Team members look on as Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, speaks with the media during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway on Jan. 23 in Concord, N.C. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

DARIAN GRUBB, crew chief, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How do you feel starting 2012 with a new team? “It feels really good to be a part of Joe Gibbs Racing. The professionalism that they have is pretty impressive. It’s good to be a part of that. Yeah, we had a lot of turmoil at the end of the year last year — still came out all positive. Won the championship and won five races. Came out of there with my head held high and then went on to my next endeavors. I’m really looking forward to getting a new chapter started at Joe Gibbs Racing.”

Do you look at this as a new challenge? “I definitely do. I feel like I’ve checked a lot of things off the bucket list and now it’s time to go out there and just race for fun and try to win races and win championships. It’s a whole new endeavor and a lot of new people and a lot of new faces to learn and learn how to deal with and how to talk to them. I’m really looking forward to that.”

How different are Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Hass Racing in their operations? “It’s very similar. The work that everybody does in the Cup Series is very even across the field. The competition level is so high. It’s hard for anybody to really be that far behind and these guys are definitely on top of their game when it comes to the technology side of things, the engineering, support they have from Toyota. I’m really looking forward to learning all those different people and the different aspects of the sport and try to make the 11 FedEx team stronger.”

How much confidence do you bring to the team coming off your 2011 championship? “It’s really exciting for me just because coming in talking to the guys in the shop you can tell there’s just the attitude there that they just felt like they were beat down because they had such a bad year in 2011 and now there’s just a breath of fresh air. They know that I was lucky enough to go out there and win that championship. They all want a piece of that. They know how close they were and everybody just realizes now it’s all about just having fun, working in one direction so we’re all going out there trying to win races and put ourselves in the Chase with a chance to go for that championship.”

What have you learned about Denny Hamlin? “He’s (Denny Hamlin) a really good character. He’s a fun guy. He likes to joke with the guys and carry on and that’s a big part of it. We want to have Denny included in the team and make sure he’s one of the guys that’s leading the team. He has to be a leader and make sure all those guys are following him. He’s the guy that everybody shows up to work for every morning and as long as he’s connected to us we’ll be working our hardest for him.”

Is your experience an advantage for you and your new team? “I definitely think so. Working with Chad Knaus (crew chief, No. 48) and the Hendrick Motorsports group was a great learning experience for me. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the greats all the way through even back to my first days in Cup with Dale Inman at Petty Enterprises — just went into the Hall of Fame — so there’s guys like that that I have learned a lot of lessons from. I hope to take all those things and put them to my best use.”

What are your thoughts on moving from Chevrolet to a Toyota team? “It’s definitely different. It’s a different mentality about the way they approach the race cars and the race track, the data and what they do with it. But then again, everything this year is different because of the EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) introduction for NASCAR. There’s a lot of new things. There’s a lot of new technology and we’re all kind of growing with that as well. I haven’t seen anything that’s a weak link. We’re looking forward to going out there and hitting the race track.”

How is the communication among your team and with Toyota? “They work together really well there at Joe Gibbs Racing with the Toyota development program and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) engines and all those things. The communication level probably needs to be picked up a little bit because there was a lot of things new. I think most of that just comes from the fact that fuel injection (EFI) and all those things are being introduced this year and we’ve got a lot of new people, new faces that we’re trying to get introduced and make sure everybody is doing the right thing at the race track, so we’re looking forward to that and getting those relationships built.”

Is it an advantage to have one full-time Toyota team to work with in Michael Waltrip Racing? “I think it’s a little easier because now we have the one team that we can go out there and lean on as far as technology. We know as long as we’re both going in one direction with TRD (Toyota Racing Development) that support is going to follow.”

DAVE ROGERS, crew chief, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How was Joe Gibbs able to bring these three crew chiefs together? “I think if you look back at Joe Gibbs’ (team owner) career, he’s been really good at that. He says he hires good people and let’s them do their job. I think he’s made a home run right now with putting Darian (Grubb, crew chief, No. 11), Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief, No. 20) and I together — I hope it does come across as magic. The people part is so big and our personalities just mesh. When you wake up in the morning and you enjoy going to work and work with the people you work with — that makes such a big difference. I think that bleeds throughout the entire company. I think right now all 400 employees at Joe Gibbs Racing see how excited Jason, Darian and I are to work with each other. Whether that’s magic or Joe and J.D. (Gibbs, president, JGR) doing their job — I don’t know — just excited to be part of it.”

Will the three JGR NSCS teams be more unified this year? “I think the best way to answer that is to look back at 2007, 2008 and 2009 on the Nationwide side. When I moved over to the Nationwide shop in 2006, there wasn’t a whole lot of win banners hanging on the wall. I’m not telling you that I went over there and hung a lot — I think the teamwork and the team chemistry between Jason (Ratcliff) and I being able to lead the group and get the entire Nationwide shop to go in one direction as one unified team — I think that’s what hung all those banners. Jason and I know that. We know that we were only a small part of it. It was really the direction that we provided and the guys back in the shop just slugging it out and making it happen. Jason and I know that if we provide that type of leadership that we have 400 of the best employees in the business sitting at Joe Gibbs Racing. We know they will respond and provide really good race cars and our drivers are all top notch — all three of them. I think Darian (Grubb) really respects the relationship that Jason and I had and I think he wants to be part of that. From all signs, he’s trying to be part of that. I think you’re going to see one unified team with three race cars every Sunday.”

Does having TRD (Toyota Racing Development) build engines this year allocate more resources for you? “The engine program has always been a separate entity from the crew chief’s perspective. Mark Cronquist (JGR engine builder) has always provided engines for us and now the engines are coming from Costa Mesa (Calif.). I think what it does do is gives us better resource allocation. Last year we were putting a lot of our resources into the engine basket — TRD (Toyota Racing Development) was putting a lot of their resources into the engine basket and we were getting redundancy. Now we’re able to eliminate some of that redundancy. We still have Mark Cronquist as an integral part of TRD so he’s providing that tribal knowledge that’s crucial. We’re going to better use our resources and hope we have a stronger product. We had our documented issues last year, but I’m a team player and I support our engine room. I wouldn’t have traded anything last year for nothing. We wish we didn’t have the failures, but that’s part of racing and I’ll take it. There are a lot of things in this sport that you wish didn’t happen.”

What can help to make the Toyota engines stronger? “I think the combination of Mark Cronquist working with TRD (Toyota Racing Development) — Mark is going out to Costa Mesa (Calif.) every week. He’s always out there working with their lead designer and there’s a lot of work going on between Joe Gibbs Racing and TRD. I think that combined effort will make the engines better. You have to look at the Toyota package — back before the gear rules when people could turn 10,000 or 10,500 RPM — Toyotas were the team to beat. Their package that they have designed is designed around a high rev limit and no gear rule. When NASCAR implemented the gear rule, in some regards to that, has out-dated the Toyota motor. It’s nothing that Toyota has done wrong, it’s nothing that Joe Gibbs has done wrong — it’s just what it is. I know that the Toyota folks are working on some stuff to produce a better motor that works in the 9200 RPM range that we operate in today. Over the course of the next couple years, we would like to see NASCAR make some rule changes to open that box a little bit. We’re not going to use that as an excuse. We’re going to demand that TRD and Mark Cronquist and all of our guys put their heads together to produce as much horsepower with the given rules as possible. We’ll take that to the race track and try to win races.”

How do you feel about Kyle entering the 2012 season running less NNS and NCWTS races? “Each year Kyle (Busch) gets older and older and he gets more mature and more dedicated. I think he re-dedicates himself every off-season and he’s made some personal decisions this year to free up more time for him to focus on the Cup program and help us get to where we want to be. I think he’s doing a good job of it. I think cutting out some of the Nationwide races and taking a step back — he’s done some other things at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) to hire some really good people. I know Mike Beam (crew chief, No. 54 NNS) is over there now. Rick Ren (general manager, KBM) is still working hard. He’s hired some really good people that can give that company direction with a little less involvement from him. The less time he has to spend at KBM working on that deal, the more time he has for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 18 and I think that is going to add up at the end of the year.”

Will you get less feedback from Kyle not running as many NNS races? “I think there’s pluses and minuses — there’s days where we’ve gotten really good feedback and there’s days — Bristol comes to mind. Right before the Bristol race we made some radical setup changes to our car based on how the Nationwide Series race went and the track didn’t go through the same transition in the Cup Series as it did in Nationwide. We felt like we dialed ourselves out. There’s other times where it’s played to our favor and we’ve seen other track transitions — made adjustments accordingly and it worked for us. I think if you look at it — Carl Edwards is backing off, Kyle’s (Busch) backing off, Jimmie Johnson hasn’t done it — those are the guys you are going to have to race against. Denny Hamlin hasn’t done it. They’re all freeing up their schedule for a reason. It’s not because it’s a competitive disadvantage. That’s the way I look at it. There’s never a win-win — there’s always a compromise. I do think Kyle will have more time to just relax and spend some time with Sam (Samantha Busch, wife) and freshen up a little bit. That is going to help us out.”

Have you seen any changes in Kyle from the end of last season? “He’s (Kyle Busch) the same old Kyle. Our fans are going to see the same aggressive driver. I think it would be terrible for our sport if Kyle changed all together. There’s some things we all love about him. Some boo, some cheer, but everyone loves the fact that he gets out of the car and does his bow. That’s Kyle Busch and that makes NASCAR, NASCAR. He’s matured — he’s definitely matured. We talked about it and each year he’s done a little bit of growing up. Last year, we were talking about his wedding. This year, we can talk about the end of the season. All of us were young kids at some point. All of us made mistakes. Hopefully, most of us learned. Kyle’s a very intelligent person. He’s had a lot of consequences to deal with for his mistakes. He’s gone through a lot of remorse and I think in the end it’s going to make him a better person and he’s going to make better decisions based on it. We’re still going to have Rowdy Busch driving our race car and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Did you think you would have the opportunity to be a Cup Series crew chief? “You know, you set goals — and I was telling the guys when they brought me over — and you kind of have this motion picture that runs in your head. We play it out like we think it’s going to be and then you get to a point like this and you think, ‘Wow, that’s way better than what I had.’ This script is way better — I couldn’t have planned it this well. I think as humans, hopefully we all set goals and hopefully they’re somewhat intimidating. If they’re not, then we’re selling ourselves short. To think I would be in this series one day and have these kind of opportunities — sure I thought I was capable of doing that if the right opportunity came along. Did I think I would be with an organization like Joe Gibbs Racing and working with a great talent like Joey Logano, with Toyota and Home Depot and Dollar General and all these — working alongside guys like Kyle Busch? The opportunity that I’ve had with him over the last three or four years — to win championships and win races and set new records — it’s crazy. You set your goals high and you hope you can go out there and accomplish them. To really look back, it’s way bigger than what I could ever imagine. It’s a tremendous blessing across the board.”

How will it be working with Joey Logano this year? “A lot of times when you work with a new driver, it takes a couple of events just to get aware with what they like and get that communication going. I feel like stepping in here, I’ve worked with Joey (Logano) enough on the Nationwide side and I’ve known Joey for a long time. I know him well enough to know where I can build confidence with, obviously fast race cars. I kind of got a feel for what he wants and each driver’s different. Even though the setups are going to be very similar, I think I know enough about Joey to put that detail and he’s going to be able to go out there and be competitive from the beginning. I’m glad that we’ve had that opportunity over the years to work close enough together and communicate in a race-type situation that we can come out of the box running.”

How will the new crew chiefs at JGR help shape the team’s future? “I think just the relationship that I’ve had with Dave (Rogers, No. 18 crew chief) from our Nationwide days is hopefully going to be a plus. We were able to build a pretty strong Nationwide program. Dave and I started working together in 2006. So we’re like-minded in a lot of ways, but in a lot of ways we’re not. The thing that we learned was to really take advantage of a multi-car team. At that time we were two cars in the Nationwide Series and now we’re three teams. You have to find that compromise at the end of the day and you have to be willing to push each other and challenge each other. At the end of the day, sitting across the table and shake hands and say, ‘Yeah man, that’s a great idea, I’m going to give you a little on this one and take a little on that one.’ At the end of the day we’re going to go out there and try to beat each other and most importantly, we’re going to try to beat the other 40 cars out there. I think that relationship with Dave and I hopefully encourages Dave and encourages me to be back in the same building with him. Then for Darian (Grubb, No. 11 crew chief), I just think a new look — not that we don’t think outside the box on a daily basis, but a lot of times you can’t see the forest through the trees so to speak. Great ideas — brilliant crew chief in Dave Rogers and really this whole shop, Darian alluded to it earlier, our engineering program, the group we have is phenomenal. I’d put them up against anyone. They impress me quite often, usually daily which I don’t have an engineering background, so it doesn’t take a lot to impress me, but they do a phenomenal job. I’m so excited about working with that group. I’ve been working with a lot of those guys even on the Nationwide side. Darian brings in a different thought process, opens our minds to some different things. Maybe some things we overlooked or kind of set on the back burner and he opens that back up and we’re like, ‘Yeah.’ So, he’s spurring that thought process. Just sitting down with us over the last week and a half and really brainstorming about what you talked about. How do you make this program better? How do we get it back to where it was two or three years ago? These guys, when Denny (Hamlin) was out there winning seven, eight races and battling for championships. That’s what we’re pulling for. The whole Joe Gibbs (Racing) organization, 400-plus employees in the Cup shop and 60-something employees in the Nationwide division — it’s a great group of people and one thing I can say about them is they all really work close together. They challenge each other and they make it a point and you’re extremely aware of the compromise it takes to work with that many teams. At the end of the day, we encourage each other and challenge each other.”

What do you think you have to offer to Joey Logano this season? “I think it’s really simple. I don’t think it’s much different than it would be for any of us, especially at that age. There’s no substitute for experience, obviously. The thing that I would be thinking if I was in his (Joey Logano) shoes would be, ‘Can I do this? What am I missing? What do I need to do as a driver?’ I think that a lot of those pressures have been put on him that weren’t really his problems. I think building some confidence is going to be a big deal and I think I can see that already going into some pre-season meetings. He’s excited about opportunities. Really, it’s not so much good team, bad team, doing things right, doing things wrong — sometimes it’s just taking a different approach. Sometimes it’s just painting a different picture. Hopefully that’s what I can do is just paint a different picture and look at things from a different perspective and really build a team for Joey. There was a successful team that Joey stepped into years ago, that had won championships and won races and done all the things that you could want to do in this sport. Even though it was a great race team, sometimes when those things are not built around you that chemistry may or may not be there. It’s too early to tell that. My focus is making sure all that we do — even though the guys are the same on this No. 20 team — is really making it about Joey and trying to craft it and mold it to fit him and to build the chemistry we need.”

Source: Toyota Motorsports, Press Release

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR)

Lucas, who has spent the past two seasons as the race engineer for the No. 18 team, replaces Jason Ratcliff, who was named crew chief for JGR’s No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team last month. Lucas’ background in racing is deep with extensive experience as an engineer and mechanic in NASCAR as well as CART and IndyCar racing.

“Matt has done a great job for us the past two years and he will provide the team continuity going into next season,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. “He has a close relationship with Jason (Ratcliff) that will also be beneficial as he fills that role. We are fortunate to have people here at JGR like Matt that allow us the opportunity to promote from within. That team has been one of the best in the Nationwide Series over the past several years and we look forward to Matt continuing to build upon that success.”

Prior to joining Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of the 2010 season as race engineer for the No. 18 Nationwide Series team, Lucas spent four seasons with Roush Fenway Racing as a Nationwide Series engineer. As a member of the No. 60 team from 2006-2008, he would help lead Carl Edwards to the 2007 Nationwide Series Championship. In 2009 he worked with the No. 98 car driven by Paul Menard.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead our No. 18 team going into next season,” said Lucas. “We have a tremendous group of guys on this team and throughout our Nationwide shop and we plan to continue to deliver the type of success our sponsors expect and deserve.”

Lucas spent five seasons as a race engineer with Penske Racing prior to joining Roush Fenway. In addition, he has extensive experience in racing as a mechanic having worked with A.J. Foyt Racing in IndyCar and Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers in CART.

He is a graduate of Cedarville College in Cedarville, Ohio and currently lives in Mooresville, N.C.

About Joe Gibbs Racing:

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR, currently fielding three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, three NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and a driver development program. Its driver lineup consists of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series, while Brian Scott joins those three in the Nationwide Series along with Michael McDowell and Mark Martin. JGR also boasts Darrell Wallace, Jr. in its driver development program and he will compete in the 2012 K&N Pro Series East and the Nationwide Series. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs – a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame – JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning three Cup Series championships, and three Nationwide Series owner’s championship along with more than 150 NASCAR races, including three Brickyard 400s and the 1993 Daytona 500.

- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release

Joe Gibbs & Kyle Busch Kobalt Tools 500(k) Press Conference

JOE GIBBS, owner, Joe Gibbs Racing Opening Statement:

Audio: 2011 NSCS Kobalt Tools 500(k) Press Conference with Joe Gibbs & Kyle Busch

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Opening Statement: “First of all, obviously this has been quite a trying week for myself and my wife (Samantha Busch) and everybody at M&M’s, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports, Interstate Batteries — all the above. For me, I’m upmost apologetic to everybody that has been going through this situation and there’s no one to blame but myself. I’m here today to basically say that I apologize to everyone involved in this ordeal. Joe (Gibbs, team owner) has been a huge supporter of mine through all of this and I can’t say enough about him, all the folks at JGR, all the guys on my M&M’s team and we’re here to say we want to learn from this. We want to move on. Certainly there’s some remorse from my side and to be apologetic to the M&M’s brand and all of those folks that put their heart and soul into this NASCAR program for years, and we want to continue that relationship down the road. There’s an opportunity for me to become a better person, to grow and learn from this and I’m looking forward to those days. Knowing that, I’m sure I’ve lost respect with my team, with my sponsors, with my peers, and I understand those consequences. I understand my actions last weekend were uncalled for, were disrespectful and that I’m here to make sure that I can continue on in a positive manner and make it to where everybody believes in me from this week forward. That’s about it.”

***Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs Q&A from the press conference below***

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How have you been able to recover from the penalty last weekend? “Like I mentioned before, it’s certainly been a trying week. This has been a situation where I never could have dreamed it could have happened and I don’t wish it upon anybody. For me, certainly I’ve had a lot of time to sit and reflect and think and decide and look at what the future entails. For me, my future, I want to be with Joe Gibbs Racing, I want to be in NASCAR, I want to be driving the M&M’s Toyota. For all of that to work out and to work together, certainly it’s going to be through a lot of my efforts and my efforts behaviorally. I have a strong path ahead that I’m excited about and looking forward to, and l earning and growing and understanding that the ground that I’ve made this year has been awesome. Obviously, there was a moment that took away from all of that, but I’m certainly not opposed to continuing that growth pattern.”

Are you confident you can adjust your mental approach and still be successful? “I don’t think there was any doubt that anybody was wanting me, or saying that I needed to , change on the race track. There’s a fact that there’s things that go on on the race track that make you competitive, that give you that spirit, that will to win and some days when a bad decision is made it deters from that. So, obviously there’s more behavioral issues than there is competitive issues, and that’s what I think we’ll build on.”

Have you had any contact with Ron Hornaday Jr.? “I have had conversations with Ron Hornaday. I called him. I don’t remember what day it was, but it was within a day or two of the incident, so yeah. We had a discussion — a conversation that ended well. We hung up and I’m still invited over to the house to stay on the couch if I need it, so that’s good.”

Have you seen what your fellow drivers have had to say on Twitter? “You know what the great thing about Twitter is? You can also turn it off. So, I haven’t been on. I haven’t paid any attention.”

Did you know some drivers came to your defense? “Well, that’s great and I do appreciate that. It’s a tough situation for me to be involved in, but there’s no one to blame but myself. For some people and some competitors out there that have stuck their head out there and have maybe been supportive of this whole deal — that’s awesome. I can’t say enough. I do know that I do have friends out there on the race track. I do know that there’s people on the race track that I can trust, that I can race around that still do respect me. And, there’s a few others that maybe not and you know those people when you’re racing around them on the race track, so you’re conscious of all of that. But, any support that I have been getting this week is tremendous, becau se it — like Joe (Gibbs, team owner) said — it’s given me a future and a bright future.”

Do you think the consequences are justified and fans have a right to be upset? “Your question in regards to the backlash, and the consequences and everything, understandably so. Yeah, there’s been a lot of upset people and that’s to be understood for the actions that I made and I made a decision. But, like I said, it’s certainly a way to learn from, to understand, to grow and to move on.”

Did you feel like you were going to lose your Sprint Cup Series ride? “Obviously, emotions run high and I think emotions ran high on everyone this week, including myself, which obviously started the whole ordeal. For me, when you sit back and reflect and think about everything and you’re sitting there on the sidelines on Saturday — you’re sitting there watching your car race on Sunday — that’s a huge deal. That’s a huge disappointment not only to myself, but more importantly to my team. All of these guys at Joe Gibbs Racing that had nothing to do with Friday night — I feel a tremendous amount of remorse for. And, so I’ve got to gain their respect back. Was there a point in which I thought, ‘Do I have a ride?’ Of course there was. Yeah, I thought that. Was there a point in which Joe (Gibbs, team owner) ever told me that, ‘Hey, we’re looking at terminating this?’ No. Joe has been there and has stuck by my side and has held my arm through this whole deal and I can’t say enough about the man sitting next to me.”

Were you surprised at NASCAR’s reaction and the penalty? “I wasn’t surprised at NASCAR’s reaction. I felt like it was a decision that they needed to make and I respect that decision and I took the consequences and the repercussions of that and we’re still dealing with them today and we’ll still deal with them for a while. There’s no question.”

Do you think NASCAR needs to have a clearer definition for what is acceptable and what isn’t on the race track? “In regards to whether or not there is a clear or definite line — no there’s not. Will there ever be? No. I think this sport has been driven for so many years off that rule book and how to find the gray area. And the gray area with the crew chiefs, with car chiefs, with our body hangers back at the shop trying to figure out exactly how far we can go — you go that far and you push the envelope and sometimes you get slapped or maybe a little bit worse than that. And I think we saw that this past weekend. Whether all of the drivers want a clear or definite line I don’t know that we’ll ever see that. You’ve got to be smarter. I certainly was not smart in my actions on Friday night and I get that. So, for me, the decision needs to be different come next time around in the heat of the moment. It’s like when you’re that close to fire are you just going to stay warm or are you going to get burned by it and obviously this week I definitely got burned by my own fire.” – more -

What do you have to do to reconnect with your fans? “That’s something else that may be in the process down the line on how to reconnect with the fans and have them have a better understanding of who I am. Certainly, I do appreciate any of the fan support that has been out there. I hope people, whether it be Twitter or wherever, do recognize that it’s not in my best mindset to be on there reading all of the — whether it be positive or negative — comments. So, for me, I appreciate my fan base and I know that they’re out there. I know that there’s a — whether it’s small or whether it’s large — there’s fans that do support Kyle Busch and do support M&M’s, Interstate Batteries, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing — all of the folks in regards to all of that. For me, it’s something that I’ve come into this sport when I was 18-years-old — 16 got booted and came back when I was 18 — and it’s been a struggle for me since that day and certainly I’ve gained a bit of a fan base and may I have upset some people in the last week? Sure, but I’m here to do the best I can of my ability with the leadership of Joe (Gibbs) and J.D. (Gibbs) that we’ve already shown through this year and we’ll continue to show in the future that we want to be around here for a long time.”

JOE GIBBS, owner, Joe Gibbs Racing

When was the sponsorship plan for the final two races of the season resolved between JGR and Mars? “I think it was strictly a partnership, and you’re right, this was a big process and a lot of things to go through. I think it was a matter of just walking through them. I thought both of us — Mars and the race team — like I mentioned, a great partnership. There were a lot of things to consider and I think it took a while to walk through all that. I think we did it in a real partnership and great way and I think we reached the right conclusion. Again, it took us a while to do that.”

How have you seen Kyle Busch recover from last week’s events? “I would like to add to that, I watched Kyle (Busch) in the partnership here and I’d say over the last year, I know that from being there, the effort that he’s made. I think Kyle has done everything, his marriage to Sam and everything else, that we’ve had a chance to go through and watch him. I really think that he’s made great strides in a lot of ways. This is a shame that this took a step back here.”

Has Joe Gibbs Racing made any monetary concessions to Mars? “I think all of that is internal thing that we’re not going to discuss, but I think we’ve taken appropriate actions there. We’ve all talked it over and we know what we’re going to do. That’s not something I think we need to discuss.”

Are you confident Kyle Busch can adjust his mental approach and still be successful? “I think for me personally, we expect Kyle (Busch) — Kyle we think is a great driver. I think he’s gifted and this situation is totally different than that. We’re talking about an action or something here that when it comes to driving a race car, we want him to drive the race car and I know Mars does too. We want him to drive it the way he’s capable of driving it. We think he’s one of the gifted people when it comes to just being an athlete and doing the things you do and we expect him to drive the car that way and be himself.”

Was there ever any discussion to move the M&M’s sponsorship to another team? “No. There’s been no discussion about — like we said in 2012, I think Mars, Kyle (Busch), all o f us at our race team want to be together and moving forward there’s been no discussion about that. I think as far as Interstate (Batteries), it was just one of those things where in the discussions they felt like it was something they would like to do. There was nothing other than that. It was just as we discussed it as partners with all three of us.”

Did Z-Line Designs want Kyle Busch out of the No. 18 for the Homestead Nationwide Series race? “I think first of all on the Z-Line (Designs) discussion, we kind of felt like as a race team I’d take the responsibility for a lot of that, because we were kind of wanting to go for the next two races let Kyle (Busch) focus on Cup. And, so a lot of that came from the race team with Z-Line, so in a lot of ways a lot of those questions and everything should have been directed at us. We appreciate those guys. They’ve been awesome, so that was probably more of a race team decision in talking with Kyle too. We talked it over and said, ‘Hey, look. We’d like to spend the next two weeks, because we knew there was going to be a lot of attention and let him focus on Cup’.”

Are we going to see a different Kyle Busch that has to change or can he still have an edge on the race track? “Basically for us, J.D. (Gibbs), myself and our whole management team, we were there and we kind of walked through this with Kyle (Busch). We saw him and Samantha (Kyle Busch’s wife) and all of the things that we went through at Texas and everything else and I think we see that as an emotional thing. We know where his heart is and I think we were there realizing that we’ve got a lot of people that count on us and we wanted to walk through this with Kyle and we feel like our stand was we think Kyle can be a special person and a special athlete. And, we’re committed. And, like I said, we spent our last year kind of going through some things and I think they’ve been where Kyle has really stepped up and matured in a lot of ways.”

Does anything that transpired affect Kyle driving in the Nationwide Series or Truck Series next season? “I think as far as Kyle’s (Busch) schedule it’s something that we’ve talked about and we’re going to continue to work our way through that. Kyle has 40 something people working over there, we have a large number of our race team devoted to Nationwide, and so I think that’s something that we’ll just continue to work through. That’s one of the issues we talked about that we’ll continue to look at and discuss and work through with Kyle.”

Does this give another reason on how big image is to this sport and all sports? “We pride ourselves on that. We want to have the right image and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that we keep that or reinstate that or whatever we’ve got to do.”

How close were you to pulling Kyle Busch out of the Sprint Cup car this weekend? “As far as Aric (Almirola) goes, there were so many things going on in the first part of the week and on the weekend about how far the suspension from NASCAR was going to go, to the trucks have to leave early because they are going all of the way to Phoenix and all of the preparations you had to make. There were a lot of moving parts and so as a part of that we were trying to anticipate any and everything. So, we just simply said to Aric to check with him to see if he would be available, but that never became a real possibility and we’re happy to be where we are here today.”

Will anger management be something to consider for Kyle like you did with Tony Stewart in the past? “I think that will be something we continue to work through. One of the topics that Kyle (Busch) and ourselves and the race team and everybody will continue to work on. We’re going to set out to do whatever we think is best going forward.”

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release

Team owner Joe Gibbs speaks to members of the media after Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota, was parked for the weekend following an incident with Ron Hornaday Jr. in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. - Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

JOE GIBBS, owner, Joe Gibbs Racing Opening Statement:

At what point does the responsibility fall on your shoulders as the team owner? “I think the first part of that question, it definitely rests with me. I think when you own something and you’re the owner, you’re responsible and I think that question is kind of easy for me to answer. I take full responsibility for it and what we’re going to try to do now — you mention other things in the past and we tried to handle those things the right way and try and make to the right decisions. That’s certainly what we’re going to try to do with this.”

Audio: 2011 NSCS AAA Texas 500 Press Conference with Joe Gibbs Racing Owner Joe Gibbs on Kyle Busch

What was Kyle Busch’s reaction and the reaction from your partners? “I think, first of all, I met with Kyle (Busch) in his motorhome this morning and I think it was one of those personal conversations you have when a real tough situation like this comes up. I think for all of our other partners that are involved with this — there’s a number of them — and we haven’t even had a chance to get with everybody yet, so we’re still trying to go through that as best we can. We’ll be here the whole weekend trying to meet with everybody and try and work our way through this and handle it the right way.”

Is Joe Gibbs Racing considering any internal measures? “I think right now we’re just trying to handle the first things first for us and there’s so many things to consider and so many people to meet with. I think that’s our main concern this morning. I wanted to make sure I came over here and had a chance to meet everybody face-to-face and kind of tell where the team was. I think we’re still early in the process and we’re trying to work our way through it as best and fast as we can.”

Do you agree with the severity of the penalty and will you talk to Ron Hornaday and Kevin Harvick? “I think the first part of the question was the severity of the penalty. I think when you’re — I always trust NASCAR, I think they do a great job. They manage this series. It’s grown because of them and how they handle it. I have great faith in the decisions they make. We’ve been a part of this for a long time, we love it. We love being a part of it and we love this sport. I think our sport is where it is because of NASCAR and the way they handle things. This was a tough one for us, as I mentioned sometimes in life you go through tough things. You don’t like it but we’re certainly going to try and work our way through this one and do the right thing and try and handle it the right way.”

Do you expect any additional penalties from NASCAR and why did you put Michael McDowell in the No. 18 on Sunday? “I haven’t talked about that. I have no idea what else NASCAR is planning. We were just really with them this morning trying to handle this weekend. I think Michael (McDowell) has been in our cars before. He’s raced some for us and actually been in a car. So, we actually felt like in such a short notice — we like him a lot, we think he’s a great person. I think he was a natural choice for us.”

Do you think there will be any carry over from what happened through the rest of the season or into next year? “I don’t think you actually know. Different times I think drivers have problems or confrontations with somebody and I don’t know, that kind of plays over after a period of time. I don’t think I can probably answer that.”

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release

Sport Clips Racing

· LOGANO HELPING JGR No. 18 IN SEARCH FOR OWNER’S TITLE: While most people are used to seeing Joey Logano behind the wheel of the No. 20 Toyota in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, this weekend things will look a little different. Logano will pilot the No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota, normally run by Kyle Busch, this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway in an effort to help the No. 18 team win its third-straight NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship and fourth-straight for Joe Gibbs Racing as an organization. Logano was a part of the championship winning team from 2008, when he and several other drivers shared duties in the No. 20 JGR Toyota.

The last two seasons (2009, 2010), Kyle Busch and others have helped the No. 18 JGR team win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship. Heading into this weekend’s event at Chicagoland, the No. 18 team holds a 48-point lead over the No. 60 Roush-Fenway Racing team and a 100-point lead over the No. 6 Roush-Fenway Racing team with just seven races remaining. Busch, Kelly Bires, Michael McDowell and Drew Herring have all spent time behind the wheel of the No. 18 JGR Toyota during the 2011 season. It won’t be Logano’s first time ever driving the No. 18 in Nationwide Series competition. He drove the No. 18 Toyota during his rookie season of 2008 at Michigan, finishing seventh.

· SPORT CLIPS CONTINUES PARTNERSHIP WITH JGR AND LOGANO: Sport Clips, a national sport-themed hair-care franchise for men and boys that can be found in 38 states, will continue its partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway by sponsoring the No. 18 Toyota driven by Joey Logano. This will mark the second race of the season Sport Clips has rode on the side of the No. 18 and the eighth race overall they have sponsored a JGR racecar in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

The season has been a successful one for Sport Clips, as they’ve racked up two wins, coming with Denny Hamlin in Richmond and Logano at Daytona, a race Logano called the biggest win of his career. Founded in 1995, Sport Clips has over 810 stores nationwide, including 54 Chicago area locations. Sport Clips will also be the primary sponsor on the No. 18 Toyota at Dover International Speedway in October with Logano behind the wheel.

· LOGANO-BUSCH ONE-TWO BECOMING A NORM: Despite the fact that JGR teammate Kyle Busch is taking this weekend off in Chicago, the two recorded their 10th-career one-two finish a few weeks ago at Bristol in an amazing photo finish. In fact, both of Logano’s races at Chicagoland Speedway have resulted in one-two finishes between he and Busch. In 2009, Logano beat Busch to the checkers, while last season, it was Busch getting the upper hand. Logano and Busch have finished first and second in 10 races since the start of the 2009 season. Of those 10 head-to-head battles, Logano has won four (Nashville 2009, Kentucky 2009, Chicago 2009, Kansas 2009) and Busch six (Loudon 2009, Texas 2010, Chicago 2010, Dover 2010, Talladega 2011, Bristol 2011).

· CHASSIS: The JGR team will take chassis #132 to Chicagoland Speedway. That chassis last raced at Loudon, where Logano ran in the top-five much of the race before two late spins ended his day early. The team will take chassis #117 as a backup.

· STAT OF THE WEEK: 7, 16, 22 The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team has recorded seven wins, 16 top-five finishes and 22 top-10s this season. Drivers who have shared the ride this season include Kyle Busch (18 starts, two poles, seven wins, 16 top-10s), Michael McDowell (five starts, one pole, four top-10s), Kelly Bires (two starts, one top-10) and Drew Herring (one start, one top-10) behind the wheel.

· THE RACE: The Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland Speedway (Joliet, IL; 1.5-mile D-shaped oval) is set for Saturday afternoon, September 17th, 2011. The race will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. EST, with radio coverage on MRN starting at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Joey Logano Quotes:

“I’m ready to get back in the Nationwide car this weekend at Chicagoland. Chicago has been a really good track for me on the Nationwide side. I’ve got a first and a second in my two races there. That is a pretty good track record I guess. And it’s a track that I like a lot. There are some similarities to Kentucky, where we’ve always been pretty good as well. Kentucky, Kansas and Chicago have been three really good tracks for me in my Nationwide Series career and I’ve won at all three, so that goes to show you we’ve always been strong on the 1.5-mile tracks.

This year, we haven’t been as strong on the mile-and-half tracks with the new Nationwide Series car, but we are getting there. We are learning things at each track we go to and using that to make the cars better for the next time we go back to one. We’ve got our work cut out for us because some of the other cars have been really strong on the intermediate tracks, but I have total confidence in my guys. Every time we unload at the track, I feel like we have a shot to win and it will be no different this weekend.

“The crazy thing about this weekend will be driving the No. 18. It will be weird to climb in the window of the car and see the No. 18 on the side instead of the No. 20. But that is what we need to do as an organization to help the No. 18 team win the Owner’s Championship. This team has had a lot of great runs this year and won a lot of races with Kyle. Hopefully we can go out there and get another win and help extend that points lead. And, at the end of the year, it would be pretty cool to know you were a part of helping the team win a third-straight Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship and four-straight for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Championship team from 2008 when we won it with the No. 20 team. That was an amazing feeling and started a pretty strong stretch for JGR as an organization. I know Joe (Gibbs), JD (Gibbs), Steve (DeSouza) and everyone associated with the Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide program takes great pride in it and that winning the Owner’s Championship is something we want to do going into the year. To be able to win four-straight Owner’s titles, especially with the number of different drivers who have been in the No. 18 this year and the really tough competition that the Nationwide Series has this year, would be amazing feat.”

- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR)

Truex is currently slated to drive in a total of six Nationwide Series races for JGR this season, with the first coming on the 1.5-mile oval track in Atlanta during Labor Day Weekend. In addition to Atlanta, Truex is set to drive the No. 20 Nationwide Series Toyota in Richmond, Chicago, Dover, Kansas, and Phoenix.

“Having Schick Xtreme3 come on board with me for Atlanta is exciting,” said Truex. “Schick Xtreme3 is all about performance and flexibility, the same things I’ll focus on out there on the racetrack! I can’t wait to get back competing with Joe Gibbs Racing in the #20 Schick Xtreme3 Toyota Camry.”

Truex has excelled at every level of racing, as he won two K&N Pro Series East Championships for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) in 2009 and 2010. In 2009 he joined now JGR teammate, Joey Logano, as the only driver to win both K&N Pro Series Rookie of the Year honors and the Championship in the same year. He made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in 2010, earning an outside pole at Michigan and three top-15 finishes in just his first seven races.

Truex is the younger brother of Martin Truex Jr. who currently drives the No. 56 Toyota in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

About Joe Gibbs Racing:

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR, currently fielding three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, three NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and a driver development program. Its driver lineup consists of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series, while Brian Scott joins those three in the Nationwide Series along with Michael McDowell, Drew Herring, Ryan Truex, and Kelly Bires. JGR also boasts Max Gresham in the K&N Pro Series East and Darrell Wallace, Jr. in its driver development program. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs – a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame – JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning three Cup Series championships, and three Nationwide Series owner’s championship along with more than 150 NASCAR races, including three Brickyard 400s and the 1993 Daytona 500.

- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR)

Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS) will have shuttles running from the festivities at the track to JGR’s shop at 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM. In addition, fans are welcome to drive themselves to the team’s Huntersville headquarters.

In celebration of JGR’s 20^th Anniversary the team will offer fans 20% off non-sale items in their gift shop, which includes a new line of 20^th Anniversary apparel.

The 2011 GameStop showcar and trailer will be out front of the building which includes gaming stations with access to PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii games including Grand Turismo 3. In addition, the lobby will be open for self-guided tours with a large viewing area of the team’s shop floor. Fans will also have an opportunity to get an up close look at the team’s showcars, which will be on display in the lobby and watch JGR’s 2010 highlight video in the auditorium.

CMS will be hosting Charlotte SpeedFest from 10 AM to 3 PM at the Speedway with track tours, monster truck rides, live music, a petting zoo, and autograph sessions with NASCAR celebrities including Kyle Petty and David Pearson. Fans can log on to www.charlottemotorspeedway.com for more information.

About Joe Gibbs Racing:

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR, currently fielding three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, three NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and a driver development program.  Its driver lineup consists of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series, while Brian Scott joins those three in the Nationwide Series along with Michael McDowell. JGR also boasts Darrell Wallace, Jr. in its driver development program. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs – a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame – JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning three Cup Series championships, and three Nationwide Series owner’s championship along with more than 150 NASCAR races, including three Brickyard 400s and the 1993 Daytona 500.

- Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

No. 4 Oreo/Ritz Chevrolet - Photo Credit: CIA Stock Photography

Question: Name the one driver other than Tony Stewart who has won the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in the last six years?

Answer: Kevin Harvick in 2007.

Beginning in 2005, Stewart has won the opening round of the Nationwide Series at Daytona every year with the exception of 2007, when Harvick proved victorious. In that race, Stewart finished eighth. Every other year, it’s Stewart who’s been to victory lane, and he’s done it driving for three different car owners – Joe Gibbs in 2008, Rick Hendrick in 2009 and Harvick in 2005, 2006 and 2010.

As he defends his DRIVE4COPD 300 win, Stewart will do it from familiar confines. He’ll again be behind the wheel of a No. 4 Oreo / Ritz Chevrolet Impala, and it will again be prepared by Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI).

Stewart’s history with KHI is strong. After 41 career Nationwide Series starts stretched out over five seasons, Stewart finally scored his first Nationwide Series victory when he won the 2005 season-opener at Daytona driving for what was then an upstart KHI. While it was Stewart’s first Nationwide Series win, it was also the first for the team owned by Harvick and wife DeLana. When Stewart came back to Daytona a year later and successfully reclaimed his victory, it was career win No. 2 for Stewart and career win No. 2 for KHI.

Now they’re back together at the racetrack that put KHI on the map and provided Stewart his long-awaited Nationwide Series victory. Ironically, Stewart has nine career Nationwide Series wins and KHI also has nine career Nationwide Series wins heading into this year’s DRIVE4COPD 300.

Coming right out of the box and winning on the Nationwide Series’ biggest stage has become a familiar storyline for Stewart, and if he is to repeat the performance yet again and go for four straight wins in the season-opener, it will be hugely appropriate as Stewart is carrying the colors of two products that always delight right out of the box.

His representation of Kraft Foods’ Oreo and Ritz brands on the No. 4 Chevrolet fielded by KHI is a byproduct of the company’s holistic partnership with Stewart and the Sprint Cup team he co-owns with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas – Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).

The iconic Oreo cookie and Ritz cracker brands are SHR’s official cookie and cracker, with Stewart and his Sprint Cup teammate Ryan Newman carrying the brand’s colors on their respective uniforms and cars. But adding some flavor to the pairing of Stewart and Kraft Foods is the No. 4 Oreo / Ritz Chevrolet. Just as it’s the figurative vehicle to carry the partnership of Oreo and Ritz with Stewart, it’s also the literal vehicle Stewart will use in his attempt to put Oreo and Ritz inside Daytona’s victory lane for a second straight year.

While there are a lot of similarities between last year’s race and this year’s, there is one major difference – the car. A new generation of Nationwide Series car is running full-time this season after a four-race rollout in 2010. While it’s akin to the kind of car Stewart competes with regularly in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, it’s still an unknown – at least to Stewart, whose first time in the new-generation Nationwide Series car will come this week in the practice and qualifying sessions that lead in to the DRIVE4COPD 300.

But with Stewart’s diverse racing background where in more than 30 years he’s driven and won in nearly every kind of racecar imaginable – from USAC Sprint Cars and Indy cars to NASCAR stock cars and dirt late models – the change, while substantial, is one that Stewart has quickly and successfully adapted to before.

So with one shot at a Nationwide Series win this season, for Daytona is the only Nationwide Series race he will contest in 2011, Stewart plans on being “won” and done when the checkered flag drops on the DRIVE4COPD 300.

Tony Stewart, Driver of the No. 4 Oreo / Ritz NASCAR Nationwide Series Chevrolet Impala at Daytona

Your first career Nationwide Series win came with KHI at Daytona in February 2005, and you won with them again at Daytona in February 2006, and again last year. What’s it like to be back driving for them at Daytona in 2011?

“I’m excited about it. I love Kevin and DeLana. They’re some of my best friends. I enjoy the opportunity to be able to drive with them again. I’ve had fun with them. It’s always nice to know that DeLana is there on race day and supportive of what we’re doing. She’s just as into it when Kevin’s behind the wheel. It’s fun. It’s like driving for some of your best friends.”

Three of your 15 career wins at Daytona have come with KHI. Can you talk about their preparation leading into that race?

“It’s a small team size-wise, but as far as equipment and everything, Kevin and DeLana prepare cars that are some of the best cars in the Nationwide series. To have a KHI car and to have Oreo and Ritz with us for that race, it makes for a potent combination.”

A lot of your success at Daytona in the Nationwide Series has been with KHI. Any reason for that in particular, or is it a combination of a lot of things?

“I think it’s because of the attention to detail that Kevin and DeLana put into their racecars. You see it in their Truck program. You see it in their Nationwide program. They just do everything first class. I always have the confidence when I get in one of their cars that I’m in just as competitive a car as I could be with any other organization out there. They’re first class, and that’s the kind of group that you want to be with when you do a one-off race like this.

You have that confidence. You don’t worry about anything. You know that they’re giving you the best equipment that you can get in that series. It’s always fun. It’s fun to drive for one of your good friends like Kevin and DeLana, but at the same time knowing that they’ve got really good racecars just tops it all off.”

Kevin and DeLana Harvick have said that you racing for them in the early years of KHI helped get their race team off the ground. As a still relatively new Sprint Cup team owner, can you see how valuable your time behind the wheel was for them?

“I think they underestimate what they did for themselves. They put together a great organization, which enabled me to win with them and for Kevin to win in his own car. They’ve had the capability and the opportunity to be in victory lane a lot since they started that team, and we’ve got another shot to get another win for them this weekend at Daytona.”

What do you know about the new Nationwide Series car? Is it like the current Sprint Cup car or are you just going off of what you’ve been told?

“I’m kind of going into it blind. I think the fact that the track is freshly repaved and is going to have a lot of grip – that will take away any of the issues that I would worry about on the handling side. I think the cars will drive really well. It’s just a matter of going out and doing our job.”

On that note, how much of a challenge will Daytona be because there will be two new variables – the track and a new car? Plus, you have a record to uphold.

“Well, it’s definitely going to be challenging. I think some of the things that we learned at the Cup test will most definitely apply to the Nationwide Series race, too. Having Harvick as a teammate down there will be a valuable asset to us, obviously. We’ll go do the best job we can for KHI and for Oreos and Ritz. We’ve been very fortunate the last few years. We’ll go down there and do the best we can and hopefully get another one.”

You’re used to jumping into unfamiliar racecars and adapting quickly. Is it from your upbringing in racing?

“I think so. It’s always hard when you get in a car with a different organization. The seats are always just a little bit different. Just everything, whether it’s switches on the dash to where the gauges are located, all that stuff just seems to be different. Having that ability to jump around from car to car is definitely an asset when it comes time to doing a one-off deal like this.”

How long does it take for you to get acclimated to a new car?

“As far as driving the car, it normally takes three to four laps, but with it being Daytona and as smooth as it is now, I think it’s going to make it that much easier.”

You’ve won the first race of the Nationwide Series season five times, including the last three. How nice is it to start the year with a win, and how much confidence does it give you going into the Daytona 500?

“It’s always a bonus when you can win on Saturday before going into the biggest race of the year on Sunday. To get a Nationwide win there, that’s how you like to go to bed the night before the Daytona 500, knowing that you’ve got that trophy sitting out there on your desk from what you did Saturday afternoon.”

How difficult is it to win one race at Daytona, never mind three in a row?

“Restrictor-plate races at Daytona are always a wild-card race. You never know who’s going to win. We were fortunate enough to win one and then back it up the next year. To do it back-to-back-to back is something we’re really proud of.”

What makes you so successful at Daytona, particularly in the season-opening Nationwide Series race?

“I don’t know. I’ve had a lot of luck there. A lot of it has just been being at the right place at the right time, and making calls that were a little edgy on pit strategy to put ourselves in position at the end. I’ve had great cars to drive every time there. We’ve just been one of those guys that everybody knows that when we’re out there, we’re a threat in that division. So when it comes to the end of it, we’ve had some pretty good help.”

In order to win a restrictor-plate race, you’ve got to have drafting help. How do you get that help?

“I think it’s more a situation of guys finding the fast cars, and you finding the guys that you know are going to go with you because they know you’re quick. If they go with you, they’re going to get you to the front, which is going to get them to the front. It’s kind of ‘help me, help you.’”

Are there certain guys you’ve worked with at restrictor-plate races in the past that you know you’re going to draft with?

“You have a list of guys that you know you’re drafting with, and then there’s another list of guys that you’re alright with, and there’s another list of guys that you don’t want to be around. So you always know who the guys are you want to be with and who you’d rather not see anywhere near you.”

Is there any strategy involved in running a restrictor-plate race, or is it just a matter of taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented?

“The strategy is making sure you’ve got somebody you can draft with. You have to take the opportunities as they come, but with those opportunities you have to make a very quick decision. You’ve got to think, ‘What happens if I try this and it doesn’t work? What are the ramifications going to be?’ You don’t have the luxury of sitting down and taking the time to analyze the situation. You’ve got to make a split-second decision. A lot of times it’ll work, but there are times when the decision that you made doesn’t work. But once you’ve committed yourself to doing something, there’s not much you can do about it.”

Are you going to bankrupt Kraft Foods, the parent company of Oreo and Ritz, because in addition to sponsoring you, they’re giving you and the race team all the product you want?

“We won’t bankrupt them from a cash standpoint, but we’re going to hurt them on product, for sure.”

Do you take a sense of pride in knowing that here’s another marquee company in Kraft Foods with some iconic brands, Oreo and Ritz, signing on with you, and you’re getting to represent them in one of the biggest races of the year?

“Yes. It makes me proud of my organization and the people we have here who have worked so hard to put us in those positions to have major companies like Kraft Foods come on board. It legitimizes what we’re doing here and shows that we’re a company that these Fortune 500 companies can have hope and faith in.”

The Car

Chassis No. 065: This is a brand new racecar that has only been tested in the wind tunnel. The DRIVE4COPD 300 will mark its first race of any kind.

Tony Stewart’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Career Profile At-A-Glance

Stewart will make a return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series on Saturday driving the No. 4 Oreo/Ritz Chevrolet Impala in the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway. It will be Stewart’s 11th career Nationwide Series start at Daytona. Stewart has five Nationwide Series wins at Daytona, and all of them have come in the season-opening race (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010). The DRIVE4COPD 300 will mark Stewart’s only Nationwide Series start for 2011. Stewart has a total of nine wins, six poles, 28 top-fives and 38 top-10s in 90 career Nationwide Series starts.

About Kraft Foods

Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Inc., (NYSE: KFT) is a global snacks powerhouse with an unrivaled portfolio of brands people love. Proudly marketing delicious biscuits, confectionery, beverages, cheese, grocery products and convenient meals in approximately 170 countries, Kraft Foods had 2010 revenue of $49.2 billion, more than half of which was earned outside North America. Eleven of the company’s iconic brands – including Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia and Trident – generate revenue of more than $1 billion annually, and 40 have been loved for more than a century. A leader in innovation, marketing, health & wellness and sustainability, Kraft Foods is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor’s 500, Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Ethibel Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com and www.facebook.com/kraftfoodscorporate.

- True Speed Communication Press Release

The site’s current Race Buddy and new NASCAR Fantasy Live programs will feature more detailed data available to NASCAR fans.

“The changes and additions we are implementing are geared toward making the NASCAR fan as excited and engaged in the sport as possible,” said Jason Williams, general manager of NASCAR.com

“We see NASCAR.com as the 24/7/365 presence of this sport. It’s always on, and it’s always available. And in some cases, it’s the first interaction a new fan has with NASCAR. So, we need to consistently deliver every single product available. It gets them more deeply engaged in the sport, or maybe even introduces them to something they have never experienced before.

“Our redesigned home page will have a lot of new data. Fans can actually watch it change during the race to reflect the status of the race. Our Truck Buddy partnership has continued to grow with SPEED. Every (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series) race will have a Truck Buddy this year. For our Race View product, it will be absolutely the most in-depth and in control a fan can get with both the action on track and some of the data.”

NASCAR.com is also launching the sport’s first fantasy product with live data through NASCAR Fantasy Live.

“This is a great move and a great innovation,” said Williams, “This is a partnership with NASCAR and a lot of the folks behind the data that comes out of a race. We can utilize the in-race data in a way that engages fans in real time.”

NHRA To Celebrate 60 Years; Muldowney to Greet Fans at 4-Wide Nationals

2011 Shirley Muldowney - Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography (HHP) for Charlotte Motor Speedway

“It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since we sat here and talked about building the Bellagio of drag racing,” Compton said. “At our awards ceremony last November, we presented Bruton [Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI)] with a ‘Wally’ trophy for what he’s done for our sport. We’ve never honored a non-driver like that before.”

Compton said that the NHRA will celebrate its 60th season in 2011 with “an homage to hot rods and our fans.” The celebration will include a number of special events, such as vintage car shows, cacklefests, tribute car races, meet-and-greets with legends and displays of the most famous cars to ever run in NHRA competition.

“The NHRA Legends program is how we will introduce our young fans to the glory of the past at races,” said Compton. “Those Legends will participate in special media events before and during races. A very special one is the Walk the Track program, where a lucky group of fans will get to walk the track before final eliminations on Sunday with one of the legends of our sport.”

The 60th anniversary celebration will begin in Pomona, Calif., at the 51st running of the Feb. 24-27 Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals. At that race, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme will be honored and a collection of his race cars will be on display in “The Snake Pit.”

“This year, we have compiled a list of the 60 greatest moments in NHRA history in chronological order,” said Compton. “We’re going to ask our fans throughout the season to exercise their expertise and passion to come up with the ranking of items on this list.”

Compton said Muldowney is on the list of 60 highlights. This summer marks the 35th anniversary of her becoming the first woman to win in Top Fuel in NHRA competition, which she did in Columbus, Ohio, in 1976.

“It wasn’t as hard as people might think [to be a woman in NHRA] because NHRA was the first sanctioning body in any sport to accept women as equal to men,” Muldowney said. “The media supported me from day one. I can’t even remember a bad experience with any member of the media.”

Muldowney will be the featured legendary driver at zMAX Dragway’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals April 14-17. She will sign autographs and there will be more than 20 historic race cars on display.

Dixon turned in a perfect final-round record on his way to becoming the 2010 champion. He commented on the buildup to the championship.

“It was certainly more than you can ever expect or imagine,” Dixon said. “I really didn’t think about it too much until we got to Indianapolis for the U.S. Nationals. We were nine for nine at that point. I thought, ‘Gosh, if I lose this one, nine out of 10 isn’t bad,’ but I did not want to lose Indy. We had the best light of the day and took it.

“My dad raced Top Fuel cars, not on the full tour like Shirley and Snake and Garlits. Ever since I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was drive Top Fuel cars. I was in Columbus watching when Shirley won her first race. I thought, ‘How cool is that? Not have to have a real job?’ That’s what I was about.”

A reporter asked Marcus Smith how his father Bruton got involved in building dragstrips for NHRA competition.

“He loves cars,” Marcus said. “He loves racing. Jeff Byrd [former general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway] was probably the reason he got involved in drag racing – he had all that experience with NHRA. When we bought Bristol, Byrd said we ought to build a dragway. Dad did it. They built Thunder Valley. Ever since then, it’s become another love of his in racing.

“I grew up in the NASCAR world, but now, it’s fantastic [to be involved with NHRA]. If you haven’t been there, you have to experience it. I haven’t been to a cacklefest before, so I’ll have to see one of those.

“We see the fan base. We see the excitement of the racing. There has been a lot of growth in the last 10 years. SMI has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in NHRA.”

Compton also announced the creation of a limited-edition pewter version of the Wally trophy that will be awarded during the 60th anniversary season.

Roush Gives Team Overview for 2011

Roush Fenway Racing founder and co-owner Jack Roush gave a preview of the 2011 season and his views on the state of NASCAR during the final day of the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour.

Roush noted that 2011 marks the 45th year he has been associated with Ford Motor Company. He also talked about his team’s relationships with its sponsors.

“All of our sponsors agree they continue to see NASCAR as the sport that’s very important to their marketing efforts,” he said. “They see Roush Fenway as an organization that’s a terrific investment and for good reason. For 2011, every Cup program has all new cars built. We have realigned our engineering department and we have new software to run our programs on.”

Roush said that the team’s NASCAR Sprint Cup cars are fully funded for 2011 and that the Nationwide Series entry to be fielded by Carl Edwards is sponsored for about half of the races.

“The economy is getting better,” Roush said. “The challenge now is to bring new partners into the sport.” Roush was joined on the media tour stop by Roush Fenway Racing’s four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers: Greg Biffle (No. 16 3M Ford), Carl Edwards (No. 99 Aflac Ford), Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Crown Royal Ford) and David Ragan (No. 6 UPS Ford).

Roush Fenway Racing Taking Green Initiative To Heart

2011 Roush Fenway Racing Team - Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography (HHP) for Charlotte Motor Speedway

In 2010, Roush Fenway Racing recycled 96 percent of the race cars it used during NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events. The organization also recycled 200,000 pounds of steel, 66 tons of waste and reduced energy consumption by using new lighting. Roush Fenway Racing is also not burning any fuel to heat its shops, as the company has incorporated a solar panel system that heats the floors of their buildings.

Company founder and co-owner Jack Roush hopes that the “green” efforts will encourage others to follow their lead.

“We want to lead by example,” said Roush. “What we are doing is only a small part in the scheme of things but we hope to change the culture and make for more awareness for energy reduction and recycling. In 2011 our initiative is for air cleaning. We have replaced our paint system with a water based system. There will be no fluorocarbons going into the air. We will also have a no-idling policy for our employees in starting their cars. It’s a small impact, but we are getting the message out. We are reducing our operating costs.”

Ford Racing Presents Special Award to Kennedy

The Ford Motor Company presented the Spirit of Ford Award to Kevin Kennedy, director of Ford Racing public affairs for PCGCampbell, during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour visit to Roush Fenway Racing.

The presentation marked just the 25th time in the 110 year history of Ford that the award had been given out. Previous winners include Jack Roush; NASCAR’s Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr.; and racing legends Mario Andretti, John Force and Richard Petty.

Kennedy was moved by the honor.

“I am humbled by this award because of all of those who have won it before,” he said. “I am really blessed that I have been surrounding by great PR people in my career at PCGCampbell. We work as a team and this is as much theirs as it is mine. It’s an honor to represent the Ford Motor Company.”

AFLAC Russ Catlin Award Winners Announced

In a ceremony held Thursday during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour visit to Roush Fenway Racing, five motorsports journalists received the Russ Catlin Award during the 26th annual Aflac Motorsports Journalism Awards of Excellence presentation.

The awards represent excellence in journalism covering motorsports and are named in honor of former newspaper writer Catlin, who was one of the first writers to cover NASCAR racing.

The Indiana School of Journalism judged the entries in five categories. Each award winner received a trophy and a $1,000 scholarship in their names to the schools of their choice.

The award recipients were: Daily News – Nate Ryan of USA Today; Other News – Chris Johnson of NASCAR Illustrated; National Broadcasting – Lauren Stovall of ESPN; Local Broadcasting – Brian Kessler of Fox News in Denver, Colo.; and Photo-Journalism – Marl Rebilis of US PRESSWIRE.

Joe Gibbs Racing Celebrates 20 Years in NASCAR with Special Guests

The NASCAR Sprint Media Tour stopped at Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) for a presentation celebrating that team’s 20-year history in NASCAR competition.

“Twenty years ago,” JGR owner Joe Gibbs said, “we had 16 employees working in a small leased building. Today, we have more than 400. This is a good time for us. We’ve had two of our most important sponsors re-up in the middle of this financial situation. We’re also adding a Nationwide team this year.”

Gibbs introduced Jimmy Makar, his team’s first crew chief and current vice president of racing operations. The former Washington Redskins coach described Makar as the architect who helped build his team.

“People ask me all the time why I went to work for a football coach who had never owned a race team,” Makar said. “At the time, their driver, Dale Jarrett, had never won a race. I was leaving a team owned by one of the most successful guys in NASCAR, Roger Penske, and their driver, Rusty Wallace, who had a championship and many wins.

“We bought a bunch of stuff from Rick Hendrick so we could get started. We had to design, find, and build a race shop. We had a few things working against us, but we got it together quickly.” Gibbs’ first driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was Jarrett, who brought the team its first Daytona 500 victory. Jarrett appeared at the Media Tour stop by video.

“What a day that was in 1993 at the Daytona 500,” he said, “bringing Joe Gibbs and Jimmy Makar their first and my first Daytona 500 victory. We started preparing for that victory in 1991 getting ready for the 1992 season. No one envisioned that in a little over a year we would be sitting in victory lane at Daytona International Speedway. Later, I got a call from Joe Gibbs telling me before we got to Richmond that he would be quitting his job as coach of the

2011 Tony Stewart with Joe Gibbs - Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography (HHP) for Charlotte Motor Speedway

Bobby Labonte drove for JGR from 1995 to 2005, during which time he won the 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

“What made the team click for that 2000 championship?” Labonte asked. “A lot of things were responsible, but Jimmy Makar and I were very tight. That had a lot to do with it.”

Tony Stewart came on board with JGR in 1997. On Stewart’s reputation for run-ins with NASCAR, Joe Gibbs said, “There were only a few times that were a little bit, uh. then, he became an owner and not one ripple. He doesn’t call Goodyear names, nothing. I wondered, ‘has he had a lobotomy?’ Then, two weeks ago, he came back [referring to Stewart's well-publicized altercation in Australia].

Stewart said, “Hey, I didn’t want you to think I was too far away.”

The 2011 JGR NASCAR Sprint Cup Series line-up includes Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Toyota), Kyle Busch (No. 18 M&M’s Toyota), and Joey Logano (No. 20 Home Depot Toyota). Brian Scott was recently added to drive a full season for JGR in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

2011 Miss Sprint Cup Lineup Announced

Sprint unveiled its 2011 Miss Sprint Cup lineup Wednesday night in Charlotte, N.C.

Miss Sprint Cup Lineup: (L-R)-Monica Palumbo, Paige Duke, Kim Coon

Duke has returned for a second season. Palumbo is back for a fourth year.

In addition to making appearances at charity events and NASCAR sponsors’ functions, the three Miss Sprint Cup representatives serve as the “fans’ friend on the inside,” offering behind-the-scenes access through regular video, photo and text updates to their social media followers on Twitter, Facebook and the NASCAR.com “Community” page. The Miss Sprint Cup lineup also greets thousands of race fans each weekend at the Sprint Experience, the mobile marketing display Sprint brings to every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event.

Quotes of the Day

Jack Roush on his 45-year relationship with Ford: “No matter how old you get, there is somebody that is older that has done more. I think I have been associated with Ford longer than anyone except the Wood Brothers. I am very proud to be associated with Ford all these years.”

NHRA legend Shirley Muldowney on her racing career: “It is amazing where this sport has taken me. Literally everywhere – at least 10 times. I was able to go to Japan for NHRA, where I ran the fastest times they have ever seen in a Top Fuel dragster. I’m told that record still stands. It’s given me a lifestyle, wonderful friends, people that I’ve relied on. To be part of the NHRA’s 60-year anniversary is an honor.”

J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR, on hiring Tony Stewart: “For 1997, we wanted to form a second team. We asked all the guys to write down the name of the driver they wanted the most and put it in a hat. There was one name on every piece of paper. That was Tony Stewart.”

- Charlotte Motor Speedway, Press Release

NSCS Joey Logano - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Logano’s fellow Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, with a drafting lap speed of 197.511 mph, was second fastest, followed by Tony Stewart (197.446) who was third fastest, Ryan Newman (197.442) fourth fastest and AJ Allmendinger (196.386) was fifth fastest.

Round out the top-ten in practice were Steve Wallace (195.274) who was sixth fastest, Jamie McMurray (184.850) seventh, Juan Pablo Montoya (184.828) eighth, Jeff Gordon (184.419) ninth and Mark Martin (184.139) was tenth fastest.

Pos No Name               Make Best Time Best Speed

 1  20 Joey Logano        Tyt  45.566    197.516
 2  11 Denny Hamlin       Tyt  45.567    197.511
 3  14 Tony Stewart       Chv  45.582    197.446
 4  39 Ryan Newman        Chv  45.583    197.442
 5  43 AJ Allmendinger    Frd  45.828    196.386
 6  77 Steve Wallace      Tyt  46.089    195.274
 7   1 Jamie McMurray     Chv  48.688    184.850
 8  42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chv  48.694    184.828
 9  24 Jeff Gordon        Chv  48.802    184.419
10   5 Mark Martin        Chv  48.876    184.139
11  27 Paul Menard        Chv  49.019    183.602
12  16 Greg Biffle        Frd  49.054    183.471
13   2 Brad Keselowski    Dge  49.162    183.068
14  22 Kurt Busch         Dge  49.196    182.942
15  29 Kevin Harvick      Chv  49.240    182.778
16  09 Bill Elliott       Chv  49.267    182.678
17  21 Trevor Bayne       Frd  49.301    182.552
18   9 Marcos Ambrose     Frd  49.308    182.526
19  18 Kyle Busch         Tyt  49.314    182.504
20  88 Josh Wise          Chv  49.342    182.400
21  99 Carl Edwards       Frd  49.382    182.253
22  83 Brian Vickers      Tyt  49.396    182.201
23   6 David Ragan        Frd  49.437    182.050
24  36 Dave Blaney        Chv  49.474    181.914
25  17 Matt Kenseth       Frd  49.483    181.881
26   4 Kasey Kahne        Tyt  49.506    181.796
27  60 Todd Bodine        Tyt  49.515    181.763
28  13 Casey Mears        Tyt  49.801    180.719
29  66 Michael McDowell   Tyt  50.958    176.616

- NASCAR Timing & Scoring

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Logo

I’ve been to two NASCAR races, both of them with Joe Gibbs. I’ve been up in three pit boxes with him, watching his drivers Denny Hamlin (who going into this weekend’s race has a very narrow points lead), Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. (In the picture above, that’s Nanci and me with Joe Gibbs and Joey Logano.) watched Joe sign hundreds of his life story tracts that share the gospel of Christ straight from the Scriptures.

Joe asked me to write the chapter on Heaven for his great book Game Plan for Life, and I spoke with him and Tony Evans last year at an event in Richmond. I spoke at his employee chapel in Charlotte when Nanci was with me.

- Oregon Faith Report

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Logo

The team clinched the win over Penske’s No. 22 Dodge team with a season ending victory by Kyle Busch at Miami-Homestead Speedway on Saturday, putting the No. 18 Toyota up by 71 points for the year and claiming it’s third straight championship.

“It was obviously a tremendous blessing for us to have the opportunity to win another owner’s championship with Kyle and Brad in the car this year. Both of them did an outstanding job,” said crew chief Jason Ratcliff.

Busch credited part-time teammate Brad Coleman for helping win the title.

“We wouldn’t be here tonight if Brad hadn’t done his job and given us some good finishes,” he said of Coleman, who drove six of the year’s 35 races while Busch was off Cup racing. “He did a great job and kept us in it.”

Coleman couldn’t hide his delight. “It’s really good to have a backup driver like Kyle Busch,” he said, grinning. “I wasn’t sure who was going to pick up the slack this season when I decided not to run a full schedule but Kyle stepped in and did the job!”

The Miami-Homestead media center erupted at Coleman’s funny comments.

Winning the owners’ championship was a big deal for everyone on the team, including team owners J. D. Gibbs and Joe Gibbs.

“It’s a huge deal for us because it lets the crew say, ‘We’re the best,’ ” said J.D. Gibbs, team president. “It’s gratifying to see the team appreciated for doing their job so well. It’s a testimonial to the guys back at the shop.”

Team owner Joe Gibbs was elated. “We’re thrilled. I really appreciate Jason Ratcliff, the team here, Brad Coleman and Safeway Driving Schools. I also want to say thanks to Combos, Interstate Batteries and NOS. It’s really hard to put together a team like that to allow us to race in the Nationwide Series. But with Kyle Busch and Z-Line, we really appreciate it. We’re thrilled to be a part of it. J.D. (Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing president) works mostly on the Nationwide side, and I take the credit for it. In any case, it’s a thrill for us and I appreciate it. And Toyota. I really want to make sure that the championship here and what they’ve done for us, we couldn’t be up here if it wasn’t for Toyota. I really appreciate them.”

The NASCAR Nationwide Series will be off until the 2011 season takes the green flag at Daytona in February and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Team will begin defense of their title.

For more info visit: www.joegibbsracing.com and www.bradcoleman.us

- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release

No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry

Joey started the day by winning the pole for the Homestead 300, extending his season-best pole streak to eight poles in 2010. It is also Joey’s second pole at Homestead, his first coming in 2008. Logano lined up beside his Joe Gibbs racing teammate Kyle Busch at the drop of the green, falling behind Busch for the race’s first segment. Logano logged laps in second until the first round of stops and subsequent restart, when Joey took the lead for the first time.

Logano led the next 17 laps before losing the top spot to Kevin Harvick as Logano’s car tightened up between multiple caution flag periods.

Over the next 150 laps, the GameStop team, led by crew chief Kevin Kidd, made a plethora of adjustments to the No. 20 Toyota, from wedge and track bar adjustments, to air pressure changes and even taking out a rubber from the left rear.

The car continued to go from tight to loose to tight during the late stages when the team elected to pit and put on scuffs and save their final set of sticker tires for the end. On lap 163, the team came in for their final stop and got their sticker tires, restarting in 19th place for their final charge to the front.

Logano moved through the field quickly, taking just 10 laps to find himself back in the top 10. However, the GameStop Toyota got super tight over the races final 20 laps, forcing Logano to lose his momentum and eventually settle for a seventh at the checkers.

Logano finished the season with two wins, 15 top-fives and 24 top-10s in 25 season starts. In addition, Logano picked up a season-best eight pole awards, which was best among all NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers.

Joey Logano - Photo Credit: Motorsports Images and Archives

“It’s not the way we wanted to wrap up our 2010 season, but that just goes to show how competitive that we are; a top 10 just isn’t good enough for us. We are not happy until we go out and win races. We really wanted to go out on top and in victory lane. But, since we weren’t able to win tonight, I’m glad Kyle (Busch) was able to get to victory lane and also wrap up the owner’s championship. That’s big for Joe Gibbs Racing. Congrats to those guys. They have had a great season.

“I am glad that we were able to get another pole though. That really goes to show how fast our cars are and how much power these JGR engines make. That is eight poles for me this year and nine for the No. 20 team. I never really considered myself much the qualifier, but we showed a really strong part of our organization with that. It’s not easy to go out there and put the car on the pole, and we were able to do it a bunch this year.

“All-in-all, it was a really good year for us as a team and for GameStop. We had a lot of ups and downs. We were able to pick up a couple of wins and earn the most poles despite missing 10 races. We finished in the top10 in driver points as well, which was cool considering I ran such a part-time schedule. “I just wish we could have had a few more wins, but what racecar driver doesn’t ever think that?”

Kevin Kidd Quotes:

“We just couldn’t quite find the handle on the GameStop Toyota tonight. We struggled with being tight at the beginning. We got the car handling well in the middle, but were stuck in dirty air, which really affects these cars. Then, we got the car a little too free late in the race when we put our scuff tires back on. When we got our sticker tires, the car was good and Joey was making his run through the field, but just got tight late in the run. At that point, we were stuck with what we had. We made the best of it and got another top 10.

“I’m really proud of Joey, the road crew, our over the wall guys and all of the guys back at the JGR shops. They all had a great season. And congrats to our teammates on the No. 18 team for winning the owner’s championship. Of course, we would have liked to have won more races, but I don’t think we ever thought we would put it on the pole so many times either. We had a fun year and really came together as a team. I’m proud to say I led this team and grew with them. Now, we’ll just build off of this year and work toward next season. We’ve got our work cut out for us with the new car, so come Monday, it will be back at it for 2011.”

- Joey Logano Inc. / Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release

Toyota Motorsports

Denny Hamlin finished 14th in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 FedEx Camry. He ended the year second in the final Chase standings — 39 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson.

Martin Truex Jr. also finished in the top-15 with an 11th-place result — leading the field six times for 62 laps (of 267) at the 1.5- mile oval.

Other Camry drivers in the field included Scott Speed (23rd), Marcos Ambrose (26th), Kevin Conway (30th), Kyle Busch (32nd), Casey Mears (33rd), David Reutimann (38th), Joey Logano (39th), Landon Cassill (40th), Joe Nemechek (41st) and Mike Bliss (43rd).

Busch finished the season eighth in the Chase standings.

KASEY KAHNE, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 6th

How did your car handle during the race? “I felt like we didn’t have really that good of a car throughout the race. Jimmy Elledge (crew chief) had good pit strategy right there to finish where we finished, but we didn’t have that good of a car at all. We’ve got work to do in the off-season — everyone here does.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 11th

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 14th

What are your emotions right now? “Obviously I’m disappointed. Our car just wasn’t the same. Our car was lightning fast up until that wreck. When we hit the 16 (Greg Biffle) it just knocked the toe out and the car just didn’t drive the same for the rest of the day. We did our best to try to repair it, but it just wasn’t as fast as it was before. We were right around the top-10 when that happened. It’s just circumstances. But, you know, we had a great year. This is a year where we won the most races that we’ve ever won, we contended like we’ve never contended before and just circumstances took us out on this last one.”

What was it like pushing Jimmie Johnson for the championship this year? “I didn’t think that they (Jimmie Johnson) showed the strength this year that they had in years past and that opened up the door for teams like myself and a few other teams to win a lot of races. Not only that, we really stepped up our program over these last couple of years and obviously with all of the wins that we had it’s a good feeling to go to the race track and know you can win on any given week. My job is to work in the off-season to do everything I can to be better. I know every year that I’m in the Cup Series that I’m going to be better than I was the previous year. We’re going to take this FedEx team and we’re going to keep working and go get them next year.”

What happened early on in the race? “We were just — we handicapped it. That spin really hurt us. It messed up the front splitter and knocked the toe out of the car, and it just didn’t drive as well as it did at the beginning. At the beginning I thought we were in really good shape. Our car was flying through the pack. It was unbelievable. And, just had that incident and it kind of took us out of it.”

What did happen in that incident? “I didn’t see — the 16 (Greg Biffle) came down real sharp into the right front. I’m guessing somebody probably suck him three wide at the last minute. That’s part of racing. Those kind of things happen. We can’t control that. We gave it our best shot trying to fix this car. Mike (Ford, crew chief) and the guys kept working on it. Ever since that wreck our car just did not drive the same. It showed up in the end.”

What can you take away from your team’s experience this year? “We got better as a team. I feel like I got better as a driver, but we got better overall as a team. For me, that’s all I can ask for is to show up at a race track any given day, and feel like I can win a race and this year I did that every track I went to so that part of it is encouraging. The flip side of it is to have a championship slip away so close. I just knew our day was going to be a tough one after we got in that wreck and the car got banged up.”

What is it like coming so close to a championship? “It’s tough, trust me. These years don’t come by too often in anyone’s career. I was privileged enough to be part of the closest championship in history and give it my best effort, but it wasn’t enough today. Our car got banged up and we just couldn’t overcome that.”

How hard is it for you to come so close to winning a championship? “We came close, but close doesn’t cut it. Those guys stepped up and performed at the end of the race like they needed to. Our car just had too many Band-Aids. There were so many Band-Aids on it to try to fix it. We just didn’t have it there at the end. Caution just came at the absolute wrong time when the 29 (Kevin Harvick) spun the 18 (Kyle Busch) and trapped us a lap down. Those are circumstances I just can’t control. There’s not much I can do about it.”

Amazing Adventure Gift Ideas!

What was it like today watching Denny Hamlin going for his first championship? “This is obviously a huge disappointment. I thank our guys though and everybody. I was proud of them. They fought their guts out. Denny (Hamlin) even at the end there fighting his way all the way back to wind up second (in points) was a huge deal for us. And then I think everybody here will hopefully handle this the right way. We realize that it was hard fought all year. Congratulations to the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and the guys for winning the championship. I’m really proud of FedEx and Toyota — our big partners here. I’m proud of our team — they fought hard all year.”

What difference did you see in Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team this year? “I just think that it’s a maturing process. Denny (Hamlin) and Mike (Ford, crew chief) have an unusual feeling for each other. Their team here is very solid and the pit crew. In pro sports you can’t win if you’re missing something — a pit crew, a crew chief or whatever. I feel like they’re a very solid team and I think they proved that this year. And, of course, Denny is maturing. He’s still young so hopefully we’ve got a lot of good years in front of us.”

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 23rd

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Clorox/Kleenex Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position: 26th

KEVIN CONWAY, No. 7 Extenze Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports Finishing Position: 30th

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 32nd

What happened to take you out of the race? “I don’t know. (Kevin) Harvick pulled a slide job on me earlier in the day and I crossed over and passed him clean, but apparently it wasn’t in the time of day in order to do that. I don’t know. My guys work way too hard to be in this position and fight hard all day long to be put with a wrecked race car at the end of the year. We wanted to come out here and finish strong. We felt like we had a top-four or top-five car. It just means so much to me — to those guys — that we come out of here with a good run like we were having. It’s very unfortunate. It’s just a guy that doesn’t have his head on straight apparently today. I thought everything was good. I talked to him in the pre-race in the driver’s meeting and all of that, but he’s such a two-faced guy it just doesn’t matter.”

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

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 38th

What happened to your race car? “It felt like we’ve had a pretty good Aaron’s Dream Machine — got loose while I was getting in a little bit there and got in the fence a little bit. It ended up ultimately blowing out a left rear (tire) and got us into the wall and pretty much destroyed the car. I don’t know if we had a left rear (tire) going down because a lap before the car had been good and then all of a sudden right after that it started getting really, really bad loose. It looks like we blew a left rear tire and caused a ton of damage. Not exactly the result we were looking for.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 39th

What happened to take you out of the race? “I have no idea. It’s unfortunate. It stinks — I don’t know what happened. We came off the corner there three-wide and the 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) got loose in the middle of the turn and kind of put us three-wide there. I don’t know — I was down. I gave him plenty of room. I just felt like I got hooked. That’s two times with him this year so we’ve got to figure that out. I don’t know what the deal is. We’re going to get it fixed and get back out there and try to save a spot in points.”

LANDON CASSILL, No. 64 Empire Steel Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Finishing Position: 40th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Young Eagles/HeatRedefined.com Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 41st

MIKE BLISS, No. 66 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Finishing Position: 43rd

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release

WIX Filters Lap Leader Logo

AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2010

Kyle Busch clinched the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award in tonight’s Ford 300. Busch earned a $20,000 cash prize from WIX Filters for his efforts.

· Busch led seven times for 153 laps to earn WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors in tonight’s Ford 300. He led 34 times in 28 different races for a total of 2,229 laps. In 144 superspeedway races Busch has led 7,127 laps and a grand total of 9,466 laps in 202 career starts.

· Busch won tonight’s race, crossing the finish line .850 seconds ahead of second-place Kevin Harvick. He won for a series record 13th time this season racked up his 22nd top-five finish. Busch finished in the top-10 in 25 of 29 starts this season. He scored his second career victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

· UNOFFICIALLY Busch finished third in the series championship standings, despite not competing in six races.

· Busch captured WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors for the 18th time this season.

· BUSCH QUOTES: “It started off this weekend with a great team. Jason [Ratcliff, crew chief] and the guys prepared a great race car back at the shop along with all the chassis guys and body hangers and the engine group too that gave us a race car to come out here to put it up front. Qualified second to Joey [Logano] there and we came out here and we were able to prevail and get the job done. You know it was a heck of race there with Harvick there towards the end and battling back and forth with him a little bit I thought I messed up and gave the win away there for a minute but we were able to rally back on the next restart and get back by him and getting there to the checkered flag first. Really good day for us all around.

Can’t thank Jim and Monica Sexton enough from Z Line Designs and everybody that’s been fortunate enough to be a part of this program and help us win 30, 40 something races here in the last three years since 2008 of me coming aboard the Joe Gibbs Racing team. It wouldn’t be possible without these guys support to my right and Brad [Coleman] doing the job that he did as well this year in the races that I wasn’t able to attend and keeping us up there in the points so I could go out there and be where we are tonight, at least get Joe where he is tonight [smile].”

WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD STANDINGS

Kyle Busch 18

Joey Logano 4

Kevin Harvick 3

Marcos Ambrose 2

Tony Stewart 1

Denny Hamlin 1

Brad Coleman 1

Reed Sorenson 1

Trevor Bayne 1

Jason Leffler 1

Mike Bliss 1

WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD WINNERS BY RACE

EVENT DRIVER

DRIVE4COPD 300 Tony Stewart, 38 laps

Stater Bros. 300 Joey Logano, 130 laps

Sam’s Town 300 Kevin Harvick, 82 laps

Scotts Turf Builder 300 Kyle Busch, 59 laps

Nashville 300 Joey Logano, 122 laps

Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 Kyle Busch, 126 laps

O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 Kyle Busch, 153 laps

Aaron’s 312 Kevin Harvick, 51 laps

BUBBA Burger 250 Kyle Busch, 62 laps

Royal Purple 200 Denny Hamlin, 111 laps

Heluva Good! 200 Kyle Busch, 191 laps

TECH-NET Auto Service 300 Kyle Busch, 64 laps

Federated Auto Parts 300 Reed Sorenson, 15 laps

Meijer 300 Joey Logano, 106 laps

The Bucyrus 200 Brad Coleman, seven laps

New England 200 Kyle Busch, 126 laps

Subway Jalapeno 250 Kyle Busch, 19 laps

Dollar General 300 Kyle Busch, 110 laps

Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Trevor Bayne, 19 laps

Kroger 200 Kyle Busch, 144 laps

U.S. Cellular 250 Kyle Busch, 209 laps

Zippo 200 Marcos Ambrose, 60 laps

CARFAX 250 Jason Leffler, one lap

Food City 250 Kyle Busch, 116 laps

NAPA Auto Parts 200 Marcos Ambrose, 25 laps

Great Clips 300 Kyle Busch, 74 laps

Virginia 529 College Savings 250 Kevin Harvick, 170 laps

Dover 200 Kyle Busch, 192 laps

Kansas Lottery 300 Kyle Busch, 65 laps

CampingWorld.com 300 Kevin Harvick, 86 laps

Dollar General 300 Kyle Busch, 84 laps

5-hour Energy 250 Mike Bliss, 10 laps

O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge Kyle Busch, 107 laps

WYPALL 200 Joey Logano, 23 laps

Ford 300 Kyle Busch, 153 laps

Since 1939, WIX® Filters, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, has been an innovator in filtration products. WIX designs, manufactures and distributes products for automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial and specialty filter markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel, coolant, transmission and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment. WIX, a member of the Affinia family of brands, is the number one filter in NASCAR and an exclusive NASCAR Performance Product. Its NASCAR relationship also includes the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award, which recognizes the drivers leading the most laps in each race. For more information, visit www.wixfilters.com.

Affinia Group Inc. is an innovative global leader in the design, manufacture, distribution and marketing of industrial grade products and services, including extensive offerings of aftermarket parts for automotive and heavy-duty vehicles. With more than $2 billion in annual revenue, Affinia has operations in North and South America, Europe, Asia and India. For more information, visit www.affiniagroup.com.

*Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.

- Camp & Associates, Inc. Press Release