Blickensderfer named 2012 crew chief for NASCAR veteran Jeff Burton

(Drew Blickensderfer, former Daytona 500 winning crew chief for Matt Kenseth, was named as the new crew chief for Jeff Burton Monday. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

Drew Blickensderfer, a native of Mt. Zion, Ill. and former NASCAR Nationwide Series crew chief for Missouri native Carl Edwards, has left Roush Fenway Racing after nearly a decade there. He will man the pit box for Edwards' former RFR teammate Jeff Burton in 2012. For the full story, click HERE.

Austin Dillon wins the July 22 "Lucas Deep Clean 200" NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race

(Austin Dillon won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. It is his third career series victory and he has won all three from the pole position. Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR) 

After pulling away with 23 laps to go, Austin Dillon did not look back and won Friday night’s Lucas Deep Clean 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway for his first trip to Victory Lane this season.

Dillon, who won two races in 2010, picked up his third career win by a sizeable margin and his first since September 2010 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Starting the race from the pole position, Dillon made a gutsy call with 46 laps to go, when on a yellow flag pit stop he opted to take two tires while much of the field changed all four, and pulled into the lead on the restart.

Three laps later he was overtaken by Johnny Sauter, the second-place finisher on the evening, but pulled ahead again on Lap 128 and gained a wide margin of space to comfortably win the race. He then attempted a celebratory slide through the grass to a loud and approving grandstand crowd at Nashville Superspeedway.

Dillon and crew chief Danny Stockman agreed on the two-tire pit stop, saying tires weren’t an issue during the race but track position was.

“It was all about sticking with [Sauter] as long as I could, keep the pressure on,” Dillon said. “I knew he was getting looser and looser and I finally had to get up in there with him and loosen him up a little more, and when it happened we just went on.”

“I looked at all the tire wears all day and the tires weren’t wearing, and I knew if we had track position and clean air, we were gonna go,” Stockman said. “And we didn’t even have clean air and we still win. Tires weren’t an issue tonight.”

Sauter, the points leader over Dillon by 18 points in the standings, was looking for his second win of the season but said at the end of the day the victor’s truck was just better.

“He obviously knew that he had a fast truck, because before that pit stop he was dogging me lap after lap,” Sauter said. “I knew it was just going to be a matter of time before he got around me.”

With the win, Dillon claimed one of the most coveted trophies in the sport – a Sam Bass custom-painted Gibson Les Paul guitar.

“I’ve been talking about it all week,” he said. “They said in the driver’s meeting today that it was voted one of the 10 coolest trophies by ‘Sports Illustrated.’ It’s just a beautiful trophy.”

Dillon also said the win boosted his confidence moving forward.

“It’s just so great to have a win,” he said. “When you get a win, everything just seems to be a lot easier.

Trailing Dillon and Sauter across the finish line were Timothy Peters in third, Nelson Piquet Jr. in fourth and Parker Kligerman in fifth.

No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team to throw out first pitch at Sunday's Winston-Salem Dash Baseball Game at BB&T Ballpark

(Members of Austin Dillon's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team are scheduled to throw out the first pitch at Sunday's Winston-Salem Dash baseball game. Photo by Josh Weinrich)

Members from Richard Childress Racing's No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet pit crew will throw out the first pitch prior to Sunday's Winston-Salem Dash game at BB&T Balllpark, located in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The game is scheduled to commence at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time against the Lynchburg (Va.) Hillcats.

Bass Pro Shops team members, including spotter Andy Houston, tire specialist Dustin Keath, shock specialist P.J. Bryant and jack man Sam Abney, serve as key support for Austin Dillon in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team produces speedy pit stops and lightning-fast No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolets each week. Currently, they are fourth in the point standings and have earned two pole awards this season.

"These are the guys that support me each week and build fast trucks for me," said Dillon. "They are the reason my trucks are fast. I love baseball and I love my team so this is going to be a fun event for everyone."

Although stock car auto racing is their primary career, the Bass Pro Shops pit crew members are not unfamiliar with baseball. Houston has spent much of this summer attending his children's little league baseball games. Bryant and Keath played on little league teams as children and Abney was an outfielder at Azle High School outside of Fort Worth, Texas.

The Winston-Salem Dash is the Class-A Advanced minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 336-714-2287 or visit www.wsdash.com.

TRANSCRIPT: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Talks to the Media at Pocono

(Dale Earnhardt Jr. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL RUN WELL HERE THIS WEEKEND? “I hope so. We’ll see. We’ve got a tricky little race track here and some new shifting rules. So we’ll be learning all day long hoping we’ll be able to get up to speed and be competitive.”

HOW ABOUT THIS TRACK AND HOW YOU’VE RUN HERE IN THE PAST, DO YOU THINK THIS IS A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN END THE STREAK? “I don’t know. We’ve not been real successful here in the last several years. We’ve had a really good start when we first started coming here. We’ve had a lot of good runs but the last couple of years haven’t been that awesome. We’re taking it one week at a time and see how it goes.”

WHERE IS THE CONFIDENCE LEVEL RIGHT NOW? “It’s good. I’m still good. Just trying to be productive, show up on time, be ready to work, try to work hard. See how that works out for me. It’s been going so good so far. Wanna keep trying to get better too.”

HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING ANYTHING DIFFERENT THAT HAS LED TO THESE GOOD RESULTS? “Basically we changed everything. I’m in a new shop, new team, new crew chief. Everything has been changed. I don’t know what else different I can do. That’s a lot. We’ve made a lot of changes.”

AFTER THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS DO YOU TAKE THAT AS FRUSTRATION KIND OF FUELED THE FIRE FOR POCONO? “It’s great, it’s not frustrating. I’m running good.”

SO CLOSE TO FIRST LACE THOUGH? “Yeah, that’s great. That’s where you want to be. Close. If not winning, that’s better than running damn 25th and 30th every week I’ll tell you that.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SHIFTING HERE AND IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE SHIFTING? “I don’t know. I’m going to try to find out. I haven’t shift here in a while. I think it’s unnecessary but they think the brakes are going to be better but it ain’t going to be no better.”

DO YOU THINK ANYBODY WILL HAVE A REMEMBERING ISSUE WITH IT? “Shifting is no big deal. Just hopefully you’ve got the gears all right and everything feels pretty comfortable. It should be fine.”

AS FAR AS THE RACING, WHAT DO YOU THINK WE ARE GOING TO SEE AS AN IMPACT OF THE SHIFTING? “It will be the same as it was last year. Take last year’s race and replay it and just imagine all the drivers are shifting.”

THERE IS RAIN IN THE FORECAST, HOW MUCH DOES THAT IMPACT HOW YOU APPROACH PRACTICE? “What are the rules if it rains out tomorrow?”

FASTEST IN FINAL PRACTICE I THINK. “If none of us know, I don’t know if we can answer that question. Steve will do all that, I just get in there and he’ll say man we’ve got to put a lap down lets go and I’ll go try to do it. If we do we do, if we don’t, we don’t. Mainly today we’re just going to focus on how the car gets through the corners, whether we’re comfortable, how we’re shifting. We’ve got a little bit of time today and just try to really get those things down and get that stuff comfortable so we can run a whole race on Sunday.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT MICHIGAN? “I don’t know. I feel like we’ve run pretty good there the last several times we’ve raced there. I really like the race track. It’s a real fun place to race. You’ve got to have a lot of motor and you can’t use a lot of gasoline. When we put a lot of gas in these cars to go fast you end up running short on the fuel mileage. A lot of times that is a fuel-mileage race. You do need a lot of motor though and we’re pretty good in that department.”

SPEAKING OF MOTOR, IF YOU COULD PICK BETWEEN POWER AND AERODYNAMICS WHICH ONE WOULD YOU PICK? “Aerodynamics probably. Matt Kenseth won a championship without any motor. Jack Roush will tell you they ain’t got any motor, they’ve got a pretty good one these days but back then they haven’t too much. Sometimes when you actually get down on power you go through the corner faster. Aerodynamics is always important.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE QUALIFYING CHANGES THIS WEEKEND? “I really don’t know what the changes are. I haven’t really paid much attention to it. I think first practice determines how we will qualify. I thought if it rained out we would start by points but I guess it could be the last practice speed. I don’t know. It will take me a couple of weeks to get this all sorted out. It sounds kind of confusing.”

YOU SEEMED REALLY HAPPY AFTER LAST WEEKS RACE. “Yeah, I feel like it’s a good relationship and going pretty good. Just trying to protect it and keep it going that way. Hopefully everybody on the team is enjoying what we’re doing. We’re not satisfied, we want to win races and I know that those guys are itching to win and get in victory lane and if we work hard we’ll get rewarded with that. I hope everybody on the team is enjoying what’s going on this year. I certainly am. I’m certainly having a good time.”

HOW MUCH HAS BORIS SAID HELPED ELEVATE ROAD RACING IN THIS ENTIRE SERIES WITH THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE HE HAS WORKED WITH? “Well he’s definitely very helpful. He’s helped me with setup ideas, knowledge about road course set up, how to set a car up for road courses and obviously helped me with driving, helped a lot of drivers with driving. Him and Ron Fellows both, any time any of those guys come in and are fast they elevate the standard of competition and elevate the level of speed and what you need to change to be good always gets tougher. They definitely made us all faster whether it be by tutoring us or by raising the stakes by showing up.”

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR YOUR NATIONWIDE CARS WITH DANICA AND SOMEONE ELSE NEXT YEAR? “We haven’t really talked about it. We’re waiting on Danica to make her decision and we can start to plan what we want to do. It would be a lot of fun to try to go full time. We definitely would like to be part of that opportunity. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

WHAT IMPACT DOES FUEL STRATEGY HAVE ON THIS PARTICULAR TRACK? SOMETIMES CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE CAUTIONS PLAY A ROLE AS WELL? “Yeah, that’s what really causes it from the get go. If the caution comes out, if you’re car is going to go sixty laps on fuel and the caution comes out with 65 laps to go then you’re in a little bit of a pickle. That’s just the way it happens sometimes.”

WITH ALL THE CHANGES COMING INTO THIS RACE, THE SHIFTING AND QUALIFYING, EVERY WEEK IT’S A WIDE OPEN RACE FOR EVERYBODY, DOES THAT MAKE IT ANY DIFFERENT COMING INTO THE WEEKEND? “Not really. I think it will be pretty similar to how it was last year. Racing here has always kind of been the same.”

ARE YOU CONFIDENT AT THIS RACE TRACK? “I like this place. It’s real tough to get around. It’s a pretty tough race track with all three corners being really different. The car wants to drive different through all three corners. Hopefully you kind of got a good balance across the board. But I feel good. Feel like we just are going to try to come here and do a good job, put together a good weekend just like we’ve been doing every week.”

DO YOU THINK THERE SHOULD BE A RULE IN PLACE FOR A DRIVER, IF YOU DO DAMAGE TO ANOTHER CAR AFTER THE CHECKERED FLAG YOU SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR THE DAMAGES? “I don’t know if that would have made a difference. I don’t know. The way it was handled and I was reading some of Brian’s comments about Darlington and he was saying and I may be wrong but as far as I remember he was saying where he had a problem was the extracurricular stuff that went on outside of the flag. Everything in between the green flag and the checkered flag was fine but what happened after the checkered flag they felt was a problem. And then in Kansas it wasn’t a problem. So that was the only thing that stuck out to me, when is it okay to hit a guy after the race and when is it not okay. What Kyle did in Kansas we do all the time. I didn’t really think that was too big of a deal. Obviously it upset Richard but we run into each other all the time after a race but really a lot of it never gets caught on television or seen by anybody. Sometimes it’s because you’re happy for somebody and sometimes it’s because you’re mad at somebody. We end up sorting those things out ourselves someway and somehow. I guess there is a certain level of contact that doesn’t need to happen after the race. I can totally understand. I’m not calling Brian out or anything I’m just saying I wish I knew everything and I don’t.”

KYLE SAID HE DIDN’T REALIZE HE CAUSED THAT MUCH DAMAGE, YOU SAID YOU GUYS DO IT ALL THE TIME, AT WHAT LEVEL DO YOU DO IT ALL THE TIME? “If you’re mad at somebody you’re not thinking about nothing but what you’re mad about. You’re not worried about nothing but what pissed you off. Sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes you handle it just right and sometimes you don’t do nothing. It just depends, it’s all circumstantial. I don’t have much concern in it and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It was a big deal. What Richard did obviously drew tons of attention but what Kyle did wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. When you just see it on TV you go oh man that happens all the time. I’ve seen that a million times before.”

IF SOMEONE HAD DONE LIKE $10,000 DOLLARS DAMAGE TO YOUR NATIONWIDE CAR? “I’d get mad. Heck yeah. When Denny and Brad were being idiots at Charlotte that one race and banging into each other’s fenders and stuff it really upset me. I was in another car and I went up there and ran into Denny.”

AFTER THE RACE OR DURING? “During. We were all like hey don’t hit that car. It was just really stupid all of us and then there was that big fight afterwards between the two teams. Not my team but the other two teams. It was just silly. That happens all the time and yeah you get mad. That damn Beuscher kid wrecked Danica in California for no freaking reason at all so he’s on the list. He’s got his coming one day.”

TRANSCRIPT: Kyle Busch Talks to Media at Pocono

(Kyle Busch, seen here at Eldora Speedway earlier this week drawing his qualifying number for the Prelude to the Dream, addressed the media Friday. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

What is your strategy coming into Pocono?

"This week always a little bit challenging for us.  Not the typical Bristol or Richmond or Charlotte or something where we know how to run there or expect to run there.  This kind of place throws us a little bit for a loop every time we get here --whether we run up front or whether we struggle a little bit.  Last spring was really good for us -- we sat on the pole and led alot of laps and ran real well.  Then towards the end we finished second to Denny (Hamlin) I believe.  Then the fall race, just kind of meandered back about 12th or 15th all day.  Didn't quite get everything we wanted.  We'll see if we can't turn the tables again this time and try to run up front and get a good finish this weekend for all our M&M's guys."

Do you look forward to getting in the race car during difficult situations?

"It's different for every driver, but it my particular case I feel like once you get out onto the race track or once you get in the car and put your helmet on and then out on the race track -- that's where your priorities lie and that's where your focus is. To me, it doesn't seem that challenging."

Do you feel you have a respect issue in the garage and do you need respect in the garage to be successful?

"Can't answer the first part for you -- you would have to ask everybody else.  As far as needing respect in the garage area -- certainly.  It makes your day a little bit easier.  Makes your job a little bit easier.  I've been able to have good conversations and talk to people outside the race car or at driver intros or stuff  like that.  Whether it's the case that they're not being true to my face -- I don't know, I can't read that.  I'm not in people's minds.  If you're mad at me, you'll have to tell me."

What are your thoughts on the new qualifying procedure at Pocono?

"To me, the whole schedule is a little weird.  You come in today and you get the first practice and the first practice is going to base your time for qualifying.  Then you go into the second practice, which is later in the day -- about when the race is going to end.  Then there's going to be a lot of grip probably when the track starts cooling off just a little bit around the 4:30 or 5:00 time frame.  We'll see how it pans out.  You come in on Saturday and you run one lap and then you have nothing else to do and then you wait until the race on Sunday.  That to me is a little weird.  I like the old schedule a lot better – just personal preference, if I had an opinion I would say that you come in and you run some race laps to get yourself acclimated to the track, you switch over, you go to qualifying trim, you make some laps, you qualifying that afternoon or evening or whatever it may be.  Then the next day you have two practice sessions solely devoted to your race car and what you might need to work on for Sunday.  To me, that's a more productive schedule."

Do you feel like you are wearing the black hat rather than the white hat lately?

"I'm not sure that there's really any hats to be worn here.  The black hat deal -- the villain type thing, I'm not sure that I really did a whole lot to bring that back upon myself.  I feel like I've acted in the utmost respect to every case that's come up my way and has been thrown in front of me.  I've tried to do it with dignity and class and I feel like that comes from people wearing white hats -- not black."

Do you understand why Richard Childress was mad last week?

"Me giving a congratulatory bump to Joey Coulter is what tipped him (Richard Childress) over the edge there.  I don't recall anytime -- face-to-face conversation where Richard did tell me that, 'If you touch another one of my cars I'm going to come find you.'  I don't know if it was ever said in the media, but it was never relayed to me."

Would it be good if drivers paid for damage they cause to other cars?

"If he came to me and was so upset about it, I would have offered him money to fix it.  I'm an owner in this sport -- I know there's going to be torn up equipment here and there sometimes, whatever.  I will say that if I didn't roll out of the throttle, we both would have crashed off of turn four.  The kid did what he was supposed to do on the last lap there.  We raced each other for 18 laps and I was having fun with him trying to keep him back and I thought I had it done and then he got on my inside down the backstretch there and pulled a slide job through three and four and kind of squeezed me up there.  I had two options -- lift and let him beat me, which is fine, no problem.  We're racing for fifth in the Truck Series -- wasn't for a win. Or crash the both of us.  It wasn't necessary for any of that."

Have you received any secret fines in the last seven days?

"No."

How should NASCAR handle penalties if someone is threatening a lawsuit?

"I don't know.  That's not to my discretion to be honest with you.  It's further to NASCAR to depose.  That's a great question for the, but for myself, I need an instance of what you're explaining.  Besides all the information you've just given me and the question you've asked, I can't really comment further."

Did you know how much damage there was on Joey Coulter's truck at Kansas?

"No, I didn't feel like I hit him all that hard.  I just thought I rubbed him a little bit.  Typically when you rub a guy, you don't see much damage from it.  The trucks are so different too.  I forgot about how the left-front fender on a truck – the nose is so much wider than the tire is so it kind of sticks out a little further so maybe there was more damage than I thought I would have caused.  That's entirely my fault -- I'm the one that instigated it there or initiated it.  As far as him having to fly out body hangers and all that stuff -- if it's something they didn't feel that they could hammer and dolly out, sorry it came to that."

Did the media interpret malicious intent toward Joey Coulter?

"There can be an easy way to interpret things sometimes and it seems like maybe I might be on the wrong end of interpretation a lot of those times.  There was no malicious intent to be involved in hurting or damaging a RCR (Richard Childress Racing) vehicle."

Was anything said to you by Richard Childress prior to last week's incident?

"No.  We were in that NASCAR hauler from Darlington after the race and he (Richard Childress) never said a word in there."

How are M&M's handling the recent situations?

"M&M's is handling things the best that they can handle it and going through things day by day.  There's a lot of support there.  We just had a NASCAR day at Hackettstown, New Jersey yesterday and people were awesome.  They had a lot of great questions about racing, about the sponsorship, about the partnership that we have and how things have really been working well for them over the past few seasons and how we can continue to grow the brand.  They're doing everything they can in their power to make sure that we continue to carry on the presence of M&M's in NASCAR and with Kyle Busch."

How much have you talked with your brother in recent weeks?

"I've talked to my brother (Kurt Busch) a little bit.  He's had some good things to say and some good advice to give as well. You mentioned that he had been through something like this before -- little bit different case.  We discussed some things. As far as there being support on my end -- sure, there's been a lot of support.  I've got a lot of friends that I talk to in the garage area.  Whether they're crew chiefs or team members from other teams -- even team members from the RCR (Richard Childress Racing) camp that are my friends.  I've had an outreach of support as well as after the incident in Darlington, it's not something new for race fans, for as passionate and devoted as they are to this sport or to a particular driver that the outcry of a penalty -- they want to pitch in and help.  I didn't boast about it, but I had the same amount of fans that wanted to help pay my fine from Darlington in which we just put the money toward the Kyle Busch Foundation.  It's cool to have that support when times get tough and it is cool that you can have something better come out of a situation like that."

How many cars can win each week and how many are championship contenders?

"Good question.  It is early.  To be honest with you, it changes every single lap or every single fuel stop or pit stop.  For instance, last weekend I thought Carl (Edwards) was going to win the race.  He drove up through green flag conditions, took the lead and didn't take it off pit road and then two runs later I'm passing Carl and I'm running sixth and he's eighth or ninth or something like that and I'm like, 'I just thought this guy was going to win the race.'  Now you've got somebody else out there and Jeff Gordon started coming.  Then at the end of the race there was the fuel strategy playing out and all of the sudden Brad Keselowski is leading.  It changes every lap.  Somebody asked me last week or the week before -- do you feel like you're a safe bet going into the Chase riding on two wins?  Brad Keselowski just won a race -- if he wins one more, he's got two wins and he's going to be, if I fall out, I'm going to be a guy and he's going to be a guy and Jeff Gordon with one win is going to be out.   Things can change awfully quick."

Is tire management or fuel management more difficult?

"If you had to just go into fuel management mode -- that's the hardest thing for me to do -- I can't understand how to do that.  I've done it in the past and I feel like I'm doing a really good job at it.  Then I end up being a half-a-lap short or maybe a lap short or something like that.  Carl (Edwards), for instance, I feel like he's probably one of the best – Brad (Keselowski) might be pretty good at it too, obviously from last weekend.  Tony (Stewart) won here last year on a fuel mileage race or the year before.  Those guys do a great job at being able to maximize the amount of fuel in their cell and I've tried doing the same techniques they have -- I just haven't been as successful as they are.  You have a crew chief tell you, 'Hey man, we're eight laps short to the end of the race, we are going to have to save some.'  And they make it.  It's like, where do you find all that?  I remember Carl at Homestead, I think it was 2008 and he was like eight laps short and were are like, 'There is no way these guys are going to make it.'  They ended up making it.  To me, tire management is a lot easier.  Richmond, for instance there, the last run of the race, we went 100 laps there at the end.  You were in a little bit of a tire saving mode and a little bit of a fuel saving mode so with both of those together, it actually helped me.  I feel like that was probably the best fuel savings that I have been able to accomplish."

PRESS RELEASE: Kerry Earnhardt to Drive Father's Brickyard 400 Winner in England

Richard Childress Racing Press Release:

The Richard Childress Racing No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo that the legendary Dale Earnhardt drove to victory in the 1995 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be driven by his eldest son, Kerry Earnhardt, in this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 2-4, is one of the world's premier historic race car events. The event has been held annually since 1993 on the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England. Race cars past and present participate in both demonstration and competition runs up the nine-turn, 1.16-mile hillclimb circuit.

This is the second consecutive year RCR has participated in the Festival of Speed. Last year, Taylor Earnhardt, Dale's youngest daughter, drove the black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet her father earned his 76th and final NASCAR Cup Series victory in, on Oct. 15, 2000, at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Dale Earnhardt qualified 13th for the second running of the Brickyard 400. He drove the famous black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet to the top spot on lap 133 and led the final 28 laps to beat Rusty Wallace to the checkered flag by 0.37-of-a-second.

"It was an honor to again be personally invited by Lord March to enter one of Dale's No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolets in this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed," said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. "Winning the 1995 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of Dale's, and RCR's, proudest moments.

Both last year's car and this year's entry were prepared by and will be cared for at the Festival of Speed by former No. 3 team crew members Danny Lawrence and Rich Burgess. Lawrence is the assistant head engine builder/trackside manager for Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines and Burgess is the shop manager for RCR's No. 31 Caterpillar team in the NSCS.

"It's going to be an awesome experience for me to drive the car my dad won the Brickyard 400 in," said Kerry Earnhardt. "Dad winning that race was a pretty big deal because it's such a special race. I'm honored to be driving it at all, but doing it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed makes it that much more special. Taylor (Earnhardt) drove one of Dad's cars last year at Goodwood and she told me it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of great people there."

For General Motors, the automaker behind the GM Goodwrench brand proudly carried on the hood of the car, it is a chance to celebrate the history of the partnership with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and the legacy of Dale Earnhardt as a champion.

"Chevrolet is honored to see the famed No. 3 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo once again participating in the Goodwood Festival of Speed," said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Chevrolet Marketing. "The legendary black No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt teamed together to form a powerful combination that changed the sport of NASCAR - both on and off the race track." 

A daily blog of the eight-day adventure (June 29-July 6) will be posted on SPEED's website (www.SpeedTV.com) and linked to the Richard Childress Racing website (www.rcrracing.com).

TRANSCRIPT: Kevin Harvick Signs Deal to Remain at Richard Childress Racing

(Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

It was announced today at Charlotte Motor Speedway that two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champ and two-time Gateway International Raceway winner (2000-2001) Kevin Harvick has signed a deal to remain at Richard Childress Racing. Previously, it was believed that Harvick would leave RCR, where he has driven his entire NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career (334 starts), but since his win at Talladega, sources began saying the 2007 Daytona 500 champ would remain with Childress.

RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER OF RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING (RCR), AND KEVIN HARVICK, DRIVER OF THE NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, held a press conference to announce a multi-year contract extension between RCR and Harvick, and discussed various elements of their agreement. Full Transcript:

MODERATOR: "Thank you all for coming today, I am the Director of Communications for Richard Childress Racing and we have a very important announcement for the present and future of RCR. As some of you may have seen on a Twitter post or somewhere else, RCR and Kevin Harvick have agreed to a multi-year contract extension for Kevin to continue in the RCR No. 29 Chevrolet Sprint Cup Series car. As I said, multi-year agreement, no we aren't going to tell you the exact years and all of that good stuff. At this time I would like to turn it over to Richard Childress. Richard, if you would, tell the folks where things stand right now and your thoughts on Kevin continuing on now well past a decade at RCR."

CHILDRESS: "We're very excited to have Kevin back. He has written a lot of history for RCR. He stepped in the car when we lost Dale in 2001 and I don't know of any driver that could have stepped in there under the pressure and handled it the way he did. We'll always be grateful. To have him come back and re-sign again, we're excited about it. I know there will be questions about sponsors. We have three or four companies that we are dealing with right now and hopefully in the very near future, we'll have something to announce there. But the key thing is to have Kevin back. He is a top driver in this Series and to have him in our group of drivers is just unbelievable and we are glad to have him back."

MODERATOR: "Kevin, as I mentioned, it is hard to believe that your first race started at RCR at 1999, well into your second decade now. Leading in points. Obviously run very well here. Talk about what it means for you to make this announcement now moving forward looking at the championship for this year."

HARVICK: "I think for us it is great to put everything, all the questions to bed. I know I have been pretty quiet about the way we have gone about everything. I felt pretty good about the way everything has gone between Richard and myself and all the internal things that have been going on. I know it is not the way you guys would like it but the last time I didn't do things very well. I feel like we did things the right way. We've been through a lot of ups and downs and I feel like as an organization and a team.  We're positioned as well as we have ever been to race for a championship this year with Scott Miller taking over the competition role. Kent Day, ECR Engines and the chassis shop and everybody that is a part of everything that really has had a tremendous amount of restructuring since probably late summer of last year.

"It has been an incredible turn around. The attitude and the morale and the people that I have been around for a long time, those are the things that you want to work out when you have so much time and effort invested in for years and years and years. To be able to race for a championship this year was our goal and we have been able to accomplish that so far. Our goal is to race for championships every year and obviously last year we didn't do that. We felt like we've made all the right changes and hopefully we can continue going forward with the performance and things that we've done and feel really comfortable with all of that."

MODERATOR: "We will now open it up for questions."

ARE YOU AT THE POINT NOW YOU ANTICIPATE FINISHING YOUR DRIVING CAREER WITH RCR?

HARVICK: "Well, you never know how things are going to shake out but obviously I don't think the sport has created, with the time and commitment and things that it takes to be competitive, I don't see myself racing until I am 50 years old. Whether it is one more contract or two more contracts, nobody knows. But right now there are a lot of years in front of us with this one. The way that we started and hopefully we can end that way and continue that going forward."

CAN YOU JUST TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU HAVE GROWN AND HOW MUCH YOU HAVE CHANGED AND RCR HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST DECADE?

HARVICK: "It has been a lot of life experiences I guess you could say. I think when I came in I was what, 23-years old. Came in not a worry in the world. We raced a couple of ARCA races and went into the Nationwide Series and really just trying to learn what the sport was all about and got our feet on the ground the first year. Then everything happened and that was obviously something you really can't plan for. We went in and did well. Then the second year reality hit so we had to go through some changes there and really figure out what the sport was all about in 2002.

"There have been a lot of good times. We've won the Daytona 500. We've won the Brickyard. We've won the All Star Race, the Shootouts and we've won a couple of championships on the Nationwide side together. It has been a lot of things that have been great moments in my life. Unfortunately, the ones that get the most publicity are the ones that aren't so great but when you go back and you really start putting it all on paper and you really start thinking about everything that has happened and the accomplishments we've been able to achieve together, it wouldn't have been probably the way it needed to end based on everything we have been able to accomplish."

WAS THERE A SPECIFIC TIME OR EVENT THAT LED YOU AFTER A TOUGH YEAR LAST YEAR THAT LED YOU TO SAY HEY, WE PROBABLY SHOULD STAY TOGETHER? 

CHILDRESS: "We've been talking for quite awhile and just putting a lot of details together. We both knew what we wanted to do. It was a matter of just finalizing a few details. Like I say, having Kevin back in the car, we want to contend for a championship. You don't put a team together and contend for a championship overnight. It takes some time to build and build your people and personalities together and that is what Kevin is doing with his race team right now."

HARVICK: "I think for me there are a lot of things that went in to it. As we went through time, everybody knows we struggled through the middle of last year. But as we got to the end of the year last year, things had turned around. You have the whole winter to think about things to. As we went into the year, everybody came in with a great attitude, and I hope, including myself. We had talked about a lot of things that we wanted to do and the pieces started to fall into place before we even got started in Daytona. Just a lot of those moments made us strong through the winter too."

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THE DAY HAS COME THAT YOU HAVE RESIGNED WITH RCR? WAS THERE EVER A TIME WHERE YOU DIDN'T THINK THAT ALL THE PIECES WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO FALL IN TO PLACE?

HARVICK: "I think as you look through the middle of that (last) year, obviously, we were both frustrated. We both want the same things and sometimes we just butt heads a little bit. We talked through those situations and both realized we want to race for championships and want to win races and be competitive. That is really what it is all about is being competitive week in and week out. Sometimes similar people get frustrated and Richard and I are the same type of people. We get frustrated and want to do things the right way and I think as we went through those moments as I said a second ago, it made us stronger as we went forward and realized we both want to achieve the same goals."

WERE THERE ANY TOUGH NEGOTIATIONS OR HARD PITCHES EITHER OF YOU HAD TO MAKE TO THE OTHER OR WAS IT MUTUALLY AGREEABLE THROUGHOUT?

HARVICK: "I didn't think it was that hard. We've been through this so many times with Fred and Richard and I really got to concentrate on what I had to do on the race track. Maybe it was. Maybe those guys just did a good job of keeping me shielded from it.

CHILDRESS: "It wasn't. Once we both knew this is this the direction we're going, it just took a little time. Attorneys have to earn their money so they may change and 'I' to an 'A' or whatever they do. But that was the biggest holdup. Kevin said it the best a while ago. Both of us want the same thing. And I think with the way we're structured now, we've got a lot of good things coming the rest of the year and hopefully we'll just get better as the year goes and we want to run for that championship. I want to walk on the stage in Vegas."

YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU HANDLED IT DIFFERENTLY THIS TIME THAN THE LAST. DOES THAT MEAN TALKING LESS ABOUT IT PUBLICLY?

HARVICK:  "Well, yeah. I think 2003 was a mess. I kind of let myself get caught up in the middle of this world and the media and it's best to handle your family matters within your family and not let the outside world dictate what you want to do. It felt like it went very well as we went through it this time, and felt like we handled it professionally and how it should have been done last time."

ON THE SPONSORSHIP, THE ECONOMY LOOKS LIKE IT'S TRYING TO TURN AROUND SOME. HAVE YOU NOTICED MORE COMPANIES WILLING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT MAJOR SPONSORSHIP DEALS?  IS IT A LITTLE BIT BRIGHTER NOW?

CHILDRESS: "Yes, for sure. Our marketing department has been talking to some new companies that's not in the sport right now that have a lot of interest. Our sport, with the Hall of Fame opening, a lot of things with racing has been really great this year and the country is still in an economy downturn a little bit, but it looks like its leveling and moving in the right direction. And I think our sport is strong enough with all the people and the companies we have in it. And the companies that are looking to get into the sport today gives us bright hope."

HARVICK: "I don't think either of us would have been as willing to do everything that we're doing today without having the confidence in that side of it. I think we both feel like that there are things will move along pretty fast on that side of it."

YOU MENTIONED THAT THE PIECES SORT OF FELL INTO PLACE EVEN BEFORE YOU GOT TO DAYTONA. WITH SHELL LEAVING, DID THAT HAPPEN SO LATE IN THE GAME THAT IT WASN'T A FACTOR IN RE-SIGNING OR WERE THERE SOME HESITATIONS?

HARVICK: "To be quite honest with you, they were kind of the ones that got the whole ball rolling. So, that was just kind of the ones to really help get the ball rolling in the right direction. I don't really know what else to say past that."

CHILDRESS: "You said it. We were talking and here we are today, signing."

WHAT IMPACT, IF ANY, DOES THIS HAVE ON YOUR NATIONWIDE PROGRAM AT KHI?

HARVICK: "Well, I think that's one of the great pieces of the whole thing. I think as we go forward, my Nationwide car will have all of the ECR engines in it as it has this year. Our trucks have ECR engines in them. We'll continue forward with RCR chassis under our Nationwide car to make sure that as we move forward with the new car on the Nationwide side, it will be tremendously closer to what we currently race on Sunday. So we've made a huge effort between the two companies to make sure that those cars are prepared similarly to my Cup car to make sure that as much transfers from Saturday to Sunday. Chassis, engines, communication from the technical standpoint will be a huge piece of this; and really, as two companies working together hand-in-hand like we will going forward, makes us a lot stronger as one than it does as two separate companies."

CHILDRESS: "Yeah, and hopefully we can pretty much in the near future we've got some plans that Kevin and I are working on with both the companies and hopefully we'll be able to announce that pretty soon in the near future."

YOU'VE BEEN A STRONG TEAM OWNER YOURSELF. ARE THERE THINGS YOU LEARNED THAT WERE MISSING OVER AT RCR? DID YOU PLAY A ROLE IN HELPING THROUGH THE RESTRUCTURING?

HARVICK: "Well, I think Richard played the biggest role. Just knowing what he wanted to do with the company and what he envisioned the company to look like going forward; I would say Scott (Miller) is probably the biggest role that's going to help not only bridge that gap between myself and the crew chiefs and Richard, but Richard and the crew chiefs from a competition standpoint to a spending standpoint. There's a line that you have to draw and it's just a matter of where that line is and how you achieve that. And when you can't get to those points from a financial standpoint, where you want to achieve on the competition side, where you go get it from within your company, and what will least affect the company. Those are things that Scott is going to help the most with in knowing what we need and when we need it and kind of deciphering through each crew chief and as a team owner you know that the crew chiefs and the drivers always want what's best for them. So, in the end it's got to be what's best for the company and what makes the cars go the fastest as a whole."

HOW CRITICAL IS IT TO GO TO A SPONSOR AND BE ABLE TO SAY YOU HAVE KEVIN HARVICK SIGNED TO A MULTI-YEAR DEAL VERSUS BEING IN THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS?

CHILDRESS: "It's always kind of like the chicken and the egg or however that goes. I think that Kevin and I both have enough confidence in each other that we know that we can go out and we're going to put a really good package together and we've put really good packages together for companies in the past and we're going to put a great package moving forward. It's a huge plus when you can go to a company and say we have the driver, the driver has us, and we're ready to go. We're going to give you a package that will get more than your monies worth."

IN YOUR DECISION-MAKING, DID YOU EVER CONTEMPLATE BEING A DRIVER/OWNER FOR KHI?

HARVICK: "No. We've talked about this a lot before. It's not something that I have the desire to sit and make those decisions over $15 or $20 million or whatever decisions are; you've got to have too much money in this day and age to start a company. The RCR's of the world have that backbone and have already made those investments on the parts and pieces and the tools necessary to be competitive in the sport. It's not something I was really looking for as a challenge."

WHAT WAS IT YOU SAW IN KEVIN HARVICK WHEN YOU HIRED HIM ALL THOSE YEARS AGO THAT MADE YOU THINK HE WAS GOING TO BE PRETTY SPECIAL?

CHILDRESS: "I remember watching him race at IRP in that No. 75 truck. I watched him race (Ron) Hornaday at Bakersfield or wherever we were at and he was beating on him. Back then he was a young man I guess you'd say; he still is, but he was beating on one of his friends to win the race and I said yeah, I kind of like that. He's the kind of driver I like. So, I watched him a couple of more races and we went after him and once we got him, I knew he was the real deal. At Daytona we knew it when we rolled out."

Kevin Harvick Press Conference Transcript from Talladega

(Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)

It's been an interesting week for Kevin Harvick, a two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champ and two-time Gateway International Raceway winner. It was announced that Shell/Pennzoil is not returning to Richard Childress Racing, but rather heading to Penske Racing to adorn the No. 22 Dodge that former Cup Series champ Kurt Busch will pilot starting next season. There was also a piece run in Sports Illustrated claiming Harvick had burned his bridges with Childress. "Happy" discussed these topics and more this morning during a press conference at Talladega Superspeedway.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO WIN THIS WEEKEND? “I think we just got to keep doing what we’re doing. We ran really well at Daytona and hopefully that correlates to this particular race track. I feel good about where things have been. We have good days, and when we have bad days we turn them into good days. Everything has gone well so far and we’re looking forward to continuing that this weekend. I like the plate racing and enjoy this style of racing at this particular race track. It’s a lot of fun.”

YOUR RECORD AT DAYTONA IS QUITE A BIT BETTER THAN YOUR RECORD AT TALLADEGA. THE ODDS OF DISASTER ARE GREATER HERE, BUT WHEN YOU SAY THAT PEOPLE ARE EXCEPTIONAL PLATE RACERS IS THAT TOO SIMPLE? ARE TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA TWO DIFFERENT ANIMALS? “Usually if you’re good at one, you’re going to be good at the other. For us, we’ve finished second a lot here and we’ve always run well here. I’ve always told people when you get here you have a 50/50 shot—you’re going to have a good day or you’re going to wreck. That’s just the way it is and there is no reason to beat around the bush, it’s been like that for as long as I’ve race here. That’s just Talladega. I enjoy it and whether the records are one way or the other, we’ve always run well here and I don’t look for anything to be any different this weekend.”

YOU MADE A COMMENT ON TWITTER EARLIER THIS WEEK. YOU WROTE, “THESE MEDIA PEOPLE CRACK ME UP. THEIR THEORIES HAVE A LOT OF REALLY BAD SOURCES.” ON BEHALF OF THE MEDIA, CAN YOU CORRECT US? “Sure. If you guys are going to—most of you are this way—you line it up with credible backing to your quotes, your sources and your people. If you’re going to quote a source, quote their name. Otherwise, if they’re too chicken to give you their name, don’t put their quote in the paper. It’s that simple. Anonymous sources are crap. If you want real sources go talk to real people.”

I ASSUME YOU WERE REFERRING TO A STORY ABOUT BURNED BRIDGES. DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT WAS A CASE WHERE BRIDGES WERE BURNED, AND WHAT’S YOUR STATUS ABOUT WHERE YOU’RE GOING TO BE? “Richard Childress and myself have a great relationship, and we’ve been talking about a lot of things for several months. It’s not any different than what we would normally do at this particular time. Cars are running well, everybody is communicating well, and I don’t know what else to say other than Richard and I have had many, many, many, many, many, many, many conversations over the last several months. Where all that leads—it’s right now, I’m driving the 29 car and we’ll see. I don’t see where anything is going or this and that. I know Richard and I have had a lot of conversations over the last three months.”

KEVIN YOU SAY THAT YOU THRIVE ON CONTROVERSY. DID YOU NOTICE LAST WEEK ALL OF THE BEATING AND BANGING BOTH ON THE TRACK AND VERBALLY BETWEEN THE 24 AND 48? IF YOU NOTICED IT, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF A LITTLE ACTION BETWEEN THE SQUEAKY-CLEAN GUYS? “I think we’re all competitive, and I think those guys are just as competitive as all of us who are vocal about it. I don’t think that’s abnormal. I don’t think it’s the first time that those guys have been competitive with each other, and it’s not the first time that me and my teammates will be competitive with each other. I think the mutual respect comes in for your owner to not crash your cars. You do the best that you can on that particular side of it and sometimes it happens because everybody’s racing hard. From an owner’s standpoint, you want guys that want to beat their teammates but they also don’t race their teammates harder than they race anybody else. I think that’s the thing that you look for from an owners standpoint—somebody who is going to race, not only their teammates really hard, but also is going to race everybody else the same way.”

ANOTHER SUBJECT, IN A COUPLE WEEKS WE HAVE THE ALL-STAR RACE. YOU WON IT IN 2007, CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW BIG THAT WAS IN YOUR CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS, AND THAT ATMOSPHERE AND HOW FUN THAT IS AS A RACER? “Yeah, it’s a fun weekend. I look at Charlotte as probably the biggest challenge for me. It’s the race track I dislike going to the most, and for us to win the All-Star race was a huge accomplishment. It was a good weekend for us as far as speed and putting ourselves in position to win that race. The race is fun; the format is fun just because you have the pit stop for qualifying and you make a couple laps. There aren’t any points involved, so it makes it kind of a free-for-all as far as pushing every lap to the limit. It’s a fun race and it’s great for us because we get some extra track time at what I feel is our worst race track.”

CAN YOU FATHOM WHAT KASEY KAHNE HAS DONE WHERE HE DOESN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT HE’S GOING TO DO IN 2011, CAN YOU FATHOM DOING ANYTHING LIKE THAT? ALSO, PLEASE ENLIGHTEN US ON WHEN AND WHERE YOU GOT YOUR JOURNALISM DEGREE. “Yes, sir. I don’t have a journalism degree; I have a common-sense degree. I’m not going to go any further than that. I think when you have to make decisions and when you have situations that are presented to you, you have to weigh out all the options. I don’t particularly know all of the options that he had in front of him. It’s going to be a situation where I’m sure that he gets put in a good situation, whether it’s 2011 or 2012. Me, personally, I still think there are a lot of cards that haven’t fallen yet for 2011. I just find it hard to believe that 2012 will be as far out as it as it gets put, but that’s just my opinion—my journalism opinion.”

WHAT WERE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT PENNZOIL’S DECISION TO GO TO PENSKE? WERE YOU UPSET, WERE YOU ANGRY, OR DID YOU KNOW IT WAS COMING? “Yeah, I don’t have any ill-will towards anybody or anything like that. I don’t particularly agree with the way the whole situation was handled, but in this particular situation, I’m the driver and it’s not anything new to the sport. There are sponsors that come and go and things change. In this particular situation there was a lot of business-to-business that took place. It’s not anything new, and being an owner you understand that there are a lot of those decisions that take place. Other than that, it is what it is and you roll on”

WHEN THE DUST SETTLES HERE, WE START HITTING SOME TRACKS THAT ARE PRETTY RACEY. RICHMOND IS ONE OF THEM. YOU’VE WON THERE AND I THINK YOUR AVERAGE FINISH IS 9TH. WHAT IS IT ABOUT RICHMOND THAT YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO BE CONTENDING FOR THE VICTORY THERE? “It’s been a good track for us and over the past couple years it’s been good for us as well. I think last year we wrecked in the first one with a flat left-rear tire, but it’s a race track that kind of goes with everything we do—from my driving style to the cars to everything that goes with it. I enjoy racing there. You can run the top, you can run the bottom and you can run the middle. It’s a fun race track from a drivers’ standpoint because it gives you options. I think it’s just been a good place for us.”

WE COULD END A LITTLE BIT OF THE SPECULATION HERE. IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE NOT REALLY WORRIED ABOUT THIS, THAT YOU HAVE OPPORTUNITIES, AND THAT THERE IS NO PRESS FOR TIME. IS THAT WHAT WE’RE GETTING? YOU SEEM TO NOT REALLY BE WORRIED ABOUT IT. ARE YOU TALKING WITH GUYS LIKE TONY STEWART AS WELL AS RICHARD CHILDRESS? “Right now, we’re really just trying to focus on what we’re doing to be honest with you. I just really trying not to get in the middle of it like I have in the past. When that time comes, I don’t think there is anything pressing time-wise for anybody whether it’s the team at RCR or myself. Rightfully so, I think that’s the opportunity that we have to try to work out first. Like I said, that is where we’ve been headed over the past several months. As far as talks and things like that, I think it’s only far that we work on all that first. So that’s what we’ve been doing.”

YOU SAID SOME BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS THINGS HAPPENED BEHIND-THE-SCENES WITH THE SHELL THING. ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT AN AGREEMENT WITH PENSKE AND HIS DEALERSHIPS AND TRYING TO WORK THINGS LIKE THAT OUT? “I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t know all the details of all that. Those would be great questions for Richard.”

THE LAST FEW TIMES YOU’VE COME HERE, YOU’VE SEEN CARS GOING AIRBOURNE. ARE YOU SATISFIED THAT NASCAR HAS DONE WHAT THEY CAN TO TRY TO FIX THAT? AS A DRIVER, DOES IT MENTALLY AFFECT YOU? DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF THAT WHEN YOU’RE OUT THERE? “I don’t think so. From a driver’s perspective, once you get going you don’t think about that kind of stuff. You just go in there. There’s so much going on here that you’re looking backwards to go forward, you’re two-three-four wide pretty much all day. At this particular race, you don’t think about any of that stuff until you go home during the week and you go back and watch the race and see how it all played out. If you look at what they’ve done with the cars, with the spoiler, with the new fins on the sides of the cars, and [how NASCAR was] really trying to pay attention to where the speeds needed to be at the test, and restrictor plates that they came back with. They’re obviously—that was their number one concern with the cars going upside-down. It may happen again; nobody knows. I think everybody’s done as much research as they can to do the best that they can with the cars, the scenarios that they feel like they can put the cars in at the wind tunnels, and things like that. Like I tell you guys all the time, there is nothing that you can do to simulate 43 cars on the racetrack pushing and shoving; things just happen differently than anything in a fixed environment. It’s just one of those things where you have to do the best that you can with the tools that you have to make things the best that you can and try to prevent things from happening. I feel strongly that they’ve—I think just the things that they’ve done with the cars has been really good, but the things that they’ve been trying to do to the car, just out-of-the box things that they’ve been working on, are really good as well.

“You just have to keep plugging along and they’re in the same situation that we are as far as trying to develop the cars to go faster and they’re trying to make them safer. They spend millions and millions and millions of dollars [on improving safety]. I think that’d be a great story for somebody to go in and follow NASCAR on a weekly-basis and see how much time they actually spend on it.”

YOU TALKED ABOUT WHEN YOU SHOW UP HERE, YOU’RE EITHER GOING TO HAVE A GREAT DAY OR A HORRIBLE DAY. SO WHEN YOU DRIVE THROUGH THE TUNNEL FOR THE FIRST TIME EVERY TIME YOU COME HERE, WHAT IS YOUR INITIAL THOUGHT WHEN YOU SHOW UP AT THE RACETRACK HERE? “It’s exactly that. It’s like throwing your money down on red or black, you spin the wheel and whenever it winds up it winds up. Either you walk off pissed or you walk off with a smile on your face and pocket full of money. It’s really no different. You roll through and you’re either red or black this week.”

THE NFL DRAFT IS GOING ON AND OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS WE’LL START TO LEARN THE DETAILS OF THESE CONTRACTS WITH THE BIG FOCUS BEING ON THE MONEY THAT’S ATTACHED TO THE DEAL. NASCAR TEAMS ARE A LOT QUIETER WHEN IT COMES TO THOSE KINDS OF DETAILS ON THE CONTRACT BETWEEN THEMSELVES AND THEIR DRIVERS. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? “That’s a good question. I don’t have an answer to that one. I think it’s a much different environment. They have a lot more rules as far as luxury taxes and salary caps and things like that; here, there’s none of that. In the end, the off-track stuff is a lot like the on-track stuff. It’s very competitive and everybody is trying to take everybody’s sponsor, I guess would be the best way to put it. You don’t really want everybody to know what you’re paying your driver because it might be too low, or it might be too high. You want to keep all those things to yourself because that’s another element of the competition off the racetrack that is just like on the racetrack. You keep your driver’s salaries quiet, you keep your crew chief’s salaries quiet; everybody in the garage pretty much knows where everybody else is at. The sponsors are really good now-a-days with keeping each other in check as far as knowing how much everybody is paying each team. There is a lot of different scenarios that pop up as far bonuses and salaries and you’ll never hear anything about them unless you’re in the garage.

WOULD YOU THINK THAT ONCE SOMEBODY GETS OUT OF LINE AND IT GETS OUT, WOULD IT START A BIG THING ON NEGOTIATING AND BARGAINING AND ALL THAT KIND OF STUFF? HAVE YOU SEEN CONTRACTS BETWEEN DRIVERS AND TEAMS CHANGE SINCE YOU’VE BROKEN IN? “I think the contracts, being on the ownership side of it you see a lot of changes. The sponsors have gotten so big and with so much money there is a lot of stipulations as far as what you can do if you leave a team, not leave a team, where the sponsor can go and can’t go. It all just depends on the situations and it winds up in the lawyer’s hands more than it does in the actual driver’s and owner’s hands.”

YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING IN THE FUTURE. KNOWING THAT YOU ARE SO HEAVILY INVESTED WITH CHEVROLET IN THE NATIONWIDE AND TRUCK SERIES, NOT JUST WITH YOUR TEAM, BUT ALSO WITH BUILDING CHASSIS FOR OTHER TRUCK TEAMS. IS IT FAIRLY CERTAIN THAT NO MATTER WHERE YOU DRIVE IN THE CUP SERIES IN THE FUTURE THAT IT WOULD PROBABLY BE A CHEVROLET? “That’d be a good, fair statement.”

LAST FALL WE JUST SAW TWO CARS GET ON TOP OF EACH OTHER ALL THE WAY AROUND THE RACE TRACK. I’M CURIOUS BECAUSE NOW THAT WE HAVE THE “HAVE AT IT BOYS” THING AND YOU CAN DO THAT IF YOU WANT TO, HOW MUCH OF A TICKING TIME BOMB IS THAT FOR THE CAR IN THE REAR IN TERMS OF HOW FAST YOU’RE GOING TO HEAT UP AN ENGINE? IF GET DOWN TOWARDS THE END OF THE RACE AND TWO CARS DO MANAGE TO BREAK AWAY BY THEMSELVES, IS THAT A THREE-LAP, FOUR-LAP, FIVE-LAP—HOW FAST DOES THE GAUGE GO UP? “I did it yesterday in the Nationwide car and it’s a little bit different than a Cup car. In one lap, it was 260 degrees. That’s pretty fast. It won’t take long. I think if you’re down at the end of the race, you might be able to get three laps out of it, but I don’t know that you’ll be able to stick together that long. It’s going to happen. You’re going to see guys get pushed out there and things like that. It’s very easy here as long as you’re straight. Once you get on him, as long as you’re square up on that guy’s back bumper, you just hold it on the mat and go, baby, go.”