The event will feature stars from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the IZOD IndyCar Series and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. All will join two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart in piloting 2,300-pound dirt Late Model stock cars capable of putting out more than 800 horsepower around Eldora’s half-mile oval.

The Prelude to the Dream is a team event. There is still an individual race winner, but there is also a race within the race, with the field broken up into four teams, each representing a children’s hospital:

• Team Levine (Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C.: www.LevineChildrensHospital.org):

Ø Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Bill Elliott, David Reutimann, Austin Dillon, Ray Evernham and Cruz Pedregon.

• Team Atlanta (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: www.choa.org):

Ø Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Ken Schrader, David Gilliland and Ron Capps.

• Team St. Louis (St. Louis Children’s Hospital: www.StLouisChildrens.org ):

Ø Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, Justin Allgaier, Kenny Wallace, Ron Hornaday and Ricky Carmichael.

• Team Dallas (Children’s Medical Center Dallas: www.childrens.com):

Ø Stewart, Tony Kanaan, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Marcos Ambrose, Aric Almirola and Dave Blaney.

Each hospital will receive a donation, with the payout breakdown as follows:

• Winning team receives 30 percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.

• Second-place team receives 25 percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.

• Third- and fourth-place teams each receive 20 percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.

The lowest team score wins, and only the top-five drivers from each team will be scored. For example, if Team Levine has finishes of first, fourth, seventh, 11^th and 18^th, respectively, from its top-five drivers, its score will be 41. In the event of a tie, the sixth driver will be scored.

HOW TO ORDER:

• The live, commercial-free broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT).

• All that is necessary to order the event is a digital cable box or satellite service. You do not need HBO to order.

• The suggested retail price is $24.95. Ordering information and up-to-the minute racing information is available at either www.PreludeToTheDream.org or www.HBO.com.

• Updates can also be found on Twitter at @PreludetoDream and follow the hashtag #RideWithUs, or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PreludetoDream.

• If you have Cable, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, DIRECTV or DISH, fans can order the Prelude to the Dream beginning June 6.

• The following are step-by-step instructions to help place an order for the Prelude to the Dream on Pay-Per-View:

Ø Cable, AT&T U-verse TV and Verizon FiOS Customers: All that is necessary to order the event is a digital cable box on your TV. If you are not sure about the kind of box you have, contact your cable company and ask if you have a digital cable box that gets Pay-Per-View (PPV). Once you know you have a digital cable box, scroll through the Pay-Per-View channels on your electronic program guide for Wednesday, June 8 at 8 p.m. ET, and look for “Auto Racing: Prelude to the Dream.” Once you see the entry, click it and follow the on-screen instructions to order. If your cable system does not accept orders from your remote control, contact a customer service representative either the day before or the day of the race. Make sure you tell the representative that you are looking to order “Auto Racing: Prelude to the Dream.” Some cable systems have a short window available to order Pay-Per-View events. The more specific you are with the customer service representative, the easier it will be to place your order.

Ø DIRECTV Customers: All DIRECTV customers can order. You can find the event on Channel 121. Go to the programming guide for those channels for Wednesday, June 8 at 8 p.m. ET, and look for “Prelude to the Dream.” Once you see the entry, click the event and follow the on-screen instructions to order.

Ø DISH Network Customers: All DISH Network customers can order. You can find the event on Channel 455/472. Scroll through the programming guide for those channels for Wednesday, June 8 at 8 p.m. ET, and look for “Prelude to the Dream.” Once you see the entry, click the event and follow the on-screen instructions to order.

• If any problems are encountered during ordering, contact a customer service representative anytime on Wednesday, June 8, to make sure the order is processed and the race can be viewed. Once it is ordered, sit back and enjoy the ride.
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TONY STEWART 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 fo 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.”

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, and good afternoon.  Welcome to today’s NASCAR CAM Video teleconference in advance of Sunday’s STP 400 at Kansas Speedway.  Our guest today is Tony Stewart.  At Kansas Tony will be sponsored by A&E’s, The Glades, which will start its second season this Sunday June 5th.

Tony shot a cameo for their originally scripted drama series in late March and that NASCAR themed episode is slated to air June 26th.

Tony is currently ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings and has been successful at Kansas Speedway having won there twice and having seven Top 10s in ten starts at the one and a half mile speedway.

Tony will continue to be a busy man even after the Kansas weekend for the 7th Annual Prelude to the Dream is schedule for Wednesday June 8th at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.  The All-Star dirt late model race benefiting four of the nation’s top children’s hospitals will be broadcast live on HBP pay-per-view at 8:00 Eastern.

Tony, as you look ahead to Kansas, what’s been your key to success there?

TONY STEWART:  You know, I don’t know.  It’s just been one of those places that from the first time we’ve run at Kansas on, it’s been a track that we’ve been very comfortable with.  We always seem to know at the end of happy hour where the balance is that we need to be really good during the race.

It’s just a big momentum track, and it’s really important just like it was at Charlotte this past weekend to get in the corner well and to be able to not necessarily have to get on the gas right away but just to be able to maintain that corner speed.  It seems like if you can make your car pass through the center of the corner that you’re going to have a really fast race car the whole day.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, we’ll now go to questions.

Q.  I wondered, did you have any issue with the not throwing a caution on those on those final two laps there where Jeff Burton spun, and is it okay with you if NASCAR calls races differently late in the race versus maybe how they would in sort of the middle or early stages of the race?

TONY STEWART:  I think NASCAR just has to be consistent.  I don’t think anybody really has a problem with however they do it, as long as they do it the same every time all the time.  And that’s probably more from a driver’s side and crew side what you want.  That way it’s the same for everybody, it’s the same all the time, and you know what to expect.  I think just the consistency is the biggest thing.

Q.  What about in the situation on Sunday night?  Were you fine with no caution there?

TONY STEWART:  Well, we were kind of in a situation that it didn’t really pertain to us anyway.  I ran out of fuel at the start/finish line or it didn’t get to the pick-up, so we really weren’t a factor in how the outcome ended up.

Q.  Can you just kind of talk about your race on Sunday night?  It seemed early you struggled, but then it seemed like things came around later in the race?

TONY STEWART:  Yeah, I was a little disappointed in the beginning.  I thought we were actually going to be able to move up through the field a lot quicker than we did.  We really just maintained where we started for the most part.  It seemed like the groove was right around the bottom, and it didn’t seem like very many guys were able to actually move up to the high side like we were able to do at the All-Star Race.

I was really surprised.  I thought the middle and top of the racetrack would be a lot better than what it was, but we were really line committed.  I couldn’t really get off the bottom at all, and it made it really hard for us to pass.  But we did get better in the middle stage of the race, I thought, and were starting to make gains on it.

But we just struggled at the end of the race with speed.  And at the end, like we said, on the last restart there, I didn’t keep the box full of fuel where the pick-up is, and it stumbled on the start.  I just tried to get out of the way and not mess everybody else’s race up too.  But we still ended up with a 17th place run out on of it.

Q.  Going back to what Jay was asking, I wanted to make sure I had you right.  When you say that you wanted things as long as they’re consistent, that’s okay.  Do you mean consistent throughout the course of the race or if they officiate the last few laps differently, just be consistent from race to race to race.

TONY STEWART:  You want to do whatever you need to do to be consistent.  You want to know that no matter what the scenario is, they’re going to make the same decision every time consistently and not change it because it’s the end of the race or beginning of the race.  You want consistency all the way through.

If something happens you want to know how NASCAR’s going to react to it, and it should be the same all day.

Q.  I want to back up a little bit to the introduction.  I’m not up on my television.  What is this A&E show, and are you in it?  Can you tell me a little bit about the sponsorship here and what’s going on?

TONY STEWART:  It’s called “The Glades.”  It’s on A&E, and this is their second season that they’ve been having the series.  We’re actually on an episode, myself and Carl Edwards and Joey Logano are on an episode that airs June 26th which is the same weekend that we run Sonoma.

But it was a lot of fun doing the show.  It’s really going to be neat to be in Kansas City this weekend with The Glades sponsorship on the car.  So it’s going to be a neat paint scheme for us.  But it will be a lot of fun come June 26th to see whether we’ll ever get asked again to act in a TV series again

Q.  Tell me what is the acting?  Did you play yourselves?  Give me the synopsis.

TONY STEWART:  Yeah, we played ourselves, all three of us were just ourselves as NASCAR drivers.  It’s a NASCAR themed show that week, so you’ll have to tune in to watch

Q.  How would you grade it?  Have you seen the show, have you seen the finished product, or just give me your review?

TONY STEWART:  Well, we haven’t seen it yet.  I don’t want to see it till it comes on.  I think it’s going to be a lot more fun for us to see it when it’s happening.  But we have seen the shows from last year.

It’s a really funny show.  It’s obviously The Glades down in Florida, so it’s a Florida based TV series.  But it’s got a lot of dry humor in it, and it’s something that I enjoyed watching.

Q.  What was the hardest part about acting?

TONY STEWART:  Acting, that is the hardest part (laughing).  You’re having to remember lines and it’s not just stuff that would roll off your tongue.  So you have to memorize lines and try to remember what you’re supposed to say.  That is the hard part.

Q.  Can you talk a little bit about your swap with Lewis Hamilton at Watkins Glen, how that came about, and is it something that you always wanted to do?

TONY STEWART:  I think the further my career went along the more that you wanted to have opportunities to drive everything.  We’ve driven monster trucks at Talladega, I mean, you name it.  We’ve driven 22 different types of race cars over my career.  And obviously having the opportunity to race in the IRL and IndyCar Series there and knowing that the final step of that would be Formula 1, it was always a goal once we got to there to just say that at some point we could get an opportunity to drive one.

Once I stopped racing in the IRL full-time and started NASCAR full-time, it was basically I thought that opportunity would never come about.  But thankfully our partners at Mobil 1 had found out about that.  It was actually in a conversation, and we were just talking about when Jeff Gordon and Juan Montoya did it at Indianapolis.  They took that ball and ran with it.

Next thing we knew they had talked to McLaren and had basically set all this up for us to be able to go to Watkins Glen and Lewis was going to have a chance to drive our Cup car, and I’ll have a chance to drive his Formula 1 car, so I’m really excited about it.

Q.  Did you speak to Jeff after he did his, and what kind of feedback did he give you, if you did?

TONY STEWART:  Yeah, he was really high on it.  I knew some of the stuff that he was going to say because my IRL experience.  But I had never ran the road courses, but Jeff was really impressed with how quick they accelerated, how quick they decelerated and just the downforce levels those cars have.

So I’m somewhat familiar with what kind of down force they’ll have.  But I’ve never run one at a road course, so it’s going to be one of these things you can talk about it all day long, but you’re not going to really fully understand it until you get a chance to sit in the car and drive it.

Q.  As a track promoter yourself, I was wondering what you would do if you were in charge of New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  I was wondering what you would do to keep interests a buzz around their chase race in light of the fact that it is no longer the Chase opener this year?

TONY STEWART:  I’m not sure I’m smart enough to know what to do in that situation.  Aside from the fact that the promoters hat that I wear is a lot smaller scale than what they have at Loudon.  But Loudon’s always a fun place.  You don’t have to generate extra excitement about it because the fans in that area are die hard racers anyway.  They come to watch the modifieds, the northeast race, they go to Stafford, they go to Thompson.  They’re dirt fans.  They go to New Egypt.  They go to Lebanon Valley.

There are just a lot of great racing in the northeast there anyway.  So I don’t think the fans care, necessarily, as much whether it’s the first chase race or not, it’s still going to be just as important.

But that whole weekend has an extra dynamic about it because you have all the northeast racers there, and any time you get a chance to race with the modifieds up there, that’s what to me makes New Hampshire so special.  It’s the only time of the year we get to race the modified series.

That’s the weekend you watch that race and watch how many drivers are standing on top of the haulers or standing in the corners and watching those cars, that’s something that you don’t normally see the Cup drivers doing.  So it shows there is an extra level of excitement for the weekend because those guys are there too.

Q.  I was just wondering if you got a chance to see the end of the Indy 500.  Maybe if you didn’t see it live, you saw the highlights.  Does your heart go out to J.R. Hildebrand and what did you think he did that caused the crash?

TONY STEWART:  Well, you feel for him for sure.  The guy was less than a mile away from winning his first Indy 500 in the biggest race of his life.  But you know what, it was definitely a mistake.  He’ll look at that a million times and realize what he could do different.

But I thought he kept his composure even when he hit the wall.  When he figured out he got going straight again, even though he was dragging on the wall, he was back on the gas trying to win the race.

But I thought his interview after the race, and I thought John Barnes his car owner, I thought those guys were a class act.  I don’t know how you can even handle that kind of situation being in the position those guys were both in.  I just thought they handled it well and with a lot of class.

They’re both guys that will be around this sport a long time.  They’re going to get their Indy 500.  There is no doubt about it.

Q.  Some of the younger drivers are having a hard time getting Cup rides because often because of economic factors.  Has that situation and the challenges changed a lot since you moved up to Cup?

TONY STEWART:  I think it’s still the same challenges.  It hasn’t changed for the last two or three years, obviously.  All these car owners are trying to – we’re all competing.  It’s just as competitive off the track as it is on the track.  The car owners are all fighting for the same funds trying to get them to come to your team.

So the hard thing and immediate thing that happens is teams start undercutting each other on prices just like in any other business, trying to make it as economical for the sponsors as possible.  So when you do that, next thing you know your budgets are getting cut and things that you’re trying to do to make your team go faster, there are areas that start getting cut in those areas.

It makes it more difficult.  I’m not sure that we’re far from out of this hole with the economy from the racing side for sure.  I don’t see it changing in the next year or two.

The encouraging thing is we’ve seen a couple new sponsors come in the sport, and that does show that we’re probably starting that upward trend again, I hope.  But I think it’s going to be a while before everybody gets comfortable again and really can put the full court press on their programs like they want.

Q.  Do you have kind of a special feeling now that you’re an owner and you face those challenges a little differently than you did as a driver?

TONY STEWART:  It’s just more difficult on days like today.  I’m going to my shop after we’re done here, and I’ve got to sit there and we have a competition meeting.  And the hard part is trying to figure out what can you do to make your program better, but you have to work within the parameters and the box that you have.  You have so many funds to work with and trying to figure out what is the most important parts to put money where to make your program the best.

Q.  Tony, can you tell me a little bit about the plot of this particular show?  Is the crime at the track or how does NASCAR get involved in this particular episode?  You don’t have to tell me who done it?

TONY STEWART:  I can’t tell you anything about it.  You’ve just got to watch it.

Q.  A lot of the NASCAR boys don’t like to say they have had some bad luck, but for you this season it has been one thing after another, like waiting for a yellow to come out for your pit stop, but instead it comes out just after you take your pit stop.  So instead of saying you’ve had some bad luck, I’ll steal a line from Rodney Dangerfield and say this year you’ve had no respect.  Can you explain to the race fans how you’re able to put up with all this no respect?

TONY STEWART:  Well, I don’t know that it’s no respect as much as it’s just been bad luck.  I’ve said it for years that there are only so many variables during the race week that you can control.  There are a lot more variables that you can’t control than the ones that you can.

It’s weird.  You’ve hit the nail on the head.  There have been so many things that happened that have never happened, but let alone week after week things like that keep happening.  We’re definitely in a slump right now, but just like anything else, it won’t last forever.

This is probably the part that I think will define what our organization is truly about.  Our guys still have good attitudes about it.  They’re not happy about where we’re at, obviously, but they have good attitudes about it that we’re going to get out of this and get going again.  But that’s something that I’m probably more proud of my guys and how they’re handling this time than when times are good.

Q.  Get a couple of wins at Kansas and Michigan following that and you’ll be all set again, thank you.

TONY STEWART:  Thank you

Q.  With all of the experience and years in the sport that you have, if you could pick one thing that’s changed our sport the most, what would that one thing be?  And did it change it for the good or did it change it for the bad?

TONY STEWART:  I would say in the big picture, not only for NASCAR but just racing in general, the biggest thing in the last 20 years has been technology.  You look back in the ’60s and ’70s, and even part of the way through the ’80s, and guys were on – I remember watching Harry Gant.  The late truck race I got to run with Harry, I remember Andy Graves tell me he walked in the trailer and was watching Harry pushing shocks down.

We had shock finders then, but Harry pushed it down, and he’s like that’s the one I want on the left rear corner.  I mean, he knew just by feel.  It wasn’t a computer telling him what to do.  Honestly, I think that’s an example of how technology has changed all of auto racing.

It used to be guys would think of something in their head, write it down on paper, and that’s how they did it.  But now it’s computers and simulation programs, and having to come up with bump stops and all of these things that technology helped develop.  That’s probably hurt racing more than anything – wind tunnels.

There are a lot of variables that have gotten into things that make everything better.  It’s made things better outside of our sport too.  It’s made passenger cars better, but the technology as much as it’s a great thing for society and for life is that sometimes it’s gotten in the way of racing and what racing was all about too.

Q.  I was kind of curious how you balance all the pressure and stress that you go through as a business owner as well as a driver?  A business owner for a Sprint Cup driver like Ryan Newman, and when he crashed on Sunday night, do you spend more time worrying about him or yourself, or do you feel that you haven’t really had added pressure since he’s come on your team?

TONY STEWART:  Well, the circumstance with his crash the other night is nothing I could control and it was out of his control too, I believe.  I really haven’t seen the replay of what exactly happened.  But whether I was his owner or his teammate as a driver, the first thing I did was check to see if he’s all right.  Then once you find out he’s all right, you have to put your focus back on what you’re doing.

Today we’ll be in our competition meeting and I’ll find out exactly what happened.  We’ll both be there talking about our weekends and how our races went.

It’s a lot easier than I’m going to be able to make it sound, probably.  But Monday through Thursday I have to put that owners hat on and pay attention to exactly what we have to do not only for myself but for Ryan also.  That part of the pressure really isn’t that hard.

I have a great relationship with Ryan both away from the track.  We’re great friends and great teammates at the track.  But I think Ryan has the confidence in knowing that I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that I give both of us the resources we need to be successful on the weekends and Monday through Thursday is when he we do that.

When we go to the track on Friday morning, I have to set that side of the program away and I have to focus strictly on the 14 car, and Ryan focuses on the 39.  We still work together during weekends, but I’m not worried about the stuff that I worry about during the week.  That stuff has to be put aside at that point, and you have to focus at the task at hand for the race weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Tony, thank you for your time today and best of luck this weekend in Kansas.

Photo by Jerry Markland - Getty Images for NASCAR

Rick Hendrick could—15 years ago. But Stewart turned down a job offer from Hendrick because he didn’t feel he was ready for the Sprint Cup Series.

At that point, the sum total of Stewart’s stock car experience amounted to a handful of Nationwide races for owner Harry Ranier.

“In the fall of ’96 I got a call, and Rick’s organization had offered me the 25 car,” Stewart said Wednesday at a press conference at Levine Children’s Hospital to announce details of his Prelude to the Dream dirt Late Model charity race. “I’d only run eight (actually nine) Nationwide races that year, so I just didn’t feel that I’d earned the right and wasn’t sure that I was ready to make that step to the Cup series and risk not being successful because I didn’t have enough practice at that time to go there.

“Rick and I’ve never forgot that, and that was what made the Nationwide win at Daytona so special a couple of years ago when we won in Rick’s car. We said it was 12 years in the making. I’m kidding you there, but that’s what made it so special, that we got to do what we tried to do once before. I’ve always respected Rick, and Rick’s always been great to me since I started. It’s hard to have the kind of relationship we have with each other when we were rivals, I guess, to a certain degree.”

In retrospect, Stewart believes he made the right choice. His relationship with Hendrick has grown stronger in recent years, not only because of their common interest in charity work but also because of a business relationship. Now the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart gets engines, chassis and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports.

“I was honored that I got that opportunity, but I feel like, hindsight being 20-20, that we made the right decision,” Stewart said of the decision to decline Hendrick’s offer. “I know I would have had the best of everything if I had gone there, but I wasn’t sure that I was ready for the kind of equipment that I was going to be given. Now we’re getting to work with him directly with our partnership with Stewart-Haas, so it’s kind of made full circle now. …

“I think it was the first time that I ever was in a situation where I had to turn somebody down. It wasn’t an easy decision by any means, but I think the one thing with Rick and I—I don’t know many people who could tell Rick Hendrick ‘No,’ that could get an opportunity like that and tell him ‘No.’ But I think Rick understood what my theory was behind it and why I did it. I think in long run Rick has always respected that.”

Johnson’s win at Eldora surprises many
On June 8, Jimmie Johnson will have the chance to defend a title that has nothing to do with any of his five Sprint Cup championships.

Last year, Johnson was the surprise wire-to-wire winner of Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream dirt Late Model charity race at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Johnson accomplished the formidable task of holding off Stewart, the track owner, and dirt-track superstar Clint Bowyer for the victory.

Rick Hendrick, Johnson’s team owner in the Cup series, was just as surprised as everyone else by Johnson’s triumph.

“It was surprising,” Hendrick acknowledged Wednesday at a press conference to announce details of this year’s charity race (8 p.m. ET June 8 on HBO Pay-Per-View). “Jimmie is good on off-road, and he’d done stadium trucks a long time ago, but usually when you go to that race, you’ve got to beat Tony.

“It did elevate his stature among the other drivers. It’s almost like if you took them to a golf course. They want to beat each other in a really bad way. I think these guys are so competitive, and it meant a lot to him. I had Tony and several people say they were surprised at how well he did.”

• Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C.: www.LevineChildrensHospital.org
• Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: www.choa.org
• St. Louis Children’s Hospital: www.StLouisChildrens.org
• Children’s Medical Center Dallas: www.childrens.com

The seventh annual event will feature stars from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. All will join two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart in piloting 2,300-pound dirt Late Model stock cars capable of putting out more than 800 horsepower.

The live, commercial-free broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT) with an immediate replay. HBO Pay-Per-View’s racing telecast has a suggested retail price of $24.95 and is available to more than 71 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event programming in the pay-per-view industry. Ordering information and up-to-the minute racing information is available at either www.PreludeToTheDream.org or www.HBO.com. Updates can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PreludeToDream and on Twitter at twitter.com/PreludetoDream

The Prelude to the Dream is a team event. There is still an individual race winner, but there is also a race within the race, with the field broken up into four teams, each representing a children’s hospital:

• Team Levine: Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Bill Elliott, David Reutimann, Austin Dillon, Ray Evernham and Cruz Pedregon.
• Team Atlanta: Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Ken Schrader, David Gilliland and Ron Capps.
• Team St. Louis: Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, Justin Allgaier, Kenny Wallace, Ron Hornaday and Ricky Carmichael.
• Team Dallas: Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Marcos Ambrose, Aric Almirola and Dave Blaney.

Each hospital will receive a donation, with the payout breakdown as follows:

• Winning team receives 30 percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.
• Second-place team receives 25 percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.
• Third- and fourth-place teams each receive 20 percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.

The lowest team score wins, and only the top-five drivers from each team will be scored. For example, if Team Levine has finishes of first, fourth, seventh, 11^th and 18^th, respectively, from its top-five drivers, its score will be 41. In the event of a tie, the sixth driver will be scored.

“The team concept adds another level of excitement by having a race within the race,” said Stewart, owner of Eldora Speedway and three-time winner of the Prelude to the Dream. “As individual drivers, we all want the big trophy at the end of the night. But it’s cool knowing that battles for fourth and fifth and even 11^th and 12^th will make a big difference for what children’s hospital ends up with the big check.

“We plan to raise a lot of money for all of these hospitals, no matter where their teams finish. Since HBO Pay-Per-View began televising the Prelude in 2007, we’ve been able to help a lot of deserving charities, and helping children has always been a part of that mission. With this format, and with the hospitals involved, we feel we have our best chance yet to make this year’s Prelude our most successful one to date.”

The four charities – Levine Children’s Hospital, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Children’s Medical Center Dallas – all cater to the medical needs of children.

The six previous Prelude to the Dream events have collectively raised more than $3 million. With each year’s event gaining significant stature and mainstream interest, Stewart’s ultimate goal is to have the 2011 Prelude to the Dream raise $1 million, with the proceeds impacting the four charities.

“It’s an ambitious goal,” admits Stewart, “but if we don’t set the bar high, we’re not pushing ourselves the way we should. That’s our goal, and me and everybody else associated with this event is going to do everything we can to meet that goal. Now, we just need everyone out there to purchase the event, enjoy all the action going on at Eldora, and know that their dollars are going to a very worthy cause.”

Drivers from all types of disciplines, some with lots of dirt track experience and others with hardly any, will participate in qualifying, heat races and a 30-lap feature, all of which will be televised live on HBO Pay-Per-View.

“For the fifth year in a row we will bring live action from Eldora into living rooms across the country,” said Tammy Ross, vice president, HBO Pay-Per-View & Sports. “With this year’s new start time and enhancing the format of the telecast, race fans will have a chance to settle in at home and prepare for a great night of continuous, live racing action.”

With no points and no pressure, the Prelude to the Dream is a throwback race, allowing drivers to step back in time and compete for the reasons they all went racing in the first place – pride and a trophy. And they’ll do it on the same surface that racing legends A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti competed on nearly 50 years ago.

Other interesting storylines include:

• More Than 50 Driving/Riding Titles Represented at the Prelude: Sprint Cup [10] – Elliott (1988), Labonte (2000), Stewart (2002, 2005), Kenseth (2003), Johnson (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010); IROC [3] – Labonte (2001), Kenseth (2004), Stewart (2006); Nationwide Series [4] – Labonte (1991), Edwards (2007), Bowyer (2008), Busch (2009); Camping World Truck Series [4] – Hornaday (1996, 1998, 2007, 2009); ARCA [1] – Allgaier (2008); IndyCar Series [1] – Stewart (1997), NHRA Funny Car [2] – Pedregon (1992, 2008); Camping World Series East [1] – Logano (2007); Australian V8 Supercar [2] –Ambrose (2003, 2004); World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series [1] – Blaney (1995); AMA 125 National [3] – Carmichael (1997, 1998, 1999); AMA 125 East Coast SX [1] – Carmichael (1998); AMA 250 National [7] – Carmichael (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006); AMA 250 Supercross [5] – Carmichael (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006); U.S. Open of Supercross [3] – Carmichael (2000, 2001, 2005); WSXGP 250 Supercross [1] – Carmichael (2005); MXdN [4] – Carmichael (2000, 2003, 2005, 2007).

• Dirt Veterans vs. Dirt Neophytes: Stewart, Kahne, Newman, Blaney, Bowyer, Elliott, Schrader, Allgaier and Wallace grew up on dirt tracks, while Busch, Almirola, Hamlin and Logano spent the majority of their racing upbringing on asphalt.

• What Happens When a Drag Racer has to Turn the Steering Wheel?: Capps is a 15-year veteran of the NHRA and Pedregon is a 17-year NHRA driver, where straight-line runs over 300 mph are commonplace. They’ll have to turn right to go left as they sling their dirt Late Models around Eldora.

For those who want to see the Prelude to the Dream in person, tickets are available online at www.EldoraSpeedway.com or by calling the track office (937) 338-3815. Act fast – the race has sold out in previous years.

Snapshots of each charity supported by this year’s Prelude to the Dream are as follows:

• Levine Children’s Hospital (www.LevineChildrensHospital.org): Levine Children’s Hospital is a 234-bed hospital in Charlotte, N.C, located on the main campus of Carolinas Medical Center. Since opening in December 2007, the hospital has grown to include more than 30 pediatric specialties and has already received national distinction by U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” for treatment of kidney disorders.

Levine Children’s Hospital is also home to the Ricky Hendrick Centers for Intensive Care, which supports pediatric intensive and cardiovascular surgery patients. Additional distinctions include organ and bone marrow transplants; pediatric dialysis; interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery; heart-lung bypass capabilities for newborns and pediatric patients; an inpatient pediatric rehabilitation unit; and 24/7 emergency services. Levine Children’s Hospital is the most comprehensive facility of its type between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. – meaning most children no longer need to travel outside of the region to receive the care they need.

Most recently, Levine Children’s Hospital announced the formation of the Carolinas Kids Cancer Research Coalition, a group of eight of the region’s most dedicated nonprofit organizations committed to supporting pediatric cancer research and services at Levine Children’s Hospital.

“At Levine Children’s Hospital, we are honored to again benefit from the Prelude to the Dream,” said Mark Griffith with Carolinas HealthCare Foundation. “Racing has deep roots here in Charlotte, and we can’t think of a more unique and fun race to partner with than Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream.”

• Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (www.choa.org): Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a not-for-profit organization, is committed to enhancing the lives of children through excellence in patient care, research and education. Managing more than half a million patient visits annually at three hospitals and 16 neighborhood locations, Children’s is one of the largest clinical care providers for children in the country. Children’s offers access to more than 30 pediatric specialties and is ranked among the top children’s hospitals by Parents magazine and U.S. News & World Report. With generous philanthropic and volunteer support, Children’s has made an impact in the lives of children in Georgia, the United States and throughout the world.

“Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta relies on the generous support we receive from events like the Prelude to the Dream,” said Eugene A. Hayes III, president of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation. “We are so excited to be a part of a fundraiser like this, making it possible for our physicians, nurses and staff to provide the best quality care for children across the Southeast and get kids back to being kids.”

• St. Louis Children’s Hospital (www.StLouisChildrens.org): Founded in 1879, St. Louis Children’s Hospital is one of the premier children’s hospitals in the United States. It serves not just the children of St. Louis, but children across the world. The hospital provides a full range of pediatric services to the St. Louis metropolitan area and a primary service region covering six states. As the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Children’s Hospital offers nationally recognized programs for physician training and research.

“St. Louis Children’s Hospital is grateful to be selected as a beneficiary hospital by Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream,” said Lee Fetter, president of St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “Many of our young patients and their parents are NASCAR fans, and I know they’ll find this race especially thrilling. I imagine we’ll create some new fans before the end of the race – especially those in our Pediatric Neurocritical Care Program.”

• Children’s Medical Center Dallas (www.childrens.com): Children’s Medical Center is private, not-for-profit, and is the seventh largest pediatric healthcare provider in the country with 559 licensed beds, two full-service campuses and 10 outpatient sites. Children’s was Texas’ first pediatric hospital to achieve Level 1 Trauma status and is the only pediatric teaching facility in North Texas, affiliated with UT Southwestern Medical Center.

“Children’s Medical Center Dallas is honored to have been chosen as one of four children’s hospitals that will benefit from the 2011 Prelude to the Dream,” said Pete Kline, president of the Children’s Medical Center Foundation. “Children’s Injury Prevention Program, which is the beneficiary of the race, has provided more than 5,000 car seats, more than 2,000 water vests and more than 300 helmets free of cost to families who could not afford them in Dallas and Collin County. This is an amazing opportunity and partnership for Children’s, and on June 8, the hospital staff, patient families and our supporters in the community will be cheering for our drivers.”

Tony Stewart, who launched the Gillette Fusion ProGlide Prelude to the Dream at the half-mile dirt track in 2005, has won the event the past two years and three of the five since its inception. Stewart set the one-lap qualifying record last year (15.405 seconds) and led all 30 laps of the main event.

The new variation this year includes a team competition, with each team representing one of four children’s hospitals that are the beneficiaries of the Prelude, which will be televised live on HBO Pay-Per-View at 7 p.m. ET, with a replay to follow immediately.

Stewart chose four captains and handicapped each team. Clint Bowyer heads the Riley Hospital for Children (Indianapolis) team that includes Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, inaugural Prelude winner Kenny Wallace and drag racer Ron Capps.

Kahne Kahne leads the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital contingent that features Stewart, Joey Logano, Bobby Labonte, Bill Elliott and NHRA star Cruz Pedregon.

Kyle Busch’s Levine Children’s Hospital (Charlotte) team includes Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, David Reutimann, Dave Blaney, Marcos Ambrose and motocross champion Travis Pastrana.

Denny Hamlin leads a team competing for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis) featuring Carl Edwards, Ken Schrader, Aric Almirola, Ricky Carmichael, IndyCar star Tony Kanaan and former Cup champion crew chief Ray Evernham.

“You look at it, and they lined up the teams really well,” Busch said Friday at Pocono Raceway. “You look at it, and it’s like, ‘Man, that’s a really, really good guy,’ and, ‘Oh, that’s a really good guy,’ and, ‘I want that guy.’ It will be a hard-fought race for sure. I don’t know who picked the teams, but I will give them credit. They did a nice job of picking the teams.”

Stewart acknowledged that the teams were seeded largely on the basis of past performance in the Prelude, but he wasn’t reluctant to pick a favorite.

“I still think my team is probably the one to beat,” Stewart said. “We basically sat down and looked at everybody that had been there and how they had run at the Prelude and tried to evenly stack the teams up to where they were as even as we could make them to make it as close as possible.

“You don’t have a bunch of heavy hitters on one team and guys that struggled on another team. We’ve tried to make that aspect as even as we can.”

The team aspect of the competition will be scored like a cross-country meet—one point for first place, two points for second, etc., with low total score winning. Only the top five drivers on each team will count toward the team total unless sixth-place finishers are needed as a tiebreaker.

The winning team will collect 45 percent of the net money raised for its charity. Second place will get 25 percent, and third and fourth will receive 15 percent each. Stewart hopes to raise $1 million this year.

Proceeds from HBO Pay-Per-View sales also support the charities.

For more information visit http://PreludeToTheDream.org

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

CAN YOU TALK MORE ABOUT PRELUDE TO THE DREAM THIS YEAR?:
“Excited about it. It’s obviously something we’ve enjoyed doing every year. The drivers have been awesome and very supportive of it. We’re up to that weekend before now and this is the weekend that I start getting nervous and start watching The Weather Channel like there’s nothing else on TV to watch. Worried about just making sure we get good weather for the week and excited with the new team aspect this year of having the entire field split up into four groups and divided amongst the four children’s hospital charities that we have on board. There will be an individual winner, but there will also be a team winner and that will determine who gets 45 percent of the proceeds. The second-place team will get 25 percent of the proceeds and the remaining two teams will get 15 percent respectively.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TEAM SET-UP AND TEAM CONCEPT?:
“It was kind of a hard handicapping system, we basically sat down and looked at everybody that had been there and how they had run at the Prelude and tried to evenly stack the teams up to where they were as even as we could make them to make it as close as possible. You don’t have a bunch of heavy hitters on one team and guys that struggled on another team. We’ve tried to make that aspect as even as we can. I think it gives these guys, guys that may not have a shot to win the race or may be running sixth or seventh, know they don’t have a shot at winning, but at least give them some pride in knowing their finishing position counts and they know that hopefully that will be the points that helps propel their team to getting the majority of the proceeds from it. It really has given everybody that’s coming a renewed pride in not only the fact that they’re supporting the event, but at the same time, even if they don’t have a shot to win, their finish does count and makes a big impact.”

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE TEAM AND WHO GETS TONY KANAAN?:
“I don’t know who gets (Tony) Kanaan. He ends up with St. Jude and Denny Hamlin is the captain. They also have Carl Edwards, Kenny Schrader, Aric Almirola, Ricky Carmichael and Ray Evernham. I don’t know. I still think my team is probably the one to beat. We had probably one of the best races there three years ago and I wasn’t even a factor in it. Between Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin — they put on one of the best races we’ve ever had there.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SECOND YEAR OF BEING A CAR OWNER?:
“We’re worried about the Prelude bud, we’re not worried about me being a car owner right now. We’ve got five days to make this thing happen and we need everybody’s help here. What people don’t understand, it’s four months of non-stop work to make this thing happen. The PR staff and getting drivers organized and the people at the track that are working hard and Pam Miller from Fox that come and help us out, this is a big deal that we’re putting on here and a big push we’re trying to make.”

IS THIS THE BEST THING YOU DO ALL YEAR?:
“It’s definitely the biggest fundraiser we do all year for sure. There’s no doubt about that. Like I say, it’s a year round project, but its four months leading up to the race that really are the hardest push. This is not something that gets put together overnight. This is an event that takes thousands and thousands of man hours from a lot of different groups to make it all happen on one day. Especially at a facility that you can’t just bring a jet dryer out if it rains and dry it off. You have to have the weather cooperate with you to get it in. It’s a lot of pressure and it is probably the biggest single thing we do all year as far as fundraisers are concerned and probably the one we put the most effort into.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SPIRIT AND ENERGY OF THE PRELUDE?:
“It’s a really cool deal. We have tried every year and after every event that we have done, we’ve went to the drivers and went to different people and said, ‘how can we make this better, how can we make this more enjoyable for the guys that are coming and doing it.’ We do a short media session before hand and once the drivers actually get down in the race track with the race cars, the only media they do is during the telecast and during the broadcast of the show. It is, it’s a really cool deal. You don’t ever see drivers getting to hang out at the back of their trailers and have fun like we used to. That’s something that we do get to do at Eldora. We kind of control the pit area. There’s a lot of people down there, but there’s a lot of racing people and a lot of the crew members from the different guys teams come and support their drivers. A lot of the car owners bring their planes and help us out on that aspect and help bring guys down.

“It really is an atmosphere and I think it’s something these guys really look forward to and I don’t know how many guys this year went and tested, but I know last year (Kevin) Harvick tested about five times before he came. It just shows that these guys really care about what’s going on, it’s not that they’re just going to show up and ride around and at the end of the night go home. They really care about how they do there and have a lot of fun doing it. I know there’s a group of us staying over after the race and we’re just going to hang around and have a good time and that’s something we never really get to do.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GILLETTE’S INVOLVEMENT?:
“This is the second year Gillette has been on board. It takes a lot of money and a lot of effort to make this event happen and Gillette has come on board the last couple years and really helped us take it a step above where it’s been. HBO has been a really big factor in that too. Without people like Gillette, it’s something that would make this event nearly impossible to try to put on and to bring the TV aspect into it to where it can generate the funds that we’re giving to these charities.

“I don’t shave very much, but every day I want to shave a little bit more because of them and every time I see an ad they run on TV, it makes me proud that they have wanted to be a part of this. They’ve really jumped in head first and really went above and beyond of what you could ask a partner to do to come in and help with an event like this.”

HOW DID YOU SELECT THE CHARITIES?:
“Last year we had the military charities and we had the four branches that we helped support and we were in a situation where we had been supporting the Victory Junction Gang Camp and we still do support them very highly. We felt like this was a great opportunity every year to do something a little different. Children and animals are two big aspects of something that I’m pretty passionate about. I really believe in kids, I believe in the attitude of children and their true emotions. Being able to help the four children’s hospitals this year was something that we were really passionate about doing. The really hard part is we know that two of these charities are only going to get 15 percent, another is going to get 25 and one winning team is going to get 45 percent of the proceeds that we raise. It’s hard because you want everybody to get the same amount, but it does add an element of excitement and I know no matter who gets what that all four of those children’s hospitals have been very grateful to be a part of this and we’re excited to raise a lot of money for them.”

DOES IT HELP THAT GILLETTE ALSO SPONSOR THIS WEEKEND’S RACE?:
“I think it’s kind of cool, but I think it was more of a coincidence than anything else that we ended up getting them back to back like this. It’s cool that they are a part of it this weekend too and it really makes for a good four or five day swing of having the Cup event and the dirt race at Eldora — both Gillette events. It’s definitely something that I think they are really excited about and been able to use both of these events to help cross promote.”

IS THERE A CERTAIN AMOUNT YOU WANT TO RAISE?:
“As much as we can get. We tried to set the million dollar mark and we fell short of it the last couple years, not by a lot, but we would love to get to that million dollar mark again. This room is the one room that can help put it over the top like that. The help that we get from you guys is really a huge factor, more than you guys can possibly imagine, of getting these people aware of what’s going on this week and letting them know how they can be a part of it with us.”

DID THE PRELUDE START THE SECOND YEAR YOU TOOK OWNERSHIP?:
“It was the first year that we owned it that we started the Prelude.”

COULD YOU EVER HAVE IMAGINED IT WOULD GET THIS BIG?:
“No, not at all. The first year I think we had 17 drivers that came and we had to beg, literally beg car owners to bring cars for NASCAR guys to drive. These car owners were so scared that somebody that hadn’t been on a dirt track and hadn’t been in a dirt late model wasn’t going to be able to drive one. We really had to beg that first year to get car owners to bring good race cars. After the first year, it went so well that the second year we didn’t have to beg near as hard to get it and now we’re still having to work to get really good cars, but we’re getting top of the line cars for these guys to drive. Mark Richards from Rocket Chassis helps with about half the field. I know Clint Bowyer’s team, they bring their own car. Bobby Labonte’s team, they bring a car. Scott Bloomquist has brought cars.

“The major chassis manufacturers in the dirt late model industry have really wrapped around this event too and they realize that this is a good advertising night for them too as much as it is what we’re doing for charity. If their brand and make of car wins the race then it’s just like we do with the Cup side. If their car can win then it helps them sell chassis. We’ve really got top notch cars for these guys to drive and that makes the even that much better because they know they are in good cars when they get there.”

ON RACING AT POCONO:
“I’m just glad to be able to do media availability again (laughs). It’s been a strong recovery, and it’s taken a little bit of time, but a strong recovery for our team from how we started the season. So coming into Pocono, I’m happy to be in the top 12. I really like this race track. It’s fun and challenging. It’s got a nice break on the front straightaway; gives us a chance to get something to drink and regroup for the next lap. I look forward to it and we’ll try to have some fun.”

HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE WAY YOUR TEAM IS RUNNING RIGHT NOW WITH WHERE IT WAS LAST YEAR? HAVE YOU AND THE NO. 14 (TONY STEWART) HAVE BASICALLY SWAPPED POSITIONS STATISTICALLY THIS YEAR?
“Two things I will say that we started off in a deep hole this year but we started off in a less deep hole last year. We had a tough Daytona but we rebounded and we had a really good strong of which this race (Pocono) last year was one of our top five’s I think of five in a row. We haven’t put that string together yet but we have been more consistent I’d say between eighth and 15th, something like that. Whereas last year we had some runs of sixth or seventh and 22nd. So I think our consistency is better, or mentality is better, knowing that we had that win in Phoenix which has been huge for our team as well as for the organization to get a win this year. Our two teams are very tight and I think that Phoenix win from our standpoint still helped the organization. The number swap versus point swap, I think that’s just coincidence. I agree that if you look at it back this time last year, then yeah we were working our way up and Tony was pretty strong. I’d say we’re not the strength that we should be our want to be, but we’re happy to be in the top 12 from where we started with two DNF’s in the season and we’ll keep working on it. Tony is obviously working on it real hard. Seems like he’s caught some of the luck we had last year at this time. It’s just a matter of fighting through it.”

I UNDERSTAND YOU ARE A GOOD ARBORIST AND THAT YOU PLANTED TREES YESTERDAY. DO YOU THINK IT’S REALLY GOING TO HAVE AN IMPACT DOWN THE ROAD AND ABSORB CARBON EMISSIONS?
“Well, most of the work had been done. I applied the top soil. Yeah, just trying to make a difference. That little Blakeslee Park that NASCAR is working on is really cool. It has a lot of history in this area. The old rock building that’s there was an ice skating rink back in the 20′s. They’re going to re-open that. The whole idea is just to help protect and preserve what we have. And Pocono, especially the Poconos and Pennsylvania here are some of the prettiest areas that we go to. It’s similar to the Irish Hills of Michigan where I’ve done another similar tree planting. Will it offset the emissions? That’s the goal. But secondly, it sets an example from a NASCAR perspective of what’s right and what we need to keep doing as a community and as a group as a whole to help control and preserve what’s out there. And as I stated in my interview, I’m the first person to burn wood in my fireplace. But I’m also the first person to plant trees. So there’s a happy medium in there that all people should live by. Those trees produce the oxygen that we breathe so we need to respect them.”

WHAT HAS SPURRED THE RECOVERY OF YOUR TEAM? AS YOU LOOK TOWARD THE CHASE, WHAT HAVE YOU IDENTIFIED AS SOMETHING YOU NEED TO DO TO SECURE THAT SPOT?
“As a team, we have a notebook and we’ve had faster race cars and we’ve had more consistent race cars. Again, our durability has been very good with respect to the car. We had one engine failure back in California, but in general, just having that time and experience together and communication; knowing Tony Gibson a little bit better and having that notebook to go back on and say yeah, we ran good here in the Spring. We ran okay in the Fall. Let’s come back here with the Spring set-up and those types of things.

“Whereas hitting the second race track last year, we didn’t have those notes. All we had was our Spring notes and that was according to the Spring temperatures and things like that. Just having that notebook and the availability of going back and knowing our experiences, both physically and mentally, make a big difference.”

HOW DO YOU TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
“Just by keeping polishing it up and building better race cars with more downforce and all the things that we can do to make the race cars better and as a team, just fine-tuning. We feel like we are four, five, or six years behind what the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) has going on. So building that team, that morale and that mentality is a big part of what we do; and having the confidence of knowing who you’re working with and that you can haul it into the corner that 3 mph faster and come out 2 mph an hour faster is extremely important.”

JEFF BURTON LOST HIS COOL LAST WEEKEND. WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THAT? IS THERE A BREAKING POINT FOR EVERYBODY WHERE THEY GO OUTSIDE THEIR PERSONALITY?
“I won’t say I was surprised to see it. I was surprised to see it last as long as it did. Jeff is usually one to say his peace and walk on. But he came back for Round 2 and Round 3 it seemed like. Everybody has their breaking point. Everybody, especially when he had as good a car as he did; I didn’t see what exactly happened on the race track but I’ve been on the receiving end of an accidental cut tire and no matter what happens, if it was on purpose or not, it’s a frustrating deal. Either way he’ll get through it. I’m pretty sure that after Tuesday he was good with it. He’ll come into Pocono and try to win again.”

WHAT ARE YOU ABLE TO OFFER TONY STEWART TO HELP?
“In general, it’s just that common understanding of the teamwork and what we can do to help each other. It’s really no different than anything else that we do any other time of the season; it’s just a matter of being maybe a little more delicate about it. You don’t want to knock a guy when he’s down and you don’t want to tell him all the things that he’s doing wrong. At the same time you want to try to help him with what we think is right. You don’t go up to a guy and say, ‘Hey, why do you have that right-rear spring?’ You say, ‘Hey we’re running this right-rear spring and this is what it did for us.’ Just offering advice is the best thing we can do because as I’ve always said, it’s the toughest sport in the world where you’re competing against your own teammate. So it’s a very delicate situation to be able to work all those things out.”

CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR ASSESSMENT OF PENSKE RACING SORT OF TURNING THE CORNER?
“I will say that from what I’ve seen in racing, that there are always cycles and obviously what Kurt (Busch) and that No. 2 team have done, they’ve come back to the top of the cycle, and what they’ve done with their Nationwide program too is very strong. Going back five years ago when we were as strong as we were in ’05 and part ’06; again, everything cycles up and down and it’s just a matter of them producing like the Hendrick Motorsports group has done with the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) for so long, it’s how you complete that cycle and stay on top of that cycle that really makes a difference. We’ve seen it ourselves just in the No. 39 team in the last year and a half. You can have strings of top fives and you can have strings of 35′s, it’s just a matter of how long you let yourself stay on top or stay on that slump.”

YOU’VE GOT THE PRELUDE TO THE DREAM COMING UP ON WEDNESDAY, ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT?
“Absolutely; it’s a really big week for Gillette. As one of the young guns or old guns or whatever I am now, ultimately they have a new razor coming out June 6 and this race here and the Prelude is a big week for Gillette. I’m really proud to represent them and represent what the Prelude is and what they do for the charities. It’s a great event that Tony (Stewart) and his group put on. If anybody ever walks out of there and doesn’t have fun, they won’t be invited back because there’s no reason not to (have fun). I really enjoy that race track. I enjoy dirt racing and I look forward to that as well.”