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 Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Moderator: We’re going to start off with Tony Stewart. He drives the No. 14 Office Depot for Stewart-Haas Racing. If I’m not mistaken, you were one of the first drivers that got to lay their eyes on this new track back in October. Talk about the evolution since that time and now you’ve taken laps, et cetera. Talk about how this racetrack is shaping up for you.
Tony Stewart: It’s actually impressive what they’ve been able to do with it. The only spot that really has seemed to be really any significant bumps in it is just where they had a problem, I guess, when they were paving turns 3 and 4 and the paver slipped a little bit, and it lost some of the gauge of the asphalt thickness. But it looks like they ground the front side and backside of it, and it’s really — it seems a lot smoother than when we were here with the pace car riding around.

It’s almost identical feeling to what we had at Talladega. Obviously the transitions off of 2 and 4 are a little more abrupt than what we have at Talladega, but as far as the ride, you literally could hold a cup of coffee with the lid off full and not spill a drop riding around there.

Q: Australian newspapers reported that at the end of your trip down there that there was sort some of altercation or something. Can you give us some facts or shed some light on what happened?
Tony Stewart: There was an altercation at the racetrack. It was a dispute between myself and one of the owners of the facility. But as it also reported, we went down to the police station, we gave them a statement. They told us after the statement that we were free to go back to the hotel room and free to get on the plane the next day. But definitely wasn’t the way I wanted to end my trip.

We had a fun trip over there. Obviously there was a lot of flooding and raining while we were there, but at the same time we still — we had a good race trip over there and didn’t end that last night the way we wanted to by any means. But it’s not uncommon to see drivers and track owners have disputes over what’s going on, but this one went a little bit further than a normal dispute.

Q: It appears if this is going to be like Talladega but it’s Daytona, it calls into question drivers’ respect for each other and trust for each other. Can you talk a little bit about how that’s developed and what you’ll see on the racetrack in competition here?
Tony Stewart: The thing that we heard from the tire test is they did some — they did obviously draft testing because they need to run the speeds that we run here during the race pace. But it sounds like the difference between what we see at Talladega with the bump drafting and what we might see here is that with the way — the only turn that I heard them really talk about was turn 2 and how the transition falls off a little harder and is that if guys were pushing through that area that it had a tendency to push the lead car out further on the exit than they wanted to be and toward the wall, and if that lead car goes in the wall, most likely the guy that’s pushing him is going to follow him right in it.

It sounds like that might be the only difference. You may not be able to push all the way around the track, but I’m sure in the next definitely 24 hours we’re for sure going to find that out.

Q: If NASCAR does change the point system on a 1 to 43 based on race to race to race, would you like that system? Can you talk about how that might affect your efforts?
Tony Stewart: Honestly I’ve kind of been one of those guys it didn’t really bother me when they changed it the first time, and if they change it again, it really won’t matter to me. As long as we all start the year and we understand what the point structure is and how you get the points, then you race accordingly. But it’s still going to be on a situation where if you win races the points take care of itself, and as long as it’s not a deal where you ever get in a situation where running 30th pays more points than winning then it shouldn’t really change how you race, it’s just you know if it’s a 36-week deal that leads into a championship or a ten-week deal, you know how to prepare for it. So it’s just — and knowing what the system is so you know how to prepare for those events.

Q: Can you tell us what you told the police in Australia?
Tony Stewart: I can’t tell you that, but that’s why they take you there is to talk to you behind closed doors. But the police department was very cordial over there. They were very professional, and we did exactly what they asked us to do and went through that process, and they let us go.

Q: A lot of success here in July, not so much in February. Is that just a coincidence? Is there anything to that, and this will be your 13th try at it. Do you believe in lucky numbers or anything like that?
Tony Stewart: I do believe in lucky numbers, and I’ve never believed that 13 was one of them. We’re fighting an uphill battle on that.

I wish I could say that there was a difference. I mean, obviously we’ve won qualifying races here, we’ve won the Shootout here in February, so we have won February races, too, but just haven’t won them on the right day. You know, it’s kind of new for everybody.

I mean, this kind of reracks the whole system, and I think it makes it to where anybody can win the Daytona 500 now because handling has always been a huge issue here, and 43 cars didn’t always handle here. I think handling is going to be a lot easier to accomplish here with the new surface. But it’s definitely going to be a lot more in the crew’s hands as far as getting us out in track position, getting cars that are just fast to begin with, but then it’s a chess match of being in the right place at the right time and trying to make sure that you’re positioning yourself to be where you want to be on those last couple laps.

Q: Given how much fun you’ve had in Australia in the past, do you think you’ll go back?
Tony Stewart: Love to. Like I said, except for the last night we had an excellent trip again. I mean, that’s the most time that I’ve ever been able to spend at one time, and even though the weather wasn’t very nice it was still a good vacation. I woke up every day not to a ringing telephone, so it was nice to get away on a good vacation, and I still want to go back and still want to go back and race. I’m glad this will be over with soon hopefully.

Q: Do you anticipate that the matter is settled, or is there any concern you might have to go back to answer any further questions?
Tony Stewart: I’m not concerned about it. If there is and we have to go back, we’ll deal with it. But it’s nothing that we’re concerned with at this point. I mean, like I said, when they were done with us, they said we were able to go back to the hotel and were able get on our flight and come back. I made sure that they knew exactly where we were staying, when our flight was, what the flight number was and how to get a hold of us the whole time. We’ll deal with it if anything else comes about.

Q: Heading into your third season as a team owner now, can you talk a little bit maybe about how much smarter you are about different things and how you’re going to be doing things differently based on what you’ve experienced and what you’ve learned?
Tony Stewart: Who said I was smart to begin with? I don’t think anybody has ever accused me of being smart. But obviously it’s like anything in general; you know, it’s a constant learning process and a constant growing process. The hard thing is sitting down at the end of the year and evaluating things that you think you did right, trying to isolate the things that you think you needed to gain on. But even just trying to get caught up on the things that you missed, at the same time those things that you did right probably aren’t right now, so you have to constantly grow.

Race teams are in a constant state of change. You’re never content and happy with where they’re at. It’s just trying to figure out — everybody tries to figure out how they can get every department to be 1 percent better, and now it’s a situation where you wonder if that 1 percent is going to be good enough, so you try to figure out if you’ve learned more and gained more over the winter than the rest of the teams have.

Q: If I remember right in the past, you’ve sent stand-ins down here to run this January test in your cars. How much do you think you can learn as a driver from this week here?
Tony Stewart: Probably just the drafting practice side of it, especially with the fact of hearing that it may be a little tricky off of turn 2 with the pushing side of it. So I think that we definitely want to have an understanding of before we come back here. Obviously when we come back, we have one practice day before the Shootout, so you definitely want to have that information for that, and you’ll learn a ton more obviously in the Shootout than we will at the test here.

But the sport is so competitive that it’s not just about seeing how fast your car is now, it’s trying to figure out the strategies and techniques we have to use as drivers with the bump drafting and playing the chess game to figure out where you’ve got to be at the right time.

Q: You seem remarkably calm and at peace, and you look good and fit, and yet you had an altercation. What could have possibly led to such a dispute, and talk about your mood and how you’re feeling.
Tony Stewart: Well, I’m definitely not proud of what happened, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have dealt with it much different. But we had been over there for almost five weeks, and we had been dealing with the same problem with the racetrack, so it wasn’t something that was just one incident that led up to it. It was a combination of the whole trip. But there was such a dispute on how they were doing a couple different aspects of preparing the racetrack and what it was putting the drivers in the situations that we were put in.

You know, I’ve always been one to speak up for what I think is right, especially when it comes to the safety side of it, and I didn’t think it was — the conditions were safe to run on, and they felt differently.

I’m home, and I’m back doing things that are getting my mind off of it, obviously. Like I said, this isn’t something that I’ve blown off. I mean, I’ve lost a lot of sleep over it because I’m very embarrassed that I made it through a whole trip and the night before I come home I get in an altercation with somebody, and that really hasn’t happened for a while. I’m not at all the least bit proud of it. I’m ashamed about it, but at the same time it’s been nice to get back with the team and it’s nice to come down here and worry about driving the race car again. And it’s not that it’s making me forget about it, but it’s at least getting my mind off of it enough to relax.

And I had a good vacation. That’s the thing. It’s a very relaxing vacation. I felt like I alleviated a lot of stress over there, and like I said, we just had one bad night out of a 30-day trip. I think for the most part the trip was a success.

Q: Quite simply, does the point system need to be changed?
Tony Stewart: I didn’t think it needed change the first time. I think the fans kind of helped dictate what they want. I think we’re kind of in a unique sport where we don’t have a set scoring system, and the fans can kind of help — I think if the fans are aware of the options, I think the fans will tell us what they want. And I think as long as we all know what it is at the beginning, I don’t think the competitors really care. We just want to know what it is before we start the season so we know what we have to do, if the first race is going to mean as much as the last race.

I really don’t think it matters. I really don’t have a feeling one way or the other whether it needs to be changed. As long as it’s the same for everybody, it’s fair.

Q: You mentioned it was an issue of safety on the track. Did you refuse to get on because of the safety issue? I mean, what was the concern as far as the safety issue?
Tony Stewart: If it would have been just hot laps then we would have had that option. With the heat race, you get points for your heat race, so if we didn’t go out then we were really digging ourself a hole for the whole night. But the hard thing is it’s not like looking at a pavement track and knowing if it’s dry or if it’s wet. When you’re dealing with dirt tracks and how much moisture is in a racetrack — you know, there were cars on it previously before we were on it, but we were in a hot lap group that was four sets before our heat race went out, so it was hard for us to know exactly what the conditions were until we got out there. But it was pretty obvious we thought before we even went out there that it wasn’t going to be good.

It was disappointing because it was the best weather conditions they had had leading up to that race, and they found a way to kind of get themselves backed in a corner again.

Moderator: Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Good luck with this test and all the best for Speedweeks and the 53rd running of the Daytona 500.

Kerry Tharp: We have Tony Stewart. Tony drives the No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet. Tony Stewart made history in the outstanding performance as a driver/owner for Stewart Haas Racing. We’ll just open it up for questions.

Q: Tony, you’re involved in charities through your foundation, hold an event at your racetrack. Give us details of that event, when it is.

Tony Stewart: Actually, I wish I could remember what the date is for this year already. Drawing a blank. But this will be the sixth year we’ve done it in a row. The first year I think we had 17 drivers attend. Up to date already we have 16 drivers that have already returned invitations and have committed to come next year.

Pretty excited about it. I don’t know exactly what the charity is going to be right offhand. This past year was the first year we hadn’t used Victory Junction Gang Camp as our charity. We went with the Wounded Soldiers Fund. It’s an event I’m proud of. Takes about three years off the end of my life every year we try to run this event. I learn very much that Mother Nature rules this universe. But it’s the one variable we can’t control in the equation. Probably one of the most gratifying things I do all year. It’s a huge honor to have the drivers come. Kyle and Denny have come each year.

It’s fun. We all get a chance to let our hair down, so to speak. We get to race with each other, which we get to do every week. But to run dirt late models, El Dora, a track these guys aren’t familiar with, we get to have a good time racing with each other in a different set of circumstances than normal and get to raise a lot of money for charity. Having HBO come onboard with the pay-per-view side of it has helped us raise a lot of money and it’s something we put a lot of effort into.

Q: Tony, there’s been some talk about getting rid of the wing, putting a spoiler on the car. How would that impact the racing? From an owner standpoint, is there any concern?

Tony Stewart: Well, I’m not sure there’s any concerns, but I’m sure there will be a lot of work that is involved. People will be blading it to the wind tunnel, trying to get tunnel time to find out exactly how it’s going to affect the car downforce-wise. Everybody will be making adjustments accordingly with the parameters we are allowed to change.

Whatever it is, it is. The thing is NASCAR has been through changes for 60 years, just like the economy, just like technology. So this will be just another step in that equation. That’s the fun part of our sport, is that it makes everybody have to go work. That’s what makes it gratifying if you figure it out and become successful with it.

Q: Tony, as a team owner, what do fans not realize what goes on and what are the challenges as an owner/driver?

Tony Stewart: Well, I wish I could say it was a lot harder than it is for me. I think the biggest challenge is when you’re driving, you worry about the team and you worry about all the stuff you have to do to be successful on the weekends from the driving side and the team side. When you’re an owner, you have the variable of the economics of it, too. You have to remember that you have bills to pay each month, that you’re dealing with people. You realize that every one of those people in the shop, you directly adopt as part of your family. When they’re having a bad day, I guess I take it personal. If they’re having a bad day, if there’s something that’s wrong at home with them, I feel it personally versus just being a driver. That’s probably one of the biggest thing that being an owner has shown me.

Realizing you have to be responsible for all the finances of the company, that’s probably the biggest thing from a driver to an owner.

Q: After an off-season to think about it, what is it going to take to beat Jimmie Johnson in 2010?

Tony Stewart: I tell you from my side. If we knew that, we would have done it three years ago after he won the first one. We’re hoping a rocket scientist like yourself could come up with some solutions and figure it out. Actually, never mind. We’re smarter than you. You’re right.

I don’t know. I kind of look at it as a cool part of our sport, time in our sport, to see somebody have the success that he’s had. It’s probably not going to happen like that for a long time to where somebody can put together four great years like that. It’s bad when you’re the guys that got your butt kicked by him, but it’s cool to be part of it and see an organization to be able to put together four great years like that.

Whoever is the one that dethrones him, they’re going to be wearing a crown bigger than anybody else because they’re going to take a lot of pride in saying they knocked him off of that streak finally.

Q: Tony, you had some fans in Nashville that waited 20 hours for autographs. Talk about how big your fans are.

Tony Stewart: That’s pretty cool, especially when you’ve been on vacation for two and a half weeks and you kind of have been out of the country, haven’t been around a lot of NASCAR fans, it’s nice to come home and be reminded of how dedicated the fans that we have are. It’s that way in the country music industry and the racing industry.

People that drove through snowstorms and everything to get here, I came from where I didn’t put a sweatshirt on for two and a half weeks, people drove through snow and ice to see us for a couple seconds, it’s a very flattering experience, something that you’re very grateful when you’re in this position when you have people that care about you, care about what you do, how you do it, how you influence their lives.

To be able to take a day like this, take our time and spend it with the fans is something that’s pretty cool for all of us.

Q: Tony, you’ve been really vocal in the past about restrictor plate racing, different circumstances. With the buzz about possible yellow line rule going away, the no bump-drafts in the corners, your reaction to that? Are you for a rule change like that?

Tony Stewart: I’m comfortable if they take the yellow line rule. We understood why they brought it into the series. The sport has evolved obviously since they put that rule in effect. But, you know, I think the one thing about it, I’m kind of proud of NASCAR for it because they constantly are looking at things. That’s a rule they put into effect that they’re talking about taking away now. I think the drivers would be comfortable with it. We all know what it feels like when you get in the grass with tires with no grooves in them. It’s not very fun. It’s always been a self-policing deal. Even with the yellow line deal, we would occasionally get in the grass. It gives the drivers a little more flexibility to not have to worry about — I think there were times when we got ourselves in positions where we didn’t necessarily want to be in, where we were passing guys, knew we had to give that spot up. In doing so, we caused more problems behind us than initially.

I really don’t think it would be a bad deal if they did that. I think the drivers are comfortable with that.

Q: The bump-drafting side.

Tony Stewart: Before I think it was a bigger issue than now. The nice thing with flat bumpers, we’re not picking each other up when you’re pushing each other. That seems to be last dramatic than it used to be. When we had cars that had slanted noses on them, you could get underneath them, physically pick up the back of their car, wreck ‘em. Those two things are variables that I don’t think if they change any of that it’s going to be a big drama.

Kerry Tharp: Guys, we appreciate it. We appreciate your support of this event and everything you do. Best of luck in 2010.

The Moderator: Welcome to today’s NASCAR Cam Video Teleconference. We’re leading up to Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Super Speedway, Talladega, Alabama. That will be his seventh race in the 2009 chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Our guest today, he’s at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39, U.S. Army Chevrolet.

Ryan’s seventh in the series points going into Talladega. He’s had a lot of good runs there in the past. Four top 5s, seven Top 10s in 15 starts.

Ryan, we’re going to start off today, we’ve been each week on our teleconference we’ve been gathering some questions from our fans via NASCAR’s Twitter account. And we have a fan in Fort Worth Texas, Micah, she wants to know that after all the great success of Stewart-Haas Racing
this year, would Ryan Newman perhaps one day want to jump into the driver/owner ranks and give it a try?

[amazon-product]B002OEU2ZI[/amazon-product]Ryan Newman: That’s a good question. But, honestly, that’s not one of my goals. I think Tony’s done a great job and Gene Haas as well as far as laying ground work and everything else in the shop. Done a great job. I don’t know that you could ever try to repeat that or duplicate that. Other people have tried even before Tony.

So I don’t think that that is something that I’m interested in. I know that there are — it’s kind of like when things are on a grand scale, when they’re good they’re great. But when they’re bad, they’re really bad. And I don’t have any will to have those potential bad headaches.

The Moderator: Questions.

Q: Ryan, I’m wondering, what can NASCAR do to fix the problem at Talladega? The drivers obviously don’t like driving in packs, but that’s due to restrictor plates. But at the same time NASCAR doesn’t want the cars flying into the stands anymore. So is there anything in your view that they can do to fix that issue?

Ryan Newman: I know they’ve made one big step and that’s to reduce the restrictor plate size to slow the cars down so we’re less likely to get airborne.

I know the Speedway has made improvements with respect to catch fans and things like that. But ultimately we don’t want to get to that situation.

Realistically, the drivers, as NASCAR has evolved to restrictor plate tracks, have changed the way we drive. There will be times when we single-file out and there will be times when we’re four-wide/four-deep for the whole pack at times.

So it’s just a matter of excitement and strategy and the timing of those things in conjunction with what lap we’re on and what there is to expect before the end of the race, because I didn’t expect the last race there to be two cars, two groups of two cars pushing each other and may the best two-team win. I never thought that would be a Talladega race. Realistically, you never know what to expect. But I know the restrictor plate change is a big thing.

And as I said, as NASCAR has evolved, you never know what you’re going to get with the drivers and how their styles change.

Q: If I could jump ahead a week to Texas and ask you about the double-file restarts. Seems like it’s been a wonderful thing, and it seems like in most of the races we’ve seen restarts within about 25 to 30 laps or so. So how has that kind of ramped up the intensity for you guys on the racetrack when that happens and looking ahead to next week, does that just give things a greater potential for a more exciting finish?

Ryan Newman: The double-file starts are more advantageous at bigger racetracks, especially the wider ones. I saw for the first time at Martinsville this last weekend that the double-file restarts really didn’t make much difference. You could put cars that were more of equal competition levels side by side. We ran side by side, at least what seemed to be side by side for longer.

When you have that on a one-lane racetrack, it’s hard to get three-wide. But you get to Texas and you can get three and sometimes four-wide in the corners.

So I look forward to it. I think it’s been a great addition to the excitement of racing that NASCAR’s involved with the double-file restarts. And Texas will be a great place for it.

Q: Along the same lines, I was looking ahead to actually Phoenix. It seems to be actually a favorite of a lot of drivers: Flat mile track. Just your thoughts on the second trip out to Phoenix and maybe how it’s different from the first trip.

Ryan Newman: Well, again, just like Martinsville will have the first for double-file restarts at that racetrack. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out. And Phoenix is a little different from Martinsville in the fact that you have a little bit more room to get three-wide at times.

I look forward to it. It’s a driver’s racetrack. We’ve always said that because it’s unique. It’s different from one end to the other. And, therefore, the crew chief can only get one end perfect, it seems, and the other one the driver has to adapt to.

I look forward to going there. It’s one of my favorite racetracks. I know Tony does the same. Those restarts will be interesting there as well.

Q: Ryan, Mark Martin recently described preparation, compared Earnhardt, Sr. and Jimmie Johnson. He said Jimmie is technical and he writes things down. Earnhardt didn’t take notes, just piled into the thing and drove it like an animal, that’s his quote. You’re probably the most analytical of drivers, with your degree and everything, how would you describe your approach and how do you think you fit in between a studious Jimmie and jump in there, pile in their car, Dale Earnhardt, Sr.?

Ryan Newman: It’s like any other sport. Every driver has their little way of doing things, whether it’s Senior’s style or Jimmie Johnson style or Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart style or Labonte style, everybody’s different. And you have to do what fits you to be the best you can be, to be the most successful in your own mind, to put it down on paper the way it’s going to be or how you are trying to project what it is you want to do. And some guys are off the cuff and some guys have to lay it out. And everybody’s different, is my point.

So to me I wouldn’t compare myself to either. I kind of do my own thing. I have an engineering degree as a background, but I wouldn’t say that distinctively drives what I do inside the race car or out of it.

Q: Ryan, I see at Charlotte you were asked about your expectations for this season. And I think you said you weren’t really sure how it was going to turn out. It’s turned out obviously pretty well. I’m curious what your expectations are for next season.

Ryan Newman: Well, the one thing that I would say for sure is I feel like we should be able to expand upon this season, 2009, and take the relationships that we’ve built and start building better and faster race cars and things like that, because of the things that we’ve learned together as a team and what Tony Gibson and I have learned, what he’s learned about the way I like to drive a car and the way I learned from things from him and how he likes to adjust on the race car.

So just being able to sharpen our pencil, per se, and shine things up a little bit, put a little polish on them and just be better than we are in all respects, from the pit crew side, from the team side, mechanically and performance-wise, what we can do to be better, we should be able to capitalize on that, what we experienced in 2009 to 2010.

Q: Ryan, I have a question about the Car of Tomorrow. I’m not suggesting like a total overhaul, but are there some changes you think that could be made possibly over the offseason that would make it a better race car at some of the tracks where it hasn’t been so great?

[amazon-product]B002BIPW8E[/amazon-product]Ryan Newman: Well, I think that there’s different ways of looking at that. From a mechanical standpoint, there are things we could do to make the car ride different or be able to adjust to it differently.

I haven’t been a big fan of the bump stops, but they are a way we tune the race car and they are a way we can create advantages. So they are one thing that’s as it’s a disadvantage, it’s an advantage to be able to have over other teams in what you’re doing to make the car ride better. Ideally, we’d not like to have bump starts, we’d have four shocks, go off and make it more simple. When you make it more complex, makes the more understanding teams be more successful.

So the second part of it are the aerodynamics of the car: I don’t know if they’re ideal. I’m not a huge fan of the wing. I think that we’d get more side drafting, have a little bit better side-by-side racing if we had a spoiler on the back of it. I think you’ll see a lot of the things we’d ideally have liked to have seen in the Car of Tomorrow for the Cup Series and the Car of Tomorrow for the Nationwide Series in the future based on things that both NASCAR and the teams have learned.

Q: Ryan, if NASCAR asked you if you had any changes inside your mind for the chase, is there something on your mind that you would say: Yeah, let’s change this about the chase?

Ryan Newman: I don’t know. I mean, I want it to be as realistic racing and not a fabricated point system or fabricated championship trail in other people’s eyes. There’s a lot of historical significance in the way we race and the way that we award points. And that’s been a successful pattern for the last 50 plus years.

So ideally, to answer your question, there’s nothing that stands out in my mind. I’ve always said I’d like to have points awarded for qualifying but that’s separate from the chase. And I still feel that we spend an entire day getting our starting positions. And if you have the opportunity to go 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top 5 qualifiers, I think that would be good. And I think that would, secondly, change the points before you ever start the race, which is a big hype as well, especially in the chase format.

Q: Also, Ryan, this Thursday at Michigan International Speedway, they have asked people to bring their dogs to the track dressed in Halloween costumes and the winner’s going to receive a book signed by you; did I hear about that correctly?

Ryan Newman: Yes. Actually, I’m involved in voting for the winner. It’s cool what Robert Curtis and everybody has done up at Michigan International Speedway. They’re very much into the outdoors and going green and things along those lines. And incorporating animals with the fans and with NASCAR racing is something that we’re a definitely big fan of, with our foundation, and obviously involved in NASCAR.

So I think that that’s pretty cool, and I’m proud to be a part of it. And the second part of that is we’ve got a new book that is coming out in February. Hopefully we can do it again next year, with a brand new book to offer to the fans.

Q: Last month in Atlanta you did pretty good with a Top 10 finish. And it was the first night race at Atlanta. I wanted your overall impression how you thought about the night racing in Atlanta?

Ryan Newman: I liked it. I’ve always liked night racing, whether it was in open wheel racing or NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. I think it’s more exciting for the drivers. It’s more exciting for the fans. And it’s cooler, which makes it more tolerable for us, for sure.

But just the way the light reflects off the cars, I think all the racetracks have done a great job with the lighting to make it realistic and safe for driving and it’s a lot of fun. I think night races are typically better.

I’m not saying I want them all to be night races but there’s a reason why a lot of races have switched into night races.

Q: Following up on that, do you think that we should have more night racing in NASCAR than is currently in the schedule?

Ryan Newman: I think there’s a good balance. Places like Indianapolis, I think, are always going to be day races. I don’t think that they’ll realistically put lights up around Indianapolis Motor Speedway; that’s just my opinion. But I think there’s a fine balance to have. And I’d say 60/40 night races/day races would be just about right if I had to do the math.

Q: Ryan, Goodyear recently tested a wider tire. I wanted to see if you heard anything about it good, bad, indifferent, and how do you think it will possibly change the racing?

Ryan Newman: I’m not sure. I know that they have plans of that. I know a lot of other series have wider tires as well as taller tires, not just in overall circumference but in wheel diameter.

So there’s some things they’re looking into. But I don’t think that that’s something that’s necessary for the sport. I don’t think we should, per se, reinvent the wheel when we have things that we could shine up right now in respect to certain racetracks and put on great shows for the fans. Ultimately, it’s the show for the fans that we’re working on. And I don’t think a different wheel/tire combination is the ideal way to solve that situation.

The Moderator: Thank you, Ryan.

Herb Branham: We asked you this a few days ago, and maybe we can start off the same way. What’s it feel like simply to come back as the defending champion of our biggest race.

Ryan: It really doesn’t feel like almost a year has passed. That’s the first thing. Obviously it was an extreme honor in 2008 to win that 50th running of the 500. To do it in the fashion that we did, a one two finish with Kurt Busch as my teammate, obviously, like I said, it was a great honor and privilege. Really look forward to defending the title with a different team and being a teammate to Tony Stewart this year.

Q. Physically how did you feel at New Smyrna in the test, and typically how long does it take you to get in racing shape, and will the general lack of testing impact that at all this year?

Ryan: The New Smyrna test was good. It served two purposes, really just to get some more experience with the crew and with the cars because they are a good bit different, more so from the people standpoint.

The second part was to get some information for our sake, meaning Stewart Haas Racing’s sake to be able to compare, set up notes for the 14 and the 39, which is extremely important, not necessarily for Daytona but beyond Daytona; California, Vegas type stuff, and just to understand our language of communication as far as talking about the car.

I mean, we can talk about racing all day, but when it comes down to diagnosing how the balance of the car is, that’s extremely important. That answers the first part of your question.

Q. Well, when was the last time you were actually in a race car, and physically how did your body react?

Ryan: Physically?

Q. It was a short track. How did your body react?

Ryan: I mean, it’s nothing. I think we did like the longest run was eight laps, so there’s really no physical stamina needed for that, per se. I mean, yeah, there is, but nothing that last time I was in a car we tested Rockingham 1st of December. Not December 1st, but I don’t remember the exact date. And that was no different. I mean, it’s totally different testing than it is racing because as a driver you put it on the edge, but the edge is not near the same as when you’re out there for a fuel run with 42 other cars around you.

Q. Typically you don’t really find coming from the off season to the season, you don’t find any physical demands on your body as far as getting used to that.

Ryan: Not as far as that. I was way more whipped and tired snowmobiling in Idaho for five days straight than I would ever become in testing anywhere at any time.

Q. Will the lack of testing impact how quickly you get up to speed and in racing shape?

Ryan: No, I don’t think it’ll change. The lack of testing or the amount of testing, any part of that, I don’t think any of that is going to change I don’t think any part of that will change the racing that we will see in Daytona or any race to come after that.

Q. Kind of a side question to what you’re talking about now, do you see, though, that the gap between the haves and the have nots might get wider because of Hendrick and Gibbs and Roush, their ability to spend money for engineering, and all the extra things that they can do to get a car better prepared, dialed in, by the time they get to the racetrack?

Ryan: I think that there is potential for that. I’m no economic genius, but I’d say there’s more potential for that from July in Daytona on, not picking that specific race, but just that time frame, because you have a bunch of teams out there that have a bunch of cars built, and no rules have changed to speak of.

I think that when it comes to Daytona, you can still sell a sponsorship more so than you can for the first 20 races of a season, let’s say, so the bottom line is I think you’ll still have the same economic start to the season from a team standpoint, or close to it, but I think that you’ll see the separation become more so as the season wears on.

We saw it a little bit last year where the 40 car dropped and nobody expected it, and I think you’ll see a little bit more of that type of thing with the economics that we have now.

Q. You’re one of the guys without full sponsorship. Do you notice any difference resource wise because of that? And secondly, any difference resource wise between Penske and where you are now?

Ryan: We’re taking the approach that we will have sponsorship. I know that the people at Stewart Haas Racing are actively seeking sponsorship and they have some strong leads, and obviously it’s not an easy task to fit when you’re talking about the U.S. Army to tag team up with another sponsor. You have to keep maintain a specific image there. That’s one thing that we’re working on.

Tony Stewart and the group at SHR have done a great job in my opinion of building competitive race cars in what we’ve had for an off season and building a team to go along with that and an organization to go along with that from a personnel standpoint.

From a financial standpoint, I don’t see any difference per se between what Penske did as far as parts and pieces or the amount of money that went into the parts and pieces. I just see a difference in detail.

Q. Just kind of following up on that question, even with that status, do you still feel like, well your observations about the change of scenery and how that’s affected you in going from Penske to more or less a startup unit and having to really see things being built from scratch? And the second question is your impressions or observations of Tony as an owner so far?

Ryan: It was a unique situation for me to go through the whole ownership change, not re signing a contract, signing a contract with a different team, and I had I guess I had an accidental mentor I guess you could say in Tony Stewart because he went through everything that I did about two weeks before. He told his team before I did, and he made his announcements before I did.

He kind of set the stage for or at least gave me an idea of what to expect how things were going to go, not just Tony but also the people around him.
In general from a leadership standpoint, he’s done a very good job because I see him being very detailed to the point of he’s hiring the right people for the right position. Tony Stewart isn’t there every day running Stewart Haas Racing. I think he’s doing a very good job. When I say that, I mean Tony Gibson and Darian Grubb, Bobby Hutchinson and some other people, key people that he’s been acquiring to help run the company.

Q. The first part about your change of scenery

Ryan: My change of scenery, you’re right. The second part of that was the toughest part for me to leave Penske Racing was to separate the personal friendships from the professional relationships. The professional relationships had to change. There were people that I talked to that you know, I didn’t have we didn’t go out to dinner. We had a relationship in respect to the race car, and there are people that I still maintain a friendship with that work for the team currently that I have to separate, and that was extremely difficult.

Going into the shop and telling the people that have worked so hard that gave me that championship ring for Daytona in February, that worked so hard to get that, it was hard to say, “I’m sorry, guys, it’s just not working out. We’ve won once but we haven’t won since, and it’s just not working.” That was extremely difficult, not a tearjerker but it’ll choke you up a little bit.

Q. How do your likes and dislikes in a race car compare to Tony’s, and does that even matter if you’re different or similar when you sit down on a race weekend to discuss what you want to do to your cars?

Ryan: Part of that I don’t really know yet. I know ultimately we like to have race cars that go fast. That’s the generic answer. But I think the way we have grown up racing USAC midgets and Silver Crown cars and Sprint cars that we have a lot of similarities, driving the car with the right rear tire, just the way it handles, the way we brake and accelerate. I think we’ve learned a lot and acclimated ourselves to the Sprint Cup cars because of that.

Not to say that because Jimmie Johnson grew up racing stadium trucks that he is exactly the same or different, it’s just that I know on seeing some of the throttle traces the last couple tests we’ve had, we’re not that different, and that’s good for us because I think we’ll be able to share more information because of that.

Q. How do you define in layman’s terms “driving off the right rear tire”?

Ryan: That’s typically a car that has a lot of horsepower, not a lot of weight, and a big right rear tire. We had 18 inch right rear tires and four inches of stagger, and I think the left were 15 inches wide. The tires were wider, had a lot more meat to them, and we just got used to it. If you got on the gas really hard and got sideways, you were smoking the right rear tire, and that’s what you had to manage as a driver because so much of your grip was based off that right rear tire, and with the Cup cars now, as you see, we’re driving them a lot more sideways than we ever used to, and you’ll see guys actually smoking the tires, so it’s starting to transfer over, I think, more than it ever had in the past.

Q. Could you talk about why you’re here today, this Fan Fest? It’s cold outside, people are lined up and just what that means to come here not drive but just be here to see these people?

Ryan: Well, we’re still representing our sponsors for the fans and being able to tie the two together. We were joking in the car earlier when we were doing some other stuff, we’ve kind of lost the thunder in Preseason Thunder because we’re not testing, but at the same time we still have a responsibility to the fans to be able to come here and say thanks and say, hey, we’ll be back in a few weeks, so check us out. It’s still a good thing for the sport ultimately because of the fans, and if the fans show up, we’ll be here.

Q. Can you kind of talk about what your Nationwide plans are? I know you’re doing some stuff for Kevin, and what car is going to be the crew chief, stuff like that.

Ryan: We’re working on a couple different things. We’ve got a couple different sponsors. I’m not sure what they’ve announced yet. We’ve done some photo shoots but I don’t want to speak out of turn. It’s a minimum of six races, trying to do more than that, and I believe Ernie Cope will be the crew chief.

Q. Can you compare other sports to racing cars like hockey like last night and maybe football?

Ryan: Well, obviously there’s a level of competition, and there’s a team aspect involved. Outside of that, I’ve never been at all a stick and ball sport fan. I will watch a good game now and then, and I have no favorite teams in the other sports at all. The last we were talking about earlier, the last true football team that I really liked was the 49ers when Joe Montana played, and that was a long time ago.

I admire the team aspect, I admire the competition, I admire the confrontations and the emotion that goes into it. Outside of that, it’s just a sport for other people.

Q. Do you feel like you’ve reached a point in your career that you just need a change and that for all the relationships you’ve built up at Penske and everything that you can look forward to this and say, I need to be reinvigorated?

Ryan: It’s a little bit of that, but to me it’s another opportunity. I’ve always admired, with the exception of a couple on track situations which you always have, Tony Stewart, his racing ability. I’ve learned in the past few years through experience, firsthand and obviously his stats, that he’s been a championship car owner. I believe in him, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t put myself in this position.

Back in the third row there’s obviously the tie to Hendrick Motorsports, which is obvious because of Jimmie Johnson’s success in the last three years.

I feel that welcome out of the box strong. I don’t know how strong, but I have confidence, a lot of confidence, in Tony Gibbs and Darian Grubb’s influence with Tony, and just look forward to a lot of things.

It’s not a fresh start. I kind of refer to it as a clean piece of paper. It’s really not. I’ve still got all the notes from all the things I did wrong and all the things I did right, so I’m not going back to being a rookie with the 02 car in 2001. So it’s different from that. But at the same time I’m trying to achieve my goals and dreams, no different than I did then with somebody else.

Q. Are you going to try to get any kind of replica of the 500 car for your own collection?

Ryan: I don’t have any intentions.

Q. Who do you think is the championship favorite this year and why?

Ryan: That’s a very good question. I mean, the obvious is Jimmy. You can’t go against three in a row. There’s never been four in a row, but based off the stats you can’t go against him. I think Carl is going to be strong, and we saw Kyle struggle at the end of the year. For a while there we thought nobody could pull his cape off, and then it fell off and he never found it. You just never know. I have a lot of confidence in our situation with Stewart Haas, and I don’t see any reason why we can’t at some point dominate.

Q. I don’t have the stats to back it up, but it seems like most drivers that win a lot of races seem to do it with the same crew chief. How much input did you have in picking Tony Gibson, and why do you think he’ll be the guy that will put you on another one of those streaks?

Ryan: Honestly when I started talking to Tony it kind of opened my eyes not knowing what my career decision was going to be. I’ve never been one to how do you say it communicate a whole lot in what we call the “trailer park.” I’ve kept to myself, but I kind of opened up a little bit this year, got to know a few more people, and thought a lot of what Tony Gibson did with Mark Martin and Aric Almirola this year. Obviously he has a lot of experience, but not just plain racing experience, but he’s got experience with Hendrick Motor Sports, but he’s got experience with Darian Grubb over there. In the end Tony Gibson is ultimately a great racer, and I believe that a great racer makes a great crew chief. I don’t have a lot of experience with those calls. I don’t know if he’s going to call four tires every time. I don’t know a lot of those things, and I have also said in the last week or so that I don’t think there’s going to be some revelation and chemistry. I think chemistry just happens. It’s not something you create. It just happens, and I see that that has a high potential for happening with the two of us.

Q. Back to the right rear tire, you said earlier that you’re starting to see a lot more guys ride off that right rear tire, and given your experience and where you came from, do you think that this eventually is going to play more into favor like you and Tony and Gordon and Kasey Kahne, guys who came up from that?

Ryan: I think it does. I’m not saying that guys that can’t drive a car sideways aren’t going to succeed, but in general we’ve seen cars running way more sideways now in the last year and a half with the new car than we ever have. If you look at some of the things Carl Edwards has done and Kyle had a car crossed up, I can’t remember exactly where it was, but I can picture Jimmy’s car off of turn 2 someplace just completely sideways and he goes on and wins the race. You wouldn’t have saw that four or five years ago. If your car was sliding that much you were never going to succeed. You couldn’t fix that. You were three laps down at the end of the race. I don’t know if it’s a factor of the car or the tires or just the additional horsepower that we have. We’re over 100 horsepower up from where we were five, six years ago, which is huge. I mean, that’s 25 percent at times. That driving off the right rear sensation not so much driving it with the cup car as it is driving it sideways or yawed out.

Q. Kevin Harvick won the 500 in 2006 and hasn’t won since. You won the 500 last year and haven’t won since. Is that just an odd coincidence?

Ryan: God, I hope so (laughter). You know, I’ve become closer friends with Kevin in the last year, and I know it’s not for lack of effort on either of our parts. Just hopefully coincidence as it may.

Q. Going back to the people on the team, how important is it to have the right people doing the right things and working together? A lot of people think racing is all mechanical, but it’s been my experience that it’s people driven.

Ryan: It’s 100 percent people because without the people, you can’t have the mechanical. You know, I learned that in the last three or four years especially, just trying to like I said, I don’t think you can there’s no development equation for chemistry. It’s just like or the generic term for chemistry. You have it or you don’t. Like you said, or somebody said earlier, you’ve got Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham, myself and Matt Borland, Kasey Kahne and Kenny Francis have had it at times and the obvious would be Jimmie Johnson. I look forward to working with Tony Gibson and trying our hand at creating the ultimate chemistry.

Herb Branham: Ryan, thanks very much. Appreciate it.