Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, comes into this weekend 8th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings after gaining three spots in the last two races. He spoke about this weekend prior to practice.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU FEEL WINDING DOWN THE LAST FEW RACES? ARE YOU READY FOR THE SEASON TO BE OVER? “I’m not really ready for it to be over. You know what the schedule is, so I guess you are looking to the end of the year. I really enjoy these next three tracks coming up though.” H

OW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS TRACK? “Good. This has always been one of our better tracks in the past. I look forward to getting out there and seeing how competitive our stuff is.

WHAT KIND OF ADJUSTMENTS DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO MAKE FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? “We are just taking it one race at a time like we always do. We won’t really know until we get on the track here. We are trying to bring our best stuff, trying to get the best finishes we can here the last three weeks and try to learn as much as we can that will help us next year.”

HOW WOULD YOU SUMMARIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE SO FAR THIS SEASON? “This season has been frustrating for me and we expect more. It was good that we made the Chase and all that, but we expect to win and be a contender for the championship. We haven’t been able to do that for a few years now. We have to keep moving forward and try to make every part of it the best we can and try to get better.”

AS A FAN OF RACING, NOT AS A DRIVER, AS A FAN, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE 2013 REDESIGN OF THE CAR? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE FORDS LOOK DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER MANUFACTURERS? “I don’t know. I think they look a little bit different now. I understand NASCAR’s need of making the cars as close as they can so nobody has a distinct advantage aerodynamically. I didn’t particularly love this car, so I am looking forward to maybe if they redo things a little and see what it looks like. We get a new nose for next year which I think will help the cars look nicer. I don’t know what it will do with how they drive. NASCAR keeps working hard to make the cars look better and perform better on the track to.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT NEXT YEAR, WHAT THINGS CAN YOU TAKE FROM THIS YEAR INTO NEXT SEASON? “Every week I think you learn something. I certainly have made my share of mistakes trying to hard for sure. I think the main thing is that you look at all aspects of your program and try to figure out how to make yourself better and make your program better.”

WAS THERE ANY TRACK WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU FIGURED IT OUT? “There are certain tracks that are easier than others. We have been to some of our best tracks and not ran good and been to our worse tracks and ran okay, so I guess not really. It is just constantly trying to make your cars drive how you want them to at all the different tracks.”

AT TALLADEGA WE SAW JIMMIE JOHNSON GET HUNG OUT TO DRY A LITTLE BIT. IF PUSH CAME TO SHOVE, WOULD YOU HELP THE 48 TO WIN A RACE? “I didn’t see any of that, but I think you are always going to try draft with people that have drafted with you or helped you or whatever. At the end of the race you are all going to do what is best for yourself. No matter who is in front of you. If you feel like pushing him will get both of you to the front, then that is what you are going to do.”

AFTER LAST WEEKEND IT IS VERY TIGHT AMONG THE TOP THREE, WHICH OF THE THREE WOULD GET YOUR HELP IF THEY NEEDED IT? “There is nothing you are going to do to help anybody at any of these three races. One race a year, maybe two now that they repaved Daytona, can you really help or hurt someone on a race track. It is one against 42 like it is every week.”

 WOULD YOU WRECK ANOTHER CHASER TO WIN A RACE? “I wouldn’t wreck anybody to win a race intentionally. I race everybody the same all the time. I don’t think the racing really changes. I know you guys probably think it does. Maybe if someone has a real big lead the last race it might change a little, but I think you race someone the way you do all year. If you have a problem with somebody then I don’t think you care if it is in the Chase or not. If you take care of it like we have seen somewhere a few weeks earlier and vice versa. If a guy races you clean all the time and you race him clean then that isn’t going to change. I think everybody should race everyone the same all year no matter what the points are.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT PHOENIX? “I haven’t ran particularly well there since we introduced this car. In the spring we ran pretty competitively, so the hardest thing there is to get to turn really good in one and two and still not be too loose down in three or four. That is what you work on there.”

DOES THAT MEAN YOU LIKE IT OR HATE IT THERE? “I like Phoenix. There aren’t any tracks that I really hate. I really enjoy going to Phoenix. It is a really good track, for a short track.”

WHY DO YOU THINK SOME PEOPLE FELL LIKE THERE SHOULD BE A NEW CHAMPION? “Probably because everybody would like to beat him. If I don’t win it, then yeah you have friends and stuff you would like to see win it, but I just hope the best car each year wins it. If the best team wins it then I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I think the fastest car is supposed to win the race and the best team and car is supposed to win the championship.”

GENERALLY IT SEEMS LIKE ROUSH FENWAY HAS SOME GROUND TO MAKE UP STILL. IS THERE ANY ONE OR TWO PLACES YOU CAN POINT TO THAT YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE LACKING? “There are probably a couple of spots you could look at. I think you have to look over the whole thing. I think we have made big improvements from where we were earlier this year, but I don’t think we are where we need to be at to be in serious contention for a championship. I think that is where management, the sponsors and everybody wants to be. We are going to have to look at that over the winter and continue to improve. There has been a lot happening there in the last year and it is definitely getting better.”

IT LOOKS LIKE WITH THE NEW SPLITTER COMING NEXT YEAR, FORD WILL GET TO TWEAK ITS NOSE A LITTLE BIT. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THOSE CHANGES AND HOW THEY MIGHT HELP YOU? “I am not really familiar. I have to be careful not to speak out of turn, but I assume we are trying to make it looks more like what the Chevy looks like because it seems like they are the best and their headlight area is a little different. There is not that many areas you can work in anymore, so I am sure we are just trying to get caught up with everybody else.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

AAA TEXAS 500

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 5, 2010

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway and discussed Chase contenders, racing at Texas Motor Speedway and other topics.  Full transcript:

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT RACING AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?:  “It’s a fun race track.  This is a really difficult race track – the way the banking changes going into the corners here is really odd.  It’s a very unique race track and obviously you have the bumps at both ends of the race track that make a huge difference.  There’s a lot of challenges here, which is what makes it fun – the fact that it is hard is what makes it fun in my opinion.”

WOULD IT BE GOOD FOR THE SPORT IF SOMEONE OTHER THAN JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR?:  “I think most people want to see a different champion and I think that’s just based on the fact that no one driver has all the fans.  If Jimmie (Johnson) has 20 percent of the fans, that’s an incredible stat considering all the other drivers, but that means there’s 80 percent that don’t want to see him win.  So I think from that standpoint, I think that’s what people are talking about is that the majority of the fans want to see someone else win.  With the exception of maybe Junior (Dale Earnhardt Jr.), I think the majority of the fans want to see anybody else win because it’s not their guy.  I think that’s really what it boils down to. 

“I think what Jimmie’s done is incredible.  It should be respected; it should be a lot of reverence for it to be honest because it’s an incredible feat what they’ve been able to do and to be in the hunt again.  I think I told you all last week, when Tiger (Woods) beats the field by 18, everybody watches.  When he’s down by four, nobody watches.  It’s an interesting phenomenon, but at the end of the day it’s the majority of people who aren’t a fan of anyone and they want to see somebody else win.”

HOW DO YOU SEE THE FINAL THREE RACES PLAYING OUT FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP?:  “I see the real possibility of it staying this close.  For racing with all of them, you start looking and now you have three people that are really close and now you start to dissect how good they are at every race track.  You can make a case that all three of them are really good at all three of the next three race tracks.  They’ve all performed very, very well.  We have three different style race tracks coming up that they’ve all performed well in all three styles.  I think it could be really close.  I don’t know who you would pick, honestly looking at it.  If I was an odds maker, I don’t know who I would pick.  I think it is truly an equal race.”

WHAT DO YOU WORK ON THE FINAL THREE RACES?:  “I think for us, this has been a fun year and it’s been a really discouraging year all at the same time.  For us, I want to see us be able to execute.  We’ve run well, we’re fifth or sixth in laps led, we were in that same area in number of races led.  Our performance has been good – not been great, but it’s been good.  Our average finish and running position is much higher than our average finishing position.  That’s why we’re in the spot that we’re in.  For us, I want to see us continue to run well.  That race, we led early in the year, we had a really fast car at Phoenix early in the year and last year we led a lot at Homestead.  These are three races that we perform very well in last time we were at the race track.  I want to see us be able to do that, but I want to see us get the finishes that we weren’t able to get.  For us, that’s what the next three races are about.”

HOW MUCH DO TEAMMATES HELP IN THESE FINAL THREE RACES?:  “I think if you start letting people win, I think that’s the extreme integrity issue.  I think that for years people have let people lead laps and those kinds of things and those things will happen when possible.  I hope we don’t get to the point where people let people win races.  I really hope we don’t get there.  I have a major problem with that. 

“Let me tell you something, if I was second in points and I had a teammate win the race and had I won the race, I would have won the championship, honestly I wouldn’t’ want to win the championship in that regard.  No matter what you think, you’re always going to know that you probably shouldn’t have won the championship.  I just think there’s a huge, huge integrity issue with that kind of thing.”

DO YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE TO BE WITHIN 30 POINTS OF THE LEADER TO HAVE A CHANCE IN THE FINAL RACE OF THE YEAR?:  “It improves your odds, there’s no question about it.  You guys have been around racing long enough to know that anything can happen.  A guy can cut a tire, a guy can break a motor, a guy can make a mistake, could have a wrong pit stop at the wrong time – all those things can happen and take a guy that had a 25 or 30 point lead or even a 70 point lead and now he doesn’t have it.  If someone goes out and maxes out with points with laps led and wins the race, that’s a big swing in points right there compared to a guy that runs 12th.  It certainly makes the odds better, but it’s not inconceivable that a guy could go into Homestead 45, 50, 55 point back and still win the championship.”

WOULD A TEAMMATE NOT RACE A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDING TEAMMATE AS HARD FOR A RACE WIN?:  “Kevin (Harvick) and I at Martinsville is a great example and I don’t want to bring up a bad subject, but since then Kevin and I had a great chance to talk and Kevin in no way expected me to not race him for the win.  He wasn’t looking for me to let him go.  He wasn’t looking for me to not race him for the win.  He wasn’t looking for any of those things.  I think there’s a fine line – I think that you will cut them a little bit of slack to make sure you don’t cause them an incident.  I think that you will see that, but I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of pulling over late in the race and giving a guy a spot because again, I just think there’s an integrity issue.  I think people will cut them slack and that’s acceptable.”

WHAT MAKES YOU SAY DENNY HAMLIN AND KEVIN HARVICK HAVE AS GOOD OF A CHANCE AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT JIMMIE JOHNSON?:  “Because Jimmie (Johnson) winning the last four championships doesn’t win him this one.  His results over the last seven races and the upcoming three races will determine whether he wins or loses.  The results of the other people are going to determine that.  If past success guaranteed you future success then the same people would always win.  You have to go out and earn it.  You have to go out and do a better job than your competitors.  Jimmie doesn’t start this race with bonus points because he had four championships and the guys he’s racing don’t have any.  This championship is going to be won based on what happened in the last seven races and the upcoming three races.  Certainly he has a statistical advantage because he has four championships, but perhaps he doesn’t have a realistic advantage is that makes any sense.  I’m probably not saying that well, but again past success doesn’t guarantee future success.”

WHAT WOULD CONCERN YOU IF YOU WERE A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER IN THE FINAL THREE RACES?:  “The first thing is speed and that’s an obvious statement.  But with speed you are afforded mistakes.  If you’re not fast enough then every mistake that you make and some of them aren’t big glaring mistakes and only the driver knows he made them.  Every mistake is very, very hard to overcome.  With speed, you can withstand a bad pit stop a little better because you can make it up.  You can withstand a mistake by the driver on a restart.  You can overcome things easier.  So the very first thing that you have to have over the next three races for everybody is speed.  Then from there, it’s doing the right thing at the right time and that goes into the thousands of opportunities to do the right thing.  From a driver’s standpoint, it’s making the right decisions and having the ability to follow through on those decisions and for the crew, it’s the same thing.  It’s hard to pinpoint every little thing, but it all hinges on how fast your car can go.  If you don’t have the speed that you need then it’s very difficult to mount a challenge to do all the things that you need to do.”

DOES EXPERIENCE HELP THAT PROCESS?:  “I want to think it helped and I want to believe that experience – when you experience things, you learn from them and then you’re able to apply what you learned.  That’s what I want to believe.  If not, I’m in trouble.  There’s no question that Jimmie (Johnson) has the most success from a championship standpoint, race win standpoint and almost every parameter you can measure – he has the most success of the three.  But the other two are very confident people – they believe in what they’re doing, they have conviction in what they’re doing.  They’re not the kind of people that you’re going to easily push over.  I think that’s important.  They have the mindset that’s required.  Kevin (Harvick) is very relaxed and I haven’t been around Denny (Hamlin) much, but Kevin is very relaxed and enjoying the situation.  Experience is a good thing, but a lot of it is attitude about where you think you are and where you think your team is.”

IS IT HARD FOR CLINT BOWYER TO THINK ABOUT WHAT HE COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT THE PENALTY?:  “I don’t really think that he’s (Clint Bowyer) raced differently.  Clint’s an aggressive racer and I think that was a heavy burden on their shoulders.  Obviously at the end of the day, if you add 150 (points) to what Clint has now, that’s where he would be.  That’s easy to say.  I think that thing was a really difficult deal and it’s hard to imagine and know what would have been the what-ifs and all of that.  I think that from their standpoint, again it was an opportunity to learn something; it was an opportunity to be better going into next year.  There’s no question, I definitely think that Clint wanted to prove to everyone that they could win without cheating and I think that means a lot to Clint.  Clint wants people to respect him, he doesn’t want to be viewed as somebody that was cheating to win a race.  That really offends him.  I don’t know if he’s been racing differently or not, but I do know that it means a great deal to him that the people in this room and the people in that garage and the people in the stands don’t believe that he’s a cheater.  To be able to win a race after all that and go through tech – I think that means a lot to Clint.”

DO THE DRIVERS LOOK FORWARD TO COMING TO TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?:  “There’s a lot of energy to this race – the fans really come out and support this race a great deal.  From day one this has been a highly attended race.  I think the drivers appreciate that and understand that it’s a special thing.  Every driver is different – some drivers like some race tracks and some drivers don’t like that same race track.  It really depends on the individual and it depends on the situation they’re in.  This is a really odd time of year.  There’s people that just can’t wait to get it over, there’s people that don’t want it to end, there’s everything in between – this is a really interesting time of year.  I think all in all this is an enjoyable race track.”

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FORD FAST FACTS – Texas

• There are 13 Fords participating in the Lone Star 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

• Trevor Bayne will pilot the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford at Texas, marking the 19-year-olds Sprint Cup debut. Bayne joins David Pearson, A.J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough, Curtis Turner and Glen Wood who all made their Cup debuts in the No. 21.

• Ford has 9 all-time NSCS wins at Texas, most of any manufacturer.

• All three Ford “chasers” have claimed victory at Texas Motor Speedway.

• Carl Edwards leads all drivers with three wins at Texas, his most recent coming in back-to-back fashion in 2008.

• Matt Kenseth is currently tied with Mark Martin and Tony Stewart with 10 top-10 finishes and with Jeff Gordon with seven top-5 finishes all-time at Texas. Kenseth was victorious in the 2002 race.

• Jack Roush leads all car owners with seven career victories at Texas.

Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, is looking for his second career with at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday. Biffle talked about past success and finishing the year on a high note.

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – HOW WOULD YOU SUMMARIZE YOUR SEASON THUS FAR AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO AT TEXAS TODAY? “We are going to try to qualify on pole, we have won with this Red Cross Ford Fusion car before. I love this race track. Our mile-and-a-half program has been stellar. Our Chase hasn’t been what we were hoping for. It is a win and then dead last, then fifth and then last. We are working hard to get some wins here at the end of the season and get the best finish we can.”

ANY ADJUSTMENTS FOR TEXAS IN PARTICULAR? “Not really. We have been looking at what we did at Kansas, California and Charlotte and have tried to come here with the best plan we can.”

GENERALLY IS SEEMS LIKE ROUSH FENWAY HAS SOME GROUND TO MAKE UP. YOU GUYS HAVE GOTTEN BETTER BUT STILL AREN’T QUITE THERE. ARE THERE SPECIFIC AREAS YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE LACKING? “That is a great question. We feel like we have really closed the gap on the mile-and-a-half tracks. We know that the short track program still needs to improve. We felt like our restrictor plate program is really good. I got really good finishes at Talladega, almost won the Daytona 500, then go to Talladega this last week and we were way off. It is an ever evolving cycle of being fast one week and not the next. It is like you try to figure out why because we expected to go to Talladega and be very good. We go there and qualify 34th in race trim. The car is not going to get any fast than that, and that was disappointing. We will keep working on it though and figure out why we aren’t as fast as we need to be.

AT TALLADEGA WE SAW A LOT OF GUYS PUSHING TO HELP GUYS GAIN POSITION, WOULD YOU EVER HELP PUSH THE 48 TO THE FRONT TO HELP HIM WIN A RACE? Well, we never got a chance to work with the 48 in Talladega, but we did help out the 11 quite a bit because he was going up through the field. I’ve never had that opportunity. Really, whatever will benefit you is what you do. However that works out. I wish the top lane would have went a little better than the bottom, but that is the way it goes. We ended up 19th.

WITH THINGS SO CLOSE WITH THE TOP THREE GUYS IN THESE LAST THREE RACES, THEY ARE ALL GOING TO NEED SOME HELP MORE THAN LIKELY. WHICH ONE OF THE THREE ARE YOU GOING TO HELP? “They aren’t getting any help from me. The 16 is out there to win and I am going to show all of them respect just the same as I would expect them to show me in these final races. I am going to race them all fairly and let it be decided amongst themselves.”

WHY DO YOU THINK THERE IS A SENTIMENT THAT THERE SHOULD BE A NEW CHAMPION? “I don’t necessarily feel that way. Everybody looks at it as Jimmie has won four in a row and they maybe are ready for something new. In my eyes, the best team should win. Right now, there are three of them that are neck-in-neck in how they are performing and it is going to be close when it comes down to it. We will just have to wait and see.”

EVERYONE IS GOING TO A NEW SPLITTER NEXT YEAR AND NASCAR HAS ALLOWED FORD AND DODGE TO TWEAK THEIR NOSES. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HOPE TO GAIN WITH A NEW NOSE? “We are hoping to get even with the other cars is what we are hoping to do. NASCAR has allowed a slight change in the front configuration which is good. We sort of match the other two manufacturers I think with what the car changes are going to be. Everybody has a common lower which I think is important to have that common lower. We keep our identity that we are a Ford Fusion, but we are going to get to match up the aero advantages that the other cars have. That might make a little bit of a difference, but it is such a minor change that you probably won’t see it performance wise.”

ANY LITTLE BIT HELPS THOUGH RIGHT? “Well, where it will help the most is probably the mile-and-a-half program which we are already really good at. We need help on the short tracks and it won’t make much difference there, which is what I was getting at. If it makes any difference at all. It is really more a cosmetic change than an aero change.”

FANS SEEM TO REALLY LIKE WHEN THE CARS DON’T LOOK THE SAME. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU AS A DRIVER WOULD LIKE TO SEE? MORE IDENTITY? “I think so. In the Nationwide series, they have really done that. They have brought Mustang back and some of the other cars back that the consumers can really identify. They are really excited about it. The changes that are coming down the line with the Sprint Cup cars will be well recognized as well.”

WERE THERE ANY TRACKS THIS YEAR THAT YOU JUST FELT LIKE THEY CLICKED AND YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE IT FIGURED OUT NOW? “It is funny because that happens and you feel like you have something figured out and then you go to a place where you are usually really good at and then you aren’t so good. Kansas is a place we have always been good at, we have won there. Darlington is a place we have always been really good, but we weren’t good there this year. That is a little discouraging. You sort of shift the power. One track where you think you will be good you aren’t and another track where you think you will be mediocre you are good. You are always fighting to be the best at every place.”

IF YOU LOOK BACK ON THE YEAR, IS THERE ONE THING THAT YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU INTO NEXT SEASON? “We need to continue to get our short track program better and better. Mostly Martinsville for me. We qualify well there and ran well for half of the race, but we are still working on that short track as far as I am concerned. We need to continue to be better there.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

AAA TEXAS 500

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 5, 2010

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 10 GANDER MOUNTAIN OUTDOORS CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Texas for his brother Terry Labonte and other topics.  Full transcript:

DO YOU ENJOY RACING AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?:  “I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and watching my brother race on the short tracks there before moving to North Carolina.  Texas World Speedway – I got to race there a couple times actually on the road course.  That was the biggest thing that I’d ever seen as far as race tracks goes besides the quarter-mile and half-mile tracks.  I got to race here a little bit even after we moved to North Carolina, we came back to race.  To come back here is awesome.  We were able to be back of a select group that came down and blew up part of the soil here and got the track started.  Dale Earnhardt, myself, Jeff Gordon and Terry (Labonte) came down here so it was kind of cool that we got to see this place as virgin soil as you might say.  To come back here year after year and see the fans come out to see this race track.  The way it is, when you come down 35 and you look at the lights, it’s like it resembles huge stadiums and big time events.  It’s really cool to come back.  It’s a good race track, love coming down here for the fans and the friends that we have.  Twice as good this year and this time because I get to drive my brother’s car so it’s even better.”

HOW DID IT COME TOGETHER TO DRIVE FOR JTG-DAUGHERTY RACING IN 2011 AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?:  “I’m really excited about that.  Tad (Geschickter, team owner) and Brad (Daugherty, team owner) came to my motor home in Chicago and they told me that Marcos (Ambrose) was leaving and they asked me if I would be interested in driving their car next year.  About five seconds later I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’  Then I said, ‘Hold on a second, let me think about it, yeah, okay, I think it’s still fine.’  So really I was overwhelmed and thrilled that they asked me to drive their car and especially to get a contract signed and sealed by August, which the past couple years hasn’t been like that. 

“So that was exciting.  I’ve already been to test with Frankie Kerr (crew chief) and the guys at Gresham.  We plan on going to Orlando in a couple weeks and a Goodyear tire test in December.  Rolling right along with that; and again just looking forward to that association and that relationship.  Tad, we talk a lot, more so now than we did after the first couple weeks, but we talk a lot trying to get stuff squared away for next year and just real excited about the opportunity that I have going forward next year.  A great race team, a great group of people, great staff there at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) that they’re working with and a lot of resources to have.  Can’t wait for obviously a couple weeks to test and next year to get started soon.”

HOW WOULD THESE SPRINT CUP CARS LOOK AT TEXAS WORLD SPEEDWAY TODAY?:  “I think the last time I was there testing was 1995.  I know Greg Biffle was down there testing a couple years ago and speeds were like 220ish, you know.  Without soft walls, that’s probably not very good.  Are they going to change Fontana to that?  Is that what you’re trying to say?  You suggested that?  I wouldn’t suggest that if I were you.  I don’t know that would be any better.  Richmond would be a better type of track.  I don’t know.  It’s been a while, but when I went down there in ’95 and ran the whole track instead of just the road course and part of the track, it’s really, really fast.  It would be great racing I know because it probably could be multiple lanes too.  You have a lot there, but I’m not sure that would be any more conducive to greater racing than we have at some places that we come to like this place.”

HOW DID IT COME TOGETHER TO DRIVE FOR YOUR BROTHER TERRY LABONTE?:  “It came about, obviously my year didn’t turn out like I thought it would be at the start to drive for one team.  Been driving for James Finch and he’s given me a great opportunity to drive a few races for him and even drove for Robby Gordon at Loudon and then when Terry (Labonte) was going to have his team going – he went to Richmond and didn’t make the race and he asked me that night in the motor home and he said, ‘Man, I should get you to drive my car at Charlotte.’  I said I was in so he called Billy Stavola on the phone and we had a three-way conversation right there and next thing you know it kind of happened and then after Charlotte, I was kind of like, ‘I would love to be able to drive your car at Texas.’  Then they called me a day later and they asked me if I would so it makes sense.  It’s a great race team. 

“Billy and Terry started this deal off early in the year, they’ve got three races they were going to run and trying to build for next year and I think they’ve got a great start at it as far as putting things together.  I hope they can continue with it and I just hope for a good run.  Terry and I have both driven like each other’s cars at times and work out of the same shop together and all that.  He’s been my agent for years as far as when I have a call that I have a question about, I let him answer it for me sometimes and even vice versa.  I was the guy that Eddie Dickerson called to get with Terry for him to go drive for Hendrick’s (Motorsports) one time.  Anyway, it’s kind of cool being able to drive for him.  We spend a lot of time together so it’s a lot of fun.”

WERE YOU GETTING CONCERNED ABOUT BEING ABLE TO GET ANOTHER RIDE LIKE JTG-DAUGHERTY RACING?:  “There was times that you didn’t know – you were hoping and watching the phone waiting for the phone call.  Tried to do as much talking as you can, but it’s kind of one of those things, the best way to put it is that you just live by faith and just what happens, happens.  You’re not sure and if it hadn’t of happened then that’s just the way it is.  Very fortunate and blessed that it happened.  Obviously there were times that you weren’t sure what were going to take place.”

WHO IS IT TOUGHER TO DRIVE FOR – YOUR DAD OR TERRY LABONTE?:  “That’s easy – my dad.  My dad’s a lot harder to drive for than Terry (Labonte).  I drove for my dad for years and he was my crew chief and everything.  He wasn’t hard on us, he was just very determined.  It was probably a little bit more difficult with him.”

HOW HAS RACING AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY EVOLVED FOR THE FANS?:  “Everything is bigger and better in Texas, obviously.  I can state that it‘s a truthful statement.  Just the fans here – over the course of the years they’ve really been supportive of the race track.  They come out here for the week before the race, start parking and tailgating and stuff like that.  The amount of fans that showed up for this event the first several times and knowing the support the track gets.  This is a great market.  Bruton Smith (owner), Eddie Gossage (president) – they do a great job promoting it.  There were times that we would come here early on that there were more fans here for qualifying then there were at other tracks for the race.  It’s just one of those events that people plan for and it’s a great market area.  The fans always see a great race and they always have a good time here.  There’s a lot to do here around the area so it makes for a good place for race fans to come and view this event.”

HOW HAVE YOU EVOLVED AS A RACE DRIVER?:  “A lot of things have changed with the cars, people and engineering resources, teams, teammates over the past few years.  At (Joe) Gibbs (Racing), I had a lot of that there with Tony (Stewart).  That kind of gave me that little bit there and then fast-forwarding to this opportunity with JTG (Daugherty Racing) with Martin Truex and David Reutimann as teammates at MWR (Michael Waltrip) Racing is kind of going back to where I was or where I felt like I was at with Gibbs Racing.  A great opportunity.  I know that the resources that are there that you have to use, the staff that’s there that you have to believe in and the support that you have from the manufacturer and everything else is what makes the difference nowadays.  Knowing that they have that gives you confidence and gives you confidence every time you sit in the race car, gives you confidence every time you go to bed at night just knowing that the next day you’re going to be better. 

“Hopefully you can take the experience and what’s good about experience and bad about experience is that you don’t want to hold onto it too much because in a lot of ways it can bite you because you can’t do the same thing over and over again, but hopefully you can take the experience that they have and the new stuff that makes the cars go faster today, might not have been the same years ago so you have to try that.  Not that we didn’t do that for years, but you just have to be more on your game and realize that it’s there.  Hopefully the experience pays off, but I don’t want to get stuck in a rut either and say, ‘Well, I’m used to running x and that don’t work no more.’  You have to be careful with it and ride the center of it instead of being one way or the other.”

HOW HAS THE RACING CHANGED AT THIS TRACK OVER TIME?:  “The best thing about race tracks is aging – either hard winters or long summers.  Of course you can go too far and 30 years later it might need a repave, but at the same time, this place here – from the first time here until now has obviously changed quite a bit.  It has a lot of characteristics in it now that you’re able to drive around and drive through and stuff like that with bumps in the corners.  I love bumps in corners because it gives you something to work on.  If it was just smooth as glass and wide open then it gives you less to work on. 

”It comes down to the race and what we were talking about earlier today and this week was qualifying is going to be a certain speed, but race pace is going to be something else so you really have to know what you think the race pace is going to be in tomorrow’s practice because it’s going to slow down enough where it’s going to change the attitude of the race car and you need to change your setup for 20 laps into the run rather than just the first five laps.  That really, you have to guess a little bit and that’s good about the race track because you can practice fast and then race pace will slow down.  So you work on that and you have to sometimes make some guesses at it, but that’s what makes the characteristic of the race track better and that’s why it’s so much better now than it was at the beginning.  It was good at the beginning, but it was more at the bottom of the race track and now it’s gotten to where Juan Pablo (Montoya) will be up top and Martin Truex will be on the top and some other guys will be in the middle and some guys on the bottom so that always leads to better racing I think.”

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.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (Nov. 5, 2010) – The new Dodge Charger nose has been approved by NASCAR for the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season. The development of the Charger nose has been a cooperative effort by Dodge Motorsports Engineering and Penske Racing and gives Dodge better brand identify for the Charger while remaining within the NASCAR approval process.

“With the introduction of the all-new 2011 Dodge Charger for the street, we worked closely with Penske Racing to develop the Dodge brand identity while maintaining neutral aerodynamics within the NASCAR rules,” said Dave Bailey, Senior Manager of Dodge Motorsports Engineering. “Coupled with NASCAR’s new common lower nose for 2011, the revised front end carries the image and character of the Charger forward in true Dodge performance fashion.”