WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT DANICA (PATRICK) RUNNING THIS YEAR’S PRELUDE TO THE DREAM? “I’m excited.  I told her ‘don’t feel like you have to come do this.’ She said ‘No, I really want to do this.’ I’m excited for her.  I don’t think it’s something that she has had a chance to do very much.  It will be fun to get her in an environment that is definitely new to her for sure.”

SHE’S GOT SUCH A FOLLOWING HER WHEN WE ARE AT THE TRACK WHAT IS THAT GOING TO BRING TO YOU GUYS AT THE PRELUDE? “We will know when we get there.”

SOMEONE WAS TWEETING THIS WEEK ABOUT YOUR BEARD.  I WAS WONDERING IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SUPERSTITIONS. “No, I guess my race day deal. I try to sleep as late as I can.  I mean if it’s an afternoon race, I will lay in bed all day.  I just don’t want to be up.  I just try to stay to myself as much on race day as I can.”

LAST WEEK THE DRIVER’S MEETING WAS OUT IN PUBLIC.  IT SEEMS THAT THE DIRECTION IS THAT OTHER TRACKS ARE GOING TO TRY AND FOLLOW THAT.  ARE YOU OK WITH THAT?  WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT GO BACK TO JUST DRIVERS AND CREW CHIEFS? “I think they did it first at Texas, may have been the spring of last year they did the first deal where they had the public in the drivers meeting with us.  I thought it was fine.  I mean I think it’s kind of cool.  It allows the fans to also know what the rules are too.  Especially when we change the point system to help everybody understand it easier and make it easier to follow along.  If they are a part of the drivers meeting with us it makes it even easier for them to understand the rules and why we may line up in a certain spot on a restart.  I think it’s a good thing.  We just have to make sure they know that we got to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ and from point ‘B’ back to point ‘A’ and we are all on a time schedule on race day.  But, I thought it was good.  I think it’s a pretty cool opportunity for the fans.  You don’t get to sit in pregame meeting with football teams or basketball teams and all that so I think that’s a pretty cool deal.”

WOULD YOU STILL FEEL COMFORTABLE ASKING A QUESTION? “Oh yeah, absolutely.  It’s still our drivers meeting.  If it is a question you need an answer to you need to, no matters whose there, you need to feel comfortable in making sure that you are clear about what that rule is.”

YOU ENDED UP 24^TH IN PRACTICE WHAT DO YOU GUYS NEED TO WORK ON TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER FOR YOU? “For qualifying trim we just have to make it rotate in the center a little better.  In race trim we have a lot of work to do.  It’s loose on entry, tight in the center or loose in the center and loose off.  I was pretty proud; they got a lot of changes done in this first practice session.  The good thing is we have tomorrow, a couple of sessions, to work on it some more but we definitely have some work to do right now.”

HOW WAS YOUR PRACTICE SESSION (FASTEST IN FIRST PRACTICE TODAY)? “I was pretty happy with it.  It’s nice to come back here and kind of finish off where we left off last fall we were pretty good here in the fall.  It’s nice to come back in the spring here and do it again.”

DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR TEAMMATE?  “I actually was still on pit road waiting on my turn to go out.  He (Ryan Newman) just said he got loose getting into turn three.  Like I told him that is why we bring two cars to the race track.  The second car is just as good as his first one is.  It will be fine.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEW SHAPE AND SURFACE HER AT PHOENIX? “I think we probably made more gains.  You know we got to do the Goodyear tire test here and then the open test and then the race.  By the time the end of the race weekend was over it was our third time on the new track.  I think we probably made our biggest gains between the tire test and the open test and then the open test to the race.  More so than what we did coming back here in the spring.”

THIS WEEK NASCAR CAME DOWN WITH SOME BIG PENALTIES FOR THE NO. 48 TEAM.  DO YOU THINK THE PENALTIES WERE TOO HARSH? “Those penalties don’t have anything to do with me.  I don’t worry about them.”

DOES IT SEEM LIKE THE RACING GROOVE HAS GOTTEN WIDER OR CAN YOU TELL YET? “I don’t know what the track did here.  It is pretty rubbered-up, quite a ways across the race track.  I would say they did something trying to get it ready.  It looks like they did a really good job whatever they did.”

YESTERDAY PENSKE ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WILL LEAVE DODGE AND GO TO FORD.  ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW EARLY THEY MADE THAT ANNOUNCEMENT? “Again, it is nothing that pertains to what I’m doing so I really don’t pay attention to it.  I was shocked to hear it, but I didn’t really think much about it honestly. I’m so focused on what we are doing with our team, with a new crew chief, a new competition director we have plenty of stuff to worry about versus what the other guys are doing.  We are very focused on what this No. 14 car is doing right now.”

DANICA (PATRICK) WAS JOKING EARLIER ABOUT HOW SHE LEARNED HOW TO CRASH AND CERTAIN THINGS SHE CAN DO DIFFERENTLY IN A CRASH SITUATION.  DO YOU GO OVER THAT KIND OF STUFF WITH HER? “I think it is just circumstances.  Every race car I’ve ever driven wrecks are different in them.  How cars crash and this and that, when I say crash it is where they go when they have a problem.  I think it is stuff that time gets you used to that.  Everything is sensory overload for her because she is doing stuff that is totally different than what she is used to.  Every week is going to be a learning experience right now.”

DO YOU WATCH A LOT OF HER NATIONWIDE RACES? “I always watch the Nationwide races.  I watch them because we learn from it for our races too.  We will watch what she is doing obviously because we have interest in trying to help her be better in the Cup car too.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RACE TRACK HERE? HOW DO YOU THINK IT IS COMING ALONG AFTER THE REPAVE? “I think it is fine.  It’s not the old Phoenix that we used to have obviously.  I am still partial to that.  Every time they made a change I liked it less and less.  There are a lot of things that had to be done and had to be updated and they did a really good job of that.  With the surface they did an awesome job paving it.  It is not changed much from when we were here last fall.”

TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT BEING IN DAYTONA AND WHAT THIS WEEKEND MEANS TO YOU:
“I guess once you’ve won the race (Daytona 500) it is always special to come back and be a part of the sport that you love. Starting off Speedweeks we have just been a little bit off on overall speed. We really played it safe in the (Budweiser) Shootout, after watching Shootout practice and purposely laid in the back. We didn’t get the right moves at the end there. Kyle (Busch) kind of snuck one in on us. Just working on a little bit of speed, working on seeing how everything unfolds with the rules changes. Making sure we are doing the best on our end to capitalize on the cooling and the speed and the handling and all those types of things with the U.S. Army/Quicken Loans Chevrolet.”

HOW MUCH INFORMATION ARE YOU GATHERING FROM THE NO. 14’S (TONY STEWART) SUCCESS THIS WEEK? HOW ARE YOU APPLYING IT TO YOUR RACE ON SUNDAY?
“The information sharing is no different with us and the No. 14 versus us and the No. 10 or across the board with anybody. Tony’s been in just a little bit better situation I would say. My car likes to be up front. When I’m hanging out in the back, I’m just hanging on. His car has been really good up front. I think our car will be too we just haven’t been able to put ourselves in that situation. We never got to the front in the Duel. When the pit cycling came around we lost one of the guys that was helping in our draft. We never got back to the lead group to mix it up. I feel confident in our car. He is 14 thousandths of a second away from two victories going two for two this year so far. We’re good.”

DID AT ANY POINT LAST YEAR YOU LOOK AT JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND THINK ‘MAN THIS GUY IS JUST NOT HITTING IT THIS YEAR. IT’S NOT THE SAME SEASON FOR HIM.’ OR WAS IT JUST NOT THAT OBVIOUS?
“We were more worried about ourselves than what he was doing. We are part teammates with him; with our information sharing with their information sharing and things that we have with Hendrick (Motorsports). At the same time we want to win and at the same time we wanted to see somebody else win. We never really focused on what their struggles were. In the Chase itself we had struggles of our own. It was not much of an issue.”

A LOT OF DRIVERS ARE HAVING TROUBLE SUCKING-UP IN THE DRAFT. IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE SEEING? DO WE KNOW WHY?
“There are two reasons to that and part of it is just the rules package the way the cars are drafting. The second part of it is the cars are getting so hot. My feet were glowing inside the race car just from heat off the firewall. My pinky toe was laying up against the side of the foot rest and wherever there was any contact on metal it was hot. We are doing everything we can to get the cars cooled off. That means staggering out and getting some air and things like that. I think there are times when guys are paying more attention to their gauges than they are where they are going. I don’t know where that makes for the best racing.”

YOU CAN SUCK-UP THOUGH?
“When you have somebody behind you then you have no issues sucking up. You just can’t be the last car.”

WHY DID WE NOT SEE A LOT OF CARS PRACTICE TODAY AND A LOT OF TEAMS NOT TALKING ABOUT PRACTICING TOMORROW?
“I think it’s a little different with the testing. We have more to lose than we have to learn at this point. At least the people that aren’t practicing feel like they have more to lose than to learn. We worked on a couple of small things today. Just perfecting my brake bias and coming to pit road, simple things like that. Those things can really catch you off guard when you are trying to do a quick stop and no tires. When you have to do that abort and put tires on it and lose the draft. That is a significant change in your race strategy. We are working on a couple of small things, but as far as making the race car that dominant race car, I think everybody knows that the rules package doesn’t allow us to big like that or to do those things that we have in the past.”

DOES IT MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE THAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE COOLER ON SUNDAY?
“It is going to help my feet. It’s going to help my radiator. It’s going to help a lot of things, but we are still going to push the cars to that limit. When it cools off we can push a little bit farther, instead of a straight-a-way we can push two straight-a-ways or three straight-a-ways. It just depends on the situation that you are in. The farther you are out front the more opportunity you have with the cleaner, cooler air. When you are in a group of 30 cars if you are 20 cars back then you are going to be hot no matter what. The grill opening is so small that the cars just don’t recover like they should or they need to.”

ON TODAY’S ANNOUNCMENT WITH DANICA PATRICK. “Yeah, it’s definitely nice. Everybody wanted to know where she was going to be racing, what the number was on the car and that’s what today was all about. Just being able to give everybody in the media and the fans an idea of where they are going to see her next year, that was a pretty big step.”

YOU TWO SEEM TO GET ALONG REALLY WELL AND THE CHEMISTRY IS OBVIOUS, THAT HELPS A LOT I’M SURE. “Yeah, she’s a lot of fun. She’s got a great personality and she’s very dedicated to being good so she’s the kind of person that you want as a teammate. She works hard at it and she has fun doing it. I think she’s a perfect fit for us.”

EDDIE (GOSSAGE) HAS THIS LITTLE FIGHT MOTIF GOING ON WITH YOU AND CARL (EDWARDS), CARL WASN’T EXACTLY ENAMERED WITH THE IDEA, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? “I think that’s why Eddie Gossage is one of the best promoters in the United States and probably will be before it’s all said and done. I thought it was funny personally. I was just glad I was the guy that got to wear the black hat.”

DO YOU THINK THAT IDEA CAME FROM SOME OF YOUR COMMENTS? “There’s no doubt it did. It shows you how good of a promoter Eddie is. I guarantee by Monday morning he already had that idea done.”

SUNDAY NIGHT, HE DIDN’T WAIT UNTIL MONDAY MORNING. “That’s what I’m saying, by Monday morning he was done already. He already knew what he was going to do.”

WERE YOU THROWING DOWN A GAUNTLET WITH THOSE COMMENTS? “No, I just stated a fact that we’re ready for this. We’re ready for these three weeks. After a race like we had last Sunday, I’m ready to go for these weeks. If anybody counts us out they’re making a mistake.”

HOW HAS YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT THE CHASE CHANGED IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS WITH THE SUCCESS YOU’VE HAD? “Obviously going into Martinsville being fourth in the points we felt good that we were still in the hunt like we were. I think after the way we ran last Sunday and the way that we were more so not so much how we ran but how we rebounded from a really slow start of the day and were able to overcome it and have a dramatic finish like that at the end. I mean that’s the stuff that puts you in that position at the end and you have that with three weeks to go you’ve got something going on.”

HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR DOES THE PIT CREW, AND CREW CHIEF MAKING CHANGES THROUGH THE RACE HAVE, YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW THAT’S CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE WON? “Exactly, it’s easy to get flustered and kind of get frayed on the ends and Darian (Grubb, crew chief) did an awesome job. The big thing was just saying hey what we’re doing isn’t working, the direction we’re going with our changes isn’t working, we’ve got to make a big swing at it. He didn’t go crazy with it but he made educated decisions and that’s what got us there at the end. He had two really good pit calls that got us the track position to once we got up there to do something with what he had changed.”

HOW DID YOU KEEP YOUR TEMPER LAST WEEK? “I made a mistake and put the No. 43 in a bad spot but the thing I did was when I made that mistake I didn’t pick the gas up and go ahead and take the spot. I kind of let him get the back in any spot that he had. He didn’t deserve to lose it because I made a mistake and pushed him out of the way. I think we raced everybody with respect.”

EVEN WITH DENNY HAMLIN, YOU WERE ON THE RADIO TELLING HIM YOU’RE JUST GONNA HAVE TO…. “I wouldn’t normally race him that way. I would have more respect for the leader than that if I was getting lapped and if that were the spring race I probably would have let him go like you should but Denny also knew why we were doing what we were doing and I think it just shows the respect that we have for each other. If you don’t put guys in bad positions they don’t put you back in it the other way.”

HAS EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENED WITH THE NO. 10 CAR AND THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT YOU’VE MADE THIS WEEK, DOES THAT TAKE SOME OF THE PRESSURE OFF GOING INTO THE FINAL THREE RACES? “I think a little bit. It’s been a busy week make no mistakes about it. I guess I still think in the bigger picture than just what I’m doing. It’s an exciting day for Danica. It’s an exciting day for GoDaddy and this is something we’ve been looking forward to this day. We’ve been looking forward to the day we can pull the cover off of this car and we can sit there together in a press conference and talk about how excited we are doing this together. I’ve looked forward to this. It’s not a distraction, but it is nice to get it done here and do it at Texas where we like anyway. Get it behind us and now we can go back to work.”

IT’S VERY DIFFICULT TO GO GET MONEY IN THIS SPORT RIGHT NOW, ESPECIALLY NEW MONEY LIKE YOU GUYS DID, HOW MUCH ARE YOU HAVING TO GIVE OF YOURSELF IN ORDER TO LAND THESE SPONSORSHIPS? “We’ve got a great staff at SHR and we’ve got a great marketing department and I feel like they are the reason we’ve been able to be successful on this side. I think they’ve thought of ways thinking outside the box of how to make these partnerships with these sponsors work and work for them in a way they haven’t had these opportunities in the past with these other teams in the series. To bring somebody new into the sport, that’s a really, really big feather in our cap from an organization standpoint. I take a lot of pride in that.”

ITS EASY TO LOOK AT VICTORY LANE LAST WEEK AND SAY HE WAS FIRED UP, HE SAID SOMETHING BECAUSE HE WAS SO FIRED UP, BUT YOU MEANT IT SO WOULD YOU SAY IT SITTING RIGHT HERE LIKE A CALM SITUATION TOO? “Absolutely. The feeling hasn’t changed. It wasn’t the adrenaline that was saying that. I’ve been racing 31 years and we’ve been a part of a lot of championship battles and I know what that feeling is when you feel that stuff is going right and that you’ve got that shot again. Like I said he’s making a mistake if he’s counting us out and if he thinks it’s just a mind game deal I really don’t care what he does. I’m going to control my destiny and my car, I don’t care what he does with his car. I’m going to take care of business with ours.”

THERE SEEMS TO BE SO MUCH FOCUS ON YOU AND CARL FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP, JIMMIE JOHNSON SAID TODAY HE HOPED THAT SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN AND HE COULD GET BACK IN IT SO YOU CAN’T COUNT HIM OUT EITHER. “No, you never do. I guess I’m looking at it from the standpoint of looking up. I’m not looking behind and I’m not worried about anybody else. I’m not worried about Carl I’m not worried about anybody, I’m worried about what we’re doing with our car. I think practice this morning showed that.”

SHOULD YOU LOOK AT IT DIFFERENT WITH ONLY THREE RACES LEFT? “Why would you?” I DON’T KNOW I’M WONDERING. “No, you don’t change what gets you there.” MAYBE MORE WILLING TO GAMBLE OR SOEMTHING LIKE THAT. “Listen, I’m going to tell you this just like I told everybody else and make sure everybody still understands it, we still do this one day at a time. We’re not looking to Sunday, I’m looking to qualifying here in a minute. Once that’s over I’m going to get ready for race practice tomorrow. We still carry the same approach we’ve told everybody for weeks and months now. It’s not changing and there is a reason I do it that way and it works. So we won’t change it until 50 laps to go, you might have to do something different at Homestead late in the race but you don’t change that formula. If you are doing something that gets you to the front of this deal you darn sure don’t change that until it’s over so we’re not going to change anything.”

HOW WAS PRACTICE OUT THERE AND WHAT WERE YOU WORKING ON? “Like I said, we kinda of feel like we’re in the Matt Kenseth mode. I’m kind of happy. If we qualify like we practiced there and get an upfront starting spot, that’s normally a good sign for us. I’m not a good qualifier so if we qualify well we normally race well behind it. I’m excited about it. I thought we were decent in race trim. I think we learned some stuff going from race trim to qualifying trim that was a parallel as far as the balance was concerned. I think we found what might fix that so I’m pretty excited about it right now.”

DANICA SAID FOR A LONG TIME THAT YOU WERE THE PERSON SHE WOULD ASK HER NASCAR QUESTIONS TO THAT SHE HAD, DID YOU FEEL LIKE SORT OF THE LEADER IN THE CLUBHOUSE IN LEADING HER OVER HERE? “Not necessarily. Trust me there are a lot of people that have a lot of respect for her and what she’s doing and knowing how hard it is with all the attention she gets to be able to focus and do what she’s doing. Like we mentioned, I’ve been where she is, I know what those cars feel like so for her to ask a question about something that’s going on or a feel it’s easier for me to understand why she’s asking that question verses just the question itself. I don’t know that it made us feel like we  were in the lead in that category but I think that’s what’s going to make it fun and make it a natural fit for us because we do have that comparison and that parallel with each other.”

HOW MUCH HARDER IS THE CHANGE SHE’S GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE COMPARED TO WHEN YOU MADE BECAUSE OF TESTING? “Yeah, but Juan (Pablo Montoya) didn’t get to do them either and Juan made it work. Just some people make it and some people don’t. Like Sam (Hornish), Sam’s a great open-wheel racer and for some reason and he’s getting better in the stock car the longer he goes but it’s an easier transition for some than it is for others. You’ve seen guys like Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve that never figured it out and these are guys that have won the Indy 500, won championships and are accomplished race car drivers. There’s no blue print, there’s nothing that says you’re going to figure it out but we feel like with our group we’re giving her the best opportunity we can for her to figure everything out. What we’ve seen so far from her in a stock car, she’s already starting to pick things up. She’s a sponge when it comes to information. She gathers everything in and then figures out how to separate it, cipher it and go on. I think she has the mindset that some of those guys that tried to make it didn’t have.”

IS THERE A COMMON THREAD THAT CONNECTS THE ONES THAT GET IT FAST AND THE ONES THAT DON’T? “I wish because then it would be easy to know right off the bat which guys are capable of doing it and which ones aren’t but unfortunately it’s not that easy.”

YOU’VE GOT THREE CHASE WINS, YOU’RE ONLY EIGHT POINTS DOWN, YOU’VE GOT MOMENTUM BUT CARL IS LEADING THE POINTS, IT’S HIS CHAMPIONSHIP TO LOSE? “How many points do you get if you win the race verses second? SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT SOMETHING LIKE THAT. “How many points are we behind?” WELL YOU’VE GOT TO BEAT HIM OBVIOUSLY. “Okay, so.” SO IF HE LOSES THE CHAMPIONSHIP HAVING THE LEAD RIGHT NOW I’D SAY IT’S HIS TO LOSE. “No.” YOU DON’T THINK? “How many points is it from first place to second place in the race?” ABOUT SEVEN. “I think its three. So he’s eight points ahead so if we win all three races and he runs second we’ve taken it from him. He didn’t lose it. We took it from him. Now if it was a bigger gap than that and all he had to do was finish right behind us then I would agree with you that it was his to lose but we still have the opportunity to take it from him.” HE’S HAD TWO BAD RACES, TWO LUCKY FINISHES … “I feel like I got him back in the corners.” YOU DO? “Yeah, I do. Like I said these are three tracks that I like. I feel like we run really well here, Texas is one I really look forward to coming back to. Phoenix we were really good at the test and Homestead is a track that I like. We haven’t won there since they redid it but I like the style that we have to race there and I like where we have to run on the race track. So its three tracks that I like and I feel like we can control our destiny. If we were more points out and we couldn’t gain them by winning the race and him running second then I would feel like it’s his to lose but we can still go up there and take it from him. We don’t have to worry about what he does all we have to do is control our destiny and we can still win this thing.” CAN YOU WIN ALL THREE? “I didn’t think I could win three of them in the Chase let alone the rest of them. I would love to be able to say yeah, I can win all three of them but there’s no give me’s in this deal and there’s no guarantees and there’s a lot of variables that are out of our control but we’re going to control the ones that we have control of and let the rest of it fall in place.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN GET IN CARL’S HEAD A LITTLE BIT, IT APPEARS THIS WEEK YOU KIND OF HAVE? “I don’t know. He’s growing facial hair we’ve never seen him have and he’s saying stuff I’ve never heard him say so I don’t know what’s going on with him this week.”

YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT HAVING HIM BACKED INTO THE CORNER, IF YOU’RE ABLE TO MAKE SOMEONE FEEL THAT WAY BECAUSE IS THAT PARTIALLY BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP, YOU’VE DONE IT BEFORE AND BECAUSE YOU’RE MORE CONFIDENT AND YOU FEEL YOU KNOW THE GAME? “I know what to expect. I know what is going on. I’ve been in that situation so it’s not a new experience for me and it’s definitely not a scenario I’m uncomfortable with. That’s why I’ve been walking around for a whole week with a smile on my face because I’m very comfortable with where we are at and very confident with what we have going on these next three weeks.”

HE KNOWS HOW TO LOSE CHAMPIONSHIPS, HE LOST TWO, IN FACT HE LOST 2005 TO YOU, DO YOU REMEMBER THE LAST FEW RACES OF 2005 BECAUSE HE REMEMBERS THEM? “I can’t remember what I did two days ago let alone back to 2005. I honestly don’t. You’ve got to lose some to win them and we’ve lost our share of them in the past too but I think that’s what also makes it easier to win them when you know what you’ve got to do to overcome those.”

WHAT KIND OF RACING ARE YOU EXPECTING AT PHOENIX NEXT WEEK WITH THE NEW TRACK? “Nobody knows. Your guess is going to be as good as mine is right now. I think we’ll have a little better idea hopefully on Friday in practice we’ll get some cars around each other and see what we’ve got.”

THIS CAR (NO. 10) IS RUNNING 10 RACES, WOULD THERE BE THE OPTION OF PUTTING ANTOHER DRIVER IN THERE TO KEEP THE POINTS UP? “Yes, we would definitely like to run the car the whole season. If we can get another sponsor to take care of the rest of the races I would love to run this car full-time next year and have that opportunity to work with that crew and the crew chief and get them ready for the whole season in 2013 also.”

I CAN’T IMAGINE A BASEBALL GENERAL MANAGER DOING ALL THE DEALS, TRADES, AND THEN GOING DOWN AND PITCHING THE GAME WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  “Piece of cake.” DOES IT EVER GET GRINDING? “Not for me. I’m a single guy, I don’t have a wife and children to go home to. I don’t have to delegate my time to a family. These race teams and my race tracks and everything we are doing kind of is that family. I like staying busy in that capacity. I wouldn’t know what else to do. This is the only way I’ve done it for a long time now and I don’t know if I could change it now.” DO YOU SLEEP? “Not very well. I don’t need to sleep though.”

BEFORE THE CHASE YOU SAID WE DON’T EVEN DESERVE TO BE IN THE CHASE, THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN YOU GET IN AND WIN THREE RACES AND ARE ON FIRE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR OF ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP, WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO? “I wish I knew. I’d love to know because I would make sure we didn’t get ourselves in that position again. A lot of it is when you look at our season the first half to two-thirds of it we just had weird things happen that we’ve never had happen before that would get us behind and get us backed in a corner and we couldn’t get our way worked out of it by the end of the race. Maybe it’s just something simple as getting all that bad luck out of the way early in the year and it seems like the last seven weeks have kind of been back to normal scenarios and not having these weird things happen that cost us races early in the year.”

NEXT YEAR YOU ARE GOING TO A THREE-CAR TEAM, YOU’VE SEEN RCR GO TO FOUR CARS THEN BACK TO THREE, ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT STRUGGLING AT ALL WITH A THREE-CAR TEAM? “No, I’m not really. When we sat down originally Gene Hass’ vision was to build us to a four-car team and I sat down and we hired Ryan Newman and Tony Gibson and Darian Grubb and Bobby Hutchens and said listen we’re going to get these two cars up where they need to be before we add a third car. Having six opportunities to get these two cars in the Chase and accomplishing that five to six times now and having the opportunity to run for a championship this year is proof that we’ve got our program where it needs to be where we can accommodate that third team. We won’t expand it to a fourth team until we make sure these three cars go really well first. Timing is everything but its making sure that when you make that commitment to go to that next step that you have all your ducks in a row and I feel like we’re in that scenario now.”

WHEN YOU STARTED STEWART-HASS RACING I IMAGINE YOU SET GOALS FOR YOURSELF, ARE YOU AHEAD OF THOSE GOALS? “I think you just be realistic and have to evaluate it as you go. I would call it goals as much as it would be a wish list. You set where you would like to be. I don’t think any of us really knew what to expect. It’s hard to. It’s hard when you go into a new venture that you’ve never been a part of before you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Just like Danica next year, she may have in her head that a top-15 is the only way she’s going to feel happy or a top-20 is going to be a good day. My opinion of it is different. I want her to get the laps and get the experience. You sit down at the end of the day and you evaluate what’s going on and I feel like we’ve done a lot of things that people didn’t feel like we could do in three years and we’re pretty proud of that.”

DANICA WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU GUYS HAVE THIS REPORT, WAS IT ALWAYS LIKE THAT WAY? “Oddly enough it’s been like that from day one that we met. Like I said you can see by watching her, she’s very relaxed, she’s got a great personality and a good sense of humor. I think that’s what will make her, Ryan and I a good combination together. We’re going to have a lot of fun next year. Ryan and I have fun like that already but it’s nice to have another teammate that fits that mold and has that personality that matches ours.”

CAN SHE GIVE AS GOOD AS SHE GETS? “She’s pretty good at it, yeah. She’s gets her good share of shots in so you can’t turn your back on her because she’s going to get you if you do.”

TALK ABOUT TEXAS, A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THIS TRACK IS GOING TO SHOW WHO THE REALLY GOOD TEAMS ARE, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK IS ALL ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AS WE HEAD INTO THIS FUN.? “It’s always been about showcasing teams. You don’t run well here with a poor organization. You’re not going to back into a good finish here. Even when there’s been late-race pit strategies that have played out it’s always been strong teams that have come to the top, this is a place that is going to showcase what these organizations are all about.” THAT’S WHY YOU FEEL SO CONFIDENT RIGHT NOW? “Like I said this is a track that we’ve always ran well at. If I’m in the top-three on the speed chart at the end of qualifying practice that’s normally a pretty good sign.”

WITH YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL NOW, OBVIOUSLY YOU CAN’T TAKE A REALLY BAD RACE AND TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN MAKE UP SOMETHING HERE NO MATTER WHAT? “I don’t think I’m looking at it from that standpoint as much as it’s I feel like we’ve got the two or three tracks I was worried about in the Chase behind us now. We’ve got Dover out of the way, we’ve got Talladega that we didn’t know what could happen and Martinsville was one I was concerned about too.

We’ve got those three tracks out of the way and these three tracks we have left are places that I feel confident that we’ve had really good race cars in the past so it makes you a little more relaxed about it. You don’t feel like you’ve got to make something happen. You feel like you should be in decent shape going into it.”

ON DANICA’S SCHEDULE.
“Part of it is timing when it comes up in the season. This is in my opinion our fastest 1.5-mile track that we go to. She’s going to go to places that tires are going to give up, she’s going to go to tracks that you  have to move around the race track a lot and then you’re going to come here and you’re going to rip around here all day so we picked a variety of tracks that we knew would be a challenge from different standpoints. But those are the things that you’re going to run through the whole season that lead up to a championship. It was strategic in the standpoint of the timing of the schedule and where it was at.”

ON RACING AT CHICAGOLAND AND STARTING THE CHASE AT A DIFFERENT VENUE
“I’ve been successful here, both on qualifying days and on race days and look forward to the opportunity to prove that our 1.5-mile program is better than it was in the past couple of years and I feel like we’ve had a good start today in doing that. Our focus in the second practice session is going to be more on longer race runs. The track is really fast. The tires are grippy and consistent. So, just from our standpoint, making sure we have everything polished up and keep an keep an eye on Clint (Bowyer) whenever he’s going to make his announcement.”

HAVE YOU EVER SPUN OUT OR DELIBERATELY SPUN OUR OR SEEN SOMEBODY DELIBERATELY SPIN OUT TO CREATE A CAUTION ANYWHERE IN YOUR CAREER?
“That’s putting me on the spot. But one time I had a tire that went down and the smart thing to do was to spin it out and that benefitted me at the same time but it was the safest thing to do. So, I think everybody has always contemplated it at different times. NASCAR, at places like Richmond, you’ve seen them penalize guys for stopping on the race track; causing the caution, even if they don’t spin out. There’s times when guys spin out and just wait for the caution. So, I know the situation you’re talking about and there’s a lot of question about it. But I will definitely say that when you’re having a bad day and the way this sport works with teammates, there are times when you think about it and it’s never the right thing to do.”

WE’VE BEEN ASKING A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS RIR SPIN-OUT THING. ARE PEOPLE IN THE GARAGE TALKING ABOUT IT?
“Not today; not that I know of. I’ve seen it on TV. That’s it. Our focus is the U.S. Army Medicine Chevrolet and not wondering what happened last week. That’s pretty much it.”

WAS THERE ANY TALK YESTERDAY AFTER THE MEDIA EVENT?
“Actually, I think I read it on Jayski for the first time last night. I’m responsible for questions that I can answer and nobody really asked me to give my feedback yesterday, so I didn’t say anything.”

HOW IS YOUR 1.5-MILE PROGRAM RIGHT NOW? HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THAT WILL PLAY INTO ULTIMATELY WHOEVER WINS THIS THING?
“I group the 1.5-mile and 2-mile race tracks together. From an intermediate standpoint, we are much better than we were last year. I feel that we’re a little bit better than we were the year before. And not that we were horrible there, it’s just our short track program has been so good at Stewart-Haas Racing. Martinsville, Phoenix, Richmond, and places like that; Loudon, that’s the benchmark that we set for ourselves to be able to do that at other tracks. I don’t think our average is as good on intermediates as it is on short tracks this year, but it’s much, much better. And obviously that’s a core group of the races in the Chase and something that we knew, if you look at the entire season, it’s the backbone of the entire season as well. We knew we needed to work on that. I think our crew and everybody has done a really good job of pitching in and helping out to be more competitive at those tracks.”

IS IT TOO PREMATURE TO SAY WHEN WE COME OUT OF HERE ON SUNDAY THAT WE MAY KNOW WHO’S INTERMEDIATE PROGRAMS ARE WHERE AND THAT WOULD GIVE US SOME INDICATION OF WHO IS ON TOP?
“I don’t think one race determines your intermediate programs because the race tracks are so different. You get to places like Kansas with the tar strips and the sensitivities there and again, the weather has a lot to do with that. Just because you’re good here at a 1.5-mile race track doesn’t mean you’re going to be good at Charlotte when the conditions are different and the banking is different and things like that. No, is the answer.”

NOT HAVING A COMPETITION DIRECTOR AT THIS STAGE FOR THIS MANY WEEKS, ARE RESOURCES BEING PULLED IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS? CAN YOU GO THE REST OF THE SEASON WITHOUT THAT ROLE BEING FILLED AND HAVE IT NOT BECOME A DETRIMENT?
“The role hasn’t been filled from a personnel standpoint but the job description is being covered by multiple people. Matt Borland is the key member of who is taking care of those responsibilities and he’s done a very good job doing his job as well as the competition director’s job because his job couldn’t be left alone at the same time. So, yeah, is it a weakness of ours? I don’t think it’s a weakness. Can we be stronger with the addition of that competition director? I think so. I don’t see us failing or not winning or being as productive performance-wise. But, I think when it comes to stepping-up and being above or being ahead we definitely look forward to hiring that person. And Matt (Borland) has openly said that it’s a job that he’s doing because he has been asked to do it. It’s not something that he’s strived to do or raise his hand when they said any volunteers.”

GOING BACK TO RICHMOND, THERE WERE 15 CAUTIONS AND A LOT OF WRECKS. WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT? THERE WASN’T THAT MUCH ON THE LINE SINCE MOST OF THE GUYS WHO WERE GOING TO BE IN THE CHASE HAD ALREADY MADE IT IN
“It reminded me of Phoenix and that was kind of after we did all the tandem drafting stuff and the restarts at Phoenix I mean it was like you had bullets whizzing past your head every time it seemed like. The start at Richmond was very similar to that it seemed like. I think you’re a little bit wrong in that there was a lot on the line for a lot of drivers who, if they had a good night and got a victory and when there’s four or five guys that take that approach, there are guys around them that take that approach too, to hold them back or whatever. So I there were more accidents I think than there should have been, based on aggression; but that’s a part of our sport. We’ve seen it before.”

DO YOU EXPECT THAT HERE?
“I don’t expect that here because of the race track and the difference of what was on the table last week versus what’s on the table this week. It’s a different kind. We’re almost like at a re-boot phase where we’re back into starting the consistency running for ten races from the top 12 standpoint. Obviously we’re going for the win; and you have those guys that were going for the opportunity to get their name and their sponsor and themselves in the Chase. That is out the door for them. That’s off the table.”

THERE ARE STILL ABOUT FIVE DRIVERS WHO NEED RIDES AND SPONSORS FOR NEXT YEAR
“That happens every year. I mean, I don’t think that’s anything different.”

REGARDING GRIP AT CHICAGOLAND:
“It is the same for everybody. I don’t think it makes any difference. It is always harder to pass when it has a ton of grip in it because nobody really struggles for grip and has to move around a lot. We saw today guys moved around quite a bit that first session. I think you are going to see a lot of guys moving anyway.”

CAN YOU RUN THE BUMPS ON 3 AND 4 OR DO YOU HAVE TO MOVE UP?
“I have been able to run through them today. We have been kind of working on making sure we can stay through them so far but I have been on the bottom and on the middle and top and been pretty good all three spots.”

YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PRETTY BIG FAN OF THIS PLACE, EVEN BACK IN ITS EARLY DAYS, HOW HAS THIS PLACE EVOLVED AND YOUR COMFORT LEVEL EVOLVED?
“It hasn’t evolved it is still the same place, that is the bad part about it is, it is still a cookie cutter track, that shape is still the same. It is the same for everybody and we all just deal with it and try to figure out how to be fastest around it.

IN TERMS OF RACINESS IT HAS NOT MOVED UP A FEW NOTCHES IN YOUR BOOK?
“Not unless you change the shape of it and make it to where you gotta lift and gotta brake. You can’t build round race tracks and expect guys to pass and race when guys don’t have to get out of the gas enough, when you are running almost the same speed through the corners as you are down the straight-a-ways it is hard to have that difference to make passes.”

DOES PAST PREFORMANCE AT A TRACK MEAN ANYTHING, WHEN YOU COME BACK OR ARE YOU BASICALLY STARTING NEW AGAIN?
“I think the past trip that you make gives you a base to start from, gives you an idea what direction you need to go the next time you get there but you are never going to end up with the same thing, I don’t believe. You might from a spring to fall race but from a track that you run once a year so much changes technology wise that something has evolved already since the last time you were here.”

DOES THE FACT YOU RUN ONE AT NIGHT AND ONE DURING THE DAY MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE?
Yes it does, this place is one of very few race tracks we go to that at night time it actually gets freer. This place has always been a challenge because of that but I’m kind of more excited that we are running the day race just because it will lose total grip a little bit.”

WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE TO BE THE PERSON THAT KNOCKS JIMMIE JOHNSON OFF HIS CHAMPIONSHIP STREAK?
“Alright we’ll come back to you” (laughs) anybody else got anything?

YOU SAID AFTER MICHIGAN THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD JUST BE TAKING UP A SPOT IN THE CHASE DO YOU FEEL ANY BETTER FROM MICHIGAN TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
“I think after the last two weeks I feel a little bit better about it. I am still not 100% certain that we are where we need to be but I feel like this first session we are off to a pretty good start. This place has always been good to us historically anyways, so I kind of expect for us to have a decent weekend here but there are some places that I am really concerned about coming up. Dover is probably the one place I am really concerned about. That is based off of our spring performance. We were so bad there; I am surprised we were not black flagged for just being slow period. I would feel better if I thought we were really good at all ten tracks we are going to. I think is why I say that.”

DOVER HAS BEEN GOOD TO YOU IN THE PAST?
“We just for some reason that past couple of years we just lost the handle on it. I don’t know if it’s the new car or the bump stops or what, but it is what feel I have always liked, and I am not sure that is a good feel anymore. That or we just have not been able to match that feel to the race car. There is something we are missing there I am just not sure what it is.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU CAN AFFORD TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN QUICKER WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING AND TRY TO IMPROVE YOUR PROGRAM SINCE YOU ARE ALSO THE OWNER; IS IT EASIER FOR YOU AS THE OWNER?
“Not at all, the roles of the people, the key people are already in place. I do not try to crew chief the car; it would be different if I was trying that role. My job as an owner is to give us the tools we need and make sure the crew chiefs have all the resources they need when we get to the track that all changes and they take that information and take those resources and make it work. It is really not a split deal because of that.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A TURN-AROUND LIKE BRAD KESELOWSKI HAS HAD THIS SEASON?
“Yea, but I don’t think anybody expected it in his case this year. This early in his career, this sport is so technical now a days, if you find a little thing it seems like it is big and seems like it carries over to multiple tracks. I think we have seen those trends happen in the past, I don’t think anyone expected it to be Brad this year that would have that kind of turn-around. “

YOU HAVE HAD SUCCESS AT LOUDON, IS THERE ONE THING THERE THAT YOU NEED MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE TO DO WELL THERE?
“We were really good there in the spring. I am hoping that, that is a scenario, where what we had is going to be really close to what we are going to want this time around again. Both Ryan (Newman) and I were really fast all day long, so I am hoping we can have a similar weekend.”

IS THE ONE THING THAT YOU NEED TO GET IN TURNS A CERTAIN WAY?
“Not that I know of, just do the same thing every lap I guess, I don’t know. I am not sure exactly what you are asking.” JUST WHAT IT TAKES TO RUN GOOD THERE: “
Got to get the car to be secure enough on entry and make it rotate in the center, it is kind of a balancing act of getting the entry and exit, versus the center. It seems like if you get the entry and exit, you always struggle a little bit with the center and if you get the center good then you are struggling

ARE YOU STILL WORKING ON THAT COMPETITION DIRECTOR?
“Nah, we quit after yesterday, were not even going to work on it anymore, we are totally going to delete the whole job now. If we have not found anybody now, we might as well not even fool with it.” “We have been trying; I want that person as soon as we can get them in there. If I can have them in there in ten minutes, I’d love to, the reason for that is Matt Borland is juggling two jobs right now. He has to be competition director and still do what his regular job is, so the sooner we can fill that spot the sooner we can get him back in his full time role.”

WILL IT BE HARD TO BRING SOMEONE IN, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHASE?
“Not necessarily”

Photo by Jeff Zelevansky - Getty Images for NASCAR

TONY STEWART met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed racing the All-Star versus the Coke 600, health of short track racing, driving Lewis Hamilton’s car and other topics. Full transcript:

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN HOW YOU PUSH FOR QUALIFYING VERSUS THE RACE? “Yes. When you are doing qualifying you only have to make it last one lap where when we are in our race, you want to push it hard, but you can’t run qualifying laps because the tires won’t last if you do that. So, you have to know how hard you can push it for 35 laps or 40 laps versus one lap.”

DO YOU TRY TO LEARN SOMETHING FROM THE ALL-STAR RACE FOR THE COKE 600? “I think it has always been that way. It is no different than running the Shootout at Daytona. What you learn tonight and tomorrow night will help for next week to get ready for the 600. The entire field is going to do that so it gives everybody the same opportunity.”

NEXT WEEK WE WILL SEE A LOT OF LONG RUN, TOMORROW NIGHT IS A LOT OF SHORT RUNS, HOW DOES THAT IMPACT HOW YOU TRY TO TUNE ON THE CAR? “You still have to get balance no matter whether it is a short run or a long run, but, you definitely know next week you are going to get in longer runs where you are going to have to make it last longer. Tomorrow night, you can try to push for speed than you do for performance over a longer run. You know it is going to come down tomorrow night to a 10-lap dash, so you are going to try and make your car fast for those last 10 laps. Where next week we don’t know if we are going to run a whole green flag stint to the checkers. You have to make sure it is balance and be able to be good for a long run too.”

IS THERE A HIGHER LEVEL OF INTENSITY IN THE ALL-STAR BY DRIVERS? “Everybody knows when we are at the 600, we have 600 miles and what you do the first 10 laps isn’t going to matter. I don’t know that it is so much that guys don’t run 100%, they run 100% for the whole race. They keep the big picture in mind, where, tomorrow night it is a shorter distance. You have to get a lot done in a short amount of time so you do have to push a little harder.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY: “I’ve had three cakes during the week, but I’ve been sensible about it and had three small pieces. It is just another day. Everybody goes ‘well it is too bad you have to be at the race track on your birthday’ and I’m kind of looking at it the opposite way, this is what I have grown up loving. I love what I do. I love being with the people that I am around and most of my friends are in the garage area so I can’t think of a better place to spend my birthday.”

WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING ABOUT THE 600? “I don’t know that there is anything difficult about it. You still approach it the same as you do a 500-mile race. You just have to get your car balanced. The hard part is you start with it hot in late afternoon and then you are going to have quite a bit of time for the track to change a bunch from the beginning of the race to the end of the race. That is probably the biggest challenge but it is always a challenge when you run night races when you are going to start late afternoon.”

HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THE GIANT VIDEO SCREEN? “It is massive. The first lap down the backstretch you looked to see what it is going to look. It will be interesting to see what it looks like tomorrow night when we finally get a chance to see it all lit up.”

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO GET READY FOR LEWIS HAMILTON’S CAR? “A lot of I-Racing. We haven’t done it yet but we are working with the people at I-Racing to get a simulator. We’re going to run a lot of laps on that thing before we get there because I know it is going to be different so if I can at least have a visual idea of the timing and what it is going to be from the perspective of what it is going to look like from inside his car, that will be one less thing that we are trying to learn when we get there.”

ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED THAT THEY ARE LIMITING HOW MANY LAPS YOU CAN DO? “Well after listening to Juan (Pablo Montoya) who said my neck is going to be falling out of the thing after three laps anyway, so, it is probably in my best interest that they are limiting the number of laps we can run. (LAUGHS)”

HAVE YOU RUN THE LONG COURSE AT WATKINS GLEN? “I haven’t. I haven’t even been around it period so I’ve seen it on TV during endurance races there, so, that is where having the I-Racing simulator is going to a big asset to get a chance to at least have an idea of how the course runs before we get there and have to try to run a Formula One car around it.”

DOES BRINGING THE NASCAR GUYS IN TO ONE OF YOUR TRACKS ONCE A YEAR HELP THE FANBASE THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON? “The thing I have noticed about it, especially for our event (Prelude at Eldora), it shows that Bobby Labonte has a late model team. Clint Bowyer has a late model team. We’ve got our World of Outlaws team. Kasey Kahne has his World of Outlaws and USAC teams. There’s a lot more dirt influence in this garage area than what people realize. Kenny Schrader has always gone back and run. Kenny Wallace. There is a lot of these guys that may not get a chance, people probably don’t realize how much we are into dirt racing and how much we are behind it and how much we have invested in this sport.”

IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP TO THE HEALTH OF LOCAL SHORT TRACKS AND NASCAR RACING? “It is just totally different atmospheres. You got people that have to save up for a whole year to come to a NASCAR race. People can afford to go to Saturday night short track race. But it’s doing it every weekend. That’s what keeps the short tracks surviving. It is the same but different.”

HOW IS A RACE FAN DIFFERENT FROM A NASCAR FAN? “(CHUCKLES) A lot of ways. We’ll just leave it at that. A lot of ways.”

YOU HAVE ALWAYS SAID PEOPLE DON’T FORGET HOW TO RACE, ONLY IF YOU AGE OR OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTS HOW YOUR SKILLS APPLY, HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR BODY IS STARTING TO GIVE UP? “I think you just know. I mean I don’t know. None of us know. We only get one chance to do it. But, I think mentally you know. I think your mind tells you that there is just something. It is no different than having a family or anything else, you’ll just know when the time is right. You just kind of know when you are ready. It is when priorities in your life start changing. Its that, its desire, its health. There are a lot of variables that decide when that day really is that you walk away.

“I don’t know, you don’t know until you get into that position. Your heart and mind might be 100% into it, but something happens and you can’t see as good or you don’t feel as good in the car. You don’t know. You might be perfectly healthy and on-top of your game and your mind says you are just tired of doing it. You don’t know what the variables are going to be. You are probably going to have a chance of getting an accurate answer off of guys that have been through it and retired and knowing why they retired.”

DO YOU STILL FEEL AS GOOD AS YOU DID WHEN YOU FIRST CAME IN? “Mentally yes. Physically not so much. But, I probably could take better care of myself.”

RYAN NEWMAN met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed his win in the All-Star race, continuing safety in the sport, the physical demands of running 600 miles and much more. Full transcript.

TALK ABOUT THE ALL-STAR RACE. “I guess just use generic words, it’s a cool event because we’re home, it’s a race all for pride, all for money and it’s a nice short race. I’ve always said it was the way we grew up and were brought up racing. Short stints, short runs, short races, all for the money and the glory. I really look forward to the opportunity. Two years ago we had a car that should have won the race and we got pinched in the wall off of (turn) four going for the lead. Last year we struggled a little bit but we always seem to be pretty fast here especially on qualifying days. I know our guys look to redeem themselves after last night’s pit crew contest and tonight is qualifying. All things point to good and we’ll go out and have fun.”

I DON’T KNOW IF THERE HAS BEEN MORE OR LESS PAYBACK THAN IN THE PAST BUT HAVE YOU SEEN PAYBACK GO FORWARD FROM AN ALL-STAR RACE TO A POINTS RACE? “Every lap we’re on the race track no matter if it’s an All-Star race, practice for an All-Star race or practice for any kind of race, what happens on the race track gets remembered on the race track and off the race track for that matter. I don’t know about the payback or pay it forward or forward payment, back taxes or whatever, it all comes down to us respecting each other but at the same time when we don’t its remembered each and every corner of each and every lap.”

HAVE YOU EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND A RACE UP IN NASCAR RACE CONTROL? “I guess we’ve all had the opportunity. I think NASCAR has always welcomed us up there, it’s not exactly a public welcome but it’s been welcomed before to other people so you assume it’s welcomed to you. I don’t see a need for me to go spend any time up there. I think I know how it goes. I think if I do my job in the race car correctly I don’t have to worry about how it goes and that’s that. There’s times as always in everything you question judgment and you question situations but I’m focused on what I need to do in the race car and the rest is the rest.

“It’s pretty common knowledge on the pit road speed thing and how it works. It’s black and white, there’s no gray. I think that a lot of things that NASCAR has done to make sure it’s fair for everybody and there is no judgment in respect to some of those calls. Obviously the debris calls and when to call it and how it gets called, when it gets called according to make a good show for the fans, there’s different perspectives on that, but that’s judgment from now until forever.”

YOU ARE ONE OF THE BIGGEST SAFETY ADVOCATES IN THIS SPORT, IN THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS WE’VE SEEN BRIAN VICKERS HAVE HIS WINDOW NET BRACES RIPPED OFF, JOEY LOGANO IN THE NATIONWIDE RACE HAD CLINT BOWYER ESSENTIALLY DRIVE UP INTO THE WINDOW NET, HOW ALARMING IS THAT AND SHOULD NASCAR BE LOOKING AT THAT? “NASCAR has to look at everything all the time from a proactive standpoint and not a reactive standpoint. We’ve been very fortunate in the past more than few years to not lose or have any significant damage to drivers at least in my opinion.

There was a time where we as in NASCAR was very reactive and not proactive and I think they’ve done a good job of staying proactive but there are always things that can be improved whether it’s a window note, latch mechanisms, seat belts, safer barriers, padding, helmets all kinds of fire retardant systems the actual chemicals used to how big its sprayed and the direction they get turned on and the impacts it take to do some of these things, that’s all things that has to always be considered because all it takes is three degrees to change the angle of an impact to have it go from life threatening to life ending.”

WHERE DOES THE ALL-STAR WIN RANK IN YOUR CAREER VICTORIES, HOW BIG OF A NIGHT WAS IT FOR YOU? “It was a huge night. For us as a team we didn’t even know if we were going to be in the race because we raced our way in. We started last and I think at the end of the first or second segment whatever it was we just barely made the cut then we raced our way up into the invert, got the invert and started on the pole and won the thing. We won it in a little bit of fashion too. We stayed on old tires and Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) came up on our back door with new tires, so as a team it was huge for us for two reasons. We felt like we redeemed ourselves from the year before when we blew up leading the Open and felt like we should have been in the race that day, that year but also as a team it was our first victory together. To get that first victory at the All-Star race when you’re not even supposed to be in the race was really cool. That was something special. To me that’s similar to Kasey Kahne’s fan vote to get in after he didn’t make the race then comes in and wins the race. Those nights are special in everybody’s minds.”

YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS HERE, ALL-STAR RACE WIN, A TON OF POLES, BUT YOU’VE NOT WON THE 600 YET, ARE YOU DUE TO WIN THIS 600? “I don’t think you can ever say you’re due. I mean there’s three races in my mind that I wish I could have won and probably should have won at some point by now and that’s the Southern 500, the Coke 600 and the Brickyard. We’ve got top-five finishes and have been knocking on the door at each one but this is a big weekend and the Coke 600, being a Coke driver now adds a little extra to it, but Memorial Day weekend is really special for us with the Army and the all the great festivities and functions the track puts on for Memorial Day. That to me is as much special as the Coke 600.”

DURING A TYPICAL RACE, DO YOU DRIVE THE CAR AT ITS ABSOLUTE LIMIT EVERY SINGLE LAP? “I think I do. (laughing) I think I do. That’s the difference between a good driver and a great driver, is a great driver knows that limit and takes the car to that limit where a good driver thinks he’s at that limit and may not be. So to answer your question I think I do. I do my best to put the car at that limit but I guess there is a roundabout meaning of limit because that limit could be on entry, it could be on exit, it could be on acceleration, it could be under braking, there’s different ways at looking at your limits but I do my best when it comes to the limit of speed getting the best lap time each and every lap. I spend a lot of time listening to my crew chief read me lap times so I know where I’m at in reference to the leader and if I’m the quickest car on the track so that I know what I’m capable of moving into the high line or moving into the low line trying to get everything I can each and every lap out of the race car. My spotter helps me with that as well.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PHYSICAL DEMAND OF RUNNING 600 MILES NEXT WEEK, HOW DIFFERENT IS IT AND WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU ENCOUNTER IN THE CAR THAT YOU MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE? “It all depends on how the car is handling and how hot it is outside. That additional 100 miles when you’re leading the race and the car is pretty good it probably lasts forever but it’s just another 100 miles, it’s just logging some time. If the car is really misbalanced and you’re fighting loose entry and struggling and up by the fence it can be miserable because there’s times when you’re a 15^th-place car and you’re running 15^th and you know you are at the best of what you can get 500 miles in and you’ve still got 100 miles to go and your shoulders are tired, your elbows are wore out and  you’re looking out the right side of the car, so it all depends on how your car is handling really.”

THE WAY THIS THING IS MARKETED, YOU GUYS ARE WILLING TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE AND DUMP EACH OTHER AND ALL THOSE TYPES OF THINGS TO WIN A RACE, HOW MUCH MORE AGGRESSIVE THOUGH IN COMPETITION IS IT? “You can’t believe marketing. That’s just marketing.”

HOW MUCH FURTHER ARE YOU WILLING TO PUSH IT IN THIS RACE? “It’s another race to me. There’s times where we’ll probably get three sometimes almost for wide going into turn three on a restart and that’s not what you’re going to see at the Coke 600 typically with the exception of maybe the last restart but I think to put it in perspective that way every restart or every lap here is going to be like that green-white-checkered at any race track for that matter. That’s the difference. You’ve got to take everything you can each and every lap of a short race and that’s part of the reason why most drivers kind of preach about having shorter races, because it’s more intense for us and it gets our job done quicker and I think it’s more exciting for the fans that way.”

GOING BACK TO THINKING ABOUT THE NIGHT THAT YOU WON, YOU DIDN’T BRING UP THE INCIDENT WITH SADLER AND HIM THROWING HIS HELMET AT YOU, DID THAT EVER GET PAID BACK? “He didn’t throw it at me, he threw it at the car. I think he was mad at the car not me. And that was the situation there and I go back and I know he was mad at me and he would probably still bring it up if you asked him about it but I was inside of him and I don’t remember getting loose or anything, I just stuck my car in a hole that was there and he didn’t expect it. That to me is some of the intensity that kind of started 10 years ago that we’re seeing each and every lap today especially with these double-file restarts. Guys are way more on their toes and having to anticipate and expect what is going on around them because it’s organized chaos now and that’s what it was then. That’s part of why he was frustrated because I put my car in a hole he wasn’t expecting and that wasn’t the way everybody raced back then and the racing has changed since then. But he did waste a good helmet.”

HOW HAS YOUR WEEK BEEN AND HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THIS WEEKEND?: “It’s one of my favorite race tracks and coming off of Darlington — it’s usually a place you can carry over some of the things you learned from there to Dover. I enjoy the race track because it doesn’t change a whole lot, but because it’s demanding as well. Having a good finish at Darlington was good for our team to get back on that path and we need to continue that here at Dover.”

WHAT HAS BEEN GOING WRONG AT DOVER FOR YOU SINCE 2003 AND 2004?: “We went through a lot of transitions with the race cars — going from the old style car to the new style car — in between there and obviously me transitioning through teams. That’s part of it, but at the same time just because of what you’ve done doesn’t mean that’s what you’re going to do when it comes to performance on the race track. We come in here thinking that it’s a good track for us. Think about why we haven’t won, like you said, but at the same time what we can do to be that winning team.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT SECRET PROBATION IS AND WHY ARE SOME PUBLIC AND SOME PRIVATE?: “That’s a secret. Honestly, I’m kind of new to the bad boy market. I don’t know exactly how it’s always been versus how it is. I know that there are times when there are things that are public and there are times when things are private. There is that in every business out there. I can only speculate how it should be. I don’t know and I’m learning how it is. At the same time, that’s part of our sport that we’re not proud of. It’s like any other sport that goes through people that are getting fined or people that are getting penalized. Our actions are detrimental to their sport so it’s not something that we want to sit around and talk about — we would rather talk about the racing and what we can do to put on a better show for the fans.”

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE CLARITY IN THE RULES?: “I would say that clarity is a good thing when it comes to the situations we’re put in and at the same time, every situation is a little bit different so it is hard to clarify that from NASCAR’s perspective. It’s nice to know those things, but as Jimmie (Johnson) kind of eluded to — if you don’t think about those things and you’re thinking about what you need to do to win a race, those things are just a by-product of the frustrations. It’s nice to know those things when it comes time, but as he stated, it’s something you’re not necessarily going to put all your weight in. If you’re frustrated, you’re going to react. It’s a difficult situation in our sport especially because of what we do out there. It’s not like you’re playing against a team that you only see three times a year. We’re out there each and every week doing things that are way more dangerous with race cars that have totally different reactions, I guess you could say, to what can be done on the race track and the dangers that go along with that.”

WHEN DO YOU HAVE TO SHOW THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE PUSHED AROUND?: “I think if you look back at the history of the sport, it’s always been there and it’s been some of the benchmarks for the sport. The first race on TV and the fight that happened out there between (Cale) Yarborough and the Allison’s. The Intimidator (Dale Earnhardt) himself, he wasn’t just the Intimidator because of his mental game. He was an Intimidator because of his physical game. There’s a lot of history in our sport with not being pushed around or being the one that pushes around. There’s a fine balance for that depending on the driver, the competition and the race track — where you’re at in the season and all those things play a part of what you have to do as a driver to either get that respect or make sure that you’re given that respect.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON NEXT WEEK’S SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE?: “Each and every race is a new opportunity and I look forward to each and every one. Just go out and have fun — that’s really what it’s all about. Just to have fun representing the Army, Chevrolet and everybody else to put a show on for the fans. It doesn’t really matter where it’s at — every race is a big race to me.”

HOW WAS PRACTICE?

“Oh, I’m encouraged by it. I’m cautiously optimistic; we’ll see. But I was pretty happy with the way it ran in the first practice. I think we’re a lot better than the last couple of races that we’ve been here, for sure. So we’ll wait and see.”

ON KENTUCKY, YOU’VE NEVER RACED THERE AND SEVERAL OTHERS. DOES THAT PUT YOU BEHIND GOING IN THERE OR IS IT GOING TO BE PRETTY SIMILAR FOR EVERYBODY?

“Oh, there’s guys who have run the Nationwide race there that know the track. It’s no different than when we all ran our first races at Dover or anywhere else. We’ll have a practice day there anyway before we go into it. The good thing is by that you should have a pretty good idea about what you’re doing before the race.”