HAULER CHATTER WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR.

The media ganged up on Dale Earnhardt Jr. at his race hauler this morning and peppered him with all manner of queries (courtsey, GM Racing):

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS, WEEKLY TOP-10 BEHIND THE HAULER CHATQ. Your former teammate Michael Waltrip failed to qualify in Charlotte. What is going wrong there?"I don't know. I don't know much about the team."Q. Do you ever talk with Michael about what is going on with them?"No." Q. Last year at this point you were 15th in points. What's different this year?"Tony (Eury) Jr. He's a big difference. All the guys at our shop have a real positive attitude compared to last year. He has a lot to do with that too. We've got a lot of good people making things happen for me but Tony Jr. sort of straightened the whole deal out and that's a big deal."Q. What are your three favorite tracks?"I don't know. There's so many out there I like."Q. Were you surprised at Kyle Busch's penalty?"Yeah. I don't know. I thought mine was severe for cussing in victory lane. That was nowhere near as bad as what he did. He did what he did. I didn't really see any reason to penalize him for it. He threw his HANS device, big deal. I didn't see any reason to penalize him. Just tell him not to do it anymore and that should have taken care of it."Q. Why do you think there is more tension on the track today?"I don't know. I don't think there is for me." Q. Does more tension have to do with the higher competition level?"I don't really feel more tension. I just think some personalities clash and some don't. I don't really have a whole lot of problems on the race track with anybody. I just try to get out there and do my thing. It's pretty easy to do that."Q. This will be the third year of the Chase for the Championship. In comparison with this year and last year, are you feeling a little better about how to race for points and getting into the top 10?" No not really. We're human and we're going to make mistakes. I don't think you can be perfect. My car drives better this year than it did last year so I'm not on that edge as much. I've won championships before and I've run good in the title chase before so it ain't like I learned how to run in the point system any better than I did last year. I'm really not on that edge like I was last year. I'm really not on that edge a lot like last year with the car and (we) got bit a bunch." Q. Are you getting the consistency you want week in and week out or are you still looking for it?"I think I am (more consistent). I'm really happy. I had a way better car than we were able to finish week in Charlotte. We were fourth at Darlington and a win at Richmond. We had a bunch great finishes and a bunch of great cars this year. I really feel like we have gotten more consistent. We're doing a better job right now than we've done before. I think we're doing it better now than we've ever done it."Q. What would be a comfortable position for you to be in five or six races from now?"Fifth I guess. I don't know. Just being in the top 10 is what is important. I don't really know what is comfortable. I guess first (place) 500 points ahead of second is really comfortable." Q. At the Richmond test you mentioned June being an important month for you. Can you expand on that?"We're going to Sonoma, Pocono, Michigan, a bunch of race tracks where we have been hit or miss or miss all together. We need to be able to get through that stretch with some satisfaction and confidence in how we ran. I'd like to get some good runs in Michigan. I like that track and I've run good there before but I haven't got the good finishes I think we should be getting. Pocono, I think we can go there and do OK. We've been top five there before. Sonoma, I've had some great race cars but I just seem to find a way to ruin them. Hopefully we'll do a better job when we go back there." Q. What's your biggest challenge at Pocono?"I don't really have one, just to save it one piece. I don't know. If the car drives good you'll do OK."Q. How is Martin Truex Jr.?"I think he's doing fine. He's really good today (Friday). He seems like he's really doing well today (Friday). I think he's done good. He's got to continue to take everybody's advice because it never fails; nobody knows more than a rookie right? He's got to continue to take people's advice and listen to people that are around him and not get so frustrated I guess because he wants to run better. He gets frustrated real easy. We just got to keep him from getting frustrated and shutting down any lines of communication he has with his crew chief, me, Tony Jr. or people in the organization that make his lap times faster because that's really all he wants in the first place."Q. Is that something he needs to work on?"No I think he is doing fine. He's just very competitive and competition will kill you. So you just got to continue even in the face of bad practice, you need to have a good all positive attitude."Q. On Tony Stewart Injury:"We do have a responsibility to show up and drive Cup cars every week. As a businessman, you have a responsibility to make sure you show up on time for your job. At the same time, who is anybody to tell Tony Stewart what to do with his time? If he wants to drive race cars, he should drive race cars, if he wants to fly kites, he should fly kites. What ever he wants to do, he ought to be able to make that choice himself. I can't be upset or fault a guy for doing what he wants to do and that is his decision. He knows the repercussions probably better than any body else, better than you and maybe even me. He knows the risks and repercussions when he climbs in a car and I don't think you can get down on him too hard for getting injured in the non-Cup stuff. He loves racing. It is what he loves to do, it makes him happy." Q. On NASCAR allowing one race a season to be thrown out at driver/team discretion for instances such as Tony:"No that isn't any good. I don't think they should do that. That is too much fine-tuning of the system. " Q. Should decision whether a driver can or can't race be taken out of driver's hands?"Sure, a Dr. should be making that decision. NASCAR can bring somebody in to make their own conclusion but Tony is working with Dr. Petty and he is everybody's buddy. He is everyone's friend. But, I have been hurt and he never cut me any slack and I don't see him cutting Tony any slack. "I had the same injury and raced the next day and finished third. Tony can race, but this is a tough race track, it isn't like the one I ran on. With the load he will feel out there, it isn't any injury like, if you it the wall, it is going to make it worse. It is already broken, I don't think he can break it again, that is done. He already broke it off, it is the tip of his shoulder blade and one he already broke it off, but what hurts the most is when you are leaning in the corner. The weight when you are going around the corner, slings you in the seat puts pressure on it. But he can handle it, he'll be all right, I don't think he will get out."Q. Did Budweiser tell you that you can't run any other races""They done it. I got a deal where I can only run "X" amount of Busch races and blah, blah, blah. That's the sponsor's decision more for continuity with me driving the red car every week. They want consistency for the fans seeing me in a red car. They really don't want to see me in a Taco Bell or KFC car. Bud would rather have me in a red Bud car. That's why I don't really get the opportunity to run more."Q. Did they do that after your accident?"No. We've had that contract." Q. What about your interests and Dale Earnhardt Incorporated?"Well everybody has an interest. But that's Bud side of it, which is understandable. DEI don't want me going and driving for somebody else and helping them out. I'd like to drive Harvick's Busch car if he asked me but I doubt I could. I'd like to drive my own Busch cars but I don't know if that's a possibility through my commitments and contracts with DEI. You get yourself in a couple of spider webs and it's hard to get out of." Q. What was it like this time last year for you when you were going through the crew chief change?"That side of it was miserable swapping the crew chiefs, sitting in an office with Pete Rondeau. Telling him that we didn't need him to be our crew chief anymore was one of the hardest things I ever did because he deserved to be there. I was being a little bit selfish because I wanted Steve (Hmiel) to come in there with his experience to tell me what was wrong instead of being just a spotter. I needed him to get down in there and say 'Hey man you're not driving it right' or that we didn't have a good enough car. I needed his help to really find out where my team was." Q. Did you know then that you wanted Tony Jr. for the next year?"I wanted to work with Tony Jr. again but we were both just being hard headed about it. Heck, if I would have went out and won 10 races with Steve in a row who would have blamed me for staying with him. I thought that was a possibility and could happen. We talked to other crew chiefs about hiring other crew chiefs. We talked to other guys. One of them is really successful right now. A lot of what ifs. I'm glad to be with (Tony) Junior, man. He's going to get his credit down the line one day in the books for being one of the best and I'll stick with him." Q. Is Tony Eury Jr. an old school crew chief with no engineering degree?"He doesn't have the engineering degree but he's got something a lot of them don't and that's common sense. Sometimes engineering really comes down to is having common sense, figuring something out. He does a great job with staying on top of what's happening in the garage and the latest technology. He rarely ever gets behind. If anything he's right on par with a lot of guys like (Chip) Ganassi and these guys that do have a lot of engineering background and a lot of engineering help. My engineering department is pretty good. We don't put enough money into it." Q. Is it hard to split time and focus between being a team owner and a driver?"No, it is not hard to focus just hard to not let the ownership side of it affect the driver side of it or vice versa. It is real easy to drag anger to the other side. If the Cup car isn't running good and I am angry about that, it is hard to drop that when I go be the owner for the Busch team. Or when the Busch car has a bad Saturday, it is hard not to be angry about that and bring it to my race on Sunday. That is probably the hardest part, keeping the temper down."

TONY STEWART SPEAKS TO MEDIA AT DOVER

Tony Stewart interview from Dover Speedway (Courtesy of GM Racing):

QUOTES REGARDING HIS FRACTURED RIGHT SCAPULA AND RICKY RUDD'S RELIEF ROLE AT DOVERHow is the shoulder?"It's been better. The big thing is just taking care of the injury and let it heal and go about our business again. It's a typical bone break. It's going to take six to eight weeks to heal. There are little things you can do to help accelerate that. But you've still got to spend your time taking it easy and keeping your arm in the sling and being easy on the muscle and the bones. If we could wish ourselves back healthy, then I'd already be healthy again, but unfortunately it's just one of those bad timing situations where we got one of the toughest tracks on the schedule this weekend. If we get through this weekend without any problems, then for Pocono, we shouldn't have any issues. I think having that extra week to heal up even though it's only two weeks into it, having the treatments that we're taking should help the bone get a little head start healing and hopefully get us ready to get back in the car again."Have you ever been injured like this before?"It's just part of racing. I've been racing 27 years. It seems like everything kind of happens in patterns. You'll have a string where you have some bad luck and you'll have strings where you'll have a lot of good luck. In the 27 years that I've been racing, this is one of the more substantial injuries that I've had. If you think about how bad it could be, this really isn't that bad of an injury. Really we've had a pretty good string of good luck with everything. It's not something that's going to take us out of an opportunity to run for the championship, which is great with this format. We've got to do our work this weekend. The hard part is just not knowing when we're going to get that first caution. I hope that happens on lap two and I hope we're not it and I can get out early, but the big thing is just trying to get out of the car early enough to where we're not continuing to aggravate the injury. The longer we can be out of the car, the more opportunity we have to get it in better shape for Pocono next weekend."How much racing can you do at Dover?"Probably until the first caution. We've got Ricky Rudd lined up to go out for us. It's a shame because this Powerade car looks awesome. When I saw it at the shop it broke my heart to know that I'm not going to get to run it the whole weekend. But you know Ricky will do a great job in it though. It's a shame because it's a promotion that we were really looking forward to and I was really looking forward to running this Powerade car."Dover's such a physical race track. With this kind of injury it's not feasible to make it 400 miles. The best thing to do is get an early caution. The first caution that we can get we'll give Ricky a chance to get inside the car. Once we do that, it's basically in his hands and I'll just stay on top of the pit box and do whatever I can to help out."So, you've got to take this weekend kind of easy."Yeah. It's hard to do, because you want to be in the car the whole time, but I think we've all come up with a plan on what to do this weekend. It's just a matter of getting me out of the car as quickly as possible without aggravating the injury anymore and giving Ricky time to get in and get buckled in safely and hopefully not lose a lap. We'll just do everything we can this weekend to do that smoothly. The good thing about 400 laps at Dover is that if we've got a good enough car, which I think we'll have, it'll give him plenty of time to get back to the front." With the points right now, how far do you push it? Do you pick a lap where you're going to come out?"You can't afford to just come in and just pick a number when you want to come out. This is a situation where we don't have that luxury. We have to go until we get that first caution flag. The only time that we can really do that driver change is during a caution where we got enough time to not lose a lap. We still have to be smart and plan the strategy on how fast we're going to be able to get Ricky in the car and just go from there."How involved were you in the paint scheme of the Powerade car and how do you like it?"I love the paint scheme. It's a beautiful car. I like black anyway. It's beautiful. It's going to be hard to sit there and watch Ricky drive it. They don't even let me see the paint schemes until it's time to unveil them, because I'm like a little kid. I get so excited. I let the cat out of the bag too early, but if I were going to design it, this is what it would look like. It's a beautiful car."Realistically, how long are you going to drive on Sunday?"Probably until the first caution. Hopefully that will be early and hopefully we're not the caution. I think we're going to be in good enough shape by the weekend that if it goes 50 or 60 laps, I don't think we'll have too much trouble doing that. It's definitely going to be uncomfortable."You think you've already made up your mind that you don't want to run the whole race at Dover?"I don't think it's a matter of whether I want to or not. I don't think it's going to be feasible to run it. It's such a physical track. With it being concrete, it's a bumpy race track. With the load that you have on that corner of your body, it's just impossible to think. When you're healthy, it's a long 400-mile race, let alone when you're dealing with an injury."Being as competitive as you are, what will you do once you're out of the car?"I'll be on top of the pit box watching. You know, everything that Ricky does is still going to earn me points since I start the race. That's the thing about our sport. We all play hurt. We all play sick. We don't call in and get sick days. We all have to at least start the race, so that's the hard part about it. Even though I'm not going to be in the car doesn't mean I'm not going to care about what's going on with that race car. If Ricky's got a question and there's something I can help him answer while we're going on during the race and I can be there to help, then that's what I'm definitely going to do." How far down the road will it be before you're in the car again full-time?"I think after Dover, we're probably going to be all right. We run Pocono and then Michigan, and those are two tracks that aren't very physically demanding. The thing with Dover is that it's one of the more physically demanding tracks we go to. Timing-wise, it was just bad timing. But we've got Al Shuford who was the trainer that was with us during Double Duty at Indy (in 2001), so the good thing is that we've already started treatments and started doing ultrasound treatments that help the bone grow faster and heal faster. So, we're already doing everything we can. It's just a matter of not re-injuring it in the next six or eight weeks." When you came out of the car, it looked like it really hurt. Did it? Does it still?"Yeah, it still does. It's a bone break. I mean, anytime you break a bone it's sore and it's not going to not be sore in two or three days. This is a six or eight week healing process. But you know, there's all kind of things they can do to numb the pain up, so we can at least drive the car and do what we need to do."Can you still win the championship even with an injury like this?"Sure. We're not in the last ten races just yet. You know, those last 10 weeks are what wins you the championship, so as long as we can just stay in the top-10 in points right now, we can definitely win it."Will you curtail any of your extra-curricular racing, be it in the NASCAR Busch Series at local tracks? "Injuries are a part of the sport. They can happen anytime you get in the car. I mean, you can wreck on the interstate driving to the track. Everybody can speculate on what is too much or not enough or this and that, but it's just an unfortunate deal."Ironically, the last time you had an injury was before heading to another difficult track - Bristol (spring 2002). If this was Pocono you'd probably be able to stay in the car longer."Yeah. The good thing is that we've got Pocono next week. With the treatment that we started on Tuesday and will continue during the week, through the weekend and all of next week, so by the time we get to Pocono next week, we shouldn't have any problems. The good thing is that Michigan is the next week after that, and that's another track that's very wide and big and smooth and gives you plenty of time to rest. So, I think we're going to be in good shape. It's just the timing of it being around Dover was the bad part."

NASCAR LEGEND RAY FOX TURNS NINETY

Ray Fox turned Ninety years old Wednesday and celebrated the big day with NASCAR vice chairman Bill France. Fox had a storied stock car career as a mechanic and car owner. In the photo on the bottom, Ray is presented his birthday cake by Bill France. In the photo on the top Ray shows his surprise when he walks into the Bill France Room atop Daytona USA located next to Daytona International Speedway. Below the photos are a short list of Ray's accomplishments in the sport. You can buy the Ray Fox biography at www.amazon.com. Just do a Ray Fox search in Amazon's book department. He needs to sell a bunch of books!















FOX FACTS Ray Fox first caught the "racing bug" as a boy watching the racing greats of the 1920’s at the Rockingham, N.H. board track. Ray moved to Florida in 1946 from New Hampshire where he was involved with midget racing before World War II. 1946-1952 Barnstormed around the south racing modifies with friends Marshall Teague and Fireball Roberts. 1955 - Built a 1955 Buick for Fireball Roberts to race in the 160 mile Daytona Beach Race. The car led every lap and won the race. 1956 - Won NASCAR Mechanic of the Year award. 1957 - 1959 - Worked with Smokey Yunick lending his expertise to Paul Goldsmith’s Chevies and Pontiacs and Fireball Roberts’ Pontiacs. 1959 - Built a 1956 Ford modified for Fireball Roberts. It sat on the pole for Daytona Speedway’s first modified race. 1960 - Built the 1959 Chevy which won the 1960 Daytona 500 with Jr. Johnson driving. (Ray built the car in 7 days!) 1961 - Built the Pontiac which took David Pearson to 3 superspeedway wins in1961. The car won the World 600 at Charlotte, Dixie 400 at Atlanta and the Firecracker 250 at Daytona. Ray became the first car owner to win 3 superspeedway races in a single year. 1963 - Fox built cars sat on the pole 17 times and won 11 Grand National races. This was called "the year of the little Chevy that Ford spent a million dollars trying to catch". Fox’s cars with Jr. Johnson and Jim Paschal driving, start side by side on the front row for Daytona’s Firecracker 400. It is believed to be the first time team cars start on the front row for a superspeedway race. 1964 - Ray and "old man" Buck Baker score Baker’s third Southern 500 win at Darlington. 1965 - A Fox-built ’65 Dodge, with LeeRoy Yarbrough at the wheel, sets a world closed course speed record for stock cars with a blistering lap of 181.818 mph. (The first stock car to run over 180 mph.) 1966 - Earl Balmer win one of Daytona’s 100 mile Daytona 500 qualifying races driving a Ray Fox Dodge. 1967 - Buddy Baker wins the World 600, his first Grand National (Winston Cup) victory, driving a Fox Dodge Charger. 1968 - Blackie Blackburn earns the biggest payday of his career as he wheels Ray Fox’s Dodge to a win in Daytona’s Permatex 300. 1969 - Ray Fox is instrumental in developing the aerodynamic rear window design for Dodge Charger 500 model. It makes the car more competitive on the NASCAR circuit. 1970 - Fox builds 3 Dodge Daytona winged cars for the Grand National circuit. Tiny Lund’s #55, Fred Lorenzen’s #3 and Lorenzen’s #28 "wing things" all are competitive. 1971 - Ray builds a 1971 Plymouth for Cale Yarborough to drive in the Daytona 500. Cale also drives the car in the1972 Daytona 500 finishing 6th. The car later wins the1973 Talladega 500 with Dick Brooks at the wheel. Ray’s cars won hundreds of races in the sportsman, modified and Grand National divisions. He was the first car owner to have cars win on every super speedway. He is responsible for the careers of Jr. Johnson, David Pearson and Buddy Baker. Some of the other drivers, who have warmed Ray’s seats were: Herb Thomas, Paul Goldsmith, Jim Paschal, Earl Balmer, Jim VanDiver, Darel Dieringer, Bunkie Blackburn, Tiny Lund, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough, Charlie Glotzbach, Buck Baker, Wally Dallenbach, G.C. Spencer as well as Indy car driver Art Pollard and Grand Prix driver Innes Ireland. He retired as an engine inspector for NASCAR in 1996. He is an original member of Daytona Speedway’s Checkered Flag Committee, as well as a member of the NMPA’s Hall of Fame, TRW/Western Auto Mechanics Hall of Fame, Jacksonville Speedway Hall of Fame, Daytona’s Oceanside Rotary Hall of Fame and most recently the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega, Alabama. Ray is President of the Living Legends of Auto Racing, Inc., an organization of over 600 members, based in Daytona Beach, FL, whose purpose is to preserve the history of auto racing both past and present.

STEWART WILL RACE, RUDD WILL RELIEVE

From Joe Gibbs Racing:

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C., (May 30, 2006) - Joe Gibbs Racing driver Tony Stewart will not require surgery for the fractured right scapula he sustained in an accident during Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Stewart's No. 20 Chevrolet suffered a right front tire failure on lap 33 of the 400-lap race, sending the No. 20 machine into the SAFER barrier on the outside retaining wall of turn one. Stewart was running in the 25th position when the accident happened.
"Tony sustained a non-displaced fracture at the tip of his right scapula," said Dr. Jerry Petty, a neurosurgeon who has consulted with many NASCAR drivers. "It is a non-surgical injury that only time and rest can heal."
While Stewart's fractured right scapula won't require surgery, it will limit his participation in this weekend's Nextel Cup event at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
Veteran NASCAR driver Ricky Rudd has been secured by Joe Gibbs Racing to serve as the relief driver for the No. 20 team this weekend at Dover. Rudd, a winner of 23 Nextel Cup races - four of which came at Dover - will practice and qualify the No. 20 Chevrolet while Stewart will start the 400-lap race. Rudd will be on standby in the pit area to relieve Stewart at any point during the event. By starting at Dover, Stewart will receive all points toward the Nextel Cup driver's championship.
"Tony's injury is unfortunate, and we are going to do everything we can to get him healed up quickly," said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. "Tony is as tough as they come, but we aren't going to take any chances on making his situation worse.
"We're very appreciative of Ricky Rudd for being able to drive the No. 20 car at Dover. He's a proven winner who will allow us to stay in contention for the championship."
Stewart is currently fourth in the championship point standings, 231 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson. Stewart is a two-time Nextel Cup champion, having won the title in 2002 and 2005.
"Tony's our driver and we'd love to have him in the car, but we want him to be 100 percent, not just for one race but for the rest of the season," said Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for the No. 20 team. "We'll do what we have to do until he heals up. This is a strong race team that's no stranger to adversity, so I know we'll make the best of this situation at Dover and in the weeks to come."
Al Shuford, a certified athletic trainer formerly with the NFL's Carolina Panthers, will work with Stewart to get him ready for his limited participation at Dover and what is expected to be his full participation during the Nextel Cup race weekend at Pocono (Pa.) June 9-11. Shuford joined Joe Gibbs Racing in October 2000.
"Basically, we're just going to work with Tony to make him comfortable," said Shuford. "As Dr. Petty said, Tony's injury is something that only time and rest can heal. But we can help speed up that timetable with a rehabilitation program specific to his injury and his profession."

EVERNHAM & RIGGS DISCUSS OUTCOME OF 600

RAY EVERNHAM Owner, CEO Evernham Motorsports, in a post-race interview after the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway (courtsey of Dodge):



ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW MUCH KASEY HAS IMPROVED SINCE LAST YEAR? “Not really. When I hired him I knew he was a smart racer and it would just take a little time. This is a tough sport. You go up and down in it, but he studies hard, and he’s committed to doing the things it takes to win races and communicating with the guys. They’ve been working hard. He comes to the shop every week and he and Kenny talk about what they’re doing.” COMMENT ON SCOTT RIGGS’ NIGHT “I was a little upset as a car owner should be. You see the guys work so hard. That crew works really hard. Mistakes in the pits have taken them out of a couple of races and a mistake tonight, again a mistake we shouldn’t have made. We’ll just have to get to the bottom of it. The good news is that Scott Riggs has shown he can drive a racecar and win races. They should have been in position to win tonight. We’ve just got to sit down tomorrow and stop inflicting wounds on ourselves. It would have been good to run in the top five, maybe 1-2 tonight, again a huge disappointment. The one thing I am going to go to the NASCAR trailer about is the car didn’t carry the gas can out of the pits, the gasman did when they were pushing the car. I really don’t understand the call on that, but I imagine it’ll get explained to me.” SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools/Cars 2 Dodge Charger)“We made a couple of mistakes in the pits early, but we were able to overcome those. There at the end, that late in the race, it ran out of gas on me and then to get called in for taking equipment out of the pits you just can’t recover from that that late. We ran out of gas coming down pit road and then the guys were pushing me out of the pit box. They said they brought their equipment out of the pit box. I don’t really know what happened. All I know is we had to come back in and go to the tail end of all the leaders. There were so many cars on the lead lap tonight with so many cautions it was hard to get back up through there. “The car was better once we got that set of left-side tires off. We had one set of left-side tires that were terrible. We were trying to adjust around it. We put rights on it and nothing would help. Finally we came back in and changed those lefts and all of a sudden we had a good racecar again and drove back up to the front. “I’m not sure if we ran out of gas. Something went out and I had to flip all the fans and turn both batteries on. They had to put gas in it to get it to come back to life. We’re not sure what happened. It shouldn’t have been that close on fuel. We just couldn’t overcome that. “Kasey was saving gas there (when Riggs passed him for the lead). He wasn’t getting quite as good gas mileage as we were. He was pretty tight, and making me even tighter behind him. When I started driving in the corner and pushing him up the racetrack a little bit, I got by him and got gone. The 48 was trying to run me down. Jimmie was coming pretty fast, but we were able to maintain our distance on him, about two seconds. We ran out of gas coming down to our last pit stop. I look forward to Dover. The guys were apologetic about what happened tonight, but I told them as long as they gave me good cars like that every week we can’t keep having things like that happen to us. We can’t keep making mistakes every week. We’ve got to get better and have a little better luck and we’ll finally win one of these things. “Our confidence is up because we know we can run well. At the same time we’re still putting a lot of pressure on ourselves not to make mistakes and then we make mistakes. We just need to pull together as a team and not point fingers at each other and make sure we all stay confident in each other and remember we are a team. It takes every single one of us and we don’t need anybody getting down. We need to keep this momentum going. Evernham as a whole I feel great about it. I think the 19 has turned the corner. He had a good run tonight. We had a good car tonight and Kasey is on top right now. “This is the same car we had at Texas, and it was good there. We were coming, running Kasey down there and Kasey ended up winning. We made some mistakes there late in the race. We know the car is good and we know we’re doing a good job of dialing it in where it needs to be. It takes everything. It takes the whole race to be good and get a good finish.”

THE CAPTAIN WINS INDY

Congrats to Roger Penske for winning his 14th Indy 500 with driver Sam Hornish Jr. (Yes, I watched the whole race and I thought it was funny how Rusty Wallace and Scott Goodyear were stepping on each other in the announcer's booth). Penske magic.

Now, on to Concord, NC!