Biffle, Edwards and Kenseth ..

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Trying To Chase The Points Lead At Texas
Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth are all chasing pointsleader Jimmie Johnson and with only three races remaining, they arehoping to make their big move this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, has two wins thisseason and ranks third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. He held his weekly Q&A session in the Texas Motor Speedwayinfield media center before Fridays practice.
GREG BIFFLE  No. 16 3M Ford Fusion  THOUGHTS ON TEXAS? I reallyenjoy racing at this race track. Its one of the mile-and-a-halfsthat we go to thats a lot of fun to race on, that provides racingup and down the groove. The straightaway is a little bit narrowerand the banking falls off a little bit sooner than about all themile-and-a-halfs, so it makes it tricky on corner exit to keep yourcar or keep momentum going, so thats one of the challenges here isto keep your speed as you get up on the straightaway. Youve gotto keep your car turning real good and thats why the high lineworks so well here is it straightens out that corner exit some, butwe ran decent in the spring. Obviously, that didnt do a lot forus in Atlanta, but, hopefully here, we will come back and run asgood as what we did in the spring or a little bit better.
HOW WILL YOU DEFINE A SUCCESSFUL SEASON THIS YEAR? I think asuccessful season is making the chase because youve got to makethe chase in todays day and age. Youve got to make the playoffsin order to be successful and be in the spotlight every week foryour sponsor and your team and your organization and all the guysthat work at the shop and come to the track, so making the chase isreally, really important in our sport today. Secondly, theresalmost a second set of goals. After making the chase, its winsome races and be competitive and challenge for the championship. Weve been able to do that. Obviously, weve come up a little bitshort at a couple of mile-and-a-halfs that we feel is our strongsuit, so thats a little frustrating, but in our eyes we had adecent run at Martinsville. We finished 12th, and with that notbeing my best race track that was not too bad of a finish, but tofinish 10th at Atlanta and we finished seventh or so at Charlotte,those two races really werent up to par for the 16 team andhopefully that trend doesnt continue here at Texas and atHomestead, which is one of our better tracks. I think to wrap itup, it would be easy for me to say, just finish in the top five inpoints because it looks like were headed down that track, butobviously we would be disappointed not to win the title and, rightnow, we still have an opportunity, but obviously its gettingslimmer and slimmer.
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CHASE DURING THE WEEK WHEN YOURENOT AT THE TRACK? You think about it all the time because this isyour life, this sport and its a lot of fun. I try and do stuff totry and take my mind off of it and do other stuff, but werethinking about it all the time. Were thinking about the nextrace, the next couple of race or whats left. Well think aboutwhat races are left  OK, Texas, Phoenix, Homestead  how are wegonna run there? You kind of play those races through your head. We won here in 05 and certainly we feel like we can win here again for sure. We feel like we can win in Phoenix and Homestead, soyou play those scenarios through your head that we know were somany points behind, but we feel like were gonna be competitive inat least the next three, so you think about it a lot. Theres nodoubt about it and then everybody you come into contact with wantsto talk about it. You were second in points and now youre thirdin points. What happened in Atlanta? We thought you were gonna bebetter there, so youre always talking about it with everybody.
IS JIMMIE THE HARDEST GUY TO HATE? Theres two way of looking atit. I can see where youre coming from, but at the same time werefierce competitors inside the car and this isnt necessarily acontact sport, so its not like were playing football or somethingelse  or boxing  where youve got to hate the guy as much as youcan to get in the ring. Were competing on the race track as hardas we can and, really, once we get in the car and put our helmet onand go, I mean, we are doing everything we can to beat that car. Idont know that you need to be that angry, I guess, to get yourselffired up more to beat him or whatever. Jimmie is a good guy. Theyve done a tremendous job these last few seasons. They reallyhave pin-pointed, if you look at it, you can see why theyre achampionship team. They were in huge trouble at Charlotte. Hecould not get that car to drive to save his life. They threw thekitchen sink at it and he ended up sixth, but you listen to theradio transmissions that they had and you look at how the car wasgoing on the race track and one more lap, we were gonna pass himand four more laps four more guys were gonna pass him. He wasbacking up like mad, so thats what makes a championship team istaking that adverse day and turning it into something good, andthey did the same thing at Atlanta. I guarantee you when he wasriding around behind me, running 14th, he wasnt just waiting forhis opportune time to get up there  or when he was right in frontof me  they were doing all they could and running 14th-15th and13th. They were able to keep adjusting on that car and my car gotreally good on that last run, similar to his, the only thing is Ididnt have track position. I started out 17th and finished 10th. He started out wherever in there and finished second, so we bothsort of did the same thing right at the end of the event, butthats a championship-caliber team to take a not-so-great of a car. Its easy when youve got a good car thats fast all day to run upfront all day, thats easy. When youre off a little bit to comeback and finish well and not get hurt in the points, thats what ittakes to win championships.
JACK TALKED ABOUT HAVING A MULLIGAN IN THE CHASE. WHATS YOUROPINION ON ANY CHASE CHANGES? You cant make a rule to keep oneguy from winning the championship. Thats never worked in oursport and this is an equal opportunity right here. No matter whatyou do, you cannot change  in this country, one guy is gonna havemore money than the other guy, and one guy is gonna win more racesthan the other guy, and one guy is gonna win more championships. Theres nothing that we can put in place, unless we make the 48 carhave a different weight at the start of the event or run differenttires or something. The other thing is, youre right, he skinnedthrough Talladega by the skin of his teeth. He just slippedthrough there. We all saw the wreck. We all saw him dodge thebullets and get through it. Id rather say take Talladega out ofthe chase and not worry about trying to get rid of your worst racebecause its happened every year. The same thing has happenedevery year at Talladega. When you go in there and you penalize ateam thats worked as hard as all of us have, and it was none ofour doing, were involved in a wreck because something happened  aguy cut a tire or whatever  put Bristol in there or something elseversus throwing out one of your bad finishes. Thats my opinionabout what they should do with the chase.
WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF JEFF GORDON AND WHAT HES DONE IN THISSPORT, AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON HIM BEING WINLESS FOR SO LONG? Itstough. Ive been in that same situation in 06 and 07 and then08 up until Loudon and its so hard to win these races, and itlooks so easy. Kyle Busch  eight wins  and then you look atJimmie and Carl with seven wins. It looks so easy, but yet its sodifficult to get your car the way you need it and to drive the wayyou need it and to get the right breaks at the end of the race. The 24 team this year has really, really impressed me from, Oh,theres Jeff a lap down in the lap down in the second run of therace. Hes in huge trouble. The next thing I know hes behind meand the next thing I know hes running third. At Charlotte, theside of that car was smashed in on the first or second run, he wasa lap down and couldnt keep up, and now hes out front leading andI cant catch him. It looks like hes gonna win the race and endsup 15th or something. Its just unbelievable, so theyve been ableto really come back in the races and thats due in part to how goodof a driver Jeff is an that team. But he certainly means a lot tothis sport and has certainly put our sport on the map. When you gopoll people that dont know anything about NASCAR, theyve heard ofJeff Gordon, and hes a tremendous ambassador. He carries himselfwell. He speaks well and hes done a great thing for our sport.
TEXAS FOLLOWS TALLADEGA NEXT YEAR. WILL THAT HAVE AN IMPACT ON HOWTHE SEPARATION WILL BE? I dont see another race prior to thatthats gonna separate the field because anything can happen,certainly we could have had a nine-car wreck at Charlotte and got alot of the chase cars involved in it. Anything can happen, but,historically, that hasnt happened. We may have a wreck thatcatches up a couple of the chase cars, but not a wreck that catchesup six or eight of them and not one guy getting caught up in thewreck. I still think you take the 10 races and you put a columndown the 10 races and look at the finishes, it doesnt matter wheretheyre gonna be at in the chase, theyre all gonna have the samenumbers because they all produce roughly about the same thing. Andby switching them around, I dont really see the results beingdifferent. If we went to Talladega this next week and we were tiedwith Jimmie in the points, and Carl was leading, the outcome isgonna be the same after Talladega if the same thing happens.
WHY SHOULDNT THE 48 TEAM JUST COAST WITH THE BIG LEAD NOW? Whathappens is the best thing to do is to do nothing different becausethe second you start trying to do something different is when youmake mistakes. When you start the race this way, drive this way,drive that way or do whatever, you end up where youre at as far astrack position for a reason, so if he decides, Oh, Im gonna coasta little bit this race. Im just gonna run sixth, seventh, eighthand I feel a little bit better here, and the next thing you knowthat guy in fourth or fifth spins out and youre involved in thewreck. A case could be made very easily, Dang it, if I had beenrunning as hard as I could, or like I normally am, Id have beenrunning third and wouldnt have been involved in that wreck. Sothe second you start changing your philosophy and your format ofthe way you approach every event, you can create yourself trouble.
IS IT POSSIBLE THE CHASE AND THE TITLE HAS BECOME TOO BIG OF A DEALIN THIS SPORT? Its hard. Weve created our own monster. Thathappens because of how important this becomes, so, youre right. Look at the guys, I was unfortunately and hopefully that was it formy career, outside of the chase twice  two years in a row  andwere really not talking about those guys. Were really nottalking about them on the TV broadcast. Were really not talkingabout them in the paper. Were really wondering who is gonna catchJimmie Johnson is the story every week. That is good in a way andbad in a way. Where its bad in a way is all those sponsors andall those drivers that arent in the chase are not necessarilygetting a fair shot at coverage, and thats why theyre in thissport. Ive been on the outside for a couple of years and thatswhen I said, If youre not in the chase, youre nobody. Theykept asking me about it and thats the way I feel about it. Youvegot to make the chase in this sport to be one of the 10 guys thatare gonna be talked about and remembered with all the things thatgo on. But I think you could say that with anything. Who is gonnamake the Super Bowl? Its the same thing when you get down to anykind of playoffs. Who is gonna be in the World Series games? Thats the emphasis because were gonna crown a champion.
KYLE BUSCH SEEMED INVINCIBLE AND HAD THREE TOUGH RACES IN A ROW. DOES THAT GIVE YOU HOPE THAT JIMMIE MAY FALL APART? Yeah, youreexactly right. Theyre gonna have to scratch his name off thetrophy. They had already given it out to him prior to the chasestarting and I think a lot of people in this room can agree. Wewere thinking about what it was gonna be like, so youre right. Definitely the wheels can fall off that 48 in a hurry. Weve seenit happen and maybe you get comfortable and kind of relaxed andstuff jumps out and bites you. That can happen. Absolutely. Thats why were not gonna walk away with our tail between ourlegs, yet. After Phoenix, if hes got enough margin to clinch thetitle, then we will walk away with our tail between our legs, butuntil then, were not going to.
HOW MUCH TIME DID YOUR TEAM SPEND ON THE NEXT SEASON WHEN YOUDIDNT MAKE THE CHASE AND NOW THAT YOURE IN IT, DOES IT TAKE AWAYFROM PREPARING FOR NEXT YEAR? I think so, a little bit. Youredefinitely focused on right now. Were not thinking about Daytona. Were not thinking about any of the other things. Were nottrying anything out of the ordinary, so to speak. Whats differentabout last year than this year is last year we were working on theold car right through these races, instead of the new car, so thathad something to do with it, but I think there can be someadvantage to teams that arent in the chase and that are locked inthe top 35. It gives them a little freedom to search around andtry some things to get their program better, definitely.
DALE EARNHARDT WON TITLES WITHOUT HAVING THE BEST CAR OR TEAMBECAUSE HE GOT GUYS RATTLED. WHY DONT YOU TRY AND GET JIMMIEJOHNSON OFF HIS GAME? THIS IS NOT GOLF OR TENNIS. DO SOMETHING. I know, thats exactly right. The unfortunate part is weve givenhim the first pit box three weeks in a row, which hell probablyqualify on the pole here to put it all in our face, but as soon asI can get my car close enough to his car, I will rattle his cage(laughter). Ive got to get there first. I havent been able tocatch him.
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, andMatt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, each heldtheir Q&A sessions following Fridays only practice session.
CARL EDWARDS  No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion  DO YOU KNOW THEPOINT SPREAD AND WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN? DO YOU FOCUS ON THAT? Itreally doesnt matter. We just have to go out and be aggressive,race hard and get everything we can and thats gonna earn us themost points that we can possibly get and thats what we have to do. You can only control your own deal, so thats what were workingon.
DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY JIMMIE JUST HAS TO FINISH9TH OR 10TH? No, the deal is its easy being the underdog. Youjust go out and race as hard as you can. Theres really nopressure on us this week. Weve just got everything to gain, sothis is racing and a lot can happen in three races. I know thatand our guys know that, so were going out here like this is ourchampionship to lose and doing everything we can.
HOW WAS PRACTICE? Practice was really good. The Office DepotFusion was real good in race trim and was real good in qualifyingtrim, which is nice. Weve got an early draw, so it wont be thebest draw, but it looks like everybody is gonna make one lapprobably, so I think weve got a real good shot at the pole.
ARE YOU EXCITED TO QUALIFY? Yeah, its fun to qualify. Whats itbeen, a month or something? Itll be fun and itll be good. Imglad we get to qualify and its good because itll kind of spreadeverybody in the chase around a little bit and shake things up abit, and thats what we need.
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RACE OF CHAMPIONS IN DECEMBER? Im veryexcited to go to London for the Race of Champions. Were gonnahave a good time. Im a little nervous about going over there withTravis Pastrana. I hear he can get you in some trouble (joking),so youve got to be careful. But Jimmie and Jeff told me it was areally awesome experience. I get to go race with guys like DavidWebber and Michael Schumacher and those guys. That will be cool.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING GUYS LIKE THAT? I think it willbe cool. My trainer, Dean, hes a huge Michael Schumacher fan. Hewears a Ferrari hat at the NASCAR races when hes with me justbecause he knows he should be wearing one of my hats. If we cankeep Dean under control when he sees Michael Schumacher, well befine.
HAVE YOU EVER DRIVEN CARS LIKE THAT BEFORE? I dont know. Iveseen the videos, but I dont really know what its gonna be like todrive the cars, but they look like a lot of fun. It looks likeyouve got to drive them hard. Those guys, a lot of them, are sogood at the road course stuff and grew up racing go-karts andthings like that, so Im sure Ive got a lot to learn, but, so far,Webber and Pastrana, theyre supposed to give me some tips and itshould be fun.
HOW MUCH PRACTICE WILL YOU GET? I think we get very minimalpractice once we get there and supposedly thats one of the toughparts is that everyone gets only a few laps and Ill really have tofocus on those few laps, go back to the hotel and make sure I gothrough a lap in my head. They say its real easy to stall thecars on the start, its really easy to be too aggressive andtheres not a lot of room for error.
WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT JEFF GORDON AND WHERE HE RANKS IN THISSPORT? I think you have to put Jeff Gordon right up there at thetop of the list with any driver thats ever lived. Hes done itall. Hes won at I dont know how many tracks. I dont know iftheres a track he hasnt won at on the schedule. In the oldpoints system hes won four championships and it would be six, ifthey would have kept it. Hes a great driver and a greatcompetitor.
WAS JACK SERIOUS ABOUT TEAMS HAVING A MULLIGAN IN THE CHASE? Ithink Jack was serious about that. It seems to make sense, too. Right now were so far behind it seems like that it would be veryadvantageous to us to have a mulligan in the chase, but afterlistening to his explanation of it, he said that hes raced inseries where with that mulligan guys race a little moreaggressively and take more chances before they use it up and thatmakes for more exciting racing. Thats something, I think, wecould look at for the future, but I definitely think hes seriousabout it.
BIFFLE SAID TO JUST TAKE TALLADEGA OUT OF THE CHASE. I like thatidea. That would be good. Talladega would be a whole lot more funif it wasnt a points race, thats for sure.
HAVE YOU SEEN ANYBODY COME BACK FROM AS BIG A DEFICIT AS YOU FACE? I dont know. You dont have to go very far to see what threeraces can do. Look at the first three races of the chase and lookhow everything shook out there  look at the guys who shined andthe guys who had trouble, so three races is a lot, especially whenyoure going 200 miles an hour with the best drivers in the worldand youve got to go 500 miles at a place like this. Yeah, if theywere giving out the trophy right now, it would be over, but theyarent. Its not over. Theres a lot to go.
HOW HARD IS IT TO ALWAYS BE DISCUSSING THIS THING? The deal is wecome here and we race as hard as we can and, in the end, someonewill be champion. This whole season Ive seen the ebb and flow andthe waves and the bandwagons everybody gets on. As soon assomebody goes and wins a few races, now thats the guy to beat andnow this guys the guy to beat, but thats whats so great aboutthis sport is you cant really predict whats gonna happen. Thereare so many variables that you just have to go see. All thespeculation in the world doesnt make something come true.
COMING INTO THE CHASE DID YOU THINK KYLE BUSCH OR JIMMIE JOHNSONWOULD BE YOUR BIGGEST COMPETITION? Heading into the chaseeveryone thought that Kyle Busch was gonna be the toughest guy andthats why its kind of interesting to me that everyone writes offthese last three races like theyve already been run because youlook at the first three races and what happened, totally notanything other than pure bad luck, and Kyle lost 200-and-somethingpoints. Thats what can happen. I dont know what position Kyleis in right now, but I would have bet, and Im sure a lot of peopleactually did place bets, that he would be leading right now andthats the way this sport goes. Its very cut throat.
WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD ON THESE KIND OF TRACKS? I really like thesemile-and-a-halfs. I really like the way they drive. I like themomentum aspect of it. Ive got a really good crew chief andengines and bodies and all that stuff, but I feel like this yearhas been the first year I feel like we can win at every race trackwe go to. We had a great run at Martinsville, the road courseswere spectacular for us, but these tracks  even when I first gothere, the first time I ran a truck at Kansas, Kentucky, I justreally like the way these places feel.
ARE GUYS GETTING THIS FIGURED OUT WITH THE NEW CAR? Yeah,everybody is getting way better with the new car. The gaps in thecompetition are narrowing and closing and it gets stepped up everyweek and the cars, theyve got them handling better and better andtheyre figuring out all the little tricks and thats how thisthing evolves. Its amazing.
YOURE RUNNING ALL THE NATIONWIDE RACES NEXT YEAR AGAIN. WHY? There are a couple of things. For instance, that race at Memphis,that was awesome. Where else on a Saturday can you go race andhave that much fun and have something that great to race for andhave those guys to race against. For me, I love the race. My teamis unbelievable. Theyre great guys. I feel really fortunate tohave a crew with guys like Darrell Morrow and my buddy DarrenBeach, who I grew up racing with, hes one of the mechanics, soits just fun. Thats what it comes down to. As long as Imhaving fun doing it and those guys are having fun, were gonna keepdoing it.
WHY DONT OTHER GUYS DO THAT? It takes up a lot of time. Imreal fortunate with the group of people I have with Bob and the Cupteam and Drew and that Nationwide team, those guys are so good atmanaging the people. We communicate so well that I really do getMondays and Tuesdays off. I dont have to spend a lot of time withthem and I think if I did, it would be real grueling, but, for now,its pretty simple. Id say its the time, though. The timecommitment really keeps people from doing it.
WILL KYLES SEASON BE JUST A FOOTNOTE BECAUSE OF HOW HIS CHASE HASGONE? No. People in the garage, everybody knows who runs welland who is tough, and I think everybody here appreciates what that18 team has done and how much Kyle has accomplished in all threeseries. It might be a footnote to the media or to the casual fan,but everybody else knows that this is a great year for him nomatter how he ends up in the championship.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE HIS REGULAR SEASON IN ONE WORD? Great. WHAT ABOUT YOUR DEFICIT IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES? Thats a realreasonable gap to close. You look at what happened last week and Ithink we closed 60 points or something like that in one week, sothats what were here to do. The thing about this stuff, Ivelive it, Ive sat there in that seat and had things like thatignition box go bad at Charlotte. That stuff can happen and, Imean, it doesnt matter where you are in points or how much youhope it doesnt happen, but those things happen. I think in mostseries one or two things like that and the whole thing can turnupside-down.
CAN YOU BE ANYMORE CONFIDENT GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND? No. Thisweekend is one that we truly believe, and I believe, that we cancome here and we can dominate this race. You never know how itsreally gonna go, but everything weve done up to this point hasbuilt that confidence and Id say that we couldnt go to a trackthat I feel better at.
MATT KENSETH  No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion  DO YOU THINK THIS CHASEIS COMPELLING? WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? It depends what youreafter and depends what your expectation are and exactly what youreafter. Me being a competitor and a fan for that matter, I want tosee the driver-team, the whole combination thats done the bestjob, win the championship. Thats what I want to see. I dontwant to see somebody win the championship under an artificialsystem or something like one race. I think that over the last fiveor six years the 48 has been the best team and I think no matterwhat system you throw at them lately, theyre gonna figure out howto win it. I think the best team should win it.
SO FIGURE OUT HOW TO ELIMINATE THE 48 FROM COMPETITION? Ive seenSuper Bowls that were blowouts by 40 points and Ive seen SuperBowls like last year that went down right to the end and was a realclose game. Thats just part of professional sports. Sometimesthere are gonna be teams or a guy that gets on a roll and is gonnapull away. It gets that way in anything. Even if you have aseven-game series, some teams win it in the first four and theseries is over. Thats just kind of the way it is.
IS IT MORE KNEE-JERK REACTION FROM THE MEDIA THAT THINGS NEED TOCHANGE WHEN IT REALLY DOESNT? I think everybody wishes therecould be a three-wide finish, almost a tie for the win every week,but its just not realistic. Like I said, sometimes youre gonnahave games or series or what weve got going on here, wheresomebody is gonna pull away and other times its gonna be rightdown to the wire and you just dont know.
DO YOU SEE ANYWAY JIMMIE CANT WIN THIS? If he shows up everyweek, I think hell win it. I think it would be pretty tough notto, but anything can happen. He could fall out the first lapSunday and you could have a race again, so you dont really knowuntil its over. Nobody has ever come from that far behind before,but theres always a first time, so you dont ever know until itsover, but he certainly is in a good spot.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MANUFACTURERS RACE? DOES IT MATTER? It matters when you look at at the end of the year. I think forwhatever manufacturer youre driving for, but, yet, theres not alot you can do about it when youre out trying to finish the bestyou can every week. Youd like to see them end up with themanufacturers title, but theres really not a lot you can dooutside of race as hard as you can.
HOW WAS PRACTICE? It was fine. It was OK. I think it wasproductive as far as we found some things that I didnt like andlap times reflected what I didnt like. We found a couple thingsthat I liked better to kind of find a direction to work intomorrow, a direction that we probably dont want to work in andone that we do want to work in, so it was productive if we look atthat. Our speeds for qualifying, I dont know, we were kind ofmiddle of the road, so if we can get that a little better.
ARE YOU HAPPY TO QUALIFY THIS WEEK? If you look over my numbers,if we can line up in the top 10 and not qualify, thats not a badthing for us if you look at how we are historically, but, yeah,its kind of weird on a Friday, its not raining and Im not layingon the couch in the motorhome, so its kind of fun to get somepractice in and go qualify.
WILL KYLE BUSCHS SEASON BE JUST A FOOTNOTE BECAUSE OF HOW HISCHASE HAS GONE? Well, I think it depends on how he finishes theyear, kind of, but, yeah, I would think if you asked him eventhough hes probably had one of the best years overall in history,not winning the title, Im sure, will be a big disappointment forhim with all the wins he had early in the year and how strong theylooked. It looked like they were gonna be impossible to beat, butits a really what-have-you-done-for-me-lately type sport. He wonall those races and everybody was talking about him all year andnow all of a sudden you havent heard much about him the last fewweeks. Thats just how quickly it changes.
WHO DID YOU THING WAS THE TOUGHEST COMPETITION GOING INTO THECHASE? If you looked through probably every interview Ive donefor the last three years and asked me about championships, Ivesaid the 48 has been the car to beat. I didnt think it was gonnabe any different this year, to be honest with you. Im notnecessarily saying I thought they were gonna win it for sure, but Ithought if you were gonna win it, or anybody else was gonna win it,they were gonna have to go through them. Gosh, look at whattheyve done since they got that team together. Look at what theydid last year. Look at how good Jeff did and Jeff still didnt winit. To have an average finish of like fifth, thats just crazy. Ithink that would have won it any other year, ever, and still lostit. For some reason, theyre just able to rise to the occasion anddo better than everybody no matter how good everybody else does. Its pretty amazing.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT INTANGIBLE IS? Its never one thing. Ateam is never above one person, two people, one thing  its aboutthe whole team. Ever since Rick put that deal together with Jimmieand Chad, its just been kind of magic. It was kind of like whenhe put that deal together with Jeff and Ray Evernham and they justreally couldnt be beat. They were beat once in a while, but theydid amazing things. They won those championships and all thoseraces and, really, this reminds me a lot of that. As soon as theyput those two guys together with that group they were dominant.
WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO KYLE AND THAT TEAM IN THE CHASE? Idont have any idea. Ive had so many problems to worry aboutmyself that I dont have any idea even where hes ever finished,unless Im racing right beside him I havent any idea.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE KYLES SEASON? Like I said, I reallyhavent paid attention to know what his problems were or what hisstrongsuits were. Weve had enough going on with our own deal. Ill glance at the points after the race, but I dont really watcheveryone of the top 12 guys and see what happened in that race orwhere they finished or how they did or what happened to them, so Idont really know.
WHAT ABOUT HIS REGULAR SEASON IN ONE WORD? Dominant. He won themost races and probably led the most laps and he won pretty mucheverything he climbed in.
WHO IS THE NICEST DRIVER BESIDES YOURSELF? Probably Mark Martinis the nicest guy in the garage. Hes just friendly andapproachable and honest. Hes been really happy, especially thelast 8-10 years, so hes just a fun guy to be around. Hes easy totalk to and Ive never seen him really give anybody the coldshoulder and not give somebody advice if they wanted it or not helpsomebody or any of that. Hes just always been like that.
HOW TOUGH IS IT TO BE A PERSONALITY IN THIS SPORT? I thinkeverybody is in a different situation. I think if youre fortunateto be in Cup for awhile and youve got your sponsors happy and yourcar owner happy, you cant really be someone youre not to startwith, but I think you learn very quickly to just be yourself. Obviously, there are certain things you have to do or places youvegot to go that maybe arent you or that youre not the mostcomfortable doing  or comfortable in front of the camera, thatkind of stuff that you have learn to do  but I think, in general,just be yourself.
IS IT FAIR TO COMPARE YOU AND JIMMIE  MORE RESERVED PERSONALITIES? I dont know exactly how to answer that. I dont know if Imreally that much of a reserved person. At the track, its businessfirst and its racing first. I might not be the guy clowningaround or searching for the camera or doing some of this stuff. Its obvious some people just love a camera and think of ways toget on TV and to do things and whatever, and Im not that guy but Ithink I am myself. I love racing and I love the competition andall that stuff and thats really what I concentrate on, and then Ido the rest of the stuff that I need to do, but, for me, its justalways racing first and nonsense stuff second.
ARE THERE THINGS YOU DID IN YOUR TITLE RUN THAT THE 48 IS DOING? Its really hard to compare every year and whats going on. Theyve been the dominant team since they put that team together. They didnt win it every year, but theyre going on three straightand theyve been the guys to beat. Even the year we won it, theywere pretty dominant and I think it was just a little bit earlierin Jimmies deal and maybe they had a couple of mistakes, I dontreally remember. But theyve been able to learn by all that andthey just never really slip up. It just seems like everything theydo works out.
HAS THIS BEEN A SUCCESSFUL SEASON FOR YOU? Yes and no. I thinkwith some of the changes with this car and changing our grouparound a little bit, I think its been a fairly successful season. We made the chase, which, in turn, give you a chance to at leastrun for a championship, so theres that aspect of it. But theresstill three weeks left and we havent been to Victory Lane yet, sothats very disappointing. Were out of the championship hunt,which is very disappointing. Wed like to be a little moreconsistent. I dont really write down goals because our goal is totry to win a championship and try to be the best and try to winraces. We go to the track every week to try to win, so its reallya pretty simple goal. We dont have to write it down.
THOUGHTS ON HOMESTEAD COMING UP. The track is pretty cool. Weactually just worked on our Homestead stuff the other day and weretrying to compare it to somewhere and you really cant. Itsreally unique with the way its built right now and the way thebanking is and the elevation changes and all that stuff, so itspretty cool. They did a great job and spent the money and did theresearch and they werent scared to go out on a limb and build itlike no other track. I think the racing is really exciting there. There are a lot of different lanes you can look for. Its a lot offun. I think the racing there is as good as anywhere now.