Month: June 2011

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

STP 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

June 4, 2011

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed racing at Kansas, next week’s Pocono race, safety of cars and other topics. Full transcript:

WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND AND HOW DO YOU SAVE FUEL AT A TRACK LIKE KANSAS? “If you are talking about saving fuel under caution, it is a whole different set of scenarios and much easier to do. You basically can just pick up a little speed and shut the engine off. If you are talking about saving fuel under green, it is near impossible. You have to slow the lap time down so much in order to save enough to go an extra lap or a half-of-a-lap that to me, it is really not doable. The only time I’ve ever really seen it done was Tony Stewart at Pocono (Raceway) and I’m still not sure how he did it. I don’t know if he was shutting the engine off on the lap and he had that big of a lead that he could give up that much time. That is what it appears. He had such a lead because of others coming in that he was able to do some extreme things. So, unless you are in that kind of scenario, to me it is only about saving fuel under caution.”

YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO GO FOR BROKE FOR WINS, HOW WILL YOU APPLY THAT MENTALITY HERE AT KANSAS? “First of all we want to have a fast race car and I really credit the team for really working hard trying ever single angle that we possibly can to find areas to make the car better. Better downforce-wise in the wind tunnel; working work hard on our seven-post testing to come up with the best shock and spring package that we can. It is just knowing that we’ve been off on the mile-and-a-halves and we have to make improvements and the effort that’s been put into our mile-and-a-half program to make those efforts, that is number one. The other is just doing every single thing you can possibly conceive to make your team stronger; to make the car faster and to make your day goes better throughout the weekend. On race day, you have to take risks whether it is the driver, picking and choosing when you need to take those risks as well as the team when it comes to pit strategy and how we get that track position that is so important.”

HOW HAS THE TRACK HERE CHANGED SINCE THE FIRST RACE AT KANSAS? “To me this track has just gotten better and better every single year. I loved this track from the beginning obviously, but, like all tracks do over time as they settle in, you get some different characteristics that come into play. Different bumps, you see the pavement start to wear a little bit. In here in Kansas, I think those things have really only made the track better because the way it wears the tires, the grip level just makes for multiple grooves. We already saw yesterday in practice cars up against the wall, cars on the bottom, cares in the middle. That is going to make for a great race here tomorrow.”

HOW MUCH USE TO YOU GET OUT OF THE OLD NOTES THAT YOUR TEAM BRINGS? “Things change so quickly in this sport, especially over the off season, when you get the teams that basically in the Chase gave everything that they had to have fast race cars then they go in the off-season with that knowledge and some go in the off-season knowing that what they had wasn’t working. They just go to work so it is amazing how much can change over the off-season. Not to mention Goodyear constantly trying to improve the tires for this race car and these race tracks, those changes definitely make you have to stay on top of things in a big way. The notes from last year definitely help us a little bit, but, I feel like a lot of things have changed so we can’t go off of that too much. But from this race until the second race, it will be interesting to see how accurate our notes can be. I think they will be fairly accurate.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT POCONO? “Oh, goodness. They are going to let us shift this time so I am pretty excited about going back to shifting at Pocono. That is one thing, getting the gearing right and getting those shifts smooth. And power. You have got to have good horsepower. At a place like that, the straightaways are so long but, you know, you have three distinct corners that are all unique and different. Trying to get the car balanced to go those three corners fast is also a big challenge.”

DO YOU THINK THE SHIFTING WILL MAKE IT A LITTLE BIT MORE COMPETITIVE THERE? “I do. I think taking away the shifting eliminated some opportunities to pass. I think by bringing it back is going to make it yes, more competitive. More exciting racing I believe.”

WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT ASPECT OF 500 MILES AT POCONO? “It is just long. I mean, 500 miles at Pocono is like 600 miles Charlotte. It is just very long. The corners are all unique and challenging, so, when you have a long race and you have challenging turns like you have at Pocono, and if the weather is warm too, it can make for a very long day that can be very challenging mentally and physically.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN STEVE LETARTE AND DALE EARNHARDT, JR.? “I think it is awesome. I am so happy to see those guys performing the way that there are. It was a shame to see them come so close last week and not get that win. I think if they keep going in the direction that they are, that win is definitely in their near future. Happy for Steve. I have always been a huge fan of Steve’s. I was happy to have him as my crew chief and I see the chemistry between him and Junior and he has worked hard at it and that is what it takes and it is really paying off for him and that team and it is great to see.”

ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE A WIN, DO YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT OR BE FOCUSED ON BEING CLOSER TO 11TH IN STANDINGS? “I am certainly not comfortable. Not a good place to be. I guess I look at it a little bit different. It is not just about being in the top-10 in point, it is about being a threat for the Championship. And, yes, you have to be in the top-10 or 12, in order to do that and you can improve your program by the time the Chase comes around and be a threat for the championship. So that’s why we can’t give up. We have to work hard to improve all the time. But, I think, from a points standpoint right now, what we have to focus on is winning races because, if we can win another one or two races, to me that locks us in. We understand that not only locks us in, it gives us momentum to be in a position to actually be a threat for the championship. We’ve gotten ourselves behind and that is obvious, it shows where we are in the points. We’ve been inconsistent and we haven’t performed they way we need to. So, to me, it is not just about being in the top-12. It is about being in the top-12 and being a real threat for the championship. We definitely have work to do. I’m excited about this weekend. Things have gone really well. I think we saw a little bit of that last weekend some of the improvements the team has been making. But, we are really seeing it here and if we can follow that up hopefully with a good qualifying effort today, but more importantly, a good race tomorrow, I feel like we can get that momentum that we need to get those wins as well as get ourselves solid in the top-12.”

CAN YOU BUILD MOMENTUM TOO SOON? “Well, we are so far behind, it can’t be too soon for us. You can maybe ask guys like (Carl) Edwards and some of the guys that are higher up in the points that are very competitive right now if they’ve built it too soon. We haven’t gotten it yet. I think I said earlier in the year, it has to happen by the summer and as you can feel here, the summer is upon us. So, we have to start very soon.

“We’re getting closer to having the speed. I think last week, we had the speed in clean air, but we didn’t have it in traffic. We couldn’t move up through the field. If you watched guys like Matt Kenseth, even Jimmie (Johnson) at times, those guys could move up through the field and we have to be able to have that aspect of it as well as have the speed. We have to have the speed qualifying. We have to qualify better. Track position is extremely important and we’ve got to get it and it starts on qualifying day to help with your pit stall. Same old stuff. We’ve shown that we have got speed but, we’ve got to show it at the right time. We have not really put ourselves in position at the end of the races. The last four or five weeks, we have been far better than where we finished. We have to change that.”

WHEN THINGS HAPPEN LIKE YOUR RADIO LAST WEEK, DOES THAT GET MORE AGGRAVATING AND MORE FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO BUILD MOMENTUM? “That didn’t hurt us too bad. It didn’t help, that part was the least of our worries. To me, the most frustrating part was we came in to get fuel and then the caution came out. That to me was frustrating and that is kind of the things that have happened to us, similar things like that. Just like at Dover, I go back to Dover. We put ourselves in position but I was on the inside lane on the restart, the last car on two tires and went down in the first corner and the outside lane was the lane moving and we went backwards. Sometimes circumstances are what lane you are in on the restart. Sometimes when the caution falls and then other times it is having a fast race car. To me that is the most important aspect of it, that is the part we’ve been working the hardest on and I think that the rest will follow if we can we can maintain that fast race car throughout the race.”

CAN YOU COMPARE THE IMPACT AT RICHMOND OF THIS NEW CAR TO THE IMPACT OF THE OLD CAR INCLUDING THE NOVA? “Nova? I’ve never driven a Nova, I can tell you that. Well, trust me, the old Nova versus what we have now, there is no comparison. This is not a “stock car” anymore. This is a race car. I am not exactly sure if I understand the question. In the driver’s side impact like what I had with a wall without a safer barrier, the impact is actually going to be a little more severe. Because the car is stronger. It is built to withstand a bigger impact; prevent anything from protruding in so we have a steel plate on the outside and, that is why it is so important to have safer barriers at all these race tracks because the driver compartment is stiffer and stronger and than it has ever been before. It’s going to absorb the impact far less even though we have some impact material and foam around the driver side. To me, that foam did nothing because the door bars crushed in. If that foam did its job, then those door bars wouldn’t move so the foam would have taken all the impact. Luckily the structure of the seat and the foam around the driver is far superior today than it ever has been. And that is why I didn’t have any injuries. From just a pure impact of that cage, when you hit, to me, it is actually a greater impact. Again, but it is a much safer car and I’d rather have that, we just need to have the safer barriers to follow that.”

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH NEW QUALIFYING PROCEDURE THEY ARE STARTING IN POCONO NEXT WEEK THAT PUTS THE GO-OR-GO-HOMERS ARE GOING TO BE INTERSPERSED AMONG EVERYBODY? “When they went to this format this year, I didn’t understand why they separated us to begin with or why they weren’t going first. That is cool. That is the way I think it should be because now that we are going off speeds, instead of it being the bad luck of the draw, which is why I think they had that old format, they didn’t want a guy to go home from a race because he had an unlucky draw. Now you have to earn where you go in the field. If you have the speed, then you should be able to show it and benefit from it when you go to qualify. It is a little bit unique this weekend I must say. I do question a little bit when it is an early qualifying, whether or not the fastest cars should go first. Or maybe the fastest cars should get to choose. (LAUGHS) Because that is the whole reason we are using the speed is you are earning that right to get the best time to go out and here today, I think we are going to see some guys that maybe sandbagged a little bit in practice. That could be a part of the strategy too that could be fun and interesting for everybody and we’ll find out. We weren’t one of them. We were fast in our race setup and that put us fairly high up and we made one qualifying run and we were extremely high up so at that point, we basically said let’s just keep going because we are going to have a late draw anyway.”

IS IT WORTH EXPENDING ENERGY TO TRY AND SANDBAG? “Personally, not for us. We talked about it. I don’t know how you can plan that out. There are just too many ways it can backfire on you by not really fully going out there and seeing what your car is capable of doing. That is why we went the route that we did. We’ll find out today.”

WHAT WILL BE SCENARIO AT POCONO? “I haven’t even seen when we qualify, if it the same type of deal. It could be. It could be weather. Like right now, I am loving seeing these clouds come in. I’ve been very concerned that having an earlier spot is going to be a big benefit today but these clouds could change things.”

WOULD YOU KNOW ONE OF YOUR CARS FROM ANOTHER IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW THE NUMBER OR DOES EACH CAR HAVE ITS OWN PERSONALITY? “It is so funny on Twitter, I am getting people asking is this a new car, is this a new car. These days there is no real difference between a new car and an older car unless you are making upgrades. If you are finding ways to make upgrades with a newer car, then absolutely a newer car can be beneficial. You can make upgrades to an older car. So for the last several years, I’ve really not been able to feel a difference between a new car and an older car.

EARLY IN YOUR CAREER WITH THE OLD CAR? “Oh yes. But, you have to understand that back then, these bodies truly were done by eye, by hand and we didn’t have the templates that we have now. You talk about improvements, you could make massive improvements aerodynamically to the body the way you twisted it and turned it and moved it and located it and all those things. Now we are so locked in there is very little we can do to improve the car aerodynamically.”

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Friday, June 3, 2011

Dodge Motorsports

Kansas Speedway

STP 400

Post-Qualifying Quotes

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 AAA Dodge Charger) Qualified 1st “We feel like we picked up a lot of speed for qualifying with some of our adjustments. It’s nice that we can find that some days; other days it bites you. This has always been a tough mile-and-a-half track for me. It’s flat, but the track still has a lot of speed in it if you hit it just right. We just didn’t hit it right yesterday in practice. We feel like we’ve got some speed in the AAA Dodge. Tomorrow is going to be a hot, blistering day. This place, it’s really fast if you hit your setup just right. Otherwise, you’re sliding all around.”

WERE YOU ABLE TO FIND A COMFORTABLE RACE SETUP IN YESTERDAY’S PRACTICE? “We were very loose with one of our setups and just on the snug side with the other one, so we’ll shoot for the middle. The race here is a tough one. If you’re stuck in the back, it’s very hard to make up track position. You just want a nice smooth day on the track and on pit road.”

AFTER LAST WEEK’S STONG FINISH AT CHARLOTTE, YOU HAVE TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT BEING ON THE POLE HERE. “This is a great feeling especially after yesterday where we spun in practice and had to repair the front end damage. The feeling of being so close, yet so far away. I have to thank my guys for standing behind me, not just through yesterday, but some of the tough times we’ve been through as of late. The guys back at the shop, I know that they’re slapping some high-fives today. It’s an amazing feeling when you’re down a little bit and you’re not exactly keen on knowing what to change or where to go. Yesterday we were struggling in practice. We threw a bunch of things at the car today and got the pole. It’s an amazing world, the world of motorsports. One day you’re down and the next day you’re up. It’s a great pole of Penske Racing, to back up the pole that (Brad) Keselowski had last week. For us with AAA on the car this weekend, they have a big presence in the state of Kansas. With their insurance, it’s not just auto, it’s home and life insurance. It’s great to have a blue-chip brand like them on our car this weekend. And of course with Shell, Pennzoil and Dodge, our great sponsors, this gives them that breath of fresh air that they needed.”

HOW MUCH DO YOU ENJOY RACING ON A HOT, SLICK RACE TRACK LIKE WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TOMORROW AND WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE? “I enjoy it. I grew up in the desert southwest, in Vegas. We’d run at that little three-eighths-mile bullring every Saturday night that we could. We’d show up at two, three in the afternoon and it would be 110 degrees outside. We’d wait until seven o’clock to even hit the track for practice because of how hot and slick it was. When you’re a racer, you don’t care what the conditions are. It could be 40 degrees like the day I won at Bristol and did snow angels afterwards. It could be 110 like what we’ve seen out at Fontana in September for some of those races. It’s going to be hot and it’s going to be slick tomorrow. The fans will enjoy themselves with that atmosphere. It’s finally summertime. I hope everybody enjoys the nice sunshine that’s out. The racers will be out there putting on a good show.”

HOW HELPFUL WAS THE EARLY DRAW; DID YOU SEE THIS COMING AT ALL AND DID YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR (IN PRACTICE)? “The way that practice was a struggle for us, we didn’t expect to be on the pole. The early draw definitely helped us. It didn’t hurt. No big issue with why we spun yesterday. We bolted on a set of shocks and I felt it was looser right away. I wanted to run three or four laps just to confirm it, analyze if it was more entry, middle or exit. I just felt like it was looser right away and then it bit me on corner exit. This (the pole) was definitely a surprise. We’re happy for it. It’s been almost a year since we’ve had a pole, so it’s nice to get our AAA Dodge up front taking the green flag here at Kansas in front of all our fans.”

WHAT DAMAGE DID YOUR CAR RECEIVE YESTERDAY? “It bent the nose back on the car. When we hit the grass, with these bump stops and soft front springs, it rips the front end up. We watched Carl Edwards destroy his car after the All-Star Race. I’ve seen guys do harmless spins and have to go to back-up cars. We got lucky that we didn’t have to go to a back-up. That raises the question, if you have a harmless spin and you touch the grass, why should it damage the car so badly. That’s because we’re running on these bump stops, the things I’ve talked to John Darby about in the past.”

DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS TODAY TO THE SEASON WE’RE HAVING THIS RACE IN INSTEAD OF THE FALL? “There are a bunch of differences being here in June and how warm it is, but I always look at the law of averages. If you struggle somewhere for a long time, then maybe your due. So with (Juan Pablo) Montoya, Kyle (Busch) and myself up front when we expected guys like Gordon or Newman; (Joey) Logano has run good here in a Nationwide car. Those were all the tough bullets that I had to dodge at the end of qualifying and we were able to come out on top. It’s just qualifying. We’ve got a full 400 miles to race tomorrow and we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

HOW MUCH COOLER IS THE AIR THAT YOU’RE BREATING WITH THE COOL BOX? “The cool box knocks out about 20 degrees for sure, possibly 30 degrees. So if it’s 100 degrees outside, you’ll have 70-degree air coming inside. But then you have inside the car’s heat and the hoses get heat soaked, so it raises the temperature back up a little bit. But it’s nice. I always think of it as if I’m sitting in a hot tub and the only thing outside is my head, so I’m breathing that cooler air. Even though it’s warm, my body is in that heat and my head is in the cooler air. It’s not as nice as a hot tub.”

IS THE SETUP YOU QUALIFIED WITH CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE RACE SETUP FOR THE CREW CHIEF TO SLEEP COMFORTABLY TONIGHT, OR IS THE TEAM STILL IN A SEARCH MODE? “I still need to get with Steve (Addington, crew chief) to analyze where we made our good changes overnight and what we can continue to do tomorrow. It’s nice to have the feather in the cap with the pole, but race set-up is very different. You have to be less aggressive with everything – camber, sway bar, shocks, springs. We have to go through it and dissect it just like we did last night and map out what we need to do to have our best car for tomorrow.”

HOW BAD ARE THE TAR SPRIPS THIS YEAR AND HOW DO YOU GREET THE NEWS THEY PLAN TO PAVE THE TRACK NEXT YEAR? “Those tar strips are there to try and protect the track from absorbing moisture. This track sees dramatic extremes with frozen temperatures in the teens in the winter time and 100-degree days in the summer. Those tar strips were put down in 2008, the same year we came here with the COT. That was probably my worst year since my rookie year. I had a lot of things to say that year I guess. We struggled. Those strips are still there. You choose a lane. If you want the bottom lane, you choose that first lane. If you’re going in on a high groove, you choose that third lane and you really stay in it and not cross over the seams because they can upset the car. It’s not as bad now with those worn in over these last couple of years. I’ve heard about the repave. They’re looking to add banking to it. They want to make it more of what we’ve seen at Homestead or what we’ve seen at the progressive-banked tracks which I agree with. You’ve got to keep it within reason though to make sure the track has the right amount of banking if IRL cars ever want to come here. That way you’re not just tailoring it to the big heavy stock cars.”

AT THE OUTSET, YOU WERE THANKING YOUR GUYS FOR STANDING BEHIND YOU THROUGH THE TOUGH TIMES; CAN YOU EXPAND ON THAT? “My guys, they’re tough and they’re mean. We all care for each other and have love for each other. We’re in this together as a team. We win as a team and we die as a team. To elaborate further, it’s just the mental feeling of being down and out a little bit after Richmond. We struggled at Darlington. The engineer put the wrong set-up in the car mistakenly. And then to go to Charlotte, have a nice finish and get here and have the pole after a tough day. It’s one of those feelings where you know that things are just tough right now. It’s great to come in today, have a positive outlook and continue to work hard. The reward came today with a nice pole position.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Qualified 25th

“We didn’t have the lap we wanted to run. The heat was a factor, but we were expecting a better lap. We’re OK with our race setup, but obviously we’re not going to have very good track position. Strategy will be very important tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ve got the right one.”

JOHNNY SAUTER (No. 7 SPEED Energy / Harris Teeter Dodge) Qualified 41st

“We didn’t do mock runs yesterday, so we didn’t know what to expect. They made a lot of changes this morning. I wish I could do the qualifying run again. The car was good. As far off as we were yesterday in practice, to pick up like we did is a huge gain. I felt like I had more grip today than yesterday.”

3rd, KYLE BUSCH 4th, BRIAN VICKERS 5th, JOEY LOGANO 8th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 15th, DENNY HAMLIN 17th, KASEY KAHNE 20th, BOBBY LABONTE 23rd, DAVID REUTIMANN 33rd, CASEY MEARS 34th, JOE NEMECHEK 37th, MICHEL MCDOWELL 43rd, MIKE SKINNER DNQ, TJ BELL

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 3rd Was your qualifying run what you expected? “A lot better than we expected. The M&M’s Camry — the guys did a good job with it and gave me a good piece to run a good lap. That’s all we can ask for. We’ve been having sort of a struggle this weekend so far, and trying to make something out of nothing here. So far, the guys did a great job going back and working through their notes and giving me something that was good to qualify. Hopefully, this will translate into something better tomorrow.”

How bad is the heat? “For one lap it’s not that bad. When you got to run 15 (laps) at a time and the oil temperature comes up — and it sits right behind your seat — it gets pretty warm. Overall, the car felt pretty decent. There are some fine tune adjustments that we need to work on to get ready for tomorrow.”

How was your qualifying lap? “It was a really good lap for us today. We were kind of thrown a little bit off balance yesterday with as much changes that we were doing and the practice schedule the way it was. We kind of got lost for a little while. But, Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and the guys did a really good job overnight looking at their notes and getting us to where we had a comfortable car there in qualifying. We laid a nice lap down even considering the draw. It seemed like it was better for the guys to go out early like that and we didn’t quite play the game as smart as we should have, but if we would’ve had the car even that much better and we would’ve had a better draw we could’ve been on the pole today. We’ll take a third for sure considering how our day was yesterday.”

Will the way the late qualifying draw affected you today impact the way you approach Pocono next week? “It depends on when the qualifying draw is. I think teams are getting smarter now and they’re figuring out ways to utilize lap times a little bit differently so we’ll probably see that in effect here the next few weeks. Like, next week I guess it’s just the first practice that counts and it’s Saturday qualifying. Guys are going to get smart and they are going to start manipulating the times — sand bagging is what we call it — in order to get an early draw. From rumors that I heard, at least they changed Indy’s qualifying for us. Maybe we need to do that everywhere but then our other races would start late. It’s going to be interesting.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 4th How is your race car handling? “This weekend has been good. We started off slow in practice, but we made some major adjustments going into the second practice. I’m really happy with the car. Hopefully, we’ll stay up there in the top five and have a good race.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 5th Are you pleased with your race car? “Our run was pretty good. I think the track has given up grip since the beginning of qualifying here. You see a lot of cars that weren’t really fast in practice that are up there. I think the track has a little bit to do with it. Our Home Depot Camry was really fast and it’s really good. I feel like we’re really good in race trim too. They made some good changes yesterday that I feel like is going to give us a bigger window to adjust on our car during the race. I’m excited about that.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) What are you doing to help out in Joplin, Missouri? “We got the Joplin, Missouri store on our car this weekend. Our team is going up there on June 14. I’m going up there to help rebuild the store. Home Depot actually donated a million dollars to the American Red Cross — the Homer Fund has done a lot to help a lot of store associates there. So, if you want to donate go to HomeDepotFoundation.org and help them out. They are doing a lot up there to try to rebuild that city. It’s really cool to see all of that going on and we want to do the best we can while we have the stickers on our car to represent them the best we can.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 8th How was your qualifying lap? “We’re happy about that. How hot is the track getting? Keep getting hotter. A good lap for the NAPA Toyota. I missed it just a little bit in one and two. It’s hard to figure out just how hard you can drive it. You know that it’s going to pick up a second or so. Guys have been a second and a half faster than yesterday. It’s hard to know exactly how hard you need to go. I thought I hit my marks pretty good, maybe overdrove turn one a little bit. Overall, I was happy with the lap and happy with the car. I’m getting ready to do some sliding around tomorrow.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 15th What do you need to do to tighten up your race car? “I don’t know. We didn’t make a qualifying run — it doesn’t really equate to race runs that much. It’s a total different beast.” Are you happy with your race car? “Yeah. I was pretty happy with it by the end of practice yesterday. We need to fine tune it a little bit. But, not making a qualifying run makes it a little tough to predict what it’s going to do in these conditions.”

Do you enjoy racing at Kansas Speedway? “Yeah, it’s good. The track is wearing out quite a bit which should make passing a little easier. So, that part of it is encouraging.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 17th How did your car handle during practice? “We were kind of on the loose side yesterday into the corner and off the corner. Made some gains during practice. I think the track is going to slippery tomorrow. It should be an interesting race. I look forward to it.”

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Clorox-Kleenex Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 20th

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 TUMS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 23rd

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 33rd

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 34th

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 Victory Junction Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Starting Position: 37th

MIKE SKINNER, No. 60 Big Red Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 43rd

TJ BELL, No. 50 Green Smoke Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Starting Position: DNQ

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

STP 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING QUOTES & PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

JUNE 4, 2011

Juan Pablo Montoya Qualifies Second Fast at Kansas

KANSAS CITY – (JUNE 4, 2011) Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, captured the second starting spot for the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway. It is the third front row appearance for Montoya this season.

Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, was sixth quickest of the 43-cars qualified for the 267-mile/400.5-mile race.

Paul Menard, No. 27 Zecol/Menards Chevrolet, will start ninth and last week’s Coca-Cola 600 winner Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, will take the green flag from the 10th starting position.

A total of 18 Chevrolet drivers will start the 13th race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Kurt Busch (Dodge) was the pole sitter. Kyle Busch (Toyota), Brian Vickers (Toyota) and Joey Logano (Toyota) complete the top-five qualifiers.

The STP 400 is scheduled to take the green flag Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET with live broadcast coverage from FOX TV, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 2nd –

WITH THE HEAT AND WITH THE CLOUDS GOING AWAY IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE FIRST TO GO OUT WOULD BE THE FASTEST, IS THAT RIGHT?

“Well, that’s the way we did everything yesterday. It was a good lap. It should have been better. I got pretty loose in (Turns) 3 and 4 and lost a ton of time there. But I think we’ve got a really good race car. This Target Chevy has been pretty good this past couple of weeks; so I’m pretty excited. We only did one qualifying run yesterday and we aborted it. So actually to run as fast as we did today, I’m pretty happy.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 6TH

ON HIS LAP:

“I have to tell I am pleasantly surprised by the lap that we put down. I think that going out early maybe helped us with the track temperature. It heated up quite a bit after we went out. We tried a lot of things on our car yesterday for race set up and didn’t spend too much effort on qualifying. I think the track position will be important here tomorrow, so it will help to start close to the front.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 10th

“We were terrible yesterday in Qualifying trim. We were much better speed-wise today. All-in-all it was okay.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 ZECOL/MENARDS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 9th

“Going out early was very important. Actually we had a good lap in practice yesterday which hurt us for today I think just with the order of qualifying. But the car was pretty good; got a little bit free in Turn 1. I felt like I got off (Turn) 2 really good and I messed up (Turns) 3 and 4 a little bit so there is definitely more speed out there. I didn’t think it would run as fast as it did. But I feel like I could have gotten a little bit more. We threw everything we could at it (the car, for tomorrow) and got it so it actually drives really good. We’re missing just a little bit of speed but it drives good and at a track like this where you can move around with the car you can kind of make something happen.”

HOW IS YOUR FOOT?

“It’s better. I still can’t really put any weight on it; it shoots pain up the leg if I do that. But if I stay off of it, there is no pain and in the car it’s fine. We’re still going to blow air on it (in the car during the race) just to try to keep it as dry as we can. If the stitches were going to pull out they would have done that during the 600-miler last week when it was fresher. So I’m not too worried about that but we’re still going to try to keep it as dry as possible.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 2ND – POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT:

“It was pretty good. I thought we played the game pretty good yesterday. We only did one qualifying run and actually, when I came out of (Turn) 4 we decided to bail out of it to make sure we went out early today. And it paid off big. I think we have a good race car. It’s been tough the last few weeks.

“I thought last we actually had a really good car when it was sunny. When it cooled down, we just got too tight and couldn’t keep up with the race track. But I think we made a lot of gains in the car. I’m pretty optimistic for tomorrow.”

YOU AND TEAMMATE JAMIE MCMURRAY QUALIFIED WELL TODAY. GANASSI MADE A LOT OF CHANGES TO THE CARS DURING CHARLOTTE WEEK. DID THAT HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT SO FAR TO THIS WEEKEND?

“Well, I know Jamie struggled a lot yesterday with the car. We just seemed to come off the truck so far off and that just makes it hard. We haven’t been able to come off the truck on race weekend and say oh, that’s good. We’re competitive and we’ve just got to fine-tune it. We haven’t had that yet the last few weeks. Last week for me was the last run of the last practice, where we went, oh, that’s better. And here we had that on the second practice, halfway through the second practice; an d we worked on it a little bit and I feel we got it pretty close. So, we’ll see.”

THE CHANGES ARE HELPING?

“Yeah, we’re just trying to understand where the car needs to go. I think Stewart-Haas is going through the same thing. You’re just throwing things at it and going through the shaker rig and go from left to right and going the one way and the other and just trying to understand where we need to go and what are we missing? We’re gaining on it.”

WITH THIS FRIDAY PRACTICE, SATURDAY QUALIFYING SCENARIOS, ARE WE GOING TO BE ABLE TO TELL WHO IS GOOD FOR QUALIFYING? ARE WE GOING TO GET TO THE SITUATION WHERE YOU’RE ACTUALLY TRYING TO GO SLOWER THAN SOMEONE ELSE?

“Oh, I think it wasn’t so sunny it would have paid off a little bit. I think if it would have been like yesterday, it wouldn’t have made a difference. We were lucky that it was so overcast. You still want to try to post a good time and you really want to see how competitive you are. So, I’m not sure if everybody is going to do it. You’re still going to have to put down a good practice time in race trim to see how good your car is. So, we’ll see.”

YOU AND JAMIE WENT OUT ABOUT THE SAME TIME AND WEREN’T ABLE TO REALLY DISCUSS WHAT HAPPENED AND HOW THE TRACK REACTED

“Our car set-ups are so different, to tell you the truth. We drive a car so different that it doesn’t really matter. You’ve got to believe in your crew and what you’re doing and hope it works. I was a little loose and I heard he was the same way, funnily enough. But you don’t want to adjust the car on the basis of everybody else. You don’t know how much looser or tighter he is. Tire pressures make a big difference. There’s a lot of things that will change. I never even went to the bottom in qualifying; I don’t know where Jamie qualified but I qualified second groove at both ends. So that will have a big effect on that as well.”

TEAMS WHO HAVE HAD SUCCESS HERE IN THE PAST DON’T SEEM TO BE DOING AS WELL; WHILE TEAMS THAT HAVE NOT, ARE DOING BETTER. CAN WE ATTRIBUTE THAT TO THE CHANGE ON THE CALENDAR FOR THIS RACE?

PAGE 8

“When you think about it, it’s a lot harder out there. Track temperature is like 20-30 degrees hotter than when we were here in October and I think that makes a big difference.”

SO IS THIS KIND OF A NEW TRACK NOW?

“It’s really slick. It’s incredible. We came from Charlotte that it’s a place where your car had a lot of throttle all the time and you’re rolling really fast and you keep a lot of speed through the corner. But here, you don’t. You baby it in and just take it really easy and just point the car. You’ve got to be very patient here and disciplined about how you drive it. And when you can do that, it runs pretty good actually.”

WITH THE COOLING SYSTEM IN THE CAR HERE, HOW MUCH COOLER IS THE AIR YOU ARE ACTUALLY BREATHING?

“Like last week, not much because after 50 laps the hose came off the side so I was breathing hot air from inside the car. It was fun (laughter). I had a lot of cold drinks. We used to have one of those big boxes everybody uses and we got away from it and just got a little drink bottle with a lot of ice in it and every stop we change it so that way I always at least get a cold drink. But it’s okay, you know what I mean? It’s just hot.”

KYLE BUSCH SAID YOU ARE ONE OF THE GUYS WHO COULD SNEAK IN AND GET TWO WINS FROM HERE ON OUT BEFORE THE CHASE AND GET LOCKED IN. GIVEN WHERE YOU ARE IN THE POINTS NOW, DO YOU PUT YOUR ACE IN THE ROAD COURSE BASKET?

“I think we’ve got the speed to be in the top 10 to be honest with you. The last six weeks we had like 30th place finishes in a row and like four of them or like 25th or worse or something. So I think we’ve got the potential to actually be in by speed. I think yes, we could put in a race like that but there’s are a lot of guys out there who could win as well. Ambrose is going to be in a position to be in the top 20 in points if they keep running the way they’re running; and if he wins one of those two as well he could be in the Chase. So it’s anybody’s game.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT DAN WELDON WHO WON THE INDY 500 IS WITHOUT A RIDE RIGHT NOW?

‘Well, that’s the problem with that series right now. I think it’s pretty simple to find sponsorship for the Indy 500 but to get the same sponsorship for the races for the rest of the season is hard. It’s difficult. I think sponsorship is difficult there and to be honest with you, between our Target team and Penske, they dominate.”

HOW MUCH DO YOU ENJOY A SLICK, HOT RACE TRACK LIKE WE’RE GOING TO HAVE FOR THE RACE ON SUNDAY?

“If the car handles good, it’s a lot of fun. If you can get into the corner and it doesn’t do anything stupid; it doesn’t step out horrible getting in and it doesn’t push out of control in the middle and you can get on the gas and yeah, you’re going to be sliding around, but you can actually drive it and go forward, it’s fun. If you’re out there and you can’t even touch the brakes getting in and then you get to the middle and the thing doesn’t turn and you get on the gas and it just snaps, it’s a handful. I think it brings the best of you. You’ve really got to step up your game and it’s interesting. It is completely opposite than Charlotte but it’s fun.”

HALFWAY THROUGH THE CHASE, THERE IS ONLY ONE GUY WITH ONE WIN IN 11TH THROUGH 20TH. SO IF YOU DON’T GET IN THE TOP 10 IN POINTS, DO YOU FEEL LIKE IF YOU WIN A RACE HERE THAT WILL PROBABLY GET YOU IN THE CHASE?

“Well, you’ve still got Daytona that is restrictor plate and that is pretty much anybody’s. And the road courses, and there’s gambles and maybe a race that is fuel mileage. I think if you get one win and you’re in the 14th – 10th I think you have a really good chance to get in. Fifteen – 10th, I think you have a really good chance to get in because you might be tied with somebody else with one win but they’ll be behind you with the same amount of wins. But I think if you really want to be in outside the top 12 or the top 10, you’ve got to have to win. So then you get two wins, you’re 100 percent in.”

ON THE SEAMS ON THE TRACK, ARE THEY A BIG DEAL?

“Oh, they’re not too bad. I think the worst track for seams is California and Atlanta. Probably Atlanta number one and California number two. This one, eh, it moves but not outrageously. It makes it interesting. The seams are one of those things that when the car is half decent and you can use them for your advantage you’re really fast. If the car is a handful, it makes it even worse.”

EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE A FAST CAR, HOW MUCH SUCCESS DEPENDS ON HAVING A SMART DRIVER?

“You’ve got to make sure you bring the car home every week. I think that’s always a key thing. You’ve got to get the results as well. Even when we had bad weeks we’ll be bringing the car home and I think that’s huge. But you’ve got to get a couple of really good results and step up and change the momentum. I think last week we kind of stopped the bleeding that we were coming through for a couple of weeks so I thought it was pretty important. And I feel like here we made a lot of gains yesterday and if we can apply those gains for the next few race tracks we’ll be looking pretty good.

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FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES

STP 400 (Qualifying) June 4, 2011

Kansas Speedway

Ford Kansas Qualifying Order 7th Carl Edwards 14th Greg Biffle 19th David Ragan 21st Matt Kenseth 26th AJ Allmendinger 30th Travis Kvapil 35th Marcos Ambrose 38th David Gilliland 39th Andy Lally 41st Patrick Carpentier DNQ Tony Raines

PATRICK CARPENTIER, No. 32 ¬U.S. Chrome Ford Fusion (Qualified 41st) “That was a good run especially for the first qualifying run we have done all weekend. It was good to know what kind of car we are going to have. We were a little on the tight side. We are in the show so that is the first time that I got to do that and know we are in right away. I think we are pretty decent in race trim. Yesterday we ran used tires all day and it seemed to be pretty decent compared to the other guys on used tires. As long as we finish somewhere up there and get some points for these guys that is all there is.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Affliction Clothing Live Ford Fusion (Qualified 21st) “We weren’t very good today in qualifying trim but the good news is that we are fine in race trim. The qualifying run is disappointing but I know we have a fast car for the race tomorrow so that is good.”

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 35th) “The heat doesn’t change our run much, we just weren’t very good. We will just take what we can from today and look forward to tomorrow’s race. This place is a great track and I really enjoy coming here. I tend to run well here but if you miss it a little bit you pay because there is not the banking to help you. We are going to have to drive through some cars to get to the front tomorrow.”

DAVID GILLILAND, No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) “It is definitely getting hotter out there as we go, but we are all in the same boat there. We have been kind of struggling all weekend and we are going to make some changes for tomorrow, throw everything at it and see where we end up. I am not happy with the race car right now, but we will make some changes.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 43 STP Ford Fusion (Qualified 26th) “This heat is something. It is one of those things that’s just tough not having a Saturday practice with conditions like this. You just don’t know and it is so hot out and so slick. We aren’t very good either which is part of it. We just aren’t good right now and need to keep working on it.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 19th) “So far so good. I really like this place. It is neat to come out here at a different time of year with different weather and different tires and different scenarios for our UPS team here at Kansas than we are typically used to. Qualifying was okay. We went later and the track is a lot more heated than it was to begin with. I think our Ford is pretty fast for the race and this is one of our favorite tracks to come to, so maybe we can get a win Sunday.”

GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M/Walgreens Ford Fusion (Qualified 14th) “It was a pretty good run but we were just a hair too loose. We struggled with our practice plan and we tried to start it out in qualifying and it wasn’t that good so we switched to race trim and got real happy with the car. It was just a little too loose out there today. I think I have a really good car for tomorrow though.”

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) “I am not going to tell you exactly what I did wrong but I know it was something. Bob and I were just talking about it and he wrote about a page of notes. It is good to be frustrated about not getting the pole there because I thought we were going to be way slow with these track temperatures but our Aflac Fusion has been really good and it is going to be a good race. If we start sixth, seventh or eighth then I think we are going to have a really good shot at this race and that would mean a lot to me.”

Friday, June 3, 2011

Kansas Speedway

STP 400

Kurt Busch Open Interview

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 AAA Dodge Charger R/T) YOU’RE COMING OFF A STRONG FOURTH-PLACE FINISH AT CHARLOTTE; WERE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK ON THE TRACK THIS WEEKEND? “With a nice solid top-five run last week, we definitely wanted to get to the track as fast as we could, start at that same point and adjust from there. Each race track is a different challenge. Racing here at Kansas twice a year, there will be more opportunities to gather notes and to feel more comfortable at this race track. It’s definitely one of the most challenging because it’s probably the least-banked race track that we run on that’s a mile-and-a-half. Therefore, your mile-and-a-half packages that you run at Charlotte or Atlanta might not be the same as they would be here. So what do we adjust for? Definitely warmer conditions than what we’ve had when we race here in October. So, we have to continue to adjust. All the practice thrown into one day, it sometimes gets tough to digest. For race set-up or qualifying set-up, you sometimes just take the darts that you have and throw them at the dartboard, see if they stick.”

THE 400TH CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES RACE WILL BE CONDUCTED HERE TOMORROW; TALK ABOUT HOW YOU’VE SEEN THE TRUCK SERIES DEVELOP OVER THE YEARS. “It’s been a genuinely great positive ride. Back in the early 90s, pick-up trucks surpassed vehicles as far as sales. Trucks were the big fad. We saw the Craftsman Truck Series develop into what it was and now see the Camping World Truck Series what it is today. Veteran drivers, young drivers, drivers that are still trying to prove themselves, crew guys in the farm system coming up through the truck series to work into a Nationwide ride or work up even into a Cup ride. You’ve got guys that have been in the series and made their name there like a Ron Hornaday Jr., Jack Sprague, and Rick Carelli. Then you’ve got guys like Travis Kvapil that are champions that have come to Cup and gone back. There are so many stories in the truck series. The year that I spent there was a genuinely good time of old-school racing. You show up at the race track, sometimes it’s a one-day show, sometimes it was a two-day show. All the crew guys are there. You all go out to dinner together; you’re all sleeping at the hotel. It’s just that comradery with the guys, that atmosphere of old-school racing. It’s fun. I did it based out of Detroit. We’d jump on Northwest Airlines and fly everywhere. It was a race to see who could leave the house the latest and still make the flight. It’s fun things like that that make the truck series what it is.”

THIS RACE IS THE HALFWAY POINT TO THE CHASE. YOU’RE SIXTH IN POINTS. AT THIS POINT, HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE SEASON SO FAR; ARE YOU COMFORTABLE AND SECURE AS FAR AS MAKING THE CHASE AT THIS POINT? WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO IMPROVE OVER THE NEXT 13 RACES? “Being sixth is a good thing. That means we have a cushion behind us, but we still want more. We only have two top-five finishes. That’s where we need to be a better program, if we’re going to solidify ourselves running to the Chase and then running throughout the Chase, if we’re in it. It’s interesting with the point system. I think the numbers show last year’s system versus right now, the top 10 that are in it would be the guys in it if the point system was still the same. Every position is worth a point. It’s tough. You’re fighting every week for that one spot that you can gain. It could come down to a gallon of gas meaning the difference between a hero and zero. That’s where we’re finding ourselves. Everybody is pushing it to the limit – fuel, tires, strategy, chassis setup, shocks, you name it. That what makes it a good hard-fought battle going through these summer months.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS TRACK HOSTING TWO SPRINT CUP EVENTS? “We’ve got two stops here. You know, ISC is a great partner with NASCAR, it is NASCAR, and they’re going to dictate which race tracks we go to. This is a big market. It’s a great market for our series sponsor Sprint. Their involvement with our sport is what’s carried us to this level. Business transactions happen. Some race tracks deserve two dates. Some race tracks don’t. We’re here because it’s a deserving place.”

GREG BIFFLE TALKED ABOUT THE HEAT IN HIS CAR AT CHARLOTTE, WHERE THE COOL BOX WAS TURNING INTO A BLOW DRYER AND BURNING HIS FACE. WHAT IS THE WILDEST THING THAT’S HAPPENED TO YOU INSIDE A RACE CAR OTHER THAN AN ACCIDENT WHERE YOU FELT LIKE YOU COULD BE LOSING IT PHYSICALLY? “There’s hot air in my helmet every weekend. It’s a matter of maintaining pace. There’s malfunctions that happen in cool suits, cool boxes with the helmet, fans that blow on you. I grew up in the desert southwest, one of the hottest places to be a race car driver. That training has probably helped me over the years to get through some of the tough hot days. I’ve definitely had some struggles. At Sonoma one year, all the brake fans and everything that was throwing amperage out of the car didn’t leave the driver with any comfort tools. After the race, I cramped up. I couldn’t walk. I was really dehydrated. It took a while to come back too. It happened there. Watkins Glen is a tough place and then there’s Martinsville, that one challenges me each time I go there. When you have lack of speed and you’re working the body over and over lap after lap, that’s when it gets tough out there. Hey, you’ve got to muscle through it.”

FORD HAS WON SEVEN OF THE LAST 28 RACES; DOES FORD HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE COMPETITION RIGHT NOW? “They’re definitely the favorites going in. If you had a fantasy league, you’d start with those eight Fords or however many there are out there and fill in the blank elsewhere. Those guys have a competitive advantage under the hood and they’ve found something with their setup that Carl Edwards found the last two races, three races of last year. They’ve definitely got their homework done and polished up. They’re out there hungry right now to get those wins racked up in their win column.”

MOST TEAMS ARE FOUR-CAR TEAMS, PENSKE RACING ONLY HAS TWO CUP CARS. AREN’T YOU AT A DISADVANTAGE…NOT A LOT OF SUPPORT THERE? “I’m sure we’d love to have four teams. We have the ability and the infrastructure to do it. It’s tough to find the sponsorship. It’s a tough market. I’ve got AAA on the car this weekend. It’s great to have them as a team player at Penske Racing, but they only wanted to do a limited amount this year. If we could influence them to run a full season and be out there with a top-quality driver, we’d love to have that scenario. But right now that isn’t an option. Right now we’ve got Shell/Pennzoil as our primary and Miller Lite on Brad Keselowski’s car. Those two programs can carry two cars, but we’re trying to fill in the blanks elsewhere just like every other team is.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing How does it feel to get back into the top-12 in the NSCS driver points? “I think we’ve gained about eight spots in the last five weeks. Obviously, it could have been a lot better — finished 10th last week when we had really a race-winning car. That was the first time really since Richmond, Martinsville — those tracks, that we’ve had race-winning cars and Charlotte is a mile-and-a-half, and obviously we have some of these tracks coming up. I’m looking forward to it. Obviously, we feel like this is our strong point in our season, here in the next two months or so . Be making some big moves.”

Do you feel like the most difficult part of your season is behind you now? “I hope so. Hopefully, it’s downhill from here. That’s the thing, when you have engine failures and you have wrecks and things like that so early in the season, and you leave a race track with five points — it takes a long time to kind of build that back up. Obviously, we’ re slowly working our way back into the top-10, where we need and should be. It’s just the new points system rewards consistency. Like Kurt (Busch) said, he’s got just two top-fives and he’s sixth in points — he’s just been consistent and right there around the 10th spot for most of the year. That’s something — we’ve just been up and down and now that we’re getting kind of more consistent, you’re starting to see us kind of creep our way back into the mix again.”

Do you think Ford has a competitive advantage over the competition? “I’d say right now they do. I think that all the Fords are probably a step above everyone at this point in the season. Last week, even when we were down a lot of horsepower throughout the race, we were really the only car that wasn’t a Ford in about the top-six or seven all race last week. Those guys obviously did some homework and got their cars really good. I think a lot of it — some of it is chassis — but I think a lot of it is motor and they kind of have it all working right now. It’s similar to what I felt like we were in the middle of the summer last year to where we couldn’t miss in the sense of whatever we put in the car just kind of worked. I think those guys are kind of in a rhythm right now and that’s the zone they’re in at this point.”

Is it ever difficult to transition to driving away from the track as a race car driver? “It’s tough — I mean for me it’s not that hard to kind of turn off the switch — but we all have moments. I agree a lot with what Dale Jr. (Earnhardt) said, everyone speeds at one point or another, we just don’t get caught. That’s pretty much the bottom line, there are times we get caught and there’s times we don’t get caught. We’re all professional drivers and we know what we’re doing, bu t that doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t make us any less apt to get in an accident than anyone else. I’m pretty mindful of that. Obviously, he (Kyle Busch) just had a lack of judgment for a brief moment. Was he speeding at any other point in time? I don’t know