for thirty-five years. Given a choice of sitting at home…what do you think? It’s my life and the reason I am a race car driver is because I was better at that than I was at other sports and there is a certain amount of satisfaction and attraction at being good at something.

DO YOU THINK IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE STILL ENJOYING A SUCCESSFUL RACING CAREER AND DOES YOUR SON HAVE OTHER INTERESTS OTHER THAN RACING AND DOES YOUR CAREER PLAY A PART IN HIS DECISION?“You know he’s going to follow his passion just like I did I did mine.”

THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK THIS WEEK ABOUT THE LAWSUIT. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT AND HOW MUCH PROGRESS DO YOU THINK NASCAR HAS MADE IN THEIR DIVERSITY EFFORTS OVER THE YEARS? “I don’t know nearly enough to make a comment.”

JUST FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, YOU’VE BEEN HERE FOR SO MANY YEARS, HAVE YOU SEEN ANY PROGRESS ON THEIR PART? “You know, I don’t know enough about it. I’m not really prepared to comment on it. I haven’t really………..I don’t know. I don’t know nothing, I don’t know what happened there. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

SHOULD PEOPLE LOOK AT KYLE BUSCH’S SEASON AS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SEASONS A DRIVER HAS HAD IN NASCAR OR SHOULD IT BE DISCOUNTED BECAUSE IT ISN’T ALL CUP? “Oh, that wouldn’t be fair. I think if didn’t win another race this year; I think it should be one of the more significant achievements of all of NASCAR. He has won in everything he drove. Especially winning for Braun Racing, additional significance because it wasn’t the No. 20 car in Nationwide. The No. 20 car is pretty special. There are a lot of things that make him a hero there. One, is I don’t think he gets paid to drive that truck, just for one. There are many others. I’m not going to sit here and pump Kyle to the max, but there is a lot of good stuff there.

“He has won four cup races this year, right? Forget all the rest of it; he has won four Cup races in a car that hasn’t won in a long, long time. That should be enough, alone. See, he has won so much I can’t even count ‘em. I thought it was just two Cup races. So really that alone should be enough to rank it as a one of the significant achievements in NASCAR history. In my opinion.

“One thing is my wins and record is old. Old is always forgotten, it is, let’s face it. Kyle is the most current and that is a big deal. Plus if you look at his frustrations from last year, it also makes it more newsworthy, I think. Make more people talk about it I think because he wasn’t very successful last year and he was very frustrated.”

THERE ARE A LOT OF GUYS WHO SAY THEY WOULD DRIVE FOR FREE, WOULD YOU DO IT? “I did last year for the Wood Brothers. Don’t think he (Kyle Busch) is the only guy that ever did it for free. I just never bragged about it. You might be the first person I told about it. I bragged on Kyle, I am not going to get up here and make everybody sick from bragging on Kyle. I paid him a compliment, a very very good compliment and I give plenty. But that is a significant thing that he drives, from what I understand, for the trophy. That is what I did with JTG/Wood brothers last year. So he isn’t the only guy that has ever done that, there are many more. But it is still is significant. But he is also 23 years old. If you are in between, it may be more important that you are making a living than it is when you are like me or when you are first starting.”

WHAT DID RICHARD PETTY MEAN TO YOU? “One of my heroes. Just a thrill of being on the same race track was huge for me. He was Richard Petty and I was a hillbilly from Arkansas wanna-be NASCAR driver. I remember the first time being on the race track and being awestruck that I passed him. Not only did I race with him, but on a good day, I could drive by him. That was pretty incredible.”