Rick Hendrick - Getty Images

Mr. Hendrick just wrapped up his 28^th NASCAR season. He currently has 199 Sprint Cup wins, including five in 2011. Hendrick Motorsports put three teams in the Chase this year with drivers Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Mr. Hendrick, a lot has happened in the last four weeks, both on and off the racetrack. What are your thoughts as you look back on that and as we head into the off-season and begin preparations for 2012?

RICK HENDRICK: Good morning, Jesse, and everybody there. Just looking forward to getting ready to start a new year. I really appreciate all the cards and letters after the accident my wife and I had. We’re doing well. Now is the time of year you reflect back on your season and what could you do better. This is the end of our five-year run with the championships. All in all, I think we had a pretty good year. We sure would have liked to have closed it out a lot better, but we just have to ramp it up now and get ready to go next year.

MODERATOR: Mr. Hendrick, with the No. 48 team’s five-year run as champions having come to an end, can you give us your perspective on the accomplishment and what you expect out of Jimmie (Johnson, driver) and Chad (Knaus, crew chief) going into next year?

HENDRICK: You know, I’m really proud of what they’ve accomplished. I don’t know if anyone will ever do that again. To be able to win five of these things in a row is unbelievable. When you’ve been to the top of the mountain like they have, and you’ve been up there, and then you don’t do it the sixth time, of course you start trying to figure out how you can be better. Definitely, the competition has gotten stronger and stiffer. Everybody knows, and I think those two guys know as well as anyone, that it had to come to an end. The odds of you winning six years in a row, especially with the new format, with the point system like it is, I think it’s going to be harder and harder for anyone to be able to do that. But I think the bottom line is we were not as competitive as we would like to be. We had a lot of things that happened with the wreck in Charlotte (N.C.) and Talladega (Ala.). We played our cards wrong at Talladega, our whole organization did, to have cars as good as we had and end up where we did. But that’s racing. I think when you’ve tasted the success they have, and now you’ve been beat, you’ve got to go to work, and you’ve got to come back stronger. We’ve got to look at all the areas of our teams — all of our teams — to see how we can get better. I was real happy to have three of them in the Chase, and I’m real excited about having Kenny Francis (crew chief) and Kasey (Kahne, driver) coming over. I think it’s going to help our organization a bunch and get some fresh blood in there and some new ideas. I think that’s going to be good. We’re right now talking about, and guys are meeting on, let’s dissect what happened last year and where are some areas we can improve ourselves and go out and go for it again. In a nutshell, we’d definitely like to be better, but we’re competitive. At times, the (No.) 24 looked super strong. It looked like Jeff (Gordon, driver) was really going to make a hard run. At times, Jimmie looked like, at first there in the Chase with back-to-back opportunities for wins, the (No.) 48 was there. And Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) ran better this year than he did the year before. We know we’ve got more (room for) improvement there. It’s just a constant battle in this sport. You never can rest on what you did yesterday. You got to look at what you’ve done and how to do it better. Everybody’s doing the same thing. We’re excited about 2012. I think it’s going to be a very competitive year. I was excited to see the Chase come down to the two cars, and I’m real happy to see Tony (Stewart) and Gene Haas win that thing. That was a great battle. I don’t know how it could get any better than what we saw, and I’m sure next year is going to be the same way.

ERIK SPANBERG, CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL: Good morning. I just wanted to ask you if you could talk about the sponsorship picture. You have some companies (sponsors) cutting back and teams leaving and being cut back. Your company is obviously the healthiest in the sport, but just give your perspective on where you see the sponsor picture in 2012 and the health of NASCAR overall.

HENDRICK: Well, first of all, it’s good to see the TV ratings up 20 percent or 18 percent at the end of the year. And it’s good to see some new sponsors coming into the sport. You hate to see people like UPS cutting back or Red Bull leaving the sport, but I think as the economy kind of chugs along, we have seen more and more people, more companies, looking now. I know there have been several new ones announced. Farmers Insurance with us next year, we’re real excited about. We’ve had several meetings with some other new potential people that have not been in the sport before.

I think we’ve definitely hit the bottom, and I think it’s coming back. I think as the economy shores up, we’ll see more people looking at our sport. I think NASCAR is a victim of what’s been going on in the economy, period. Everybody’s marketing dollars have trimmed up, and companies are watching their expenses. But to me it does feel better. This past year, 2011, was better than 2010, and I think there’s more movement and more folks looking than I’ve seen in the last couple of years. With that, I think it’s going to settle out, and we’ll just see. Again, I think the fan interest and looking at the stands, we had a lot of races that had really good crowds, and TV picking up. And again, the competition we saw in the Chase this year, and the way it came down to the wire, can’t do anything but help us.

SPANBERG: One quick follow up. Even though you have remained very healthy over there, how have you had to change your approach, or how you work with companies, to keep them (sponsors) involved and keep them on board?

HENDRICK: Well, you know, we’ve always — and it just didn’t start when the downturn came — I’ve always had the philosophy that you need to go out and work with your sponsors. Understand what their needs are. Have a marketing arm that can help put together some business-to-business opportunities between some of your other sponsors, whether it’s General Motors and Lowe’s, or DuPont and Lowe’s — whoever. Just how can you get in there and understand their business and try to help create some opportunities for them and show them some benefits of the relationship outside of what goes on on the racetrack. We have been doing that for years, and I think we just stepped it up more and more this year. By doing that, we have had some situations where we had some sponsors that would partner up and sell, swap off some races with each other if one wanted to cut back a little bit and the other one picked them up. Again, I think it’s just working with your sponsors, having that kind of relationship that you understand their business, and trying to be a tool that helps them, whether it’s awareness or moving product, that you’re ingrained in what they do and you can adjust with them. I feel like they need more than just their name on the car. They need the people they’re sponsoring, whether it’s a driver as a spokesman that’s going to work harder out in the field for them or that business-to-business opportunity. We met with all of our sponsors trying to understand what their needs were and how the markets changed for them and what can we do to help. And be good partners, not just on the racetrack, but in that area of the marketing and business-to-business opportunities.

GODWIN KELLY, DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL: One thing that I find intriguing is that with Stewart-Haas, you provide Stewart-Haas with their equipment, and Tony (Stewart) thanked you in Victory Lane when he won the championship. When you’re giving people equipment, and they turn around and end your five-year championship streak, doesn’t that feel a little funny to you?

HENDRICK: Not really. Honestly, and I’ve been over this with my guys before, I’d feel a whole lot different if we got beat by some equipment and we thought, well, they’ve got better motors, they’ve got better chassis than we do, so we got to go figure out how to make this better and this better. Getting beat by your own stuff, then you’ve got to look in the mirror and say, ‘OK. They had the same thing we did and they whipped us. Now we’ve got to go to work.’ I think most of the equipment in that garage area is pretty even. I’m real proud of our engine shop for winning it six years in a row. I think the people make the difference. You’ve just got to give it to Tony (Stewart) and Darian (Grubb) and Gene Haas and that whole organization. They just turned it on there at the end, and they just were not going to be denied. Again, it answers some questions for you. You don’t have to look at the motor shop. You don’t have to look at the chassis shop. You’ve got to look at the people and what adjustments they’re making and the commitments of the drivers and how bad do you really want it. I personally think it’s not a bad thing.

KELLY: Are they going to let you walk on stage and just wave? Say, ‘I gave them all this stuff.’

HENDRICK: I’d love to get the money, but I don’t (LAUGHS). Maybe I’ll keep a customer for another few years. Again, Gene Haas has been a good supporter of our organization. He was a sponsor for us (with Haas CNC) before he got into racing, I guess 10 years ago. His equipment has helped us in our engine shop and our chassis shop to make parts and pieces. I’m real happy for him. He’s sure paid his dues, and Tony’s done a great job. It’s well-deserved. I’ll tell you, they put on a show there at the end.

KELLY: They’ve got that new rule coming out with the Electronic Fuel Injection, and historically at Hendrick you have the resources to get ahead of everybody quick. Do you see that happening with EFI?

HENDRICK: I don’t really think so. We do have a lot of smart people, and I’m really proud of them. But you’ve got to look at it, we’re competing against Toyota and all the money they have and all the resources they have. And Ford and the Roush-Yates program with all the resources they have. So I don’t see us being able to get out in front of it. We’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of money trying to be prepared, and we’ve been to all the tests and have gotten good feedback. But there’s just so many smart people in this sport now, and the resources are so deep everywhere. I’d like to think we could be even with them. But as far as trying to maybe be ahead of anybody, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

MARTY SMITH, ESPN: It was basically confirmed for us after Tony (Stewart) won the championship that Darian (Grubb) was gone from his role as crew chief at the 14. Most of us just made the presumption that he may end up back in your camp. Have you had any discussions with Darian? Do you expect that he’ll be back? Is there a place for him there?

HENDRICK: I have had discussions with Darian. When he left (at the end of 2008), we told him we’d always have a place for him if he wanted to come back. Darian is a very smart guy. I know he’s entertaining a lot of offers out there. We don’t have a crew chief role. We have an engineering role that we think Darian would be really good in. But at the end of the day it’s got to be what Darian wants to do. I know he is close to all of our people and our guys are close to him. We’d love to have him back in the organization, but I quite honestly don’t know where he’s going to end up. We would like to have him, but whether or not he’s going to decide he wants to be in the role we’ve offered him or he wants to do something somewhere else, I’m just not sure.

BRAD GILLIE, PERFORMANCE RACING NETWORK: Jimmie (Johnson) was saying going into the finale that not being in the game for the first time in many, many years was like a gut shot to him. Did you get that same sort of feeling, and is it something the organization as a whole can use for motivation for next year?

HENDRICK: Absolutely. Sometimes when you win and you win a lot. And I’ve been through this with Jeff (Gordon). We actually won (four) championships in a row back with Jeff and Terry Labonte, and I thought we would get to 10 in a hurry, and then we went through a dry spell. When you’ve been successful, and then you get knocked off the block, it fires your people up. After you’ve won it, you want to do it again and again. But I think when you get beat, it’s extra motivation, another incentive, to go out and really dig deep and come back and hit it with everything you’ve got. We’re doing that right now. Everybody over there (at Hendrick Motorsports), we’re not leaving any stone unturned. We’re trying to really do a self-examination of ourselves and say, ‘What can we do to be better, and where did we get beat?’ We see areas that we need to improve in. I’ve talked to Chad and Jimmie as well as Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) and Stevie (Letarte) and Jeff and Alan (Gustafson). Now having Kasey Kahne come on and Kenny Francis. We’re excited about that (Kahne and Francis) because we think that the way they run on mile-and-a-half tracks, we might be able to learn some things there. Getting beat sometimes is not a bad thing. If you’re a very competitive company, you got to know you’ve got to work a lot harder to get back to where you were. So we’re motivated.

GILLIE: When you talk about adding Kasey Kahne this upcoming year, how hard is it to manage making that a big asset, as opposed to maybe changing the game up a little bit too much and maybe throwing you off your game?

HENDRICK: The thing about our guys is they’re very cautious not to get too far out on a limb. We’ve already been working with Kenny some, looking at some of the cars and some of the things that they’re doing. We’ll try what they’ve got, and they’ll try what we’ve got, and we’ll try to take the best of both deals. Nobody is going to run off and cut up a bunch of our cars to be exactly like theirs. And we’re trying to build them cars close to what they’re used to. And then we’ll tweak them in each direction to see who’s got the better ideas. I’ve learned in this sport, different drivers take different setups and different car types. Even in our own camp, they’re not all just alike. If you try to force a guy to use something that he’s not comfortable in, then you’re kind of doomed out of the gate. I think the key is having a lot of smart people that are being open-minded and working together and they’re willing to try different things. You can’t have too many smart people as long as they’re working together.

MIKE HEMBREE, SPEED.com: I wanted to ask you about the Dale Earnhardt Jr. situation. There was some improvement this year, but clearly it’s still not where you want it to be. Are there changes that can be made or more effort put into something to try to turn that situation around?

HENDRICK: There’s always more effort that can be put in, I’m sure. But we look at the improvement over a year, and now we get to go back and try to look at areas of the team, whether it’s people or it’s getting everybody working together again for another year. I think the most exciting part of that relationship is it takes five or six months for a crew chief and a driver to see if they can work together. And they’ll have a lot of tolerance of each other early on. And then toward the end of the first year, you kind of find out what you really have. These two guys really like working with each other. I’ve seen some really good runs and then some areas where we’ve kind of fumbled the ball a little bit. From where I sit, and as far as those two guys and our whole company feel, we’ve got a good combination there, and it’ll get better. You just don’t go from running 15^th and 18^th to be winning every race or winning four or five races. I think what we said we needed to do was finish in the points, up in the Chase, lead some laps, be in a position to win some races, and we were in a position to win two or three races and didn’t get it done. I’m happy with the progress and looking forward to next year. I think we’ll be better still.

HEMBREE: How are you doing physically, and do you plan to be in Las Vegas this week?

HENDRICK: I’m not going to be there. I’m doing pretty good. I broke four ribs and my shoulder. It’s been four weeks today. But trying to sleep and move and getting therapy, it takes most of the day. My wife (Linda Hendrick) is doing good. She busted her leg up. I’m not a spring chicken anymore, so I don’t bounce back quite as quick. But we’re doing good. I’m just going to take it easy here for a few more weeks and continue to do my therapy. I’m able to sleep now at night, where I slept in a chair for three weeks, and that’s no fun. But I do appreciate all the cards and the people calling. We’re doing good. Just need a little more time.

JIM UTTER, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: First of all, I believe you pretty much answered this, but just to be clear because you snuck one up on us last year, are the same crew chiefs with the same drivers next season?

HENDRICK: Yes, sir. Same crew chief-driver combination.

UTTER: With Darian (Grubb) leaving (Stewart-Haas), are you concerned at all that if he gets scooped up by another manufacturer that it would gain them an advantage in the garage area?

HENDRICK: Darian is a very smart guy and a very capable guy, and he will do well anywhere he goes. Whatever driver (he works with) or whatever position he’s in, he’s a very talented guy. And we’ll just have to wait and see, but like I said before, you just can’t go get a guy out of one organization and stick him in another organization and he’s going to be the fix-all. I don’t think that happens that way. It takes a combination of a lot of things. And the cars are so close anyway. The area for us to work in is so small with the new car, the way NASCAR’s rules are written. It comes down to mainly the personalities and the communication between the engineers, the crew chiefs, the driver and the team, the chief mechanics. Everybody working together. So I don’t have any idea. I hope Darian ends up back with us, and I think he would help our organization a lot. But I’m not sure if he wants to be a crew chief. We don’t have that spot. We’ll just have to wait and see.

UTTER: Did you watch the season finale on television?

HENDRICK: Yes, sir. I did.

UTTER: Can you tell me as a viewer what you thought of all the things that went through for Tony (Stewart) to be able to win that championship during that race?

HENDRICK: That was the most unbelievable finish. Number one, when I saw that part go through his (Stewart’s) front end, I thought it had to get the radiator and then it’s over. And Carl (Edwards) was so good that I was watching the lap times, and I thought, ‘Well, it’d be a heck of a race if they get together.’ Then that gas mileage deal, stretching that fuel mileage, that was brave. It was kind of like a gunslinger race. Tony appeared that he had a ton of confidence, and Carl was super-fast, and his car was super-good, and they made no mistakes. I think if the cautions hadn’t fallen the right way, and Carl had been out front, I don’t know that Tony could have caught him. It was an exciting race from a spectator’s (point of view). It was kind of cool to be able to watch it and not have a lot of skin in the game. Just being a fan. It was a heck of a race.

BOB POCKRASS, SCENEDAILY.COM: As far as the plane accident, can you describe what you felt and what you saw, and how did you break your ribs and clavicle?

HENDRICK: We were going into Key West (Fla.), and some kind of failure with the brakes, and we went off the end of the runway. Of course, you don’t remember everything exactly how it happened, but somehow, my seat belt was on, and something came lose in the seat itself. I hit the bulkhead and my wife. I think my chest and head went into the seat in front of me, and that’s where I got my (broken) ribs and had a concussion. Broke four ribs and my clavicle. We were very fortunate. We were glad that it wasn’t any worse than it was. We’re healing up, and we don’t have any of the answers yet on exactly what happened there, but a lot of smart people are involved, so we’ll get that figured out here pretty soon, I hope.

POCKRASS: Were you aware that there was any problem? Were you looking out the window and thinking, ‘Wow, we’re going way too fast?’

HENDRICK: Just for a second or two, and that’s about all you got. It’s a short runway down there. You sense something was wrong, but then it happened so quick. It goes so fast that you don’t have time to hardly react.

DAVID NEWTON, ESPN.COM: I wanted to ask you about Gene Hass. Can you go back to when he decided to bring Tony (Stewart) on and how much counsel you offered? And what it means to the sport for Gene to win a championship? He kind of gets overlooked.

HENDRICK: I remember very well the first time Gene mentioned it to me, we were at Indianapolis. He said, ‘I think I want to start a team,’ and I thought why, you know? But he’s a racer. Raced in the desert. He and Joe Custer, had been, like I said, good sponsors with us with their equipment. They started the team, and they just never had the combination of drivers, crew chiefs all at the same time. I remember, I guess what happened was Tony made the statement he wanted to drive a Chevrolet, and Joe Custer mentioned to me they were talking to Tony Stewart. I said, ‘How in the world are you going to hire Tony Stewart?’ They put a deal together, and the rest is kind of history. Gene has spent an awful lot of money in racing in this sport. He built that wind tunnel. I think it’s the only rolling road wind tunnel in the U.S. right here at the end of the runway in Concord (N.C.). But I think the combination of Gene’s a racer, might be a desert racer, but he’s a racer, and he’s a very smart guy. Tony bringing the ability to hire some of the best people. I tell you, I watched Tony. He worked his butt off putting that team together. We offered them engineering support. It’s amazing to see it. It didn’t just happen easy. I know Tony and Gene both have put in a lot of effort, money, time into building a team, and he (Gene) never, ever denied that team anything — facilities, equipment, anything and everything they needed. For the 10 years I’ve known Gene Haas, he’s put the money in it. He’s sure paid his dues, and it’s good to see him have that success.

NEWTON: Does it go back to how essential it is to have the really upper-echelon driver to win the title?

HENDRICK: It’s so hard. There’s some good rookies out there that do a great job, but when the chips are down and you get under the pressure of falling behind and having to carry the team, or just the pressure of what you’re trying to accomplish in that last 10 (races). I think that’s where you see those guys, like the Jeff Gordons and the Tony Stewarts and the Kenseths — all of those guys who have been around that can handle that kind of heat, they do well. But you have to take your hat off to young guys like Brad (Keselowski) who finished up there in the points and had a real streak going this year. But I think you get back to those old crusty veterans that have been there and done that. You get them where they can taste the blood and see the finish line, they usually can kind of cinch it up and get it done.

LEWIS FRANCK, REUTERS: Not to pick on Kyle Busch in particular, but just generally talking about behavior of drivers, on the track and off the track, and other athletes. Other sanctioning bodies and organizations will sanction athletes for improper behavior. Do you see any trend that highly-paid athletes feel a certain entitlement to behave badly?

HENDRICK: You know, that’s kind of a hard one for me to answer. When you look at professional sports, there always seems to be athletes that are more vocal and say and do things that other athletes don’t do. We’ve seen it in football; we’ve seen it in racing and every sport. The sanctioning body or the organization is going to monitor it when guys do something that is detrimental to the sport. No matter how talented they are, the ruling body is going to step in. A lot of times you see guys that don’t make it because they can’t control themselves. I’m not talking specifically about this situation with Kyle, either. I think Kyle has made a lot of improvements and tried. The sport, when you’ve got sponsors and people involved, it’s not like you can just do what you want to do anymore. I think teams — football teams, basketball teams, any organization — there’s just a certain amount that they can tolerate, and when you get beyond that and people say it’s just not worth it.

FRANCK: In your history of owning teams, your drivers tend to be winning and, on the other hand, better behaved. Is this something that you have discussions with them, or it’s not necessary because you pick the right guys or what?

HENDRICK: I think you develop a culture inside of a company. You’re representing a lot of people. Especially in our sport when you go out on the racetrack and you’ve got all of these logos for these sponsors that you’re representing, they expect you to act in a certain way. We believe that in order for us to do what we’re supposed to do, and really adhere to the contracts we have with our sponsors, that we are supposed to be, in a lot of cases, role models. In some cases, you want a guy to be out there a little bit.

We don’t try to change (our drivers). I said this when Dale Earnhardt (Jr.) came on board. We don’t want to take Dale Earnhardt’s edge away. We want him to be edgy a little bit. We want him to be the Dale Earnhardt that everybody knows and loves. But everybody knows there’s a fine line, and when you step over that line you create problems for everybody in the sport. And you’ve just got to stay within that box. We don’t want to change the personality of a guy, but there are certain things you just can’t do.

DWIGHT DRUM, RACETAKE.COM: Rick, you mentioned the five-year championship run. It’s not likely that Jimmie (Johnson) and Chad (Knaus) had a five-year championship plan; it’s more like a dream than a strategy. Going forward, what plan works best for Hendrick as a whole? Is it just one race at a time? Do you have a season plan to get that all-important championship?

HENDRICK: To be honest with you, you can have all the five-year plans, two-year plans or plans you want, but in order to be successful in this sport, you’ve got to adjust and you’ve got to do it weekly. You can start out with the best-engineered plan and you get to the first racetrack and somebody has a new rule or something changes. Then you’ve got to adapt. I think the key in our organization has been communication. Having a lot of smart folks that are working together, and when we see something that needs to be fixed, we fix it. If we get a rule change or a curve ball thrown to us, we have to adapt. It’s day-by-day, race-by-race. Things change. Someone gets hurt on the crew. A pit-crew guy gets hurt. Somebody comes up with a much better setup than you’re running. Your old setup was good, but it doesn’t work anymore, so you’ve got to scrap it and go toward something different to keep up. It evolves race-by-race, and you go in as prepared as you can be, but knowing that you may have to change at any time.About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 120 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com .

- Team Chevy, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

THE NUMBERS for the Good Sam RV Insurance 500

1 – fewest cautions (7/30/78)

2 – fewest on lead lap at finish (twice, most recent 6/6/82)

3 – fewest caution laps (7/30/78)

4 – races won from outside a top-20 starting position

4 – fewest leaders (twice, most recent 6/9/85)

4 – fewest laps led by race winner (Bobby Labonte, 7/29/01)

5 – most wins (Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott)

5 – most poles (Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader)

10 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend at Pocono Raceway

10 – fewest lead changes (7/26/98)

12 – wins by car owner (Rick Hendrick)

13 – most cautions (twice, most recent 7/24/05)

16 – drivers with more than one pole at “The Tricky Triangle”

16 – most leaders (three times, most recent 6/13/04)

18 – fewest cars running at finish (7/25/82)

22 – wins from the front row; 13 from the pole

29 – worst starting position for race winner (Carl Edwards, 6/12/05)

29 – different race winners

36 – most cars on lead lap at finish (6/10/07)

37 – different pole winners

(42 – most cars running at finish (6/10/07)

56 – most lead changes (7/30/79)

57 – most caution laps (6/13/04)

120 minutes – approximate amount of time it takes to dry the 2.5-mile track

175 – laps led by race winner (Kurt Busch, 8/5/07)

2011 Caution Update

4 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011

4 – fewest cautions this season (Fontana, Pocono)

16 – most cautions this season (Daytona)

152 – number of cautions in the first 20 races of 2011 (includes 70 for accidents, 37 for debris and 22 for spins)

718 of 5,756 – number of laps under caution in 2011

1,014.811 of 8,034.858 – miles under caution in the first 20 races

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

JR Motorsports

TRACK – Charlotte Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad-oval)

DATE – Saturday, May 28, 2011

TV / RADIO – ABC (coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. EST) / PRN (broadcast begins at 2 p.m. EST)

Aric Almirola

No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet

“Charlotte is not a typical race week for us. Usually we’re running around getting things together before we catch a plane to the racetrack, but not this week. It’s fun to be close to home, and we always have a lot of sponsor appearances and autograph sessions scheduled around Charlotte. We have a good time with it all. It seems to be a race that everyone wants to attend – family, friends and sponsors. If I was a race fan there’s no way I’d miss out on coming to Charlotte during race weeks. This is the place to be. Charlotte Motor Speedway and all the race teams do a great job interacting with our fan base, and there is so much for fans to do here. The whole city almost gets a homecoming feel to it.”

Josh Wise

No. 7 VooDoo Ride Chevrolet

“I’ve driven some cool looking cars in my day, but this VooDoo Ride Chevrolet ranks right up there on the list. The big green skull on the hood looks awesome. I’m sure it will look great on the racetrack, too. We’ve got a lot of things lined up for this week surrounding race weeks. I’ll be running go karts at NASCAR Speed Park on Wednesday and we’ve got a couple autograph sessions to attend. Plus, fan day is Friday at the JRM shop and that’s a blast. Anyone who’s in town should come check it out. It will be a lot of fun for sure.”

JR MOTORSPORTS NOTEBOOK –

VOODOO RIDE CHEVROLET DEBUTS – Wise’s No. 7 Chevrolet will feature the VooDoo Ride paint scheme this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The black scheme showcases VooDoo Ride’s chilling skull logo on its hood and quarter panels. VooDoo Ride is a car care and lifestyle company co-founded by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2007. It produces a vast array of car care products, including all surface speed detailer (named Mojo), high-gloss tire finish (Hypd), synthetic liquid polish (Silq), wheel and tire cleaner (Shoq), car wash soap (Juju), scratch remover (Hexx) and micro fiber cloths (Jakd). Visit its website at www.voodooride.com.

2011 RACE WEEK ACTIVITIES AT JRM – Beginning on Thurs., May 26, and continuing through Mon., May 30, fans are invited to JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C. for festivities surrounding Charlotte race week. Highlighting the action is an autograph session on Fri., May 27 from Noon to 1 p.m. ET with Aric Almirola, Josh Wise, and Kelley Earnhardt. Karsyn Elledge, L.W. Miller, and late model driver, Josh Berry will also be signing for fans. A total of 150 tickets will be distributed for the session. Click here for more information.

MEET ALMIROLA AND WISE – There will be plenty of opportunities for fans to meet JR Motorsports drivers Josh Wise and Aric Almirola this week. Fans can join Josh Wise, along with several other NNS drivers, at the NASCAR Speedpark at Concord Mills Mall in Concord, N.C. on Wed. May 25th for the “NASCAR Fan’s Choice Challenge” go kartevent from 6 – 8 p.m. ET. Wise also will be signing autographs at Nationwide Autograph Evening at Food Lion’s Speed Street in downtown Charlotte (corner of Third and Tryon Streets) on Thurs., May 26, from 8 – 9:30 p.m. ET. Aric Almirola will appear at the Unilever Display at Speed Street (on Tryon St. between 3rd and 4th Streets) on Fri., May 27 from 2 – 3 p.m. ET. Both drivers will attend an autograph signing at the JR Nation merchandise hauler in the fan concourse area at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 28, from 11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

KELLEY EARNHARDT CAMEO IN NEW BRAD PAISLEY VIDEO – JR Motorsports general manager Kelley Earnhardt joined a host of other NASCAR personalities in appearing in CMA Entertainer of the Year Brad Paisley’s latest music video entitled “Old Alabama.” The video premiered last weekend at the NASCAR Sprint Cup All Star Race. In the video Earnhardt drives a classic Corvette while lip-syncing to Paisley’s lyrics, and even tries her skills at a burnout. “Old Alabama”, which is the second single on Paisley’s new album “This Is Country Music”, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart this week. Aside from being named CMA Entertainer of the Year in 2011, Paisley is a three-time Grammy Award winner. Other NASCAR personalities appearing in “Old Alabama” include Jeff Gordon, Erin Crocker, Darrell Waltrip and Rick Hendrick. Watch the music video for “Old Alabama” here at VEVO.com.

WATCH THE NEW “JRM 360” VIDEO SERIES – In a continued effort to be at the forefront of web-based content through its website www.jrmracing.com, the team has added a new video series entitled “JRM 360”. It’s a light-hearted look at the inner workings and extraordinary personalities at JRM’s shop in Mooresville, N.C. A daily briefing column that gives fans the scoop on day-to-day activities at the shop is also part of the new line-up this season.

WISE IN 2011 – Wise’s 2011 statistics in seven races with the No. 7 team include two top-10s and four top-15 finishes. He led a total of 10 laps in the No. 7 Chevrolet (Nashville, Dover). Wise also holds three previous Nationwide Series start at Charlotte with a best finish of 18th. The Riverside, Calif. is ranked 10th in the driver championship standings (-129).

ALMIROLA AT CHARLOTTE – Almirola owns one top-five and two top-10s in five Nationwide Series starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He finished eighth in the No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet with JRM last fall. He also has two top-10 finishes in two starts in the Camping World Truck Series.

NO. 7 SEASON STATS – The No. 7 team holds one top-five, four top-10 and seven top-15 finishes in 2011. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Josh Wise have shared driving duties in the No. 7 Chevrolet throughout the year, each scoring at least a top-10 finish. The team occupies 14th position in owner points.

NO. 88 SEASON STATS – The No. 88 squad owns five top-10 and nine top-15 finishes this season. Almirola is currently ranked sixth (-52) in championship points. The No. 88 team is 12th in owner points.

VISIT THE RELAUNCHED ALMIROLA WEBSITE – Are you a fan of Aric Almirola? Visit his newly relaunched website at www.aricalmirola.com and get inside access to all the cool and interesting facts about the Tampa, Fla. native. The site includes a complete biography, photo gallery, and updated race reports.

NEW JRM RACING WEBSITE – JRMracing.com is the digital home of the JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide Series race teams. Visit it for more information about the company, its history, and drivers, including Aric Almirola, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Josh Wise. Watch exclusive video content, including the “JRM 360” series and pre-race reports with drivers and crew. Plus, get the latest scoop on shop activities with the daily briefing column.

- JR Motorsports Press Release

Matt Kenseth (right) prepares to make the winning pass of Mark Martin to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks on Sunday at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del. - Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR

On the restart, Martin was the leader as the field took the green flag but had to give way to race winner Matt Kenseth with just 369 laps to go. The pair pulled away from the field and perennial fan favorite brought home the runner-up finish in the 400-lap/400-mile FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks.

Martin now sits 11th in the standings with 11 of 36 races in the record books.

Clint Bowyer powered the No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet from the 22nd starting position to finish in sixth place. He was credited for leading once for a total of 29 laps and moved up one place in the standings to eighth position.

Five-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, led nine times for a total of 207 laps when the no-tires, two-tires, four-tires strategy played out on the final stop as the field came off pit road. Johnson is second in the standings, 24 points out of the top-spot.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, also took four tires on the last stop and finished in 10th place to give Team Chevy four of the top-10 finishers. Harvick remains fifth in points.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 AMP Energy Sugar-Free/National Guard Chevrolet, also had a strong run the majority of the race and finished 12th to remain fourth in the point standings.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet, is seventh in the standings after battling handling issues that put him 21st in the final order.

Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, is 10th in points to give Team Chevy seven of the top-12 Chase contending drivers. He finished 29th in today’s race.

Next weekend, the series takes a mental break from running for points to compete in the Sprint All Star Race for a $1 million prize at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night, May 21, 2011.

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2^ND

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We welcome into the media center Mark Martin. Mark, this is your first top five of the season. Talk a little bit about the race today.

MARK MARTIN: It was another great race at Dover. Golly, I love this place. I always get excited about coming here to race. You know, we had a really fast racecar. Today we finally got a finish. Looked like we were going to get 15th again with a really fast racecar. We’ve had a racecar this good a lot this year. Seems like for some reason or another we wind up in the back of the pack and we just don’t have enough to climb our way back to the front.

This was a good race for us, great call by (crew chief) Lance (McGrew), great teamwork. We’ve had great teamwork all year. I’m proud of this race team. I’m proud of these guys.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions for Mark Martin.

Q. Mark, Lance made the call to stay out. How good was your car after the green flag compared to how you expected it might have been?

MARK MARTIN: It was good. I feel like it could contend. I had enough speed to be right there without tires. We’ve had great teamwork all year. I’m proud of this race team, I’m proud of these guys.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Mark, Lance made the call to stay out. How good was your car after the green flag compared to how you expected it to be?

MARK MARTIN: It was good. I feel like it could contend. Matt had two tires there and had a little advantage on us for a little bit. Then after a little bit, we seemed to start breaking even. I know he had a little bit left. But I had enough speed to be right there without tires. All the guys behind me were dropping off.

You know, we’ve had racecars this good this year. Every time we turn around, something goes against us.

It was nice to have things go our way.

Q. Did you have a chance to discuss the call or was it just his?

MARK MARTIN: Next question.

Q. Mark, talk about how hard it was to catch somebody who is out in front?

MARK MARTIN: Well, like I said earlier this week, all the cars are almost the same speed, so it’s incredibly difficult. This is the era of NASCAR racing that we have today. Twenty years ago, there weren’t so many cars the same speed and passing and overtaking was easy. Not so easy now because you have the world’s greatest drivers, 40 deep, 40 darn good racecars out there, too. That’s to be expected.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Thanks very much for coming in this afternoon.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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

- Team Chevy, Press Release

Chase Elliott

While his USAR Pro Cup outing that weekend at the Rock was slightly less successful, it became apparent to anyone watching that the young Chase had learned a thing or two about wheeling a race car from his dad, 1988 NASCAR Cup Champion Bill Elliott.

Among the folks watching was NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick, the possessor of 10 Cup Championships, who signed Chase to a driver development deal earlier this year, which has led to a jam-packed race schedule for the 15-year-old in 2011. A schedule that includes a return to Rockingham Speedway for the Carolina 200 presented by Black’s Tire and Auto Service in a USAR Pro Cup car.

“Chase is an amazing talent,” said Rockingham Speedway President Andy Hillenburg. “What he did in that Sunoco race last year was pretty remarkable. Not only was he incredibly fast, but his times in that race were incredibly consistent.

“It’ll be interesting to see how much better this kid has gotten in the last year.”

“We feel like we are a little bit better prepared for the Pro Cup deal than we were last year,” said Bill Elliott. “The Rockingham race was Chase’s first race in the series. Right now it’s about getting all the right parts and pieces in place under him. This should be a good race for Chase.”

“Rockingham is one of my favorite race tracks that I’ve raced on so far,” said Chase. “It was the first bigger track that I raced on and with it being an historic track – one that dad has so much success at –I am excited to be coming back.

“I really think i have learned a lot since last year. We ran a lot of Pro Cup races and have run the K&N Series this year. We now have a notebook full of information that we can fall back on.”

Racing action gets underway on May 12 with a practice for the cars of the UARA and USAR Pro Cup Series. General admission to the grandstands is free on Thursday. Friday, May 13 is pole day for USAR and UARA with fans admitted to the grandstands for $5. The Carolina 200 presented by Black’s Tire and Auto Service gets underway Saturday, May 14 with the UARA Late Models rolling off at 12 noon to be followed by the USAR 150-miler. Tickets, starting at $20 in advance, and suite packages are still available.

To order tickets for the Carolina 200 presented by Black’s Tire and Auto Service, contact the Rockingham Speedway at (910) 205-8800 or visit our website at www.rockinghamspeedway.com.

- Rockingham Speedway Press Release

JR Motorsports

EVENT – DRIVE4COPD 300 (120 laps / 300 miles)

TRACK – Daytona International Speedway (2.5-mile tri-oval)

DATE – Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011

TV / RADIO – ESPN2 (coverage begins at 1:15 p.m. EST) / MRN (broadcast begins at 12:45 p.m. EST)

Aric Almirola

No. 88 Grand Touring Vodka Chevrolet

“This year Daytona is going to be a little bit different with the repaving of the race track. It’s going to be an unknown for most teams. So going down there with our GT Vodka team, we have a little extra testing time, which is going to be great for us. I’ve raced with a lot of the guys that are going to be in the Nationwide race at Daytona. When you’re drafting it’s so important to trust the guys you’re drafting with. I think many of the guys have a sense of trust and respect for me on the race track when it comes to drafting. I feel like I will get a lot of help once we get out there.

“Daytona is different from the other tracks for its historical significance to the sport of NASCAR. To know that back in the day they raced on the beach there, and all the history behind Daytona with the foundation of our sport, it separates it from the other race tracks. You go in there excited and ready to kick off the year, and get a good start to the season. I want to win at Daytona probably worse than anybody. I grew up about an hour and a half from the track, so I always have a lot of friends and family that come to that race. I think that adds more pressure than just the fact that it’s Daytona.”

Danica Patrick

No. 7 Go Daddy Chevrolet

“Daytona is exciting because it’s the first race of the year and everybody is geared up and ready to go. I’m looking forward to going back to some of these tracks for a second time with the Go Daddy car. When I went back to Fontana last fall it showed me what can happen if you start the weekend off from a better position. Instead of spending practice sessions learning the track and getting adjusted to the car’s handling, you can focus on other things. At some of the tracks last year, I had just gotten on the track and I’m telling Tony (Eury Jr., crew chief) the car is loose, where once I get up to speed it’s going to be tight. So you just feel like you’re wasting a lot of time. So being able to start the weekend from a good position really allows you all the practice time to improve the car and be in a better position for the race.

“I can’t even begin to describe what a help Tony Jr. has been to me. He’s been there from the beginning of last year and has taught me so much. I don’t think anyone needs me to reiterate how little I knew about stock cars when I climbed into one last season. He’s been a contributing factor in helping with my learning curve. JR Motorsports has also done everything they could to help me out in giving me as much testing as possible. And like I’ve said many times, the other drivers on the circuit were all so nice to me. So I really felt like if I had a question, there was somebody that could help me out with an answer. I really felt the respect and the honesty from those guys.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

No. 5 Hellmann’s Chevrolet

“I just enjoy racing at Daytona. It’s a place that has a neat feeling. It has a great atmosphere, a lot of history, and it feels good to be there. With the new surface at Daytona, it has lessened the challenge we’re typically up against. I do expect there to be some tire failures, which seems to happen on a newly paved track. The debris that comes off these cars just has nowhere to go. There aren’t the typical crevices for debris to fall down into, so it just sits on the surface and cuts tires down.

“I feel good about the contingent of cars and teams JR Motorsports is taking to Daytona this year. We’ve got solid sponsors that we enjoy being associated with, and I expect our cars to be really competitive. Tony Sr. and Tony Jr. have worked really hard this off-season for this one race, and they have a pretty good track record at Daytona. There’s no arguing that. I like what we’re taking.

“Chris Heroy will be my crew chief for this race. He is one of the lead engineers at Hendrick Motorsports, and I think very highly of him. He was the engineer on my Cup team last year. I think he has such potential in this sport, and I wanted to run a race or two with him, you know, give him a shot. We call him Sunshine… or Shine. He’s a smart guy, and in a situation where I am running a third car for a team that typically only runs two, we had a hole to fill and Shine was the guy I wanted to fill it. I appreciate Rick (Hendrick), Doug (Duchardt) and Lance (McGrew) over at Hendrick Motorsports for letting us borrow him for the Nationwide race. We’ll have a lot of fun.”

JR MOTORSPORTS NOTEBOOK –

275th START FOR JRM – The Feb. 19th season opener at Daytona marks the 275th start for JR Motorsports in Nationwide Series competition. Dating back to its introductory race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2005, the team amassed nine wins, 54 top-fives and 112 top-10s with five poles and 1,142 laps led.

EARNHARDT FAMILY AT DAYTONA – The Earnhardt family owns 47 wins at the historic 2.5-mile speedway. Earnhardt Sr. secured 34 wins, with Earnhardt Jr. supplying 13 victories to the list. Earnhardt Jr.’s six Nationwide Series wins at the facility are the most among active drivers, just one win behind overall leader, Earnhardt Sr. In both Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series competition the younger Earnhardt owns 17 top-five and 24 top-10 finishes, with two poles and 907 laps led.

DEFENDING WINNER – Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove to victory in his most recent race at Daytona International Speedway last July. Earnhardt secured a storybook ending with his win in the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet after qualifying third and leading the final 33 laps. It marked Earnhardt Jr.’s 23rd win in the Nationwide Series.

CHART TOPPER – Earnhardt Jr. ranks first in the Nationwide Series’ fastest-lap- run category at Daytona over the past six years, according to NASCAR Statistical Services. Additionally, Earnhardt Jr. ranks in the top five in the following categories: laps led, green-flag passes, and laps in the top 15. He also owns a top-10 ranking in average running position, driver rating, fastest drivers late in a run, green flag speed, and speed in traffic.

HELLMANN’S No. 5 TEAM – Earnhardt Jr.’s last turn behind the wheel of the No. 5 Chevrolet featured a pole and a third-place finish (Atlanta in 2009). For Daytona, the Hellmann’s team is comprised of Hendrick Motorsports employees. Chris Heroy, an engineer on Mark Martin’s No. 5 Sprint Cup entry, will assume the role of crew chief for the race, marking his debut in that position. The over-the-wall crew on the Hellmann’s team also serves as Earnhardt Jr.’s crew in the Sprint Cup Series.

TITLE CONTENDER – Almirola and the No. 88 team are poised to make another run at JRM’s initial championship in 2011. In the eight races Almirola ran for JRM last season, he tallied 1,021 points. At that pace Almirola would have earned a second-place finish among the Nationwide Series regulars over a 34-race span.

ALMIROLA AT DAYTONA – With only two starts to his credit at Daytona, Almirola owns one pole and one top-five start with respective finishes of 19th and 28th…His average start at the facility is 2.0…Almirola’s most recent Nationwide Series start there came in the summer of 2007… Despite growing up two hours away from Daytona International Speedway, Almirola, a native of Tampa, Fla., considers it his home track.

DAYTONA STATS FOR 88 – Since 2006, the No. 88 team earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes at Daytona, all of which came in night races. In 2010 the team also led laps in two of the three restrictor-plate races.

A STRONG 2010 – In his eight races with JRM last season, Almirola notched one top-five and four top-10 finishes. He led 19 laps, including at least one in six of his eight starts. Almirola’s average finish with the team is 13.0.

DANICA’S 2011 NNS SCHEDULE – Patrick will compete in 12 Nationwide Series races in 2011, including the first four events of the year at Daytona, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol. The remainder of her schedule features races at Chicagoland Speedway (June 4), Daytona International Speedway (July 1), Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Aug. 20), Richmond International Raceway (Sept. 9), Kansas Speedway (Oct. 8), Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 5), Phoenix International Raceway (Nov. 12), and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 19). GoDaddy.com will sponsor 11 of Patrick’s 12 races with Tissot returning as a primary sponsor for the Chicagoland event.

PATRICK AT DAYTONA – Daytona marks only the second track where Patrick will have multiple NNS starts (the first was Auto Club Speedway). She earned one top-10 finish in the ARCA event at Daytona in 2010 and has one start there in NNS competition.

DRIVER APPEARANCES – JR Motorsports drivers Aric Almirola and Josh Wise will appear at the JR Nation merchandise hauler for autographs on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, from 12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. in the fan concourse area.

NEW JRM RACING WEBSITE – JRMracing.com is the digital home of the JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide Series race teams. Visit it for more information about the company, its history, and drivers, including Aric Almirola and Danica Patrick. Watch exclusive video content, including pre and post race reports with drivers and crew.

JRM QUICK FACT – Four former Daytona 500 winners have driven a JRM Chevrolet, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman.

- JR Motorsports 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

Team Chevy Logo

The vehicle, bearing the vehicle identification number BU10002, was sold for $225,000 through an online auction that closed Tuesday, Dec. 14.

“This was an opportunity to own a piece of history while giving back to the community,” said Hendrick, an avid car collector. “I have been a Chevrolet dealer for more than 30 years, and the Volt is one of the most exciting and important new cars since we opened our first dealership in 1976.

“Hendrick Motorsports has been racing Chevys since 1984, and any success we’ve had is due to the quality of our people,” continued Hendrick, who has won a record 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car owner championships. “The Detroit Public Schools will prepare the next generation of talented engineers and technicians who will help Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports compete at a high level on the racetrack every weekend.”

Detroit Public Schools Foundation President and CEO, Chacona W. Johnson, believes the donation will make a meaningful difference for many Detroit students:

“With Mr. Hendrick’s contribution, we have the opportunity to inspire thousands of children to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math,” said Johnson. “That inspiration will help make Detroit Public Schools students more successful in higher education, and better prepared for careers in the 21^st century workforce.”

Here are a few examples of what the foundation could provide to Detroit students with $225,000:

Send 4,500 students to compete in a science fair

It costs $50 per student to compete in the annual Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit, including entry fees and bussing expenses. The fair is open to students in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties, from grades six through 12. Each year up to eight students from the Detroit competition may be selected to participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair.

Provide 800 kits for robotics competitions

The $280 kit for the FIRST Lego League robotics competition includes everything a team needs to build an autonomous robot. The competition, for students in grades four through eight, is based on students’ scientific research, as well as their robotic construction and programming.

Send 140 students to NASA space camp

It costs $16,000 to send 10 students and chaperones to NASA space camp in Huntsville, Ala., including tuition and travel expenses. During the five-day camp, students apply classroom math and science skills to shuttle training missions, such as moon walking practice and orbiter-egress training.

“Every aspect of the Volt – from its aerodynamic shape to its battery chemistry – is a testament to the importance of math and sciences,” said General Motors North America President Mark Reuss. “Now, the first Volt will help cultivate the next generation of engineers who will build upon the Volt’s innovative technologies.”

The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle that can operate under a range of weather climates and driving conditions with little concern of being stranded by a depleted battery. The Volt has a total driving range of up to 379 miles, based on EPA estimates. For the first 35 miles, the Volt can drive gas- and tailpipe-emissions-free using a full charge of electricity stored in its 16-kWh lithium-ion battery. When the Volt’s battery runs low, a gas powered engine/generator seamlessly operates to extend the driving range another 344 miles on a full tank.

Chevrolet began shipping Volts from Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly this week. Hendrick will take delivery of his Volt later this month.

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates is centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of more than 4 million vehicles in 130 countries. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as Chevrolet Cruze Eco with an EPA-estimated 42 miles per gallon highway, and the Chevrolet Volt offering 35 miles of electric driving and an additional 344 miles of extended gasoline range, according to EPA estimates. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

About the Detroit Public Schools Foundation

The Detroit Public Schools Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting Detroit students. Our mission is to raise, manage and steward funds and other resources to support value-added programs and activities for the benefit of the Detroit Public Schools and its students. For more information, visit www.detroitpsfoundation.org.

- Team Chevy, Press Release

2010 Homestead Nov NSCS Jimmie Johnson trophy family

JIMMIE JOHNSON, CHAD KNAUS, AND RICK HENDRICK, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET

FIVE-TIME STRAIGHT NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES CHAMPION – TRANSCRIPT:

KERRY THARP:  Joining us up front is our 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship team, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, driver Jimmie Johnson, team owner Rick Hendrick and Chad Knaus is on his way.  For Jimmie, it’s his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, and it puts him in sole possession of third place on the all time list, only two behind two Hall of Famers, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

He is also the first driver in the Chase here to overcome a points deficit going into the season finale.  And only two other drivers have overcome a points deficit since the inception of the current points system, Richard Petty and Alan Kulwicki in ’92.  For Rick Hendrick, it’s his tenth series others championship, breaking a tie for most all time and overall across the three national series of NASCAR, his 13th owners championship.

Jimmie Johnson, congratulations on this championship.  This one was hard to get.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, it really was.  You know, I have to give a lot of credit to the 29 and the 11.  Their teams, the effort they put up, it was not easy by any means.  You know, after all of the years of the Chase, to have it really come down to this final race was really cool to be a part of.  I’m proud to be a part of it and very proud of what we have done as a team.  I think from where we started nine years ago, I think the headlines read before my first full season when Rick hired me was, what the heck was Mr. Hendrick thinking, somewhere along those lines.  To have it all come full circle, when we were sitting there with Lowe’s and trying to convince them that we would have a good team and I would win a race and we would continue to win races and trying to sell, from that point on in 2000, 2001 to where we are today, it’s just amazing.

It’s cool that we have done it together from Lowe’s side with the sponsor, Chad and I, there’s a lot of guys on the team that have been there for the whole ride, and we are just very, very proud to do this and to have the fifth championship.
KERRY THARP:  Five straight for Chad, as well, championship crew chief.  Chad, talk about some of the ups and downs of today’s race, points going back and forth, back and forth, I’m sure you’re emotionally spent.

CHAD KNAUS:  Yep.  Sure am.  It was definitely a taxing day.  You know, we didn’t really pay a lot of attention to the points.  We knew what we needed to do was to go out there and run competitively.

You know, it was not shaping up exactly how we wanted it to early on.  The car was not quite as good as what it needed to be.  And we just had to stay focused on what it was we needed to do and have good pit stops and have some track position back and tune in on the car.  At the end, the race car was really good.  We didn’t even worry about the points.
At one time I had asked my engineer how many points the 29 was behind us coming into the race, but that was about a third a way into the event.  But other than that we didn’t look at the points.  We didn’t worry about it.  We knew what we needed to do and we just stayed focus on that, and we knew if we stayed ahead of the 11 and beat the 29, that we would be able to pull it off and real fortunate to be able to do it.

I think it speaks volumes about what this organization can do when we work together collectively.  The 248 shop has a one team fielding two cars since 2002.  And I think if you look at the performance of that shop, it’s second to none, and I’m real proud to be a part of that, real proud to be a leader of that organization and just to be a part of it.
So it’s a lot of fun and well deserved because there’s a lot of hard work that went into it and I think it’s definitely going to give Jimmie some of the praise that he needs for the type of driver that he is, fantastic driver and really has not gotten the praise that he deserves.  Coming in here today and doing what he did, I think that shows an awful lot of talent.

KERRY THARP:  Thank you, Chad.  Rick, congratulations on this championship, and certainly what your organization has accomplished, we said it last year and we’ll say it again this year, it’s just a dynasty all across sports, and congratulations again.  Your thoughts about winning in 2010.

RICK HENDRICK:  Chad didn’t any attention to the point, I sure did.  I thought we were done two or three times today.  I guess back in ’04 we lost by eight points I think it was, and this was I guess the tension from going into Phoenix to today, I wasn’t nervous until about the middle of the race.

You know, Denny had a tough break there, and then he came back, I think he came back really strong for the problems they had.  Kevin looked good, and then he got the penalty and then Jimmie’s car came alive at the end.  It’s unbelievable for us to get, as an organization, ten championships and I cannot believe as competitive as this sport is that these guys could pull off five in a row.

But this is definitely a tough one that they got done today.

Q.  When you came across the finish line, your celebration was more exuberant than I can remember; does this rank as the best one or does it equal the first one?  Where would you put it?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I mean, gosh, I’ve always told you guys that the first championship, first win, that stuff has meant the most to me.

This one, I think this takes the lead.  Just the circumstances, it’s not that the other Chases weren’t competitive.  We were stronger I think in the previous two Chases, at least.  Maybe all four.  But this one, I’m just so proud, because there were times on Saturday nights when we would get together and discuss our race car after practice, and we would have some tough conversations, and just struggled to get what we needed.

Some races, like Kansas, we had a tough practice session, came out, had it right, went up and finished second or third.  Martinsville, we thought we were going the right direction, started the race a little out of our norm with the setup and didn’t have the performance we wanted.

So we have had the highs and lows of the Chase, but to have it all come around, and to look every single one of my crew guys in the eyes on that stage tonight there’s a different feeling about it.  It is so cool.  I think we were very relieved for the first one, and it was super, super special.  But this has a different feel.  And even coming in, even through the race, the final races of the Chase, I’ve been saying all along, I’ve had a good time with this.  This has been fun.  I was, one, so happy to be a part of three guys racing for the championship, then obviously going for five in a row.  I have really soaked in this experience and enjoyed it and just so happy to come out on top.

Q.  Based on what Chad said, do you feel like you haven’t gotten your due?  Second of all, just wonder if you think Denny is feeling the way you might have felt in ’04 and ’05 right now.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You know, I feel like I have received a ton of respect for what we have done.  I’ve watched our fan base grow leaps and bounds.  People tell me they hate me, but they respect me, and that’s always cool.  A guy that had an “I hate 48″ t shirt on when I was on the SPEED stage, but was giving me a thumbs up and said congratulations.

In the moment, I think it’s tough for fans to maybe look at what we have accomplished, because they want their guy to win and I understand that.  But I know what they have done today is respected sports wide, not just in our little bubble we live in, but sports wide, and it’s something I’m very proud of, and I feel great for what we have accomplished and I feel that we have been very well respected for what we have done.  If this it takes it to the next level, then right on.  But I don’t need it to make me feel better about what we’ve done.  I’m totally content based on our performance.  I know my fan base is extremely proud right now and they are going nuts right now.

The second part?

Q.  Denny, is he feeling the way you felt?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I wouldn’t doubt it.  Rick mentioned ’04 earlier, and at parts in the race, I felt good about things and I thought, man, in ’04 I felt good about it until the last two restarts and there that 97 was.  Sure enough towards the end of the race, there the 11 was and I was chasing him for a couple restarts.

It was an interesting mind thing that was going on for me, because I had been there before, and I think the experience really helped me stay relaxed and calm and just go to work and we stayed    I think it was one of our most calm events on the radio, period and we kept our heads where it needed to be and made the right adjustments and went on.
I’m sure Denny is disappointed and Kevin, as well.  Those guys put up a great fight and when it’s not close, it’s got to stink.  So I respect those guys.  I respect those two drivers and their teams and what they have done and how competitive they are.

Q.  You come in talking about you’re at a deficit, but as soon as that green flag drops and that monitor starts, you’re so far ahead and staying so far ahead that you’re up in points right away.  You’re no longer trailing in points, and it seemed like that from that point on, the 48 team was like, this is where we are supposed to be, this is where we are supposed to be running, we are back to normal and we are sort of in control, in charge of the situation.  Did it feel that way?  And were there times that it creased to feel that way and did you get it back?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, it felt good to be in control, but again, ’04 was playing in my mind at least and I didn’t want to get too comfortable with things.  Our plan in what we wanted to do was go out and lead the most laps and win the race.  Leading the most laps, that opportunity didn’t seem like it was really there.  We were a good car there, we would run third to sixth or whatever it was.

But I just didn’t want to feel like we were in control.  I just expected the 11 to show up at some point and at one point there they were there and then they slipped back.

You just never know until it’s over, so I just tried to keep an even mind set through the whole day.

CHAD KNAUS:  We didn’t really approach any different than we do any other weekend as far as trying to gain control or there wasn’t really an opportunity to force anybody’s hand.  I think one pit stop, we stayed out and the 11 stayed out when other guys pitted.  They probably stayed out because we did.  But other than that, we tried to run our race, and really focused on what we had going on with our organization, our team.

And that’s usually when we perform the best.  When we start letting outside influence penetrate our shell, that’s when we make rash decisions and don’t perform properly.  So we really just worked within our comfort zone on our team, and just the kind of mind set.  We had a couple of pit stops that weren’t the best, lost a bit of track position, but the guys rallied and came back and did a great job at the end.  We are more worried about ourselves than anybody else.

Q.  You seemed caught off guard when you stepped out of the car in front of the Sprint stage and got a raucous cheer from the crowd.  What was going through your mind there?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, when I see my interview, it was pretty cool to see everybody go nuts over there.  I mentioned the fans in my interview and they stood up and made a bunch of noise.

Our sport wouldn’t be    obviously for the fans and to get their applause and stuff climbing out of the car was really cool.

Q.  And I heard you say on the SPEED interview that you especially enjoyed this Chase when the media started Thursday.  Did you have a plan this week to come in and mess with guys heads or just go with it when you were getting some especially Denny?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I think in Phoenix, or actually, backup to Texas, the gloves came off amongst the team.  Rolling forward from there, it’s not my deal to play games.  But it’s not out of my line of thought to tell the truth in what I think is going on, and that’s all that I did.  If it worked and it played mind games on them, right on.  I’m not sure it did.
I saw them before the race started, we were backstage and he gave me some credit for trying to give him a hard time during the week.  He said, “The stress had not hit me until about 30 minutes when I put my suit on.”

I guess at some point it finally showed up and he did a good job of staying away from it.  I was just pointing out the obvious that he had everything to lose and we didn’t.

It was fun to be in that space mentally and not be so worried about the championship like I had been in other years.  And believe that comes from the fact that we didn’t have to protect down here.  We came in behind, and we knew what we had to do.  So it completely changed my minds set.

Q.  On the crew chief teleconference earlier this past week, you talked about how this might be the first time that you guys would actually be in the situation of racing this race where you’ve come in the last four years with a big points lead.  Do you think that was the last or the best true test of what this team had in this situation?  How do you feel you handled it and Jimmie, how did you feel you faced that situation?

CHAD KNAUS:  It was definitely a unique situation coming in here needing to be aggressive and trying to make things happen.  As far as I was concerned, the race started on Friday.

So we had to perform.  We were shooting for the pole.  We wanted to qualify on the front row.  We were not able to pull that off but we had a very respectable qualifying effort and that set the stage.

The 11 was struggling throughout practice and had a hard time in qualifying and that definitely showed some strength from our team of coming in here determined to qualify well and qualify up front because we have not qualified that well the last few weeks so we really focused on that really hard.

We prepped Jimmie, a lot.  I was on him pretty heavy through out the week about what we thought we needed to do.  And that was cool.  And it was exciting for me to go out there and try to get the team and the car and Jimmie in the right mind set to try to have the car capable of winning the race.  And we didn’t start off as well as we needed to in the practice sessions on Saturday.

And then throughout the Happy Hour session, we started to make some gains, and Jimmie got more comfortable in the car and we were able to make some good decisions last night.

And to be able to finish the way we did today I think is awesome.  Would I have liked to have won?  Yes.  One day my dream is to be the only car celebrating here, nobody else in victory lane, just the 48.  If we can pull that off, that would be great.  But you know, we had a car last year that I think was capable of winning the race at the end of the race, and I think tonight, if we had to go out there and win, I think it would have been interesting to see what would have happened.  I think the 99 guys did a great job.  I’m very proud of Bob Osborne and those guys.  It’s fun racing with them, but I think if we had to race them, it would have been exciting.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  From my standpoint, I guess for this year and the chapter, closing the book of five in a row, sure, it absolutely wraps everything together and you know, makes it complete in some ways, if there were critics to say that we had not come from behind and were not truly challenged and on and on.  But the trut of the matter, we are going to be back next year and hopefully be in the same situation and the book will be wide open.

Buy Champion Gear at Jimmie Johnson official store

Q.  Rick, you talked a little bit earlier about how you’re sort of in amazement that they are able to win five in a row in this competitive era of NASCAR.  Can you put it into perspective, obviously with your experience of being in the sport a long time, how competitive this sport is?  And then I’ll just ask the question now so Jimmie, you can think about it, but I know you say you’ve far surpassed every single goal you’ve set in the sport.  Is the next goal now and I think we probably ask you this every year, but you’re inching closer to that seven titles.  How badly now do you want that?  Is that sort of the next thing on your radar?

RICK HENDRICK:  What was the first part?

KERRY THARP:  Just how competitive.

Q.  How competitive the sport is.  You’ve talked about winning five in a row and how narrow the box is you guys are in, and just having been in the sport, can you put into perspective how difficult that is.

RICK HENDRICK:  When I first started in the sport, there was three or four cars that you had to beat to win a race, and it was maybe two or three cars to win a championship.

And from a drag racing background, we led a lot of laps and broke.  I watched Richard Childress and we watched Richard Childress and Randy Dorton and we tried to lead every lap.  We won a lot but we didn’t close the deal.
But at the beginning of the year, you had to beat two or three cars.  Today, you’ve got at least 15 cars that can win a race.  You have guys that won multiple races that didn’t make the Chase.  And you had guys that came on pretty strong at the end; if they had been in the Chase, they could have made a difference.

And I think, you know, from our own standpoint, we have got a lot of work to do on some of the other teams.  But NASCAR has got us in such a tight box, there’s so many talented people, there’s so many talented drivers, there’s so many talented teams, well founded teams; it is hard to do.

So I look at how hard it is to win a race and how hard it is to win these championships, and back in the day, I’m not taking anything away from championships in years gone by, but you did not have this many guys and you didn’t reset the field with 12 guys to basically zero.

So it’s definitely a lot harder, and I think that’s one of the things that makes these five in a row so unbelievable, if you look back at if you won the championship, you got the first pit box.  And if you get the first pit box every race, that’s going to give you a bunch of points right out of the gate, so they quit that with Gordon, and so it’s been    if you go back and look at history, it has really been a    this sport, the box is tighter and there’s a lot more talent in it.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  From my side, I guess I haven’t thought much about where we are in looking up at what Petty and Earnhardt have done.  I mean, absolutely, I would love to tie them.  I would love to surpass them.  I don’t know how realistic that is.  I mean, I never thought, as you mentioned, that I would get to this point.

So we’ll enjoy five for the off season and come back and start working on six next year.  We are a hell of a lot closer now than we were before the day started; first one to have five, or I guess third in line, I heard earlier, so we’ll keep working at it.  But absolutely.  I’m now looking at those marks that the greats have put out there and hopeful to get up there to them.

Q.  I guess I’ve created a new Thanksgiving tradition; you know Thanksgiving is getting near when you win another championship.  I’ll ask you the same thing I asked last Sunday.  Does this championship, the way you won it, solidify your greatness?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I don’t know if I can answer a question like that.  I can’t.  I just    you know, we are    it’s not    the driver or a person should not be up there saying, I’m great.  That’s just not my deal.  At least me; I’m not going to do it.
But I’m very proud of what we’ve done, and five in a row, no one else has done it.  So Rick can say it for me.

RICK HENDRICK:  He’s great.

CHAD KNAUS:  I concur.

Q.  The message behind the team sport note, and when does the    I don’t know what you would call it, the drive for the ring for the other hand, the drive for six, when does that start?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Six back.

CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, the    (phone ringing. ) Rick, you want to get that?  It’s his mom.

The note, basically I was trying to put out there, like I said earlier, this team won the race.  You know, our team won.  It wasn’t Jimmie.  It wasn’t myself.  It wasn’t Mr. Hendrick.  It wasn’t Jeff Andrews and Jim Wall.  It wasn’t the guys in the chassis shop.  It was all of us and collectively, we had to really buckle down to get this thing done.  That’s what that note was about.  We won this.  Our team won, and I’m really proud to be a part of that team.

And as far as, what did you say, six pack, it’s already started.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: We like beer, so it works.

CHAD KNAUS:  It fits right in, man.  I’ve got some hard discussions to have with Jimmie this weekend about some testing that he’s going to have to take part in.  (Laughter) But here’s the facts.  The 2010 season ended two hours ago.  And 2011 started two hours ago.

We have started preparing at Hendrick Motorsports for next year and we are full force to make sure that we take a better product to the racetrack next year, and it’s going to be so.  So we are hard at it.

Q.  Chad, you are the one who brought up, Jimmie is not getting the praise he’s due, Jimmie answered the question, but what about you, what do you think he’s not getting in terms of praise as an athlete?

CHAD KNAUS: I just think and no disrespect to any of our elders or whatever you want to call them, the guys that raced back in the day, the Earnhardts, the Waltrips, the Pearsons, the guys like that; you hear a lot of what they say about the tenacity of those drivers and how aggressive they were and how they could do things with the race car that nobody else could do.

I think if you really sat back and looked at what this guy can do with a race car, you would be pretty impressed.  He’s been in some pretty precarious situations and driven through them.  He’s put his nose in places that other people would not do and not be able to pull off.  If you look at races like Texas against Matt Kenseth a couple of years ago battling for the win and everything was on the line for the championship right there; if he had slipped one bit, the championship hopes would have been shattered.

If you look at three wide racing today and having the brains to    David Pearson style to back out and say, I can back off now, and live to race another lap and get those two spots back, to where other people go in there and bomb it in there and crash and beat off somebody else.  I don’t think he gets that.

As a friend and as a teammate, I want to make sure that he gets what he deserves.

Q.  And for Jimmie, you seem a little bit a lot more self confident in that’s the right word.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: It’s the beard.  (Laughter).

Q.  What does that

JIMMIE JOHNSON: The beard won a championship.  Yeah!  (Laughter).

Q.  What’s the difference between Jimmie last year and this year psyche wise and is that your version of a playoff beard?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: It’s what I do to frustrate him.
From the psyche standpoint, absolutely.  I think each year that I’ve been in the sport, I’ve become more comfortable with my role in the sport.  And I don’t know, just the way I was raised in racing, I had to earn the right to say things and I had to earn the right to have confidence and to act a certain way.  I see guys step out of line from time to time with very little years of experience and from my standpoint, I don’t think that’s right.

I’m now at a point where I feel like I can say a few things.  I still think that if you look at the ranking in the garage area, Gordon to Burton, there are guys there that really should be heard and listened to and I’m trying to learn from those guys and make sure that when I do speak up and say something, it’s worth saying.

The other side of it is, I’ve accomplished so much more than I ever thought I would.  I may as well have some fun with it.  That’s what this Chase was about and that’s what this week was about.  And when it dawned on me that I could remind Denny that he had everything to lose, I’m like, that’s a great idea and off I went.  (Laughter).

Again, I didn’t want to be disrespectful to him and I didn’t want to do that to be disrespectful to Kevin or their teams, but what’s wrong with a little bit of discussion or a reminder or two about what’s on the line.

So I had a lot more fun with this championship battle than any other.

Q.  Going back to your exuberance over the radio you accept screaming, “It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable.”    Was that a release of the tension or was there a part of you that doubted you could do this coming into this week?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: A little of both.  In practice yesterday as Chad pointed out, first practice was tough.  Second practice we got things going the right way, and we operated all weekend long under the mind set that we needed to win the pole, lead every lap, win the race.

And it’s not that we were concerned on where the 11 was; we were just wanting to accomplish what we felt we could do.  And we didn’t, but we got    we won the war still at the end of the day.  We had I think one of the coolest experiences over the course of the weekend on just set on kill and nothing else matters.  He sent me a text this morning that says, “Nothing else matters.”    We were in that space mentally all weekend long.

It was all that coming to the.  I was playing the movie of 2004 when Kurt showed up and in my mind I can still see the pink tape on the valance of his race car and I saw that, his car was the only car that had pink tape on the valance of the car, I knew I was dead on the water.

I was waiting to see that pink spoiler on the 11 and I was just thinking about it.  Once I took the white, he wasn’t freaking on the radio that I had to pass 99; we were going to be in good shape and just game unglued at that point.

Q.  How much does experience count in this?  Five straight championships, in the Chase, with the evolution of the Chase, you guys get better, get better, nobody else has been able to get to that point to take it over.  So how much is experience worth?  And with Jimmie, instead of mind games, isn’t it just natural self assurance for you, I don’t see you being cocky so to speak.  I just see it more as self assurance.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I agree with that.  Definitely confident in my abilities and who I am and how I fit into this sport, all of that rolls into one for sure.

What was the first part of that, the experience?  Experience is everything.  It really, really is everything.  It doesn’t mean that somebody is not going to win there first, but for year one to year two, it’s a different world.

And all the way to year four and where we were coming into this championship battle, it helps out on from your notes in your setups you know your mind set, you know that today, I knew at some point there was a feeling that was going to show up and I was ready for it.  It showed up and I’m like, okay, there it is, final race of the year, everything is on the line.  Denny I had not seen him before we walked across the stage and he said, “Oh my God, something hit me 30 minutes ago and I didn’t feel anything until now.”

And I knew that was coming, and I’m not sure that carried over to the car or to the race, but the experience of being there before helped so, so much.

CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, I think experience definitely helps, in a lot of different levels.  You know, preparing the race car to come in this week, company wide and team wide, there’s more of a sense of calm about what you need to do; the team has been there, the guys know what to do.

For the first four championships or three, at least I know for a fact, I was in there with the guys looking at every nut and bold and not needing to do that and have the confidence in the guys, because they have been there as well.  It carries a lot of weight.  And honestly this week, I had a promote I good week, you know from a stress level.  Wasn’t bad and didn’t really hit me until last night.  We had some hard decisions to make on the race car of what we were going to do with the setup and that kept me up last night a little bit.

But leading up till then, it wasn’t really bad and it was kind of nice, and so in years past, I was, you know, ten cups of coffee in the morning and not sleeping at night and things of that nature, even when we did have a lead.  So I think having that history and knowing that you can fall back on it and like Jimmie said, the emotions that are going to come I think it definitely helps.

Q.  As turnabout is fair play, do you think Chad gets enough attention, or is that possible?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: (Laughing).  I just caught that.

CHAD KNAUS: I just caught that.  That depends on who you ask I guess.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I think that as time goes on, people will really look back and appreciate what we have done as a team.  And the way I feel for Chad, the way I feel for my team and these guys that put their heart and soul into this, they cannot get enough attention, respect, their fair share of compliments, it is impossible, because it is a team sport.  My team makes this happen.  I’m lucky that I get to climb in there and drive the wheel.  I’m a piece of the puzzle.  He deserves everything he gets and even more.

I think it’s tough to really look at it when we are in the moment but some day when we are retired and we come back and we are making crazy comments like DW (Darrell Waltrip) and Jeff Hammond, guys will say, wow, you guys did X, Y and Z.  I guess we will be on the fun wave and enjoy it.  Until then, we will just keep working hard.

Q.  Just wanted to ask you about what makes this supremely satisfying for you?  Is it because you came into this Chase trailing for the first time with a chance to win it and that you were involved in a three man tussle with Denny and Kevin, and the fact that you know, they perceived some vulnerability and that you kind of answered that.  Is that where you draw this supreme satisfaction of winning this?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, it would be those two points and also the fact that we kept the streak alive.  When you set a record, you would love to continue that record and we have done that.

So there’s that part.  And then expand on one of the points you mentioned.  We did everything we could all year long, especially in the Chase.  And we had two teams right on our heels.  I would say it was one of the more difficult Chases for us speed wise.  So the heart that it took to win this and the tough decisions we had to make at night, on Saturday nights typically going into a race on Sunday; I’m proud of how we dug our heels in and made it happen.

Even with a ton of pressure and all of the things going on.  I mean, we had to make a stand, and I’m proud that we stood up as a unit and did it.

Q.  The chapter of your life, the book of your life, there’s a new very important chapter that was written with the birth of your daughter, and all of the wonderful emotions and massive life changes that come with that.  I can’t help but wonder if that has bearing on your appreciation for this particular championship outside of the competitive part of it.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, yeah, without a doubt.  Obviously we don’t have any photos from being on stage yet but when we won in Dover and had our daughter up there with us, just there’s two of them framed in our motor home right now.  They are there the next weekend.

So to have Genevieve on stage today was extremely special.  The year that we have had, I mean, as a lot of you know, a child, it’s just such an amazing experience to have a child and the process and the miracle that it is and the joy that it’s brought Chandi and I.  And to cap it off with a championship and roll it all together, this is just the coolest year ever.
We are very proud as a family and there’s nothing better than holding my little girl up there getting some photos earlier.

Q.  You talked about how much you enjoyed this week.  A couple things.  Next year, could you arrange to come into this race maybe 75 points behind so you could really have a good time?  And how important is it to you to have left Gordon now in your dust in the championship count?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Never even thought of it.  I naturally think there’s next year and he’s plenty capable of winning a championship and tying us.

You know, I was thanking him on stage for giving me a chance and he shrugged it off like it was nothing.  And I guess Rick, doing a lot of it behind the scenes, and Rick and Jeff making a decision in August of 2000 when I needed a ride; to end up where it has is crazy.

And I guess I’m kind of babbling.

But I haven’t thought of passing Jeff in the championships.  But certainly proud to be where I’m at and hope to climb the ladder and go off the seven mark.  I would love to win more races and catch Jeff’s mark there.  Although, I just can’t believe we have won 5 and 53 races.  Man, those are big numbers and we’ll just keep working at it.

Q.  I wanted to follow up on the our team won note.  Is that in reference to the comments by Mike Ford at Texas?  And Jimmie, can you address how smoothly you were able to overcome not the best day on pit road by your crew today?

CHAD KNAUS: Yes, absolutely.  I think our team and our organization is better than what they have got at Gibbs.  Just the facts.  I didn’t appreciate the way that they said that we were selfish and inconsiderate to the guys on our team when we had to pull them and I wanted to make sure that this championship is not about that decision that was made in Texas in the middle of the race or the decision that was made the Monday after Texas, because that’s not what it was.

This decision was made by Steve Letarte and myself in December of last year saying that we were going to win the championship out of the 248 building, and we were going to do whatever it took; if that meant no sleep, if that meant changing cars; the 24 guys actually had a 48 car here this weekends.  We operate in that building as a single unit and we field two cars for two great drivers and we are going to do whatever we can to win as many races and as many championships out of that building as possible.

We work for the organization.  We work for the team because there’s 520 something people that work at Hendrick Motorsports, and we have a responsibility to them to do what’s right; if he can’t see that or if they can’t see that, then they aren’t a team.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I forgot what the heck you even asked me.  I’m sorry.  Oh, pit road.

Yeah, there was a couple stops, when the 11 was there, challenging us, I asked them    I need you guys and the last couple of stops were spot on and we got the track position that we needed.

You know, I try not to say much on the radio to the guys.  I know there’s coaches there and Chad and everybody else is there leaning on them but every now and then I’ll just plea for some help and they answered the bell.

Q.  I know you kind of alluded to this a bit earlier, but only in NASCAR, do the two guys that are going for the championship get to spend the five minutes before they race together; starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl don’t do that.  What did you speak about when you rode together on the truck?  What was that like having that opportunities to be right there with the guy you’re competing there with at the end.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I would say it started off this morning when we got to Miami airport, with the helicopter over, at that point there was probably more awkwardness being around one another than there was at    behind the stage before we went across for driver intros and then into the truck.

I guess in our minds you work up such a competitive    there’s so much competitive juices flowing that you’re just kind of    you don’t want to tear the other guy apart in a sense.  And we see each other and both kind of distant and said hellos and things like that.  We get in the helicopter and Jeff was with us and Jeff goes, “That was awkward.”  Yeah, yeah, you know, it happens.

In the truck, before we went across the stage, I shook Kevin’s hand and wished him good luck and said, “You’ve had a hell of a year,” and shook Denny’s and said the same.

When we rode in the truck, there were some boos right out of gate, and I turned to Denny and said, “Probably not used to being booed so much, but probably it’s not you; it’s me.”   Down the stretch we were talking about the off season and where we were going to go and what we were going to do.  We stopped at his car, his guys were there, Mike Ford was standing with a big thumbs up and sent a thumbs up back and went back to our car and did our thing.

You know, we are very competitive, and at the end of the day, I mean, even though there were shots thrown at us from the decision we made a change of crew guys and certainly gave Denny a hard time when I could this week and all the stuff that goes on, there’s a great deal of respect for each team out there and especially the Gibbs team.

Denny has been studying us hard over the years and is a serious threat and same with the 29.  Those guys did a lot.  You look where they were last year to where they are this year.  You have to respect the ability those teams have.  At the end of the day, I like to show my respect for other teams.

Q.  Looking back on it, how big was the decision to swap the pit crews over the last two and a half races, and was there any concern early today?  Was what was the difference?  You were concerned obviously at Texas to make the move but here you guys started off a little bit slow in the pits.  What was the difference between those two?

CHAD KNAUS:  It’s all a tough decision when you have to make decisions for your team and it’s going to involve, you know, the emotions and the feelings of your team members, guys that you eat, sleep and breathe with, every single day when you’re on the road, when you practice in the gym and at work, it’s a tough decision.

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It’s not fun making decisions like that.  One day it’s going to happen to me.  One day Rick is going to sit me down and say, man, sorry Buddy, you don’t have it anymore.  And I’ll be like, jerk.  You know, but it’s going to happen.  Let’s be honest.  And same thing is going to happen to him.  Just, it happens and it’s just    it’s sad that it happened the way that it did.

Q.  Do you feel like you did end up getting inside Denny’s head a little bit, and do you feel like that’s part of the experience you talk about, you’re kind of like the wily veteran now and that he might actually learn from this and go on to be better because of it?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I know he’s going to be stronger, even next year.  The ’04, ’05 losses that we had only made our team stronger.  So I know that they will be back stronger than ever next year.

Yeah, you know, it’s hard to say if it did do anything.  But it certainly was worth a shot, you know.  So I guess you’ll have to ask him to see if it was in his head and I’m sure he’ll say it didn’t.  But at some point, I’m sure he was cussing me.  I’m not sure if it was in the car or the night before he went to bed.

But when that moment hit him and the stuff that I was honestly talking about, the sense of losing the championship, I’ve been there before.  And I only mentioned it because I had the experience was there and knew what it did to me and how I overcame it.

Q.  I know you don’t like analogies to the New York Yankees, so I’ll put it another way.  Like a Shakespeare play, the triumphs and tragedies of Hendrick Motorsports, it will take a long time Todd for another team to achieve what has been by your team; do you ever stop to consider that?

RICK HENDRICK:  Yeah, I do and I’m very appreciative of the fact that we have been able to win these races and championships.

I said a few years back, I would like to get to 200 before I quit, and ten championships.  And we are at the championship deal, I think we have got five more to get to 200.

CHAD KNAUS:  What’s this quitting thing?  Just making sure.

RICK HENDRICK:  Chad might take my place, I’m not sure.  (Chuckling).

No, seriously, again, when I see    I know how fortunate I am to have a guy like Jimmie Johnson and Chad, I wouldn’t want to race against them.  And I’ve been very fortunate through my career to have guys like Jeff Gordon and all of the great drivers that have been through our place.  The combination here is unbelievable and again, I always had hoped I could win a race and then a championship, and survive through the sport and, you know, have sponsors and show up and be competitive.

I think our organization has worked hard and we have been through a lot.  We seem to rally and we know we have got a lot of work to do.  We actually had a meeting, a three hour meeting with all of our people on the competition side two weeks ago, and said, we have got to go to work.  But we are very appreciative and I still can’t believe that we have won five in a row or that we have gotten to ten, and hopefully we can just continue to show up year after year and be competitive.

Q.  There’s been a lot of talk tonight in the media center, I’ve heard it in a number of interviews you’ve done about how now there’s a possibility you might achieve seven and maybe even eclipse Petty and Earnhardt.  Is that    I don’t have remember hearing you consider that a possibility in the past.  Is that something that tonight, having won the fifth, you think is within reach now?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I don’t know if it’s in reach.  I know we are going to have chances to win championships, but you just don’t know how the year is going to unfold.  You just don’t know what is going to take place.  It is so tough to win championships, and it’s easy to look at us having five in a row and say, naturally, just keep doing it.

Next year is a whole new year.  There’s no telling what the challenges will be, with what we are going to face, strengths of the other teams and where we are going to be at.  We are closer.  There’s six and seven out there ahead of us, and we’ll work as hard as we can to do it.

And it has not been something I have thought about, because I spent the majority of my career as like a C class driver.  I never experienced stuff like this.  Why would I set goals that are just so out there?  So each year that goes by, I’ve got to keep re racking my goals and we’ll see what happens.

KERRY THARP:  Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, Rick Hendrick, congratulations on the fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.  Job well done.

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Carl Edwards celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, ending a 70-race winless streak. Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

Edwards, who lead 190 laps of the 267 that were run, received his 18th series career win, his 2nd series win of the 2010 season, and his 2nd series win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Denny Hamlin (who came into the race with a 15-point lead over Jimmie Johnson) began his day in the back of the field in the 37th starting position, and things didn’t get better as on lap 24 when Hamlin and Greg Biffle got together. Hamlin suffered right front damage and struggled his way to get back up to where he was prior to his incident with Biffle, while Jimmie Johnson was running in the top-5 and ahead in the points. Hamlin was able to get back in the lead at one point, but a missed pit stop and a caution put Hamlin into a position he couldn’t recover from.

Hamlin ended the day finishing in the 14th position, with a 39 point deficit behind the newly crowned 2010 NSCS champion, Jimmie Johnson (who also gave Rick Hendrick/Hendrick Motorsports their 10th NSCS championship as an owner – the most in the series), and finish in second with a 2 point lead over Kevin Harvick (who finished third in both the points – 41 behind Johnson – and in the race).

Following Edwards, Johnson and Harvick to the drop of the checkered flag were: Aric Almirola finishing in fourth, A J Allmendinger finishing fifth, Kasey Kahne sixth, Ryan Newman seventh, Tony Stewart eighth, Matt Kenseth ninth and Greg Biffle rounding out the top-ten finishers.

RACE NOTES:

Average Speed: 126.585 MPH
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 09 Mins, 50 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 1.608 Seconds
Lead Changes: 22 among 8 drivers
Cautions: 10 for 41 laps
Attendance: 67,000

Unofficial Final Top-12 in the Point Standings: 1. Jimmie Johnson – 6622; 2. Denny Hamlin – 6583 (-39 Points Behind the Leader) 3. Kevin Harvick – 6581 (-41) 4. Carl Edwards – 6393 (-229) 5. Matt Kenseth – 6294 (-328) 6. Greg Biffle – 6247 (-375) 7. Tony Stewart – 6221 (-401) 8. Kyle Busch – 6182 (-440) 9. Jeff Gordon – 6176 (-446) 10. Clint Bowyer – 6155 (-467) 11. Kurt Busch – 6142 (-480) 12. Jeff Burton – 6033 (-589).

Next Up: The beginning of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season with The Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 20th.

2010 NSCS Ford 400 Race Results

# Denotes Rookie

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An Interview With:

RICK HENDRICK

RICHARD CHILDRESS

HERB BRANHAM: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today’s very special teleconference. We’re in advance of Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead Miami Speedway. That’s the final event of this season in the culmination of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. We have three teams still in contention for the title.

Today we’re really pleased to be joined by the car owners of our championship contending teams. We have; Rick Hendrick, who owns the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet driven by Jimmie; and Richard Childress, who owns the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick.

We’re going to start off with a quick opener from each of our owners. Then we’re going to go to media, and we’ll start with Richard Childress. Richard, you have those six Sprint Cup titles as a car owner, won them all with the late Dale Earnhardt. How special would it be to finally win one with Kevin Harvick?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: It would be very special for RCR, myself. I’ve been there and been fortunate to have been aboard for those. We have so many new employees and sponsors that hasn’t been there, and for us to be able to bring a championship to them and to these employees, it would be very special for all of us.

HERB BRANHAM: Rick, nine series car owner championships. That’s a record that you share in the Cup Series with Petty Enterprises. What would it mean if you came away from Homestead and had that record by yourself?

RICK HENDRICK: It would be awesome. You know, when you think about it, time goes by, and I never thought I would win one of these deals. I thought I’d always watch Richard get them. The guys have worked hard, and we hope we can pull it off.

But to have ten would be an amazing accomplishment for the organization. You never know when you’re going to win another one of these deals, so we’re excited to have an opportunity to do that.

HERB BRANHAM: Thank you for those openers. We’ll go to the media now for questions for today’s three really special guests.

Q. I have a question I’d like each of you to address, please. There’s been some surprises in this Chase, but as we look at this championship finale, what would surprise each of you about Sunday?

RICK HENDRICK: You know, I would be surprised if we had an answer before the white flag Sunday. I think when the white flag comes out, it’ll still be up for grabs. I don’t think we’ll know until then, until after that.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I kind of go along with what both of them said. You’ve got three top organizations running for this championship, and that’s what the Chase was all built around is to have this. This is a storybook Chase right here, and I think it’s going to go down to the wire because you have three capable drivers, you have three capable organizations, and it’s going to be fun. I’m as excited about this championship effort – I wish we were 46 ahead or whatever we’re behind. I wish we were ahead that much. But we’ll take it just being able to have a mathematical chance of winning it.

Q.  Rick, the perception persists that for all he’s accomplished, Jimmie Johnson still has not captivated the kind of credit that is warranted for what he’s done. Could you address that?

RICK HENDRICK: You know, I don’t understand it, but to win two or three – two of these deals back-to-back is pretty impressive, three, and then four is just outstanding. You look at his stats, and he’s been amazing. And I don’t know. I think it’s one of those things that while sometimes you’re accomplishing an unbelievable results, it’s after the fact one day people will look at it and say, man, that was awesome back then. I can’t really answer it. I wish I knew.

I think he does have the respect of the garage area, and I think he does have the respect of the competitors, both the teams that he competes against, but I think history will have to prove that what he’s done has been pretty remarkable.

Q. The question I had for you, what is the price of victory? What special reward do each of you guys have to very willingly pay out if your team wins, to the driver, to the team in the shop? I guess is there a bounty on winning the Chase?

RICK HENDRICK: It’s most all of us from our side. I think Joe and Richard, I think the driver gets his piece and then when you get through paying the bonuses to everybody, you might be able to pay your expenses to go out to the championship. But that’s the way we work it, incentivizing our people, and we want to put a carrot out there, and they don’t do it for the money, but it’s the recognition and rewarding them financially that’s important.

I think it’s – I can’t give you a number because I haven’t added it all up, but there is a lot of incentives out there for them, for our team.

Richard Childress - Getty Images

Q. I think everyone would be in agreement that this is the best Chase since probably 2004, and yet the ratings have been down in each race and everyone still seems to act like the sky is falling in NASCAR. The Chase is so captivating this year, I’m wondering why you think it’s not resonating with fans and what more NASCAR could be doing.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I would hit it first. I don’t think Rome is burning in NASCAR. I think we still have a great sport. We have great fans. I think the economy has touched every sport at some point. I think that we will come back and be as strong as we ever were.

I don’t know financially-wise, but I think with the fans, they’re going to get their NASCAR fix, and I just think it’ll be back. But Rome isn’t burning in our series.

RICK HENDRICK: It sounds like all three of us agree totally here. I think it’s the best racing I’ve seen since I’ve been in the sport. When I first started you didn’t have to beat but two or three cars to win a championship. Now you’ve got 15 capable teams of winning it, and it comes down to a couple of you.

I think our season is long, but the racing is the best I’ve ever seen. But when you turn on TV you might watch the World Series, football, they’re talking about cranking up college basketball. It’s so much for people to see and a lot of things that are popping up every week that are new. So I can’t explain the ratings.

But the stands are – Phoenix looked full. Like Joe said, it was awful quiet with the economy being soft from new sponsors and sponsors wanting to re-up or even new people coming in, and that activity has gotten a lot stronger. This has been – we’ve had more movement, more action with companies – some new companies and the old companies that were there that are re-upping, and the economy is not fixed yet.

But I can definitely feel a difference, and I think NASCAR has done everything they could do, that we’re a victim just like everybody else of the economy just like these guys have said.

But I feel very good. I mean, in the end of ’08 when the world looked like it was going to come to an end for everybody, banks, companies, the whole U.S. and worldwide economy, I feel much better, and we’re seeing a lot more activity. So I think we’re on a tremendous upswing, and I think this Chase is proof positive that NASCAR came up with the best formula for the fans and to make it competitive.

Q. When you were building your championship organizations did you look at Richard’s organization at all, and is there anything that you can remember that you kind of took from either Richard’s style or RCR in general that you saw what they were doing and put it to use for yourself?

RICK HENDRICK: I’ll take that one first because I did look at Richard’s organization extremely hard because we led a lot of laps and we won a lot of races, but we’d get down to the end of the year and Richard won the championships. I think Richard showed us how you have to prepare and run for a championship. You’ve got to be there and you’ve got to race every race and every lap, and you’ve got to finish.

So I did learn an awful lot and watch Richard from the day I started and actually not only followed some of his standards, but he has helped me along the way. We’ve worked together many times on projects. He’s been a great friend and a great competitor just like Joe. But it’s amazing how we do learn from each other, and I learned an awful lot from Richard early on.

Q. I guess I just want to ask you what you guys fear. I don’t think fear like totally being afraid of it, but as maybe this comes down to a green-white checkered or it comes down to a caution being called from the tower, I think we all know NASCAR does a good job of officiating, but what do you want to see there? And what part of it being so close and the officiating of it being different than other sports do you guys think about?

RICK HENDRICK: Well, I said early on this year that I thought that the double-file restarts and the green-white checkered was going to decide this championship. You know, I think all of us have been in a situation where there was a double-file restart and somebody got into us. I know Jimmie spun at Loudon and all those things, and you can’t control that. That’s just kind of chaos with so many good cars and everybody racing hard and guys wanting to win a race, guys wanting to win a championship.

From my standpoint I think there’s no debris in the last few laps, ten laps, and I hope we can race clean, and I hope for all of our sakes that there’s not one of those deals to decide it that – caution at the wrong – you can’t help it, those kind of things are going to happen. But I hope that each one of these three cars can finish this race without being taken out by somebody else’s mistake. If one of our guys make it, that’s fine, and we’ve got to live with it. That’s racing. But I think my fear is that they’re going to get caught up in something here and it’s going to be decided by something out of their control.

But that’s racing, and I guess we’ve got to live with it.

Q. Rick, after the standard you set at Hendrick Motorsports the last few years, winning championships and having multiple drivers contend for the Chase, do you consider this a success if Jimmie doesn’t win this thing? And the second part is you said three years ago the pressure was on you to make Dale, Jr., a winner. You’ve thrown everything you can at him. Is the pressure now on him?

Rick Hendrick - Getty Images

We can’t be satisfied because we’re not where we were a year ago in the results, in the final standings, so we need to work harder and work smarter, and we’re going to do that.

Q. Rick, as championships go, you can say this may have been the toughest year for the 48 team to win one. If you’re able to get the job done this weekend, will you kind of take some extra satisfaction in the fact that it was more difficult to achieve?

RICK HENDRICK: Yeah, I mean, none of them are easy. I mean, you know, they may look a little bit easier and maybe we had a little bit more points going into the last race, and this one has been hard-fought, and if we’re fortunate enough to win it, yeah, we just know that it was a dog fight to the very end.

We’re just kind of glad we’re in that position to be there. But none of the championships were easy. The point spread might have been a lot different, they might have looked easy, but there was an awful lot of pressure to get it done. But I think this one will go down – I think we lost one in ’04 by, I don’t know, eight or ten points or whatever, and there was a – if Busch’s tire had gone the other way on pit road we’d have I think been first or second.

This is the kind of deal you deal in the moment and you do the best you can, and if you come up short, you’ve just got to go to work and try to be there next year.

Q. Question for each of you. Who’s got a bigger knot in his stomach right now on your team, the owner, the driver or the crew chief?

RICK HENDRICK: I think Jimmie and Chad are – I flew back home with Chad last Sunday night, and I’ve been with Jimmie early in the week, and they seem to be pretty relaxed, and I am, too. I just feel like it’s – we got here, and when we walk into the track is when I’m going to get knotted up. And they get ready to start the race, so many things are happening around you, and you’re trying to keep up with it. I’m trying to wait until Sunday when I walk in out there to get kind of in a bind. Actually I’m fishing today with Joe and Richard, so I’m taking the day off.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I think we probably got it the easiest on our end because the worst we’re going to finish in the points is third, and we’re the team that’s chasing, and we’re just going to go down there and have fun. If it gets down to the last ten laps and there’s five points difference or ten points difference and we’ve got a solid chance of winning it, leading it or are right there, yeah, I think I’ll probably be like Joe. I may end up having to jump off the truck or something.

HERB BRANHAM: Thank you, and thanks to our championship contending owners. This is one of our best teleconferences of the year. We appreciate it, and best of luck on Sunday.

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

- Team Chevy, Press Release

NASCAR Hall of Fame

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel, consisting of members of the Nominating Committee along with 31 others representing all facets of the NASCAR industry, met in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C., to vote on the induction class of 2011. The announcement was made in the Great Hall inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

The class was determined by 53 votes cast by the panel and the nationwide fan vote conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young presided over the tabulation of the votes.

The Class of 2011 will be officially inducted in a ceremony in May 2011 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
The results of the voting for the five chosen in this class proved quite competitive. Also receiving votes were Dale Inman, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip.

As part of the inclusive voting process, hundreds of thousands of NASCAR fans submitted votes online at NASCAR.COM. That remarkable feedback once again demonstrated fans’ passion and knowledge of the sport and its heritage. The fans’ top five: Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough.

Here were the 25 nominees for induction into the 2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame class:

Bobby Allison, Buck Baker, Red Byron, Richard Childress, Jerry Cook, Richie Evans, Tim Flock, Rick Hendrick, Jack Ingram, Dale Inman, Ned Jarrett, Fred Lorenzen, Bud Moore, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts, T. Wayne Robertson, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Darrell Waltrip, Joe Weatherly, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame broke ground in Charlotte on Jan. 25, 2007 and opened to the public on May 11, 2010. The facility honors the history and heritage of NASCAR and the many who have contributed to the success of the sport.

Highlighting the Class of 2011:

Bobby Allison
Allison, winner of the 1983 NASCAR premier series championship, ended his career with 84 victories, tied for third on the all-time list. In 1972, he won 10 races, had 12 second-place finishes and was the NASCAR premier series runner-up (to Richard Petty). Allison captured the NASCAR Modified Special Division championship in 1962 and ‘63 and then went on to win the Modified Division the following two years. In 1998, Allison was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers.”

Ned Jarrett
Jarrett was a two-time NASCAR champion (1961 and 1965) and two-time Sportsman Division champion (1957 and ‘58). Through his career he totaled 50 premier series wins, tied for 11th all-time. In 1998 he was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers.” After retiring in 1966, Jarrett helped grow the sport through his second career as a broadcaster.

Bud Moore
A decorated World War II infantryman, Bud Moore became a successful NASCAR Sprint Cup owner almost immediately upon fielding a team in 1961. Moore won back-to-back championships in 1962-63 with Joe Weatherly. Earlier, in 1957, Moore – who referred to himself as “a country mechanic” – was crew chief for champion Buck Baker.

David Pearson
Pearson is a three-time NASCAR champion whose career total of 105 victories is second on the all-time list. Pearson won his titles in 1966, ’68 and ’69. He also won the sport’s biggest event, the Daytona 500 in 1976. In 1998 he was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers.”

Lee Petty
Petty became the sports first three-time series champion after winning titles in 1954, ’58 and ’59. He was also the winner of the first Daytona 500 in 1959. His 54 career victories stands ninth on the all-time list and he never finished lower than fourth in points from 1949-1959. In 1998, he was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers.” Petty is the founder of Petty Enterprises and as an owner had more than 2,000 starts and 268 wins.

- NASCAR, Press Release

Jimmie Johnson celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 at the Monster Mile – his sixth win in 18 races at the Delaware mile track. - Photo Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR

Coming into the Dover race, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had not visited victory lane since winning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June – a stretch of 10 races.  The win not only was Johnson’s 53^rd in 319 career races, but was the 194^th for Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history.   Johnson has also won 19 of the 62 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “Chase” races, more than any other driver.

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet matched his best finish of the season by coming home in the runner up position.  His only other 2^nd place run in 2010 also came at The Monster Mile in the Spring event.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet finished eight and was the only other Chevy driver in the top-10.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/Law Enforcement Museum Chevrolet, finished 11^th and dropped four spots to eighth in the overall standings.

Mark Martin, No. 5 Delphi/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet battled back from the 42^nd starting position after a shock penalty following qualifying to finish 12^th.

Driver Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished 13^th and 14^th for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing.

Kevin Harvick fell two positions in the Chase standings with his 15th-place finish behind the wheel of the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet.

Tony Stewart struggled with handling issues most of the day in his No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet and came home 21^st and remained 10^th in the Chase standings.

Clint Bowyer, No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet finished 25^th and remains in 12^th position in the Chase after hitting the wall, and receiving a pit road speeding penalty in a tough day for the embattled Richard Childress Racing team.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, was the 23rd place finisher in race 28 of the 36-race season.

Joey Logano (Toyota), Kurt Busch (Dodge) and Carl Edwards (Ford) completed the top-five finishers.

The Series moves to Kansas Speedway for Round Three of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on October 3, 2010.

JIMMIE JOHNSON AND CREW CHIEF, CHAD KNAUS, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER’S POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR:  We’re now joined by today’s winner of the AAA 400, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, Jimmie Johnson.  Jimmie, tell us about your run.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, obviously the weekend we would dream of, were able to get it with winning the pole, leading the most laps and winning the race.

It was a challenging weekend, to say the least.  The tire that Goodyear brought back, it’s the same as it was in the spring.  It blackened up the track in a hurry, but really made the track challenging after 30 or 40 laps.  The rubber would build up on the track and create handling issues for the racecar that you couldn’t tune to.  The car would act different and do different things when you ran over the black patches.

I had to fall back on my dirt racing background.  I think that helped me out some.  I had a great car.  Everybody did their jobs today.  Very pleased with the effort.  Came at a good time, clearly.  We got eight to go and we’ll see where things go from here.

THE MODERATOR:  We’re also joined by Chad Knaus.  Your thoughts from on top of the box today?

CHAD KNAUS:  It was definitely a good day for us, obviously.  We really had our hands full this weekend.  We came in qualifying trim.  As we unloaded, the car wasn’t reacting the way we actually anticipated it.  We had to make some pretty significant changes to the racecar.  When it came time to qualify, we actually had to put a setup underneath the car that Jimmie had not felt yet.  He had to trust in us, and thankfully he did, to go in there and bomb it for qualifying.  It stuck.

Being able to qualify on the pole is obviously huge here because track position is critical along with your pit selection.

Race practice, we weren’t where we needed to be then either.  We really had to work hard on the car going into Happy Hour.  Got in much better in Happy Hour.  Made some big changes over the course of the evening to get even better yet.

Honestly, just like what Jimmie said, we could adjust the car, make the car do some different things, but we really couldn’t make the car better.  The difference today was definitely in the driver.

THE MODERATOR:  We’ll open it up to questions.

Q.  Jimmie, when AJ Allmendinger got out in front early on, did you think you had a fight on your hands or you had the car to overtake him down the road?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, I feel like coming into this weekend he was in the back of my mind as one of the guys to worry about.  He certainly did a great job in qualifying and in the race.  In the spring race here, he was chasing us a bunch in that race, putting a lot of pressure on us.

With the momentum that team has had, the confidence he is getting in his abilities in a stock car, he’s a real threat and was a real threat today.

It looked like they had some tire issues potentially or something was going on when he pitted from the lead, put us in the lead, gave us control of the race at that point.

Early in the race, I just had to push my car way too hard to run that pace.  I don’t know if the pace led to the problems he had, but it was past experience for me here.  I knew I’d run the tires off the car and have a problem if I went that hard.

We played it smart.  He wasn’t a Chase guy, so I didn’t feel good about letting him go.  But when he got to me and put pressure on me, I let him by.  I just need to worry about those 11 other drivers and really about myself.  Way too early to worry about stuff.  Come the end of the race, he wasn’t there to have to fight with.

Q.  Chad, I got to ask you this.  I saw you looking just so directly at the 11 car on Saturday.  You looked at all the drama that was going on next to you.  It was like you had already taken those two guys out of the Chase; now it’s just us against nine guys.  How do you get the mental mindset going in and move forward, stick with your game plan?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  We were watching them because it was entertaining.  Who wasn’t watching (laughter)?

CHAD KNAUS:  Honestly, I didn’t know anything was happening.  I had seen some stuff happening on the racetrack.  As we pulled onto the track, I told Jimmie, Watch that 29.  I was trying to get him to look into his mirror so he could see the action.  Obviously, he didn’t, so he missed all the on track stuff.

Once we got into the garage, I didn’t really know anything about it.  Jimmie and I had been talking for probably a good solid two or three minutes, hadn’t even realized there was any type of altercation in the garage between the two guys.  Jimmie was, Hey, those two guys are about to fight.  I was like, Wow.  At that point I kind of looked up to see what was going on.

But quite frankly, we didn’t waste a whole lot of time being spectators at that point.  We put our heads down, got to work on what we needed to do to work on our racecar.

We’ve been through all of that stuff.  You go back to 2005.  We had a bit of a match with the 20 car.  We’ve had on track problems with other people.  We’ve lived all that stuff.  We’ve had suspensions, fines, all that kind of stuff.  Everything that’s possible to be done in the sport from a negative and a positive, we’ve unfortunately been involved in.  We don’t really pay a lot of attention to what goes on outside of our four walls.  We worry about our racecar, our toolbox, try to make it right.

Q.  Jimmie, if you could expound on that a little bit, too.  Do you find it humorous?  Do you feel those guys were giving themselves self inflicted distractions you don’t need in the Chase?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You know, like Chad had mentioned, I didn’t see what went on on the track.  When I got out of the car for the change we were making, I think round two of their discussions started up.  That’s what we saw.

It’s an emotional sport.  Guys have all different points of view.  You have two very competitive drivers with different points of view.  It turned into what it did.

I haven’t thought much about it.  The reason I don’t want to think much about it is I need to worry about my racecar and my team.  I want to expect the best out of those two race teams and not think, Well, they’re occupied with each other, they’re not going to be as strong.  That would be a mistake on my part.  I need to look at the 11 like it’s the 11, the 29 like it’s the 29, regardless of the feud or whatever could exist in the future.  I wouldn’t be doing my job then.

So we’ve done a very good job over the last four years worrying about ourselves and we’ve got to maintain that.

Q.  Jimmie and Chad, I think you tried to make the point Friday that you actually didn’t run that badly last week, but circumstances produced a bad finish.  Everybody looks at the final outcome.  Given how your team has performed these past two weeks, is this how you hoped you start the Chase as far as on track performance?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I think so.  The short run at New Hampshire was really our weak spot.  That showed in qualifying, trying to get one fast lap, and on the short runs after restarts, just couldn’t get going.  Today we were much more competitive.  Maybe not where we wanted to be on the short run, but much more competitive than New Hampshire.

Qualifying went well.  Our goal was to come in and qualify well.  It starts the ball in motion.  It starts kind of the trend for the team, just the arc of what the team is going to deal with.  If you qualify badly, you’re in such a hole from pit road pick to what takes place on track, it’s stuff to overcome.

We met our goals this weekend, moved up a lot today.  I think today shows you, I saw the 11 finish ninth and we’re only 35 out.  We look at 80, 90 points, whatever it is, think it’s a lot.  It really isn’t.  I mean, you finish 10th or 15th, you lose 60, 70 points.  There’s eight races left, and the points can shake up a lot.

I think it’s going to be as exciting of a Chase as everyone is hoping for.

Q.  The first hundred laps of the race y’all were pretty good, then the sun came out.  Looked like you were really good.  Did that play into your plan?  You were just happy it came out and it worked out?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I don’t really ever remember the sun being out.  Maybe I forgot about those hundred laps (laughter).

Our car didn’t change a lot.  We made very, very small changes in the racecar throughout the day today.  Throughout the sun and cloud situation, our car stayed within a very, very small amount on adjustments.  It was more about me over the course of the long run doing the right things with my line selection on track to keep speed in the car than anything.

Q.  Jimmie, coming into the Chase this year, four time defending champion, it seemed like after the first race a lot of people were counting you out.  Is this a statement victory for you as early as it is in the Chase?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m not so concerned with statements.  At the end of the day, I’m just concerned about where I am in the points, what the deficit is.  If we’re fortunate to get on top, how big that gap is, what we need to do to be champions.  A lot of that other stuff, if it’s in your brain, you’re not thinking about the right thing.

For me, what people want to read into, what they want to think about today’s performance, that’s fine.  We’re moving on.  We have to go to Kansas and do the job again.  There’s eight races left in this thing.  We want to win this championship.  We want to win five in a row.  It’s within our race shop.  These guys on the 48 team, we need to buckle down, get better in some areas.  Today we did win, but we need to be stronger moving forward.  We got to go home and get better.

Q.  You mentioned in Victory Lane, I know it doesn’t look like I’m emotional now.  You seem almost matter of fact, that this was business.  Am I getting this wrong?  Didn’t seem to have that overflow of emotion.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, you know, I don’t know how to describe it.  We want to win this championship.  And, yes, today was a big victory, hopefully a step towards the championship.  But it’s not the prize we want.

Today we got maximum points.  I am very proud of that internally.  But it’s not time to celebrate.  If we take this week off and take it lightly, not prepare like we need to for Kansas, we’ll get beat.  We can’t get beat.  We’ve got to win races and keep this momentum going.

At the end of the year, if we’re fortunate to win the championship, I’ll be the guy with the biggest smile, be the guy that’s hung over more than anyone come Monday morning.  It’s just right now it’s time to buckle down and time to be working on stuff.

Q.  Jimmie, you’ve won three out of your last four starts here, six out of 18.  I’m sure you don’t want to share it, but what’s your secret?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It’s just a good track for me.  It was no surprise to see the 18 coming up towards the front at the end.  I know this is a great track for him, too.  There’s a certain rhythm to this racetrack that works.  The 43 has figured it out and knows that rhythm now.  The 31, he’s always been decent here, but he’s really figuring this place out, the rhythm it takes.

Even though it is a big track, you wouldn’t think rhythm.  There is a very unique rhythm to driving this track.  It’s just suited my style since I’ve been in a car.  I go back to when I ran my first race here in ASA in ’98, won the pole, led most laps.  Unfortunately blew a tire late in the race.  Always, always loved this track.

Q.  Jimmie, just curious as to why you chose to do the burnout at the end of pit road instead of the frontstretch like you usually do.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  The front straightaway is so banked you can’t really do a good doughnut.  With my guys being at the end of the pit road, I was first going to come down and nose the car into the wall, do a burnout in front of them.  That angle is so steep, I thought, I’ll damage the car.  That’s all we need to hear about next week, how the 48 nosed it in, did damage to the car.  I didn’t want to deal with that.

I saw a flat area by my pit box.  Was just doing doughnuts and saying ‘hey’ to my boys as I was doing doughnuts spinning out.  I was more than anything looking for a good flat spot to do a good burnout.

Q.  Can you say what you’ve learned as far as the Chase in the first two races or you don’t learn anything till the mile and a half’s?  Was that the first time you had your daughter in Victory Lane?  Talk about that.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, that’s the first time for her, outside of the womb.  She was in Channy’s belly throughout the wins for the first time five of the year.  To have her there was really cool this weekend.  I was impressed she was able to get her buttoned up and together, and even herself, because I guess she was feeding her right before we won the race.

Knowing my wife, she’s not one to celebrate too early.  She waits until it’s done before she starts getting excited.  I’m surprised and happy she made it to Victory Lane when she did.  This is a cool moment.  I know when I get these photos and look back on them, share them with her when she’s older, it will be a cool moment.  Really proud my family was here, first time in Victory Lane.

CHAD KNAUS:  I feel good about it.  If you go back and look at our performance in Chicago, we qualified respectable.  We led a good portion of that race.  I think if you go back and you look at how we ran at Charlotte Motor Speedway, we ran very competitive there.  We basically took ourselves out of both of those races.

I think leading into that with Kansas being very similar to Chicago, looking forward to it.  I think the performance we had in Atlanta was definitely a direction that you can see where we’re headed toward going into Charlotte Motor Speedway, Homestead, and definitely Fontana, we’re always excited to go there.  We obviously won there in the spring.

I think our big track stuff is pretty close.  We’re excited about it.  We know we’re never as good as what we want to be.  We’re definitely going to be continuing to work on it, trying to improve our product, but I’m looking forward to it, definitely.

Q.  Jimmie, the fact that Kyle Busch took the lead for a little bit and faded, the fact you didn’t have to fight him to the finish, was that a relief to you or did you feel he was in the Chase with you, would you have pushed your car for the victory?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, definitely would push for the victory.  Anytime you see Kyle, no matter what series you’re in, if he’s coming, if you’re up front and that 18 is there, you’ve got your hands full.  There’s no way around it.  The guy can drive a racecar.  Love him or hate him, he can get the job done and I have a lot of respect for what he can do in a racecar.

I wasn’t taking it lightly when I knew he was in second, then the restart when he was in the lead, trying to run him back down.  I had to do everything I could to get back by him.  He’s a lot smarter this year.  He’s going down there at the end of this thing fighting for it.

Q.  Chad led into what I was going to ask.  Maybe you can expound on it.  How good you feel with these coming races.  You’ve won 30% of the Chase races, 19 of the 62 since this format.  Can you talk about your confidence level.  30% is quite a percentage.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, we’re kind of taken aback by it, as well.  We’ve had slow summers in the past.  We had a slow summer this year.  We’ve at least been able to get into the Chase.  We sit back and shake our heads about the success the team has late in the season.

The tracks in the schedule kind of work for us.  Even though the tracks work for us, I think the pressure that comes with the championship battle is something that we embrace.  I mean, it’s not a comfortable 10 weeks.  You lose a lot of sleep.  There’s a lot of frustrating moments.  But for whatever reason, it’s a good pressure for us and we do well.

Proud of the last four years.  Proud of where we are today.  Regardless of where we end up, I know this 48 team is all in and we’re going to give it a hundred percent.  We’ll be proud of wherever we finish at the end of the year.

THE MODERATOR:  Chad is wondering why it’s not 40%.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  He’s thinking it could be a hundred percent.  There’s a chance (laughter).

Q.  Jimmie, we all know that staying on top in sports is one of the toughest things.  You’ve done it for four years.  How do you keep the team motivated?  How do you do this?

CHAD KNAUS:  Basically I think a lot of it has to do with simply making sure you get the right people on the team.  Jimmie is very easily self motivated, obviously with some prodding from me, goes a long ways, and vice versa.  Jimmie and I, I think we do a good job of keeping each other in check on a consistent basis.

From the foundation of the team, we work hard making sure we have guys that work at Hendrick Motorsports and within the 48 team that are kind of self motivators, guys that when there is a mistake or flaw, they take it upon themselves to try to improve, correct whatever misfortune you may have had.  When you have guys that basically want to go out there and do the best they can, try to win every single race, motivation just kind of comes and you don’t have to try to fish for it or try to instill it in people.

We work hard to make sure we have the right people on the team.  I think we do.  We’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  I can promise you, if something goes wrong, something falls short of what their goal is, there’s nobody that feels worse than what that individual does.  To try to motivate from that point is unnecessary when you got guys like that.

THE MODERATOR:  Gentlemen, congratulations.  Thank you for your time.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2^ND:

THE MODERATOR:  We’re joined by Jeff Burton.  Jeff is seventh in points.  Jeff, tell us about your run today.

JEFF BURTON:  Well, we thought we had a really good racecar coming into the race today.  We took off and struggled a little bit for rear grip.  Just kept working all day to get the grip level right.

I thought the track changed a lot.  My guys did a great job of adjusting to the track, getting the car better at the right time.

About halfway through the next to the last run, my car just got really happy and took off.  We then became a contender.  Proud of us being right at the right time.  We were in position with that restart.

What won the race for Jimmie wasn’t the start of the restart, but about 15 laps into the next to the last run, he cleared Logano and got really fast right there.  He squirted away from me pretty hard and ran the 18 down.  Then we started running them down.

But he was just a little quicker than we were today.

THE MODERATOR:  We’ll open it up to questions.

Q.  Jeff, it seemed yesterday when the skirmish between Harvick and Hamlin was going on, Jimmie and Chad were over to the side soaking it all in.  Can you talk about the focus they’ve had, Jimmie, came back today, the focus they have when they win championships.

JEFF BURTON:  Well, they’re good.  They’re not good, they’re great.  That word is not being overused when I say that.  They’ve won four in a row.  You’re not good doing that.  You have to be great to do that.

They’ve been in the hunt.  They’ve been in the mix.  I think they’re as seasoned as you can possibly be together.  They fought the fights together.  They haven’t won every championship together.  They’ve lost some, too.  Through losing some, you gain wisdom.  Through winning some, you gain wisdom.  They perform.  That’s what they did.

I expected them to come here and perform.  This is one of their best racetracks.  It didn’t surprise me to see them run as well as they did.

Q.  Jeff, taking a walk down pit road late in the race, some of Clint Bowyer’s pit crew were in your stall.  When your team is challenging for the win, Bowyer is off the pace, how as an organization are you going to handle that as the Chase moves forward?

JEFF BURTON:  I’m not aware of the situation there, to be quite honest.  I’m not even sure what you’re talking about.  I’m not blowing you off; I don’t know the story there.

Every team is here to win races.  Every team is here to try to win a championship.  As the thing goes on, it will get harder for some teams to win than others.

I don’t see any situation where we’re pulling people away from one team.  I don’t know.  I’m not going to get into all that.  Every team is here to win races.

THE MODERATOR:  Thank you for your time.  Congratulations.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

- Team Chevy, Press Release

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JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER:

AFTER LAST WEEK, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN THE POLE AND THEN WIN THE RACE THIS WEEK?

“It feels great. Last week didn’t turn out how we’d want but that’s racing and it’s going to happen in the Chase. I just can’t thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports enough for working as hard as they do. It just never quits. It never stops. And I’m so thankful for the engine shop, the chassis shop and all the great guys who work on this Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools car and all the great people at Lowe’s and KOBALT Tools for their support; the fans and everything. I may not look a lot excited right now, but there’s this huge weight off my shoulders that we were able to win a race in the Chase, rebound from last weekend, and we’re in the middle of this thing and I’m really, really excited.”

YOU’RE ONLY 35 POINTS BACK IN SECOND PLACE NOW

“Yeah, that’s good. I knew it would be close. I’m excited about what we have ahead. Last weekend; anything can happen. I know Talladega is out there. We did a great job today. We’re in the right position but we’ve got to keep this Impala fast and be there after Talladega. That’s the goal. So we did the best thing possible. I’ve very, very excited about today. At some point hopefully my wife and my daughter will show up; I thought they might be here now and I can’t wait to celebrate this moment with them too.”

AND SPEAKING OF FACES IN VICTORY LANE, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO ROLL IN AND SEE MR. HENDRICK’S SMILING FACE?

“There’s nothing better. We’ve had a few frowns on recently because we’ve been getting our butts kicked, but this is a great track for us and today we got the job done and it’s because of Rick’s (Hendrick) dedication to this race team and all the tools that he gives us.”

YOU TOLD US BEFORE THE RACE THAT YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS THE TIME YOU GUYS COULD HIT YOUR STRIDE, LET’S GO BACK TO THE LAST RESTART, ABOUT 295 TO ABOUT 320, THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU STARTED REELING KYLE BUSCH IN, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE THERE? “Truthfully, we lost some spot on pit road and I didn’t have control of the restart. Once we got going, I ended up third. I have my daughter here in a car carrier here and I don’t know what to do with her yet. (LAUGHS) First time in victory lane for her. We came up third on that restart and I just fought really hard to get back into position behind the No. 18. (Kyle Busch)  It took me a while to get by the No. 20 (Joey Logano).  I knew we had a lot of laps on our side and I didn’t want to do something stupid and throw it away. So, I took my time and made sure I got to the front when it was time.”

HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DID THE WEATHER MAKE WHEN IT COOLED DOWN? “Today it was easier to drive the car than yesterday. We did make some changes to help that but I think today with the cooler temperatures helped out a little bit.”

IT HAS BEEN 10 RACES SINCE YOU HAVE WON, WHAT IS IT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE IN THE CHASE? ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENT? “No, we are not doing anything different. Today is a great day for us because it shows us what we are capable of and the fact that we can win races and be competitive in this Chase. This summer was hard on us. There is no way around that. We had bad races and finished bad. We had good races and finished bad. So it is nice today to do things start to finish all weekend long on the right foot.”

SECOND IN POINTS, ONLY 35 BACK: “A lot of racing left.”

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALTOOLS CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY, PRETTY GOOD: “Yes, it was an awesome. Guess he wanted to put some smoke up here for our interview (referring to Johnson’s burnout). Man what a great job. We showed up and we were a little bit off. We had to work on the car pretty hard. We really relied on Jimmie awfully hard for qualifying and he did a fantastic job qualifying. We had to work hard on the KOBALT Chevrolet to get it where we needed it to be but man it was fast all day today.

“It wasn’t easy on Friday and Saturday. It looked like it was pretty fast today, but we were pretty far off when we got here. A lot of hard work by all the guys. Can’t say enough about all the guys at the shop, prep and everything, so we had the information we needed when we got here. I am glad Mr. Hendrick came here. I wish his Mom was here with us. I sent her some flowers a couple of weeks ago, so I hope she is still enjoying those. Just couldn’t be prouder of this whole team.”

RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, RACE WINNER: TALK ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE OF THE NO. 48 TEAM TODAY: “I think a lot of people were counting them out. Boy, we were counting on Loudon and this race to really give us that spring board we needed. The man (Jimmie Johnson) knows this place really well. It is a great day, great day. I’m so proud of them. Good job!”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE POINT STANDINGS AFTER TODAY’S GREAT RUN? “Well, everybody is looking at the point standings for sure. Our goal at this point is just to keep going. We’re not going to leave a race in the next few weeks with the points lead. We started far enough behind where that is just not going to happen. Last week was really, really frustrating. We had a great car, well we didn’t have a great car, we had a really good car last week and we weren’t able to capitalize and ran out of gas with two to go. We got lucky to finish 15th. Today, we did a good job. The No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was a little stronger. I thought he had the class of the field. But we put some pressure on him.”

HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE DURING THE RACE? “It changes a lot. This track, it is crazy how much this track changes. We really struggled for grip early in the race and by the time the race was over, we were just way too tight. The track always does that. You see a lot of people early here, they can’t run well late because they got their cars tight enough so it drives good and then later in the race they can’t go any good. We kind of sacrificed a little bit at the start of the race. A little more than we wanted to. None-the-less, it was a good day for us, we got right at the right time.”

HE HAS SOME BLISTERS ON HIS LEFT HAND BUT HE HELD ON AND DID A HECK OF A JOB: “Just really proud of everybody. We had a good car all weekend. I just didn’t do a good job qualifying. I just cannot get qualified. Here especially for some reason. But we will keep working on it. Proud of everybody. Proud of Caterpillar and SKF and Prilosec OTC, just everybody that helps us. It has been one of those years where we have been really good but haven’t been able to capitalize. We have eight more chances and hopefully we can start pulling the trigger.”

A DIFFERENT LINE WORKED FOR YOU TODAY, TALK ABOUT THAT: “You know, at one point there, I started driving the car like straight in the corner and running right at the race track. Just diamonding the corner really weird, I’ve never done that before here and that got us going. When we were at our best, I could arc the corner like I needed to.

“The No. 48 was just really really fast, he was the class of the field today. We put some pressure on them, we could match them but that wasn’t good enough from where we were.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT/LAW ENFORCEMENT MUSEUM CHEVROLET – FINISHED 11^TH

“You can’t give up those positions; especially when you come to a place like this where most of the Chase guys are going to be up front, really at most places, the Chase guys are going to be up front. The first half of the race went pretty good. The second half, when the rubber laid down, man we just really struggled. It was everything I could do to just hang on to it, let alone finish 11^th. So things didn’t go our way there at the end. We lost some extra positions and just held on for 11^th. That’s all we can do.”

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO KANSAS?

“Definitely; I love Kansas. We knew coming in here that this was going to be a struggle for us. But we were up there in the top five and we were maybe about a 7^th place car and we were wanting to at least maintain that, but we didn’t. So now we go to Kansas and some other places that I think are much better tracks for us and we’ve got to capitalize on that.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL CHEVROLET – FINISHED 15^TH:

“We drove up to the top 10 nicely, but our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet just went too loose on the last three runs, and we couldn’t get it dialed in.  We will regroup and be ready for them next week at Kansas.”

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL CHEVROLET – FINISHED 15^TH:

WHAT HAS HAPPENED THE LAST TWO RACES, IS THAT INDICATIVE OF WHAT YOU WILL SEE THE REST OF THE CHASE?

“I think all the guys in the Chase are going to run up front obviously.  We had a pretty good day going there.  We got up to ninth and on the last two runs something didn’t agree with us on those last two runs and we got very loose.   But I don’t see anything that is going to change going into the next few races.   Same guys are going to run up front each week and its going to be difficult for everybody every single week.”

YOU GUYS WORKED YOUR WAY UP PRETTY GOOD.  CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END?

“Well we thought we had a pretty good drive.  We drove from 33^rd up to ninth I think and then we just kind of……the last two runs I don’t know what happened.  We just lost the handle on the car.  I don’t know if something went wrong with the car itself and we will just have to get back to the shop and look at it but up until that point we had a pretty good drive going.”

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

- Team Chevy Press Release

Rick Hendrick - Getty Images

RICK HENDRICK, OWNER OF HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, met with media following the announcement of an expansion of his 15-year relationship with Quaker State, which includes primary placement for Quaker State on the No. 5 Chevrolet in four Sprint Cup races annually and associate sponsorship of all Hendrick Motorsports cars.  Quaker State also will continue to be poured in the more than 80 Hendrick Automotive Group franchises throughout the United States. Discussion with media included topics about the economy and sponsorships, changes in NASCAR, having two cars in the Chase, and more.

WHAT’S THE SITUATION ON THE NO. 5 CHEVROLET FOR NEXT YEAR? FOUR RACES FOR QUAKER STATE AND WHAT ELSE?

“GoDaddy.com is coming back so this about fills us up. There is one more sponsor that we haven’t announced. But we’re pretty much done.”

REGARDING THE ECONOMY AND THE SPONSOR/DRIVER SITUATION, IS THIS THE HARDEST IT’S BEEN?

“It’s definitely the toughest I’ve ever seen it. Of course I guess the economy is as tough as I’ve ever seen it and what you have is most everybody is wanting to cut back some if they can. So when you’ve got one that’s willing to up the ante a little bit, it’s pretty neat. They’ve been on all the cars and now they’ve got the primary races too. I’ve wanted to see them do it for a long time because I think there are some good marketing opportunities for us not only in the racing, but in the racing too.”

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF SPECULATION WITH JEFF (GORDON) AND WAL-MART AND THEN WAL-MART PUT OUT A STATEMENT SAYING THEY’RE NOT GOING TO BE ON THE CAR. CAN YOU CLARIFY THAT?

“It’s like anything else. You talk to people and they were someone we were talking to. We got down the road a bit, but timing is kind of one of those things that I think possibly we’ll do something down the road with them but it won’t be next year. It’s good though, to see companies have interest. And I guess at the end of ’08 and ’09 it was pretty dismal. You didn’t see, if someone wasn’t already out here on a car, you didn’t talk to anybody. And now there is interest from people that haven’t been in the sport. They’re kind of doodling around with it. So it’s good. It feels better today than it did in the first half of ’09. So that’s encouraging to see. And it’s real encouraging to have people re-up. That’s good too.”

WERE YOU TALKING ABOUT A LICENSING AGREEMENT WITH WAL-MART TO GET SOME OF YOUR GUYS PRODUCTS IN WAL-MART STORES?

“Yeah, that’s still ongoing. We have a good relationship with them. It’s a timing issue and we’re still working on a lot of stuff.”

ON UPCOMING SPONSOR ANNOUNCEMENTS

“I don’t really want to go into that. We’ve got a lot of our folks coming back and I’m not really sure how many we’ve got committed in what area. But we’re getting close. We’ll be announcing in the next 60 days. In the past we would announce mid-year but companies now waiting later and later to make announcements. We plan to have everything done by the end of November.”

WOULD THAT REQUIRE HENDRICKCARS.COM TO BE ON ANY CARS TO FILL THAT?

“Oh, it could be. I enjoy that if I can afford it (laughter). It’s worked real good for me in the past. I think that probably if I could win Daytona or run up front with the Hendrick cars logo, it would be something I’d really like to do one day. But we don’t know if that’ll ever happen.”

ARE YOU STILL WORKING ACTIVELY ON THE 2012 DEAL FOR KASEY KAHNE?

“Oh, the 12; like 2012. I’m trying to get 2011 done. Gosh (laughter). We’re always talking to people and you run a lot of what-if’s and you have a tremendous amount of discussion. I think the exciting thing and the important thing is in the first half of ’09, there was nobody talking about anything. And now there are a lot of people talking and things happening. In general, the feeling is much better and people are looking beyond what we’ve been through. They’re not looking backwards anymore; they’re looking forward. But the economy is still tight and people are still trying to stretch their dollars; and we’ve got to be fairly creative to be able to make it work for everyone.”

BRIAN FRANCE HAS TALKED ABOUT CHANGES TO THE CHASE. HOW IMPORTANT WOULD IT BE IF THEY EXPANDED THE FIELD TO 15 CARS? AS A CAR OWNER LOOKING FOR SPONSORS, IS THAT SOMETHING THAT WOULD HELP?

“I have got mixed feelings about expanding it to 15. If you expand it to 15, somebody is going to want to go to 18. Twelve is fine with me. If 15 happens, okay. But that’s not going to make or break any kind of sponsor deal in my opinion.”

WITH QUAKER STATE ON YOUR CARS NOW, DOES THAT MEAN THAT STEWART-HAAS HAS TO USE QUAKER STATE NOW?

“No. The folks that rent or lease motors for us, do whatever they want to do. That’s their call.”

IS THE PRICE POINT HOLDING FIRM FOR A SPONSORSHIP THESE DAYS? IS IT CHANGING?

‘Well, the price point is pretty close compared to what it has been. If you had your best world scenario, you’d have one sponsor all year and they’d never change their logo and you don’t have to paint cars and change uniforms and all that. But as it’s worked out, we have some really good partners that work together like CARQUEST and Go.Daddy.com and now Quaker State and they all get along. It’s tough for the team sometimes to have to do back-up cars and different paint schemes but that’s a whole lot better than not having a sponsor.”

DO SPONSORS GET ALONG?

“I think most of the time it’s communication. And we try to work really hard to get them together like in another week we’re going to have about 80 sponsors in Charlotte for two-day workshops. We try to stay ahead of that and find out what’s important to them, and then let them meet the other guys and so they have a relationship and then they share show car programs and so forth. So we try. I can’t ever remember having to referee a problem with a sponsor.

“I think where you get into trouble is when a sponsor shows up one weekend and they didn’t know that they were secondary and somebody (else) was primary. I’ve heard those kinds of stories. But we get all that squared away before the season starts so they know and they can plan and we can plan with them. It’s communication.”

A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN JEFF GORDON DIDN’T MAKE THE CHASE, YOU MADE A CREW CHIEF CHANGE AT THE START OF THE CHASE. LOOKS LIKE DALE EARNHARDT JR IS NOT GOING TO MAKE THE CHASE. WHAT OPTION IS THAT FOR A POSSIBLE CREW CHIEF CHANGE THERE?

“Actually, I’m pretty happy with the chemistry there now. Maybe some of you guys don’t agree but I’m around them and I’m in the shop during the week and the Tuesday meetings and I talk to Dale and I talk to Lance (McGrew) and I talk to them both after they’ve been testing. And we had some good momentum going and then we kind of fumbled the ball a little bit here right before the Chace. If you can’t pinpoint where your problem is, then the whole organization needs to be better. We’re working hard but we’re not as sharp as we want to be with all four cars. But the guys are working hard and working together. If you miss the Chase and you just decide that you’re going to change something to be changing it, I think that’s a mistake. I’ve never tried to do that. I keep my options open, but at the same time if the driver and the crew chief are getting along and they’re working together and they’re trying, that’s all I can ask for. It’s pretty darn competitive here in the garage. Guys get on a streak and then guys fall back a little bit. We’re not happy with where we are as an organization, but we’re working on it. And nobody is blaming anybody and nobody is giving up. So we’re getting ready for the Chase. We’re trying a lot of stuff and we’re all over the map here this weekend, but we’re trying some things. We know we’ve got to get better. And I’m really happy with my whole group and the way they work together and of course we’d like to win more races and you like to dominate, but it’s hard in this sport. You look at the guys up there now and they get a streak and then they cool off. That’s probably a 10-minute answer to a short question.”

SO IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU PLAN TO KEEP LANCE MCGREW AND DALE EARNHARDT JR. TOGETHER THROUGH THE CHASE AND GOING INTO NEXT YEAR. YOU ARE NOT PLANNING ON A CHANGE AT THIS POINT?

“That’s correct. We make decisions as things develop during the season. And right now we’ve got a game plan and we’re sticking to it. Next week and going into the Chase and during the Chase, our plans are for those two guys to be together.”

YOU HAVE TWO OF FOUR TEAMS IN THE CHASE. ARE YOU UPSET OR DISAPPOINTED? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FIRST 24 WEEKS?

“Every year you start, you want to have all four guys in the Chase. We finished one-two-three in the points last year and I don’t know the right word, but if you get the machete out, the first time you miss the Chase, that’s not the way to build an organization. My philosophy is when you’ve got some areas to work on, you work hard and you work together. I would rather miss the Chase and have momentum in the last 10 (races) than be in the Chase and grind to a nothing toward the end of the year. So, our plan is to build momentum and get better every week. Hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have all four teams going forward and not backing up. For your sponsors and your drivers and your fans, you’re not happy when any of your teams don’t make the Chase.

“But by the same token, when you’ve got three and only one of them can win the championship, if you miss it you want to go back and try to do better next year. So, you’re going to have times where you get them all in and you don’t win it. This year, we’ve had our work cut out for us to get any more than two in. But we’ve had some distractions and we haven’t been as good as we need to be since we went to the spoiler over the wing, and we’re still working on it. That’s kind of the name of that tune.”

DO YOU THINK THERE WAS AN AFFECT ON MARK WITH ALL THE QUESTIONS BEING ASKED ABOUT WHERE HE WAS GOING TO DRIVE NEXT YEAR? “(SMILES) Yes, it is your fault-all you guys. (LAUGHS) That is the problem we have had this year is your fault. (MORE LAUGHTER) That was a distraction, it had to have been. We’re over that now. We don’t have that excuse anymore so we’ve got to get going.”

A COUPLE OF YEARS YOUR WERE OUTSPOKEN ON THE TESTING RULES WHEN THEY CHANGED THEM, NOW THERE ARE SOME TALKS ABOUT DIFFERENT CHANGES INCLUDING A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TRACKS COMING IN A DAY EARLY, THAT TYPE THING, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? “I think that is good. I think the testing you need. A lot of young guys you have got coming on. Then if you have a new driver coming on or if you are in a slump, you can use a test. I think we should have some tests at the tracks we are at. It is really funny, when I talk to owners, they don’t want any testing. If they have a bad week, they want to test. (SMILES)

“I think we need some tests. I think we need to be able to test a certain number at tracks we are going to race at. I think coming in a day early is good. I would also like to see us put some instrumentation in the cars, everybody here has instrumentation, we used to used to run it in the Trucks up to qualifying years ago, so I think that would help us just to be able to compare. I think that would be good. I’m for some more testing.”

DO YOU MEAN TELEMETRY AT THE TRACK ON FRIDAY? “Yes. Because it gives the engine guys data they wouldn’t have. It just gives you some good information that you can use and everybody’s got it. It is not like one group has got it and somebody doesn’t. I think they have been, in the past, reluctant, because of traction control, but, they are a lot smarter these days. Nobody’s going to try that. So, I think that with fuel injection coming, it is going to be really critical to be able to capture a lot of that data for the engineers and the crew chiefs to go back and look at raw data after practice. I think that could actually cut down the need for some testing too.”

ARE YOU OK WITH IT FOR A DAY BEFORE OR DO YOU WANT TO GO UP TO QUALIFYING? “I would like to see it all the way up to race. I think you could take it out right before qualifying. That is what I would prefer. But, I don’t know how everybody else feels. I just think that you have that tool that the driver and the crew chief could look at. You are going on driver feedback a lot of times with a hot, slick track. Every other form of racing uses it and I think it would be good if we could use it.”

ANYTHING ELSE THAT CAME OUT OF THE MEETING THE OWNERS AT YOUR SHOP? “I want to say that was the most unbelievable gathering. I mean everybody was represented that wanted to be there and everybody agreed. I think NASCAR is taking some of the things that we came up with under consideration and I think some of them might happen. It was a very good meeting. The owner’s have had their financial guys getting together looking at ways to save money with hotel rooms and so forth. But, this was something that owners talked about how can we make it better for the fans and what would be a better show and what can we do, if we are going anyway, driver appearances at the race track. Doing the events versus a week or two before (race weekend) for Winner’s Circle. So a lot of good conversation came up and I thought it was real healthy. NASCAR has been really meeting and talking about listening to what the owners and drivers have to say. I think it has been a really good exercise. Everybody’s working together and trying to make our sport better. So I have been real encouraged by that.”

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

- Team Chevy, Press Release