Month: June 2011

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES

STP 400 (Friday Advance) June 3, 2011

Kansas Speedway

GREG BIFFLE, driver No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT THE AMERICAN RED CROSS IS DOING WITH NASCAR UNITES THIS WEEKEND FOR THE MISSOURI FANS? “Yeah, you know I have seen all the pictures and looked on the internet and watched the news and it is just terrible. Nicole and I were talking about how would you like to go home where you grew up and see there is just nothing left, nothing there, let alone the people that lost lives and pets and family’s that are broken up. This weekend all of the NASCAR Foundation bracelets and NASCAR Unites bracelet proceeds go this weekend to the victims and to help the Red Cross provide services for those people, which is neat. Everybody needs to try and do their part. I am certainly doing my part. Hopefully those people can get their lives put back together and get back to some of these races.”

IT SEEMS LIKE THE GUYS THAT ARE AT THE TOP OF THE SPEED CHART AFTER THAT FIRST PRACTICE STILL AREN’T HAPPY WITH WHERE THEY ARE AT. “The first part of the session we were in qualifying trim and we were very unhappy with our race car in qualifying trim. We were a lot happier with it in race trim. The track is hot and slick. It is 92 degrees outside and the track temperature is probably in the mid 140’s. This place has gotten a little bumpier every year. It has lost a little grip. Naturally that is what race tracks do. It is hot, slick and hard to get ahold of. That typically produces pretty good racing. Everyone is kind of complaining but you look at your lap time and it isn’t that bad. It feels slow inside the car though. You feel like you are going turtle pace and that gives you the sensation, especially coming off last week where it was pretty fast, that you are a lot slower.”

A WEEK LATER, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN CHARLOTTE AND HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL TO KNOW YOU GET TO BOUNCE BACK AT A TRACK THAT YOU HAVE RUN SO WELL AT IN THE PAST? “Certainly I was extremely happy with the way my car performed at Charlotte. The way it drove and the speed it had. Nobody could have predicted at the end that we were going to get that caution. The engineers felt like we were going to make it, at least to off of turn four with the fuel we had left. I think we did the right thing by pitting and getting fuel in the car and not running out of gas on the race track like a lot of other guys did. I think we did the right thing, finished 13th and salvaged a top-15. I wish we could have been top-10 and wish we would have pitted the first time we had the opportunity instead of coming with one to go. The fuel pressure was bouncing a little bit and I knew it wasn’t going to restart. I knew it was going to run out on the front stretch right in front of the whole field. That was not going to be a good outcome, so I elected to come in and get fuel. Looking back at it, I don’t know what we could have done different. I conserved as much as I could on that last run. Probably the only thing in hindsight would be to go get gas the first time it opened and not cycle myself behind the eight or 10 guys that stopped. We would have had a better shot at the end.”

HOW WAS THE TIRE TEST AT KENTUCKY AND DO YOU HAVE A LEG UP HAVING DONE THAT? “I don’t think so. The track was so dirty for the first part of the day and it took awhile to get rubber down on the race track. Then the track started coming around. It was real confusing when we started because they painted a while line on the race track around the second groove basically and said to run from there up and not run the part of the race track where everyone is running here today. That was a little confusing. We tried to run the top when we first got there and then everybody migrated back to the bottom and ran where they normally ran. It took a long time for the bottom to come in. We ran different lanes. I felt like half the day I didn’t know where to drive. Visually we were trying to find visual references and that race track is so funny how wide it is. That is what makes it unique, that it is super wide and so when you are coming into the corner you are almost driving 90 degrees to the paving lanes and you can see the division where the paver made lanes and there is a little sealer in the cracks and you can kind of see it. It is odd more than anything. It took awhile to get back used to it. I don’t think it will give us a huge advantage of how long it took us to kind of get going. We really didn’t get any testing done. We tried some springs and dropped the track bar a little. It was basically like this. By the time we got going and got a little rubber on the track and got to where the speeds picked up once we got the race track going a little better we were nearly out of time. We had to put on the Goodyear tires and do two 30-lap runs with like 25 minutes left. I don’t think we learned a whole lot.”

THIS IS THE SECOND STRAIGHT WEEKEND WITH REAL HOT CONDITIONS. WHAT IS THE BIGGER CHALLENGE, THE AFFECT OF THE HEAT ON THE RACE CAR OR HOW IT AFFECTS YOU? “During the day when the sun is out it makes the track slick. It gets hot inside these cars. The heat is manageable if you have air to your helmet which unfortunately last week I didn’t. I had hot air to my helmet last week. Today I haven’t run my air conditioner just to prove a point that it isn’t necessary even though it is 92 out. You don’t need it. What happened last week was really unique. The thing turned into a heater and was blowing scalding hot air. I mean it burned the side of my heat and I could feel the air. I had my visor open so the air would go out but I mean it was hot. It was that way from pit road, for 600 miles. That was a little tough. Today it is blowing in and it is like a fan running on you. It doesn’t have to be air conditioning, just air and you are fine. It gets hot after awhile but that is what we train for. I tested Kentucky on Wednesday and it was 98 degrees all day. I feel pretty good now.”

FOR A TEAM TRYING TO GET INTO THE CHASE, WAS LAST WEEKEND A DEBACLE OR VERY ENCOURAGING CONSIDERING EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED? “Well, we took a really fast car and finished 13th with it. We got the wave around twice and lucky dog once. If we would have had a mediocre car we would have finished about 30th. We drove from the back five times. We started at the dead back of the pack that many times. We were able to manage our way to the front. Last week we kind of saved ourselves really. Last week could have been bad and we finished 13th. That was pretty damn good. We would have loved to have a top five. We would love to win that thing and if the caution hadn’t come out we would have been really close. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.”

YOU’VE RUN SO WELL HERE OVER THE YEARS. WHAT IS THE SECRET? “If I told you, I would have to kill you. You know, I really like this race track. It is a lot of fun. It being hot and slick is kind of my favorite. It is hard to get a hold of this and it is different on both ends. This place you can run up the race track which is fun to do. You can run right up against the fence. This place has a lot of grip in the center of it too. There are a lot of options and it has a little slower corner speeds and you have to be a little technical which has played into my hands over the years I guess.”

AS WE MOVE CLOSER TO THE CHASE, WHEN DO THE WILD CARDS START TO FACTOR INTO YOUR MIND AND HOW DO THEY FACTOR IN? “Well, we have certainly been trying to win lately and all season. It is hard to sleep at night when you are right there on the verge of the points, especially when you have runs like last weekend and so on. You have to start having solid top-fives every week. If you are having solid top-five’s every week then forget about it. We aren’t there yet. We picked up another spot in points but that didn’t really do a whole lot. We didn’t move very far. A guy had a bad race is all. We have to get top-five’s to get up in there and get a little cushion. Points are really tight. A couple of wins would take the pressure off. We will just keep trying to do what we can. When it comes down to it I think that both the wild card guys are going to have wins. They will at least have one win. I feel, I really kind of do, that they will both have wins. Maybe one of those guys might have two. We will see.”

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES

STP 400 (Friday Advance) June 3, 2011

Kansas Speedway

Carl Edwards, the current points leader, met with members of the media after the first practice session Friday at Kansas Speedway. Edwards finished second behind teammate Greg Biffle who followed Edwards in the media center.

CARL EDWARDS, driver No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – YOU GOT YOUR START HERE IN KANSAS IN A TRUCK. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE START OF YOUR CAREER AND ALSO YOUR CAR FOR THIS SUNDAY? “It was the opportunity that Mike Mittler gave me here at Kansas in his 63 truck in 2002 and we ran eighth which was a huge day. It was huge. That win kind of got things rolling, so to speak, in my career. Then we won that race in 2004 here in the Truck Series and it was an unreal race. I was racing too hard on the first lap and smacked the fence and then came back and won the race. It was a very special win. In 2008 we almost had the victory here and had that last lap battle with Jimmie Johnson. I told Bob this week that this race is really important to me; I mean all of them are, but to win here in the Cup Series would be huge. We have what seems to be a really fast race car and practice went really well. It is going to be hot and slick which should be a lot of fun. I am just glad to be here racing and looking forward to it.”

ON A HOT WEEKEND LIKE THIS IS IT A BIGGER CONCERN HOW THE HEAT AFFECT THE CAR OR HOW IT AFFECTS YOU? “That is my trainer Dean there sitting next to you in the gray hat. He works hard with me and we try to be as prepared as we can be as far as the physical fitness part of it. The deal is that there are a lot of guys out there are physically fit and if they aren’t fit they are just plain tough. What ends up happening is that a car and the affects of heat on the race track and the way the tire interacts and the speed slowing down I think has a bigger impact on the outcome of the race than the driver fitness and ability to handle the heat. It is definitely two parts and I think that is a good way to ask that question. I think the car and the slick race track will have a bigger impact on the outcome of the race.”

FROM AN EMOTIONAL STANDPOINT, HAVE YOU EVER FOUND THAT THE HEAT WILL MAKE YOU ACT IN A WAY YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE IN A COOLER SITUATION? “I can see your article right now in my head. I don’t know if that is the case. I don’t know if tempers and ambient temperature, if there is a big correlation there. It would make for a good story though. If you want to write it, go for it I guess. I just got off your hook there for a second didn’t I? Oh yeah, tempers are going to flare just as much as the sun beats down on the race track. It is going to be insane (laughter). No, I don’t know. It is going to be a tough race. It is only 400 miles, so that will help, but I do think it will be a tough race not only for the drivers but the guys on pit road, the spotters, everyone. You start to get uncomfortable and it is easy to make mistakes.”

YOU WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MESS LAST WEEKEND ON THE RESTART. DID YOU THINK THERE WAS GOING TO BE A CAUTION AND DID YOU THINK THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE? “As it turned out it didn’t look like it needed to be a caution. A caution would have helped us a lot, so from that perspective I wish there would have been one. NASCAR has to do the best they can and they didn’t feel like they needed to throw a caution there and in the end everyone finished the race safely. That is a lot bigger decision than I am paid to make.”

CAN YOU GO THROUGH YOUR ITINERARY THIS WEEKEND WITH THE RACE IN CHICAGO? “We are going to run the second practice here, make some qualifying runs and then go over to the airport, hop in the Cessna and fly out to Chicago. We are going to run the last practice up there, which I think is from 7:30 to 8:30, and then fly back to the track here tonight. We will qualify in the morning and I don’t think there is any more Cup practice, so I think we will be able to make it. We have my buddy Steve going with us and sometimes he is a little late for things. If we don’t have to wait on Steve we should make qualifying and then the drivers meeting and everything for the Nationwide race. Steve is in the back there and I am just giving him a hard time.”

SO YOU WILL GET BACK AT WHAT LIKE MIDNIGHT TOMORROW? “There is a slight chance of rain up there tomorrow afternoon. And it is an early morning here on Sunday morning so I hope that is not the case. Like I said though, I have Steve and he says he can fly the plane so I can get some sleep.”

WHY GO THROUGH ALL THAT? DO YOU WORRY ABOUT IT AFFECTING YOU FOR THE RACE SUNDAY? “The way it works out with these airplanes, it is not very difficult to do. As long as you keep the stress down and don’t get wound up about it. Driving to the airport is a nice drive and that airplane is really easy to fly and not a big stresser. The weather is nice and there isn’t a threat of weather with massive lines of thunderstorms or something we have to go through. The reason I do it is because we have a chance to win that race up there. That is what we do this for. Mike Beam and those guys on the Fastenal crew work hard. I have had some of the greatest races of my career this year in that Nationwide car. Last week was a blast with Matt Kenseth. The race in Iowa was a lot of fun. A lot of people asked why I went there but I would trade that for anything. To be able to follow Ricky Stenhouse to his first victory and race that hard was cool. I do it for the fun and for the trophies and to see the look on my guys faces when we do well. If everything goes as plan it shouldn’t be that difficult.”

AT ONE POINT LAST WEEKEND YOU, THE 17 AND THE 18 PITTED UNDER CAUTION AND 23 CARS TOOK THE WAVE AROUND AND YOU THREE ENDED UP MIRED IN THE BACK. DO LIKE THE RULE OR IS IT BECOMING TOO BIG OF AN ADVANTAGE? “There is a lot to that. I think the reason we got put in a bad position was because we pitted and then a debris caution came out. If that caution hadn’t been thrown then I think it would have worked out fine. There are a lot of variables in this sport. One of them is how to read those cautions. If we all knew when they were going to come out then it would be a lot simpler and I don’t think there would be as much trouble. You guys have written plenty about that and I am sure you will write more. I don’t know that the wave around is the issue. I think that if that race would have gone without those debris cautions it would have looked differently and worked out better for us.”

EDITORS NOTE: This question was asked by Roberta Cowan of Speedway Media. WITH HINDSIGHT BEING 20-20 AND FORESIGHT BEING NEARLY BLIND. IF YOU COULD REDO ANY RACE IN YOUR CAREER, WHAT RACE WOULD IT BE AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENT? “That is a really good question and I am glad you asked it here because if I could redo any race in my career it would be this race in 2008. I am not going to tell you what I would do differently but there is definitely something I would have done differently and I think we would have won it.”

AFTER HAVING GREG BIFFLE ON TALKING WITH HIM ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM LAST WEEK WIT HIS BLOOD PRESSURE DROPPING LOW AND THE CAR BLOWING HOT AIR AT HIM. HE SAID HE WAS NEVER GOING TO PULL OVER AND TAKE A RELIEF DRIVER THAT HE WOULD PASS OUT FIRST. WHAT IS THE MOST DANGEROUS NON-WRECK SITUATION YOU HAVE BEEN IN? “I have had my belts come undone before which was scary, not in one of these cars, but you have to make some decisions then. I didn’t know that happened to Greg. He is a pretty tough guy. There are a lot of things that go on in these cars. I think that carbon monoxide got me a couple of times. I have never been so uncomfortable because you are strapped in and you start to get nauseous and not feeling good you can’t go anywhere or stretch out or move around. It is a difficult situation. That is one of the neat things about this sport, that we have these long, hot races. It is pretty grueling. It was something for me that when I first came in and drove Mike Mitler’s truck at Memphis and that was the longest race I had been in. It was a day like this, 92 degrees or something, I thought that there was something wrong with this truck. I thought it was on fire or there was some problem because there was no way all these guys could be this hot and still racing. It didn’t take me long to realize, but took me awhile to adapt to the fact that that is just the way it is. It is uncomfortable. Last week I am probably not the only driver that was driving down the straightaway’s with my heels off the floor because it is burning your feet. I think that will be a factor in this race Sunday, not a huge factor, but it will be a factor.”

WITH KYLE AND THE SPEEDING TICKET I AM CURIOUS FOR YOU PERSONALLY IF IT HAS EVER BEEN HARD TO LEAVE THE SEEKING OF THE RUSH BEHIND WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RACE TRACK? “Are you kidding? I am not going to incriminate myself but we are all here at a race track and we all like to drive and it is something that you have to remember. There is more risk out there on the road then there is on the race track. I cannot sit back and judge someone else for driving fast on the road. It is something that is hard not to do. One of the keys is what you drive. I mostly drive pickup trucks, like a F-150 and I have an old F-250 that is a slower truck so that kind of keeps me out of trouble.”

DO YOU GET THAT THRILL FROM FLYING YOUR PLANES? “No, I have my fun with driving at the race track. I get to drive 700-800 miles a week and that is a lot. I do have to consciously be safe on the road because it is easy to drive too fast on the road. It is something I am not going to sit here and judge someone for getting a speeding ticket because I have had plenty.”

DATING BACK TO KANSAS LAST FALL, FORD HAS WON SEVEN RACES. WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT SUCCESS TO? “That is when we were really turning the corner as a team, the middle of the summer at Daytona. We ran well and then Greg started running really well. I think the success on the race track comes from a number of places. The engine is one. I think we have an engine that is equal to the others, which is huge. Robbie Reiser being the team manager has helped us a lot. He has changed the structure at Roush Fenway and it has been great. I feel like our pit crews have stepped it up and our whole process from a pile of tubing to a finished race car is better, more streamline and more attention to detail. All of those things, there is not one trick, we don’t just have a good engine or just have a good aero package. We have good race cars and all of that has come together. Almost all the teams have been to victory lane in one way or another this year.”

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE COMPETITION RIGHT NOW? “I don’t think we have an advantage. We might have a slight advantage at these mile-and-a-half tracks. I feel like we are very competitive. The competition is really close and nobody is better than us right now. That is probably the best way to put it.”

I KNOW YOU HAVE LONG DREAMED OF WINNING A CUP RACE HERE. DOES IT FEEL LIKE THIS YEAR MIGHT BE YOUR BEST CHANCE? “It does feel that way. We have been running really well. In 2008 we were on a tear and running great. Our mile-and-a-half program has been on a tear. This could be a good shot. Practice was good. We weren’t the fastest car but the balance wasn’t perfect so now we are going to tune on it in the next couple of days and Bob will do his magic with the computer and come up with a good setup. I am really excited to run this race. This is the most excited I have ever been to run this race in my Cup career. I am looking forward to it.”

THIS RACE IS HALFWAY TO THE CHASE. YOU HAVE A 36 POINT LEAD WHICH UNDER THE OLD SYSTEM WOULD HAVE BEEN AROUND 120 POINTS. ARE YOU MORE INCLINED TO TAKE A RISK TO WIN A RACE NOW OR TO EXPERIMENT WITH SETUPS AND THINGS FOR LATER ON? “Right now today we are more inclined to take risks and do things. Bob and I actually talked about that today. How much is a win worth as far as points when we start the Chase? Is it three? I read somewhere it was 10 and was like ‘holy moley we need to be more aggressive.’ We have been balancing two things. One is running well enough that we have a big cushion and are in the Chase. We are doing that now and have the points lead. Two, once we feel comfortable with that, which I feel like we are there almost, we want to go out and take not necessarily risks driving but risks with some setups and engines and pit calls and stuff like that. We maybe wouldn’t have done that before. If it comes down to the end of the race here Sunday and it is a gamble, we will probably go with the one where a win can be the outcome. We won’t play it safe just to run third. We are here to win right now and it is nice to be able to do that. I have never been in this position at this point in the season.”

TONY STEWART SAID HE FEELS LIKE HE IS BRING A KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT WHEN TALKING ABOUT YOUR MOTORS COMPARED TO THEIRS. HOW WOULD YOU GRADE YOUR MOTOR AGAINST THE OTHER PEOPLE? “It is even. We can go out and look at the dyno stuff NASCAR has if you like, but I can see it on the race track. We are not head and shoulders above other people, we have caught up. I feel like before we were behind and worked on our cars quite a bit and now that we have caught up it looks really good but we can’t lay off of our engine program. We have to keep moving forward. There are engines I raced against last weekend, and we were a little conservative in our package, that was making a lot more power off the corners. I am just going to have to disagree with Tony and say that we don’t have a huge advantage. That is what he is supposed to be doing. He is supposed to be kicking and screaming and looking for an advantage of his own.”

YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE GREG BIFFLE ARE TOP OF THE PACK AFTER THE FIRST PRACTICE. WHAT DID YOU WORK ON AND HOW COMFORTABLE ARE YOU WITH HOW GOOD YOUR CAR WAS? “I think we are pretty good. I was looking for a good balance because the track is so slick. Bob was really mad at the end of practice. He was upset because we weren’t the fastest car. I think we have something we can work with as the track slicks off. Right now it is hard to look at that sheet and say who is in the best position to win because I think the track will change a ton. That pavement will get hot and slick and greasy and chance a lot during the race. The guy that reads that the best will win this race. I think Biffle was in qualifying trim. I don’t know if he was in it the whole time or how good he is because I haven’t talked to him about his car.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

STP 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

June 3, 2011

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 THE GLADES/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed the Kansas race track, Prelude to the Dream and other topics. Full transcript:

HOW WAS PRACTICE?: “It’s hot and slick out there right now, but that’s the way I like it. It’s a challenge for sure to get your balance right and guys are already using the whole race track. It’s definitely going to be a hot, slick day for the race on Sunday too.”

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR CAR?: “I don’t think anybody — you can have the best car out there right now and you’re still not going to be happy with it. We’re sliding around a lot, which is good. I like that side of it. It makes you never happy with it until you think you have it fixed all the way. It’s just a constant challenge right now.”

WHAT IS THE STORY FOR THIS YEAR’S PRELUDE TO THE DREAM?: “It looks like for once we might actually get a break with the weather here and not have to stay up for 20 hours a day trying to look at the radar. Everything is on schedule and everything looks really good. There’s still seats if people want to come to Eldora and watch and if not, it’s on HBO Pay-Per-View. We’re excited. We have a lot of great guys coming and may have a switch here with a driver — we’ll know here in a couple days. We may have somebody that can’t make it at the last minute due to a death in the family. We may have a surprise if we do on a replacement. Looking forward to it.”

HOW DOES THE PAY-PER-VIEW DEAL WORK? “If you have cable or your satellite provider, you just go on the service there and it will guide you through how to order the Pay-Per-View — we’ve got DirecTV and you can go down there in the sports channels and it will tell you exactly how to order it online there. No matter whether you’ve got Dish Network or DirecTV or cable — it will guide you through it.”

SHOULD A RACE BE OFFICIATED DIFFERENTLY EARLY IN THE RACE VERSUS LATE IN THE RACE?: “My job is in the garage, I’m not going to get in that drama and that debate. I think it’s asinine to keep people talking about it. Nothing is going on now that hasn’t gone on for years here and it’s always been fine. Everybody is over-analyzing all this.”

DID YOU THINK YOU WERE FAST OFF THE TRUCK?: “We were third quickest and that was in race trim. I was pretty happy with the lap that we put down right at the beginning of practice there. I think as the session was going on, it was kind of hard to gauge where you were as it was getting hotter as you were going so the track was slicker and you don’t feel like you’re making any gains. You have to really look at where you’re at against everybody else. The best handling car out there is not a good handling car right now. You’re really having to base how your car is off of everybody else’s lap times also.”

DOES THE TIMING OF THIS RACE GIVE YOU A BETTER IDEA OF WHERE YOU’RE AT?: “No, it’s week to week. We’ve got night races, we’ve got day races — it’s all part of the deal. You can’t base it off of one aspect of what you do. It’s got to be week to week and hopefully what you’re doing four or five weeks in a row is working.”

HOW EXCITED ARE YOU FOR THE PRELUDE TO THE DREAM?: “Really excited. I think we have a pretty good forecast for next week so that lets me focus on things that are more important to me other than just watching the sky every day. I never would have thought that seven years ago when we started this that it was going to grow as big as it is. To have the drivers that have come and set their time and day to come be part of it with us, I have really been truly honored. We’re getting to raise a lot of money for great charities and to have fun at the same time. I’m glad to be able to do this seven years in a row now.”

DID YOU EVER PICTURE PRELUDE GETTING THIS BIG?: “No, not at all. I just thought, well we’ll see how it goes the first year and if we’ve got enough guys that just want to go and have fun for a night then we could probably raise a couple dollars for charity and give us an excuse to go play for an evening. It far exceeded that goal and it really turned into something a lot bigger than that and a lot bigger purpose obviously. I didn’t. Every year when we get ready for this it amazes me thinking about how we started and the group that we had the first year and the cars that we had the first year. Now looking at the teams that are supplying cars for drivers and the caliber of talent behind the steering wheel that we’ve got coming to this event — it’s really just getting bigger and better every year.”

IS THERE A DARK HORSE FOR THAT EVENT?: “Probably half the field. Believe it or not about a quarter of them still have a dirt track background of some kind. It’s so hard to predict because you look at the past here and I don’t think anyone would have predicted Jimmie (Johnson) was going to be the guy last year, but you look at his progress over the last three years and he just got better and better. It didn’t surprise me, but it wasn’t a guy that I sat there and looked at going into the race saying this is a guy that we’re going to have to watch. It can be a number of guys.”

HOW DO YOUR MOTORS STACK UP RIGHT NOW COMPARED TO THE FORDS?: “I think Ford definitely has an advantage right now over the whole field. Anybody that doesn’t have one, they’ve been working on this motor for a long time and we’re still on about a six-year old model. I’m really proud of Hendricks engine department — they’ve been fighting a lot and have been really working hard to keep us where we’re at. I think you’re kind of bringing a knife to a gun fight right now. I can’t wait for one of these NASCAR deals after the race where they chassis dyno some cars and see where they’re at because I think that will tell the tale.”

WHERE DO YOU THINK FORD HAS MADE GAINS?: “I don’t know. I just know that you have to have a perfect lap time to run with them and Charlotte was a really good example of that.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

STP 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

June 3, 2011

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed the Jimmie Johnson Helmet for Hope program, racing the Prelude with Tony Stewart, compared the 1.5-mile tracks, how the Herzogs helped his career and much more. Full transcript.

TALK ABOUT YOUR HELMET OF HOPE PROGRAM. “As everybody knows Lowe’s is nice enough to let us run the Jimmie Johnson Foundation paint scheme on the car and with the California race losing a date things have changed around dramatically for us this year. We’ll be running the Jimmie Johnson Foundation paint scheme in Sonoma and our golf tournament will be the week prior to the race in Sonoma. With all the things moving and shaking around and with what’s taking place here in the Midwest with all the tornadoes and especially with what went on in Joplin very close by, we’ve elected to move up the Helmet of Hope program and get it started now. With that in mind, normally there are just 12 charities that are selected to go on the helmet to receive a donation from our foundation plus recognition of being on the helmet and we decided on a 13th with the American Red Cross and I’ve made a donation to the American Red Cross of $10,000 to help them with getting Joplin and many other areas back on their feet. With that recognition we would just like to encourage others to do the same and the American Red Cross is a great place to make donations to and you know the money goes where it needs to. We’re kicking off the Helmet of Hope is really what this is all about and I will be wearing this helmet September 11th weekend essentially but really the race in Richmond is when this will all come to a head. I decided to move things up on the schedule a little bit with things changing around. So that’s really our announcement.”

I BELIEVE THIS IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR FOUNDATION? “It is the fifth anniversary, yeah. Time flies.”

TONY STEWART WAS SAYING LAST WEEK AS IMPORTANT TO YOU GUYS ABOUT GOING TO THE PRELUDE AND DRIVING ITS ALSO IMPORTANT THAT YOU SCHEDULE TIME AFTER THE RACE FOR YOU GUYS TO HANG OUT, DID YOU GET TO DO A LOT OF THAT LAST YEAR AND PREVIOUS YEARS? “Yeah, I’ve been pushing him hard to set something up for us all to get together. We all enjoy racing and I think running in Tony’s event without the pressure, without the bright lights and all that goes on at a normal Cup event we’re able to really unwind especially post race and just sit there and hang out. I think the earliest I’ve ever left is probably two or three in the morning after the race just to go to the airplane and get home at sunrise. It’s just from sitting around and shooting the breeze with the guys and talking racing and hanging out and spending time with these other drivers that you really don’t ever get a chance to. I joked with him over the years that he need to build like a little makeshift bar in the infield and make the winner of that night’s even buy beer for everybody and pizza and sit there and hang out because pizza ends up showing up and beers coming out of the cooler and everybody sitting around talking. Tony is usually on a four-wheeler driving around visiting with everybody. I just keep telling him if you just pick a spot and let’s all drag the coolers to one place and hang out or do something. The guys that work the garage and drive these race cars could use that time to hang out.”

KEVIN WAS JUST IN HERE TALKING ABOUT THE TWEETS THAT YOU HAD ABOUT THE HORSESHOE, HE SAID HE WANTED TO HOLD ON TO IT UNTIL NOVEMBER 21ST, WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ABOUT THE HORSESHOE? “Yeah, we’ve had some fun with it especially on the Twitter space with the whole horseshoe thing. It was something that Kevin said at California and we had some luck come our way. It started then and I couldn’t let it not come back after his good fortune the last couple of weeks. When I was in the situation having things going my way, sometimes things just go your way and other times they don’t and you’ve got to be running well and you have to be in that top-five window to take advantage of good luck. Last week things turned out well for him and I’m on the joking side of it all. I want my horseshoe back and I know he wants to keep it until after Homestead. Through Twitter there has been a ton of other fans, drivers and even crew members lobbying for their need for the horseshoe. So it’s been a fun week messing around with all of it to say the least.”

HAVE YOU HEARD FROM THE TEAM ON WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE ENGINE IN LAST WEEK’S RACE AND WOULD YOU PLEASE COMPARE THE 1.5-MILE AT CHARLOTTE TO THIS 1.5-MILE HERE AT KANSAS? “The way the engine failed we were able to understand what happened pretty quick. Before I got home they knew what had started the problem and what had failed. So we’re on top of it and it’s clearly not something that happens often and we’ve got a good idea of what happened and those guys will fix it. It was just an unfortunate thing and oh so close to finishing the race in a good position. We’ll go from there.

“They are much different. I would say that the banking is probably the biggest difference between the tracks. The transitions into the corners are different because of the banking. You’re going into a much steeper bank at Charlotte, where here is it very flat a lot less banking. I would say if you can compare this track to any other it would be Chicago. It’s very difficult when you are in the turns to tell a different between Chicago and here. California is kind of its own place and then Texas is its own place, Atlanta is its own place but out of the 1.5-mile tracks we run on Chicago and Kansas seem to be the closest of any two.”

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HERZOGS, YOU GOT GREAT SUPPORT FROM THEM TO GET YOUR CAREER UP AND GOING IN OVAL-TRACK RACING, TALK ABOUT THAT A LITTLE BIT AND DO YOU THINK THAT’S HELPED YOU ATTRACT FANS HERE IN THIS AREA? “Yeah, I do feel like it has. Al though they are not in the sport any longer and I don’t drive for them I do have that hometown feel when I come here. I spent a lot of time in St. Joseph, Missouri from I’d say ’95 to really 2001, 2002 with their corporate offices being there and them living in the area or very close by their offices. We had a lot of good times and a lot of great memories with them. It started back in the off-road days when they picked me to come on board and Chevrolet came with. At the end of ’95 we decided that we would work together and our goal was to get to the Cup level and we got awfully close. We made it to Nationwide and ran two great seasons there. I won my first and only Nationwide race. It helped springboard my career into what it is with Hendrick Motorsports. Man it was a tough day when I had to approach Stan (Herzog) and Randy (Herzog) and the father Bill (Herzog) and let them know that I had another opportunity. We didn’t have a sponsor. The sponsor at the time Alltel was leaving and there was a lot of conversations taking place and a lot of people throwing offers at me but I never went to them until I knew it was something worth leaving for and that was the Hendrick opportunity. It was at the August race in Bristol that I sat down with them both, Stan and Randy, and explained what was in front of me. They both hugged me like a father and said you would be foolish to not take this opportunity and you have our full support to go to Hendrick Motorsports and try to make something of your career. Just two great men that spent a lot of money and poured a lot of heart and soul into my career and helped me get to where I am today.”

“I would lean on Rick Beebe, Gary St. Amant, Mike Miller at times and Bob Senneker, those old timers really knew how to race. Rick wasn’t necessarily one of those old timers he was kind of in that middle-aged category and we had a lot of fun times golfing days before events and hanging out. At that point, drivers and crews were riding in the transporter together everywhere you go so we saw a lot of one another before and after races and even on the road at truck stops and things like that. He was a great guy and certainly helpful.”

HOW DO TEAMS GO ABOUT CALCULATING FUEL MILEAGE?: “Really it’s kind of a basic science. As the runs develop, you see some trends based on speed of the laps. Kind of the fuel-air mixture at times makes a difference if it’s a dense night. Some other small, decimal point adjustments that they make in the overall scheme of things. Really what happens is they plug the gas tank into the car, assume it’s full, judge how much is possibly laying on the ground and then weigh the can and figure that all out through kind of eye balling it and kind of the weight of the gas can when it’s done to see what’s in there. It’s not a very exact science and it’s amazing how close the guys get when they say you’re going to run out on the backstretch and damn if you don’t.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED THE CAUTION DIDN’T COME OUT AT THE END OF THE CHARLOTTE RACE?: “I still haven’t seen what happened. I was doing interviews next to my car after we had blown the engine. I could hear the crowd leading and I could see off onto the front stretch that he (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) was in the lead and I could hear the crowd making noise and I just assumed it was for him being in the lead. I didn’t see much to be honest with you.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

STP 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

June 3, 2011

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed his recent success at Charlotte, his season to date and other topics.  Full transcript:

IS THE CAR YOU LIKE AT KANSAS THIS WEEKEND?:  “I’m sure they could have turned it around if they wanted to.  Again, we’re building other new cars that we feel have all the opportunity in the world to be quick and be fast and be good cars.  Turning them around in a week’s time is too difficult at this day and age or more difficult than its worth due to all the components that need to be replaced and what not.”

DOES ANYTHING TRANSLATE FROM THE 600 LAST WEEK TO THIS WEEK’S RACE AT KANSAS?:  “I really don’t know.  The setups are all real similar that you run at all the mile-and-a-halves.  We might tweak on them a little but here and there, but the direction and the ideas and the theories are all kind of the same.  It’s been working pretty good for us. We’re still working real hard to find out where some speed is for qualifying and we made some — went a totally new direction in qualifying for Dover and Charlotte.  Although we didn’t get the qualify Dover and we didn’t really qualify well at Charlotte, the difference in how the car drove and how comfortable I was with the car and being able to jump out there and run fast for one lap — I think we made some real good gains there.  I think we’re going to start seeing some improvement in that department and make the races easier for us.  We’ll just have to see what this place is like.  It looks like there’s some more tar strips, seams and stuff and cracks that have been sealed up than what I recall last time we were here.  Seems like all the track owners love putting that tar in them cracks man. It’s like all they have to do for like a year before we come back. We’ll see how that’s going to make the cars drive and hopefully we can get around here pretty good.”

ARE WE READING YOU RIGHT THAT LAST WEEK WAS A REALLY BIG DEAL FOR WHERE YOUR TEAM IS AT RIGHT NOW?:  “I think so.  I think that we came close to winning that race and we’ve done it a couple times this year and that makes me feel more confident in us having that opportunity again more often throughout the season.  I feel like that if we just keep doing that then the luck is going to fall our way and we’ll get to victory lane one way or another.”

DID YOU SEE ANY OF THE YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF YOUR FANS CRYING BECAUSE YOU DID NOT WIN THE RACE LAST WEEK AND WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THAT?:  “I didn’t know nothing about it and the first I heard about it was right here.  That’s the way I take a Redskins loss, I take a Redskins season the same way.  I’m as bitter as I was at the end of the season — I’m still as bitter about it.  When you’re passionate and you care — it’s a cliché, but when that’s all that matters you’re ticked until things get right or you’re upset until things get right no matter what.  I can definitely relate.  That again, that extends itself or that tells you a lot about the way the world is today and what kind of world we’re living in.  Everything is going to go straight to the internet. That’s a way for people to express themselves, get their feelings across, show what they’re thinking, what they want — for people, I guess for those people it was a way to release those emotions and get it out.  Had to tell somebody.  Sometimes you get ticked off or get tore up about something and you have nobody to talk to — I guess that’s a good outlet for them.  Going to see just more and more of it as we keep on going down the road.”

DOES THE CAR YOU LIKE HAVE A PERSONALITY AND DO CARS HAVE A PERSONALITY?  ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT A FELLOW COMPETITOR WILL BE IN A CAR MAKING ITS 15TH START?:  “That doesn’t really surprise me.  The car that I like, I only like it because we’ve run well in int.  I remember my first race we run with it was Vegas and we weren’t good in practice.  The car — it isn’t the kind of car to where no matter what you do it runs good.  We can screw it up.  We’ve been able to adjust it and it likes adjustments and it seems to respond to adjustments. We should run — we can run cars like that seven or eight times a year so I’m not surprised that (Ryan) Newman’s car is going to make that many starts.  Sounds pretty normal I guess to me.”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EXCITEMENT TO SHOW UP AND DRIVE THIS YEAR COMPARED TO THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS?:  “It’s definitely better.  I look forward to coming here.  Preparing for the weekend — I look forward to it a little bit more than I did in the past for sure.  When you run good, it’s much easier to want to show up.  When you get — I had two and three-quarters or two and a half years there where nothing was changing, nothing was getting better and you just, you get in a rut and you don’t know what to do to make it better.  Obviously, what you’re doing is not helping so you’re kind of at a loss when you get disappointed.  You keep going the next week and the next week and the next week — you have this hope in the back of your mind that it’s going to turn around and this is going to be the weekend where you have something to smile about.  75 percent of your brain knows that’s probably not what’s going to happen.  It’s kind of tough back then. Definitely this year, I’ve run some really good cars and I’ve had some real good times racing and being in those cars.  I just enjoy competing where I feel like I should be able to compete.  I have an opinion, personally about what kind of talent I’ve got and where I should be running in the races.  When I’m close to that or doing that or matching that then I get happy and I feel content and satisfied and obviously this year has been a better year for me.  It could be even better and hopefully we’ll get to that next level, but for the most part definitely having fun.  Definitely having more fun.  When the race weekend sneaks up on you week after week after week, you’re not so upset about it.  Sitting at home is pretty fun, but now when Thursday and Friday rides around, creeps up on you out of nowhere, you’re not disappointed about it, you’re like, ‘Alright man, let’s go to the next one and let’s see what we can do.  Let’s see if we can go out there and make some more good things happen.”

DID YOU SEE THE COLUMN TALKING ABOUT YOUR CLASS FOLLOWING THE CHARLOTTE RACE AND WHERE IS THAT FROM?:  “I did see the column and I don’t really know really why that’s the case.  I don’t want to disappoint anybody.  My father raced in this sport for a long time and he raced in front and worked and talked and worked with a lot of people that I work with today.  A lot of people that are in this room and a lot of people in that garage.  Being his son, I don’t want to disappoint anybody.  I don’t want to say anything that’s going to make anyone ashamed of me or I just want to run good and I want to run well, but I want to act right too.  In the end, I want people to say that I was a good person and I was honest — when I don’t race anymore or whatever.  That I was a good guy to be around and a good sport about things.  Mainly, I just don’t want to humiliate what my dad did for the sport and what he did for himself, what he did for our family name — don’t want to do anything that’s going to tarnish any of that. That was probably all it’s about.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

STP 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

June 3, 2011

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed racing at Kansas Speedway, having three wins this season, racing the Nationwide car this weekend at Chicagoland and other topics . Full transcript:

TALK ABOUT HOW KANSAS SPEEDWAY HAS EVOLVED IN ITS 10 YEAR HISTORY: “I actually came here for the first media day before the race, I guess you would call it a Winner’s Circle appearance, and there was nothing here. So, you can see the affects that the race track has had on the surrounding area and the different companies and the amount of people that have come with it. It is pretty awesome to see the growth of the speedway from the beginning. It is kind of fun to see that.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR ITINERARY FOR THIS WEEKEND RUNNING HERE AND THE NATIONWIDE RACE IN CHICAGOLAND? “It is pretty simple. We aren’t going there to practice or anything, so, we’ll be here today and then tomorrow we will qualify here.  Then after qualifying is over, we’ll fly to Chicago, qualify the car and then race and then come back. David Mayhew is going to practice the car up there. He’s done that for me a couple times. He is a kid from the West Coast. So he’ll be there practicing the car there today.”

THIS IS THE FIRST TRUCK RACE SINCE THE PENALTY, HOW BIG OF AN OBSTACLE IS THE 25 POINT PENALTY AND WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT IT WAS 25 POINTS OR IS THAT ABOUT WHAT YOU EXPECTECT? “The whole thing is just kind of a bad deal. We get all of our gears from a gear manufacturer and you just put them in there and hope that they are right. At Daytona, he finished dang near last so they were more than 25 points in the hole, if they can’t make up 25 points; I’ve got the wrong people on that team.”

QUESTION ABOUT PENALTIES ACROSS SERIES, AUDIO INAUDIBLE: “I think it depends on what series you are looking at. So, the Truck deal, I don’t know what is too harsh over there because you are $10,000 in the hole every week and 25 points is a fairly healthy penalty so, I don’t know what is right and what is wrong to be honest with you. I don’t know what that would have been equivalent to in years past. Any penalty is a bad penalty.”

WHAT ARE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THIS KANSAS TRACK? “I think when you look at the facility itself, when you look at the surrounding area, there are not too many places that we go to that have built around the race track like this particular track. From a fan standpoint, when you look at the race track, there’s things to do and place to go so that part of it is good. The race track itself is a lot like a lot of the other race tracks we go to as far as the race track shape and size, so that doesn’t really set it aside from a lot of other places. The one thing that does set it aside is the way that the race track has aged, which is a good thing. You look at Charlotte, those types of race tracks, the asphalt has not changed much over the years and this particular race track, the tires wear out, it gets slick and the cars start to slide around which makes the racing groove move up, which it has done here over the past couple of years so that part of it has changed a little bit differently than a lot of the mile-and-a-half tracks.”

IT IS HALF WAY THROUGH THE “REGULAR” SEASON AND YOU HAVE THREE WINS, CONVENTIONAL WISDOM WAS THAT IF YOU HAD TWO, YOU WOULD PROBABLY BE SAFE FOR THE CHASE, HOW ARE YOU GUYS LOOKING AT THAT? IS THAT SOMETHING YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT? “Obviously you want to keep running well, but I think that when we got to the two wins, it was the topic of conversation in the competition meetings just for the fact, you look at last week, seventh or eighth in the points, you aren’t making those calls at the end of the race. I mean, you can’t afford a 25th place finish running out of gas. In the position we are in, you are able to do those things. You don’t think twice about and that is what you should be doing is trying to gain more wins so you gain more bonus points at the of the 26th race. For us, we have been trying a lot of different things, just trying to zero in on packages for different styles of race tracks, and just going outside of our normal comfort zone I guess you could say. When it comes time to make strategy calls, the only calls you even consider are the ones that could let you win. I think that was very evident last week.

“When you look back at Dover and you look back at Charlotte, and then you look at this week, these are all Chase races, so you need to have a solid understanding of what particular package you want to have underneath your car when you come back to these races. You don’t need to start practice like we have at the last two, Charlotte and Dover, and be from one package to another package, back to this package. We are searching for what is most comfortable for me, what is the fastest on the race track. When we go back to those particular races, we won’t deviate from that.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SURFACE HERE AT KANSAS, DO YOU LIKE IT BETTER THAN YOU LIKE CHARLOTTE? “I am a lot more comfortable here. It has been a fairly good race track for us performance wise. The tires wear out and the banking isn’t as much, the transitions are different and you can move around the race track. Where last week, it seemed like we got…there were a few guys that could move around, but not like normal. It didn’t seem like we had a lot of guys up against the wall like we normally do at Charlotte. This track has aged to the point to where the tires fall off, you can move up the race track; you can run in the middle of the race track, you can run the bottom. You still have to carry a lot of speed at the beginning but a lot less throttle time than last week at Charlotte.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT KANSAS AND CHICAGO THAT FITS YOUR DRIVING STYLE MORE THAN CHARLOTTE? “You know, it’s just the tires are different, the surface is different. Pretty much all the things I just said. The transitions, the surface, the moving up and down the race track; it just gives you more options.”

AFTER THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS HAVE DISCUSSED LAST WEEK’S FINISH, HOW MUCH ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GREEN FLAG THIS WEEK? “Why would you want to quit talking about a good day? I don’t even pay attention to what you guys write so I haven’t really paid attention; I don’t even know what you are talking about.”

WHY RUN IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES? “Honestly, this weekend, we made a mistake in the scheduling. I had a set number of races that I had to run for the sponsor. I wound up having to pick up the slack this week otherwise I wouldn’t be running it.”

DO YOU WORRY ABOUT IT AFFECTING YOUR SPRINT CUP EFFORT HERE SUNDAY? “No.”

WOULD CARL EDWARDS GIVE YOU A RIDE BACK IN YOUR PLANE IF YOU NEEDED ONE? “Yes, he already offered.”

TAKE US THROUGH THE MINDSET WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE A CAR CAPABLE OF WINNING BUT YOU HAVE TO GET YOURSELF TO THE FRONT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE WHEN OTHER PEOPLE HAVE A PROBLEM LIKE LAST WEEKEND:  “There were a lot of decisions as a group that we had to make and really it started towards 100 laps to go. We didn’t want to make two pit stops. With about 30 laps left in that next-to-last run, Gil (Martin, crew chief) came on the radio and said. ‘What do you think about coming into pit?’. I said we didn’t come here to run 15th so let’s stay out and take a chance and if we have to pit, we have to pit. That kept us in the window for just one more pit stop when the caution came out with just a few laps short of our window. For us it was a lot of gas conservation as soon as that run started and all those guys took off racing. That was our best chance to win and when you get in a position to where you are seventh or eighth and you realize that you don’t have the fastest car, you have to figure out another way to win. When you get toward the end of those races, I think Darlington we had a car capable of winning that race and we came in and pitted and all those guys stayed out and did the same thing we did last weekend. You have to be aggressive as far as taking chances and strategy and doing different things in order to put yourself in those positions, you have to be somewhere towards the front, but in a sense, you don’t have to be. If you can make the right decisions at the right times, you can give yourself the track position and things can fall your way like they did last week. We’ve been on both sides of the fence. I think Darlington is a great example. Dover is a great example and Charlotte was the same way.”

YOU PROBALY HAVE THE MOST MOMENTUM WITH THREE WINS, BUT YOU HAVEN’T LED A LOT OF LAPS, IS THIS THE WEEK YOU EXPECT TO BREAK THROUGH AND LEAD A LOT OF LAPS? “I doubt it. It’s been 10 years and we don’t lead a lot of laps. We’re the same team we’ve always been. We race, we put ourselves in position and we see what happens in the end.”

YOU AND JIMMIE JOHNSON HAD SOME FUN WITH A TWITTER EXCHANGE THIS PAST WEEK, WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF THE HORSESHOE NOW? “I hope so. I hope we get to keep it. It is fun to be able to have performance in your race cars. I’ve said this about the No. 48 for a long time. They have had performance in their race cars and when they get in those situations where things are going their way, they are able to capitalize and finally, we’re able to capitalize when we have some breaks on pit road and we have fuel mileage, whatever the case may be. You car still has to be still running decent. When you get in those positions and you are able to capitalize on it, it makes it that much better. I hope we get to keep it until November 21st.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP ABOUT GIL MARTIN AND WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES HE HAS BROUGHT TO THE TABLE? “Gil’s biggest asset is his people skills. He’s very good at corralling the guys and myself and making you feel good about when things are going bad or things are going good, whatever the situation is. He’s going to get mad but he’s going to figure out how to spin it into a positive direction really fast.

So, he’s built a group of guys around him that have been around him for a long time. Gil has been around me for a long time too. Back in 2000 when we started the Nationwide team, they brought Gil in to be Mike Dillon’s crew chief. A lot of these guys were around for that so a lot of us have been around one another for a long time. The chemistry just works. Everybody understands who each other is and understands who I am when I get behind the wheel of a race car and how I can be and it just clicks.”

ARE YOU A FAN OF THE PLAYOFF BEARD? DO YOU THINK THIS MIGHT BRING SOME LUCK? “It is a great promotion but I can’t wait until Monday.”

HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU PERSONALLY TO FLIP THE SWITCH OFF AND GO BACK TO NORMAL LIFE AS FAR A NEEDING THAT SPEED? “I have never been somebody to drive very fast on the road. So, I’m probably the wrong guy to ask that. I am very rarely, if I am in a car with somebody else, very rarely do I drive when I’m at home. I can flip the switch off instantly. I don’t have any need for any of that. I would rather honestly not even drive on the road. I’ve never driven very fast on the road to be honest with you. I guess I get my fix while I am here.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.