KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGTHS HEADING INTO THE SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500 THIS WEEKEND? “Phoenix has been a tough track for myself. We ran really good here in ’04 and since then it’s been tough. Last year it was probably our worse track as a team. We didn’t have a very good test here, it’s probably not the track that I look forward to coming to knowing that we’re going to run strong and be good. We also made a lot of changes; we have a new car that we’re bringing out this weekend. It’s the first time that we’ve had a different car than what we ran last year in the COT races. That’s something to look forward to. I think it’s going to be a little better then what we’ve had. We just have to figure out the tire and figure out the race track surface and make sure our car turns well enough to go through the corners. That’s been our main problem here. If we can figure that out, I think we’ll be decent. I’ve always liked Phoenix. I’ve just struggled with finishing races in the top 10 here.”

WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ON THE COT – DOES NASCAR NEED TO MAKES SOME CHANGES TO THE CAR AND HELP TEAMS MORE? “I feel like it would be nice if NASCAR could help us out some. I was running eighth to 12th most of the (Texas) race, and if the car handled that badly last year, with the old car two years ago you’d be 30th to 40th. My car felt terrible and I still was 10th. If you look at a guy who is running 20th, his car probably feels five times worse than what mine car felt. It’s difficult, but you get use to it. You get use to these cars and we’ll keep working on them making them better doing everything we can to make them right. Hopefully, we can figure them out and they’re not such a pain to drive when you still are in the top 10.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS OF WHAT NASCAR COULD DO TO HELP THE NEW CAR OUT? “The bump stops and travel is real sensitive to how the car handles. With the splitter, bump stops and travel – you put that all that stuff together – you can either make it worse or better by using those things. If there is something there that NASCAR can do, I’m not sure how you’d make that better. I don’t really get too much into it. Hopefully, there is something that as time goes on that we’ll be able to make these cars better with something on the front end. I think it’s the front end. The back of the car - you can get them loose, you can get them tight. You can kind of do what you want. The front is always just kind of sliding around. We’re in the top series; you should have a car that is halfway fun to drive sometimes I would imagine.”

IS HAVING BUDWEISER AS YOUR SPONSOR ADDED PRESSURE? “It adds some. You want to perform and want to do well and keep a great sponsor like Budweiser. So you want to perform and do everything you can to win races. That’s what we’re working on. As far as (Budweiser) as a sponsor, it’s a great sponsor – I really enjoy it. I’ve been at the Bud convention this week in Chicago and had a blast with the wholesalers. I was a bartender one night for a couple hours hanging out with Brandon Bernstein, Chuck Liddell and the Manning brothers – we had a really good time. I think it’s pretty cool that I have this opportunity right now. I want to perform and make sure that I do everything right so we can keep Budweiser for a long time.”

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU DONE THIS YEAR ON THE COT? WHO HAS COME ON-BOARD TO HELP KENNY (FRANCIS) THIS YEAR? “You just need a lot of people. Look at Jeff Gordon last week, he had tons of people and he was probably the worse car on the race track. It just shows how sensitive these race cars are on the front end. Kenny (Francis, crew chief)) is doing a great job. I think everybody at Gillett Evernham – including Mark McArdle – has done a good job. We’re still working – just behind just a little bit. We’ve been consistent. My team has been close to the top 10 – close to the top 15 the majority of the races. Last week we would have been in the top 10 if we didn’t have debris knock the splitter off. That’s been good and we’re doing everything we can. As a company, we’re not strong enough yet. You can tell that by the looking at all the cars and teams and how we fluctuate throughout practice and the race. We just need to keep working I guess.”

HOW MUCH TESTING HAVE YOU DONE? “We’ve actually tried to do a lot testing, but some of it the weather has played a big factor this year - Nashville and Kentucky in particular. The test team has done a good bit. I’ve done eight days since the start of the year. We did a lot last year too. The test team mainly is what’s done most of the testing at the tracks that we don’t race at.

“I don’t think that you can go and test and throw something at it and think that’s going to fix it. These cars are so precise and how the front ends are – the travels – and different things like that. I think you really have to come up with the stuff and then go race it and test it and make sure it’s right – then compare it to other good race cars in an actual race.”

HOW CHILLED WERE YOU WHEN YOU HEARD ABOUT AARON FICKE? “I was pretty surprised that it had happened. I would never have suspected that. I don’t feel like I race with guys on drugs, but at the same time there are certain people you wonder about at some times. I definitely wondered about Aaron Ficke the last year he was in Nationwide or whatever he was racing. I always wondered. I really had no clue why he raced for as long as he did.”

DO YOU THINK NASCAR SHOULD CONSIDER RANDOM DRUG TESTING? “I’d be open to that (drug tests). As far as I’m concerned, where we are at in NASCAR – in racing – whenever you get the opportunities you get, there should be no question that you’re clean or doing drugs. I think there should be no question at all. I really don’t think there is a lot of question. I don’t feel like I race with people that do drugs or anything. I don’t know if there is a lot of question, but I don’t see anything wrong with random tests.

“I think there is more that goes into it than just saying ‘we’re going to test you guys.’ I don’t understand it totally because I’ve never been tested. I would be up for it (drug testing) at any time just so that I knew – and everybody else knows what’s going on. As much money that’s in this sport, and as lucky as we are to get do what we do, we should be clean and everybody out there should be.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT HERE SATURDAY NIGHT AT PHOENIX? “I would speculate just a lot of what we saw last year. I think the racing will be similar. The guys that are strong are going to continue to be strong. I wouldn’t look for anything outside of what’s happened other than maybe what Carl Edwards is going to do. He’s strong and definitely likes this race track. He qualifies well and races well here. We’re just going to go out and do our thing and see what happens.”

WHAT HAPPENEND WITH THE PENALTY ON THE 12 CAR LAST WEEK IN TEXAS? WHAT CAUSED THE REAR END TO BE TOO HIGH? “We basically just misjudged – we had something go wrong with car. We misjudged and were off an eight of an inch in the right rear. We did some adjustments throughout the day, but something happened in the car. The fact that it was an eighth high caught us off-guard. We fully accept the penalty. We understand NASCAR’s position and we’ll go on.

“Points wise, we made up seven spots in the last 10 laps at Texas. That’s close to the number of points (that he lost due to the penalty). You have to put it out of your mind – those 25 points are gone – you go on. It’s a learning experience for us. We don’t look at it as a situation where we were cheating. We looked at it as a situation that we screwed up and we’ll try and make it up.”

YOU STARTED THE SEASON OFF WITH THE BIG WIN IN DAYTONA. SINCE THEN YOUR TEAM HAS BEEN A LITTLE QUIET. HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS WHERE THE NO. 12 TEAM IS CURRENTLY? “I was satisfied with Texas in the essence that we got a fourth place in qualifying and a fourth place in the race. Obviously, the fourth place was a bit of luck in the last closing laps.

“To me, it felt more like the performance we had in Daytona. We’ve had bit of a learning process when it comes to the bigger tracks with this new car. I feel that we’ve improved each time – from (Las) Vegas to Atlanta to Texas – I feel that we’ve made pretty big gains competition level wise. I think that we’re getting better. Obviously our restrictor plate program was strong at start the season. Our short-track program was off a little bit in Martinsville until we had a potentially a winning car in Bristol and got caught up in a wreck. Points wise, we need to make some improvements, but we’ve been a little bit quiet, but not because we haven’t been trying.”

HOW HAS THE RACING CHANGED AT TALLADEGA SINCE YOUR ROOKIE SEASON? “I wouldn’t say a whole lot. I’d say that the drivers have smartened-up a little bit to the point that come 50 (laps) to go up until about three to go, we’re going single file now which we didn’t use to do. The racing has changed a little bit since the track has been repaved. I wouldn’t say the cars have changed the racing other than the fact that we can bump draft a little bit more aggressively now. (Talladega) used to be a track where even on those tires back in ’02 –’03 you would single file out a little bit and separate the cars still had to handle. Now the cars don’t have to handle whatsoever. The bottom line is, it’s a track where the driver means less than the car does. And the car can determine very easily if you’re going to be capable of winning.”

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A CAR THAT WAS PRETTY DECENT ON BOTH SETS OF TURNS HERE AT PIR? “No, you can actually make a car that is pretty good at both ends. The track is different on both ends here. For one (turn) being tighter - the one that’s tighter has more bank or the one that’s wider – is less-banked and that complements each other. If they were to be opposite, it wouldn’t work near as well. If you had a flatter-tight corner, and a higher-banked flatter corner, it wouldn’t work as well. I’ve had plenty of race cars that have been really good on both ends. It’s still important – even though it’s a mile race track – it can be really good on the straightaway too.”

WHERE DO YOU FALL ON THIS NEW CAR IN TERMS OF HOW IT WORKS IN TRAFFIC? “I think it could be better without a doubt. I can’t even really say if it’s better yet (as compared to the old car) because we haven’t raced it a full season. Different race tracks bring different things. You get to Michigan you might have an entirely different feeling or package. Even a place like Indianapolis or Pocono compared to the old cars, so it’s a little early to give a final answer. But, the racing is up to the fans to say if it’s better or worse. They’re the ones that are giving us jobs.

“Honestly, it’s been different. It’s been difficult. It’s been a lot more difficult physically to be able to control the car for 500 miles. I read Denny Hamlin’s article on Jayski (talking about how he almost passed out after the race) and he was close to passing out. You do that for 500 miles – you work so hard – it’s not like you’re whipped or tired. It’s just an entirely different physiological change where you have to adapt and your brain doesn’t want to do that. It’s kind of like motion sickness in reverse. We’ve had to deal with that a little bit just because it seems like we’re working a little bit harder. (Texas) was an 85 degree day versus a 100 degree when we go back to California for the second time. So we’ve got some things we’ve got to make better in the race car to make the drivers more comfortable.”

“It’s different. I would say it doesn’t flow as much air. But as teams, we purposely don’t flow as much air as we could. We try and keep the air on the car instead of the driver. It makes the car stick. The better the cars sticks because it’s less the driver has to work. So the crew chief and the driver always have that battle. We have our air conditioners every one in a while that always don’t work like we want them to. In the end, you have to be in shape. The part that I was talking about, there are times when we have a green-white checker at the end of a race or a red flag – you’ll stop up in Turn 1 and the car’s in gear totally stopped, and you swear the car is rolling. It’s like reverse car sickness. When we get out of the car and (you guys) are standing there and want to talk, it’s the last thing we want to do. We’d rather go relax, drink a Gatorade and head to the house. We have to totally refocus again and start talking”

IF NASCAR WAS GOING TO HELP ADJUST ON THE FRONT END, WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND? “We just need two day shows so we can spend one less day complaining (laughs).

“There are several things that you can do to make the car ‘racier’ and maybe not as hard to driver. In my opinion, it’s good that they’re hard to drive. I don’t want a car that is easy to drive. I’d rather have my talent be more important that somebody that comes in and has less talent sitting in a good car and comes in and beats me. I don’t want to shoot myself in my own foot.

“We could change the center of gravity so the car corners better so it won’t be as hard on right-side tires. You could change the splitter height so the cars travel a little bit more and not bouncing as much. Places that are bumpy, it’s going to be interesting when we go to Pocono in May to test up there to see what the bumps are going to be like in Turn 1 in this car. Because at 205 mph that we are (in Pocono) going into Turn 1, going across some speed bumps is going to be interesting. If you had more travel, a higher splitter, the car would ride better and therefore drive better. There are several different things, but its too early, you have to go to your first dance before you learn how to dance. Then you can come back and step a little bit better.”

WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF AARON FIKE’S REVELATIONS ON JAYSKI THAT HE WAS DRIVING IN RACES WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HEROEIN? “I didn’t read it yet. I guarantee that he’s not the first guy and probably not going to be the last guy. I don’t know what to tell you other than that.

“It’s not a good thing. There are people out on the highway that we go across 55 mph on a two-lane road coming head-on at us that are doing the same thing.

DO YOU FEEL NASCAR NEEDS TO STEP-UP ITS DRUG POLICY? “That’s one of the things that has been good about NASCAR that we’ve hadn’t to worry so much about those things like other sports have. I’d plead the Fifth and just let NASCAR handle their policies.”