GM Racing Communications, Press Release


HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU TO ENTER THE CHASE AND IF YOU DO, WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?

"I feel good about where we are; at the same time, I know that we can get from where we are pretty quickly and go the other way. So we're working hard on staying focused these next four races and we'll run the best we can. That's the way you get points, is by running the best you can and finishing the best you can. That's our focus is first, to get in the Chase and then as we're trying to get into the Chase to be able to improve so that when things go our way and we do get in we're at our very best at the right time. But it requires you to be at your best to get in the Chase."
I'm a realist - I understand that there's going to be teams that are in it right now that won't be in it after the next four races and there are some teams that aren't in it that will be. Confident is a highly overused word. If you're confident you are going to be in the Chase, that's arrogance. That's easily confused with confidence. In my opinion, there are people walking around making comments like they're going to be in the Chase, there's no doubt. I just don't think that's realistic, I think that's arrogance. I've been around long enough to understand that things happen that you don't want to happen; there's good and bad. We're just going to take one race at a time like we've done all year long."


NASCAR IS TALKING ABOUT CHANGING THE SYSTEM AGAIN. DO YOU LIKE THE WAY IT IS NOW?

"I like the way it is now and I'd like to see how they want to tweak it before I make comments. But I'm a sports fan and I enjoy watching the intensity. to me the most exciting sporting event as far as the tournament thing goes is NCAA basketball. The reason that's so cool is that you either win or go home. I like that elimination process and I think if we could expand our elimination process it may make it even that much more enjoyable."


DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE POINTS AWARDED TO THE WINNERS?

"I don't care much about that, I really don't. I think whatever the point system is then the people that take the best advantage of it will come out the best. I honestly don't care how they award points other than to say that you always have to keep in mind that these are endurance races. These are long races - we've become accustomed to it and we've come to believe it's normal but if you compare this to most forms of motorsports these are longer races and the endurance side of things is a relevant point. I think you do have to reward consistency and reliability and at the same time winning should be rewarded higher than anything else because you've done everything when you won."


IS BRISTOL THE BIG HURDLE IN THESE LAST FOUR RACES?

"I think that going to Watkins Glen, to me there's been several major races this year that came in groups. The Sears Point/Daytona thing, then the Watkins Glen/Bristol thing I think those races coupled closely together have a way of potentially having a major impact on the championship chase. Certainly Bristol is. anything can happen, but anything can happen any week. We've seen every week championship contenders get into something so it can happen anywhere but I certainly think Bristol is a huge hurdle that could affect a lot of teams that are gunning for the championship."


HOW SURPRISED ARE YOU THAT CHEVROLET HAS WON SEVEN RACES IN A ROW?

"Well, I am surprised just from a statistical standpoint because that's hard to do. I'm not surprised about the success because of the effort that they put in. The longer I'm with Chevrolet the more I'm impressed with the effort that goes into their motorsports programs. They put it on a high priority, they fund it properly, they are aggressively going after trying to win races and learn on the racetrack. The results are because of the effort that they are putting in but from a statistical standpoint, to win seven in a row is very, very difficult."


DO YOU THINK THAT THE DODGE AND FORD TEAMS ARE GOING TO GO TO NASCAR AND LOBBY FOR SOME HELP?

"I think that any manufacturer will always lobby for help but I think that it will fall on deaf ears. At the end of the day NASCAR's done a better job of ever of making things equal. The reality of it is Ford, Dodge and soon to be Toyota, their engine package as compared to ours is in another world. They have a way more modern engine package that we do; they have, by far, better opportunities to succeed with their engine programs based on approval processes that Ford and Dodge have been able to make happen, and next year with Toyota as well. The facts are that at the end of the day, they have the latest, greatest engine package and we're still racing 30- to 40- year-old technology."


STICKING AROUND MONDAY FOR THE TEST?

"No, we're not. We've been to pretty much every test; we're not going to be at this test though. NASCAR made some more aero changes to the Car of Tomorrow as well as some chassis changes. We couldn't be ready and at this point we have a lot of information. To get more information that isn't a 100% usable is probably not in our best interest. So we're not going to go to this test just because with all we're trying to get done right now we couldn't get ready and be 100%. We couldn't have the latest aero changes, the latest chassis changes. We're about a week away from really being able to have that so we opted not to come."


WHERE DOES THE FINAL RACE FOR THE CHASE (RICHMOND) FIT IN? IT'S A POPULAR TRACK.

"As far as racing goes, I think Richmond is tops. It's side-by-side race action and still small enough to be good short-track racing action but big enough to have the speeds and the stuff that creates a whole hell of a lot of excitement for the fans. I just don't know if you can get a whole lot better than Richmond. I think it's the best all-around racetrack we come to. To have the Chase start there; to have all that action and all that drama unfold at Richmond - a track that has a tremendous amount of that anyway - I think it's pretty cool."


YOUR TEAMMATE KEVIN HARVICK HAS A CHANCE TO WIN BOTH CUP AND BUSCH TITLES. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?

"The Busch thing, they've just been the dominant force. As the year has progressed, certainly there have been teams that could outrun him in a two- or three- race stretch. But for the majority of the year there's been nobody who can run with him. They've earned their championship contention; they've earned their lead. At the end of the day, like I said before, the people that do the best are the people that take the points system and use it. Right now, they're doing it in both series."


A FEW WEEKS AGO, WARD BURTON SEEMED TO HAVE A DEAL PUT TOGETHER. IS HE STILL WORKING ON SOMETHING?

"Ward and I haven't spoken specifically about what he's working on; I don't 100% know. I do know that he wants to get back in this sport but he only wants to get back in if it's the right situation. Time will tell"


YOU MENTION YOU'RE A SPORTS FAN AND LIKE THE DRAMA OF SPORTS - THIS HAS TO BE AN EXCITING TIME FOR YOU.

"I do appreciate it; I do appreciate the opportunity to be able to compete at a high level. I don't take it for granted which is probably something I would have done a few years ago. At the same time I'm not real good at relishing the moment - I'm more concerned about what we'll be doing tomorrow. We're working really hard; we're working really well together. We have an opportunity to do some really good things here and we don't want to let that go. At the same time we know we have to continue to improve and that's what we're going to do. We're going to continue to make it better and we're thinking about next year too. We can't just think about this year, although this year is a pressing issue, we also have to be preparing for next year. A lot of changes are coming next year and we've got to be ready for them. As we focus in on these next four races - and then the last ten - we're also focusing on the next year so we can do this again. If you don't aggressively work to get better and better you will progressively get worse and worse. The only way to get better is to look at what's coming and try to go to a system that makes it work."


HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO JUGGLE NASCAR WITH FAMILY?

"I think for me there's the huge advantage of having done this my whole life. I've traveled and raced my whole life; my wife's a huge supporter of what I do. My children were born while I was doing this so to them it's normal. We do work very hard to make sure we spend the right amount of time together. We work very hard as a husband and wife and also as a family. And you do have to work at it in any circumstance, much less one like this where you're gone so much, requires attention and effort. And we try to put extra effort into it. My kids travel with us a lot so we can spend time together. Overall it works pretty well. This is what their life is and as my children become older - especially my daughter, she's 11 now - it gets harder to have them here every weekend because they have things going on. But it is what it is and we just make it work, but we do work at it."


ROOKIE DRIVERS SAY THAT TO GET HERE DRIVING ASPECT IS 60% OF IT.

"It was really big too. I don't know if it's any more today than it was 10 years ago. It is important. I think driving is more than 60% of it, though. The people that say that driving is only 60% of it are the people that aren't in here. The people that are in here are saying that it's 90% driver and the people that aren't are saying it's 50% driver. That's just natural. At the end of the day, a really, really good driver with a short personality and efficiencies will still be here. The hardest thing is getting the opportunity. I think the thing that's not fair in this sport is that there are so many people that are so talented that will never get a chance to show their abilities. Unlike football and basketball where if you didn't go to college you can still try out. That's not the case here and that to me is the hardest thing about this sport."


HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF HERE? YOU'RE NOT ONE OF THE YOUNG DRIVERS.

"I think when people think of me they think of Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett, I don't know. I don't think about that a lot. I am who I am and I fit in wherever that fits me. I don't try to put myself somewhere. I know how old I am, I've been here as long as I've been here and my personality is what it is so that puts me wherever it puts me. I can't control it and I don't try to."


HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING (RCR) NOW VERSUS WHEN YOU FIRST JOINED?

"It's a whole different company, really. Every part of our company has been improved. Aero engineering, engines, chassis, in my opinion Richard has set out to improve every part of the program and every part of the program has improved. Every part of the program needs to be improved again, it still needs to take another step, but we've just made a quantum leap in each part of the company being able to provide a better service.

"
WHAT DOES THAT LEAP DO TO DRIVER ATTITUDE?

"Well, the whole thing about racing is speed. If you can go fast you can make things happen. If you can't go fast then you are waiting for things to happen and you are waiting for other people to make mistakes and that kind of thing. When you have speed it enables you to force the momentum, to force your tempo. And that's what we have today. The attitude going into races is totally different. Instead of waiting and hoping and trying to 15th our way into the deal, we're trying to win races. It's just a much more exciting way to come to a race weekend."

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(9-1-06)
GM Racing Communications, Press Release


ON DEFINING MOMENT THUS FAR IN 2006:

"What I feel is our defining moment was our off season testing. Coming in to the season, I had confidence that our team could perform at a very high level because the testing we did in the off-season was very successful. I felt very good about the things we had done. That was really the most important moment up to this point. The absolute defining moment for this season we will figure that definition when the year is over. We can't do that right now because hopefully when the year is over, we will have a better understanding of that. For us, what we did last year and the off-season was really what made us a really good race team in my opinion."

ON ANY CONCERNS ABOUT ENGINE WEAR AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY:

"It is a long race, 500 miles on a two-mile race track is a lot of wear and tear on an engine. You are in the RPMs for a great deal of time. Yes, we do have to understand that it is an issue, but at the same time, we have to get our car driving well. We have to work the right amount of time to do that. Hopefully you can do that in a shorter period of time. The biggest issue we have ahead of us this week is the practice schedule is bizarre. At no point this weekend do we practice in the conditions that we will race under. So understanding how it is going to be different at one o'clock in the afternoon versus how it is going to be at seven o'clock at night is our biggest challenge. The practice schedule is laid out very odd and to me that is our biggest challenge right now. I have a lot of confidence in our engine program. Although you never know what is going to happen, I am not worried about it."

ON CHANGES OF TRACK CHANGES AND CONDITIONS AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY:

"It definitely changes. It obviously is hot out here. But the sun is what makes the difference. The more sun you have on these race tracks, the more slick they get and the harder it is to get the handle of them. It is going to change a lot from daytime to night, there is no question about it, the key is how is it going to change. To be honest, we didn't really run well enough last year to base an opinion on it, so we are having to pay attention to what happened to others and try and get a grasp on it. It is going to be a change, no question about it."

ON TALK OF POSSIBLE CHANGES TO CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY:

"I am a big opponent to changing race tracks. I have seen few incidents where they have made race tracks better and a lot of incidents where they made them worse. I am just not a proponent of changing race tracks. There is no evidence that has been presented to me that anybody knows what they are doing when they go to build a race track, much less change it. I don't want to see them change the race track at all. This race track is the opportunity for multiple groove racing. It is a slick race track, but that is what makes the racing good is the fact that it is a slick race track. I can't imagine how they could change the race track. If you chose to build a two-mile race track, you are not going to have as close of competition as you do on a ¾-mile race track. It is simple engineering. If you are 1% off at 200 mph, that is very different than being 1% off at 100 mph. The bigger the race track, for the exception of the restrictor plate tracks, the more spread out things are going to get. That is what we had when the track was originally built. To change it, no one has presented me with any evidence that says you can take a good race track and make better. Certainly, you can take a race track that is terrible and make it better, but in very few cases have we seen tracks be improved by a small amount. Homestead was improved but a group of kindergartners could have got together and built Homestead when it was first built. I mean kids in a sandbox could have done a better job. So you are not comparing a good race track to a despicable race track that became ok. Homestead is still no better than anywhere else we go, it is just a lot better than it was because it was so messed up. I am concerned that they haven't done a good job at Vegas; nobody has shown me that it is better by changing it. Maybe they can, I don't know. I am much more prone to leave it alone."

ON CAR OF TOMORROW IMPROVING RACING AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY:

"I think the jury is still out on that. There is some potential that the COT could help something. But first of all, Help What? I guess I need to understand what is the problem. That is the thing I am confused about is when people talk about race tracks, what is wrong with it? That is the thing I don't understand. Sometimes I think we are guilty of thinking every lap of every race is going to three wide and the last lap is going to be two wide with smoke flying. I think we are guilty of that. That is not reality. I watched the tape of the race here from last year and that was a really good race. I haven't watched this years' spring race yet, but the night race last year was a really good race. It was very competitive. You never knew who was going to win until the very end. I just don't see what was wrong with that race. So again, there are times when we get all wound up about racing needing to be better when in fact, we need to really appreciate how good it actually is."

ON MENTALITY HEADING IN TO CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY EVENT:

"My mentality is to go out and do the very best I can. Me and this team are having a really good time with this. I said last week, if it is fourth quarter with two minutes to go and you don't want the ball, then get the heck off the court. That is where we are. It is time to get it done. This is what professional sports is all about. It is supposed to be close, it is supposed to be intense. It is supposed to be pressure filled and that is what it is. Anything less than that isn't what people pay to watch. By the way, if we aren't man enough to deal with it, then we need to go do something else. I mean, it is what we do. Do I wish that we were definitely locked in the points for the Chase? Without a doubt. Do I wish we didn't have to worry about it the next two races? I definitely wish we didn't have to worry about it. At the same time, it is a heck of a lot of fun being part of it. I enjoy the opportunity we have to try to get in the Chase. I enjoy the opportunity to come to the race track and compare ourselves against our competitors. That is what we do. We are not going to change anything we have been doing. We are going to focus on what we have been doing. Anything less than that would be a mistake. If we get down to the end of it, and it doesn't work out for us, it won't be because we changed something and tried to do something different. We are a good enough race team that if we do out jobs then we can get in the Chase. If we don't do our jobs, then we won't. That is just as simple as it gets."

ON PINPOINTING A SPECIFIC TIME THIS SEASON REGARDING IN OR OUT OF THE CHASE:

"It is going to be different for every team. Without a doubt, I can go back and look that we got wrecked at Bristol; we got wrecked at Martinsville and I wrecked us a Daytona. Those three things were not beneficial to us. We had a tire problem at Atlanta; we had an engine problem at Michigan. Those five races added together have put us in a position to be in the fight we are in. Then along the way, there are little things like 20 points here, five points there, four points that we missed there. I go back after every race and look at where we left points on the table. I have left points on the table by not making the right move at the end of a race. I have left points on the table by not being on pit road at the right speed. All this little stuff adds up when this thing is as close as it is. We have had too many bad finishes in my opinion, at the same token, we have had a lot less bad finishes than a lot of other people. Those are the things that have put us in this position."

ON LUCK FACTOR OF MAKING/NOT MAKING THE CHASE:

"Luck is a factor in anything you do. Sometimes you put yourself in a position to have either bad luck or good luck. I don't lose any sleep over bad luck or good luck. When you start worrying about luck, you are just missing opportunity. Luck is a factor in anything you do, there is no question about it. But you can't wish for it or wish against it. It is just out there. I am much more concerned about the things that I can control and this team can control. That is where our focus is."

ON PRESSURE OF THOSE FIGHTING FOR LAST BERTHS IN CHASE AFFECTING RACING AT CALIFORNIA AND RICHMOND:

"I think it is going to be like it has been. There is a tremendous amount of respect in this garage from team to team and driver to driver. Everybody is racing hard; everybody is trying to get what they can get. I think the respect level is really high and I don't think people are going to be driving over their head. There are some people who are in desperation mode. But there are way more people that are in their do their thing mode. You can't get in that panic mode because you can't be effective when you are in a panic. You never know what is going to happen, but I don't see the racing being any different. Trying too hard might bring on some mistakes. I think when people have pressure, what tends to be the mistake is trying to hard. You see it in every sport. You can see it in the best athletes in the world. Watching Brett Favre last season; you watch the best coaches in the world and again, desperation puts you in position of trying to hard. That is how mistakes are made, getting off your game. If you get off your game and get off of what you know, then that is when you make mistakes. If you try to change who you are3, that is when you make mistakes, at least that is when I make mistakes. The only reason we are talking about this is because you all brought it up. I think this is fun. This is what it is all about. Again, if you don't want it like this, then don't be in this deal. This is what racing is about. This is what racing for championships is about. You know what, it will start all over in two weeks. It is how it is and how it should be. I relish the opportunity. I think it is a heck of a lot of fun to be part of it.

ON BRISTOL BEING A CALM RACE:

"Bristol was a calm race, relatively speaking. I don't know why. I had the luxury most of the night of being toward the front and really didn't get a sense of what was going on for 15th but if you look at Bristol, it was probably one of the calmest Bristol races we have had in a long. We just got tight and we lost some track position there but we just got really tight, that is the biggest thing. At the end, a bunch of people put on new tires and we were too tight to get back by them. We had one change that didn't work and it happened to be the next to the last one, which started the whole chain of events. It was enjoyable for me, I am not going to complain about it. I don't know why it seemed calmer at Bristol. There are a lot of people that can't afford to make mistakes right now, but at the same time, there are a lot of people that are trying to make stuff happen. Sometimes, the stars line up and things work out and I suspect that is more the reason than anything else."

ON AWARENESS OF WHERE COMPETITORS ARE IN CHASE:

"I think everyone is aware of where they are in points and who they are racing. I think everyone is aware of situations and of who they are racing, when they are racing them and where they are in points. Matter of fact, I watched the replay of Michigan and during the race Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) during the race was complaining about the point thing. What we are doing is worrying about ourselves. If we go out and do our job, it won't matter what our competitors do. I don't pay attention lap for lap. I do toward the end of the race, look around and notice where are our competitors are. I have been around long enough to know that if you start looking on lap 200 with 300 to go, it is going to look difference 30 of 500 so I don't pay a lot of attention until it gets down to crunch time."

ON NOT MAKING THE CHASE:

"It wouldn't be a lost season for us because we have done some really good things and we have learned a lot. We have made ourselves a better team. We have improved in a lot of areas. We have learned a lot about ourselves so it certainly wouldn't be lost, but it would be disappointing. "

ON DRIVERS WHO MADE THE CHASE LAST YEAR WHO ARE NOT GOING TO THIS YEAR:

"The biggest thing is competition. When people step up and do well, it makes everybody around them have to do that as well. The biggest thing is the level of competition. When teams are really good, then everyone around them has to step up and start doing well. I think the teams that weren't doing good enough they have to make their deal better. A lot of teams have improved and some people have worse luck than they did last year. Sometimes luck is a factor. If you go back at last year, there were more people with a chance of making the Chase going in to this race than there are this year. I don't know what that means, but at the end of the day, the good teams made everyone else step up."

ON FEELING GOOD TO LEAD AND CONTROL BRISTOL RACE FOR SO LONG:

"It does feel good. At the same time, we haven't got all our business done just yet. We are still working on it. We have a lot to go do that we haven't gotten done. That is really the thing that we are focusing on because we haven't figured out how to do that yet." Right now, I do have a high level of confidence that this team can be successful, but I also know we need to be better. We are not where we need to be just yet."

ON IMPROVEMENTS AT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:

"I am one part of an organization committed to getting better. I haven't done anything more than anybody else. I try to do my part. I try to help where I can help but I am not doing anything that nobody else is doing. I have received a lot of credit for where we are. Some of it deserved, but most of it isn't. I am working really hard to do my part but so is Kevin (Harvick) so is Cling (Bowyer) so is everybody at RCR. I haven't done one thing that made us better; I am part of a group that is making us better. I honestly believe it."

ON ANY CHANGES TO THE CHASE:

"NASCAR needs to do what they think will make it better for the fans and what is in the best interest of the people watching the sport. Whatever they think they need to do, I am good with it. It works pretty good the way it is right now, but maybe it could be better. But what they do with that. That is for them to decide, not me. I am not focused on that.

ON CHANGES TO PEOPLE AND TEAMS IN THE CHASE:

"The intensity picks up and peoples mistakes show bigger. It is just a higher intensity level. What used to be at stake for a guy running ninth in points isn't even close to what is at stake now for the guy in ninth. It is the intensity level that is higher. I think it is good for our sport, I think it has made it a whole lot more fun to watch. You have to be right when it is the right time. When it comes time to go, you have to be your best. The Steelers are a perfect example, they were right when the time was right."

ON NOT HAVING CHASE EXPERIENCE:

" I think having experience matters, but I think I have the experience. I have been in a championship hunt after championship hunt, I don't think having Chase experience matters."

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