(ON HIS PLANS FOR THIS WEEKEND) "The little bit that we did get on the track, I was real happy with the car. It's a brand new car that we brought here. Just to get at least a lap on the track was good for us. I thought we were pretty fast. We fell back to 10th before we could go back out and get another lap on it. Everything felt great. It's unfortunate that the rain came. It's fortunate in some cases because of where we are at in the points. We'll see what ends up happening here. We'll be ready to practice for race tomorrow."

(ON THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP) "For us it's not a huge build up. We're just trying to carry momentum and have good runs and put wins under our belt before we go into those last ten. We got a lot of heavy testing scheduled to really be prepared for those last ten races and will try not to burn the guys out at the same time. Things are going well for us. We're very happy. We sat on the pole here last time. We were running really strong and had an engine failure which is very rare for us at Hendrick Motorsports. We're going to try and do what we felt like we were capable of the last time we were here which was either win the race or a solid top five."

(DO YOU LIKE THE IDEA OF THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP?) "I'm still evaluating it all as we go. When we get down to the last ten races, it's really going to show a lot. I still think it's a little bit drastic that we work to this point in the season and work as hard as we can to get that points lead or get in the top of the points and it all gets taken away. I think they're taking a little bit too much away. I think it's going to be very exciting and very entertaining. I think if we continue to do our job the way we have the rest of the season we've got a heck of a shot of winning the championship."

(ON WHAT HAPPENED HERE IN JUNE) "I feel very confident. I had a conversation with Randy Dorton right after that race. He was able to diagnose the problem right away and felt confident those things and those times were behind us."

(HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAMMATE WHEN YOU ARE THE GUY TRYING TO OVERTAKE HIM?) "Because I'm an equity owner in that team and a teammate to him, I treat it just like I would any other teammate and then to another level. I genuinely do care about that team and how they perform. I want one of us to win that championship. If I can't win it, I certainly want him to win it. It's important for both of us to be on track right now and do all we can to maintain the momentum we've had to this point in the season. They still have the points lead even having the problems they've had. Having that 200 plus point lead he had didn't mean anything anyway. It's really only a five point lead. As long as they maintain that, I think that's what is important. They'll get back on track."

(WITH THE RAIN THE CHASE CONTENDERS ARE STARTING UP FRONT. WILL THERE BE ANY KIND OF CHANGE IN STRATEGIES?) "It does usually change the strategy for those guys. If some of us were going to qualify up front and some of us weren't, for the guys that were going to qualify up front, it doesn't really change for them. The guys that maybe had trouble qualifying here last time or were a little bit further down the list in practice and maybe didn't have a solid qualifying effort, those guys are going to benefit from this. The guys that we're typically racing with week in and week out are those guys that are in the top ten. Say we start on the front row and you take off and you're running and think your race is going along great, you don't realize there are guys that have been coming all day long from 30th and 35th and 26th and where ever they are in the field and working there way to the front. They may be quite a bit better than you. That's why a lot of times when I'm running, I always ask 'how are we compared to the rest of the field?' I don't mean just the guys we are running with. I mean the guys that are further back. You don't want to over adjust if you are very good. If somebody else is better than you and they get to you and you don't adjust it enough to keep up with it, then you're going to lose the race. Those things all factor in it. When you start by points, a lot of that will change how you approach that race. It's not really going to change things for us other than we know who is going to be running up front when they drop the green and who should be there most of the day."

(ON THE NEW GEAR RULE) "I'm not 100 percent sold on it yet. Obviously Hendrick Motorsports is one of the engine builders that has capitalized from it. I hate to give a totally biased opinion on it. I'm concerned with what it's going to do to the racing. I think most of the passes that happen, happen through acceleration from the middle of the corner to the start finish line or before that. When you drop rpms, you're dropping power. It could hurt us in making some passes. I think it's going to be really important in the aero package and tire package next year to match what we are going to do with the rear end gear. I don't think it's a money saving thing. That to me is just going to make us go to work that much harder to find areas that we can increase power even at lower rpm ranges. To me there are other areas that we can focus on besides that. I'm not exactly sure what has brought it on and where it is coming from. I know they're set on it and we're going to try and give our opinion as much as we can to them until the end of the season so that they when they do introduce it, it's in favor of all the teams and the best racing possible."

(ON TESTING) "I know we have about five or six tests left. Some of them we're just going to do one day tests. Some of them we'll focus a little bit harder on like Phoenix. That's a long haul so you might as well take advantage of the two days. Charlotte, I'm not sure if we are doing one or two days but we struggled there earlier in the year so that's something we're going to focus on. Martinsville is repaved so that's an important track. We'll probably only do one day there. We've fortunate that we're solidly in the top ten in points so we can gamble a little bit more on putting our tests later in the season. That was a gamble we chose to take earlier in the season hoping we'd be in the top ten. So far it's working out. We hope it will continue to work out. I think there are two sides to it. You want to go test at these tracks, especially the ones that you think you need a little more help with. You don't want to burn the team out. We're on a hectic schedule right now - 20 straight weeks in a row. Testing in between can really wear these guys out. I think that's why we're doing a little bit more one day tests than all of them being two day tests."

(ON SHARING TESTING DATA) "One thing that we've have learned even if it's Jimmie (Johnson), Brian (Vickers) or Terry (Labonte), we all have enough differences in what we like under the car and driving styles that those tests can come in handy for mapping the track. Every bump, crack, the transitions of the corners, the travels that the cars go through, those we can relay to all the teams. Where a driver gets off the gas, where he gets on the gas, how hard he gets on the brake and off the brake, that varies between every driver so you can't always carry all the information. Let's say if Jimmie goes somewhere, we'll certainly get all the information back from them and vice versa for us. Then we try to take advantage of the 5, 25 and even the 84 team with Kyle Busch and the testing that they need to be doing. We're not testing at Talladega and I think they may be. I'm hoping somebody tests in Atlanta. I don't think we're planning to test at Atlanta. I do think we have a Homestead test we'll do as well. We're definitely going to try and take advantage not only of teams that are Hendrick Motorsports but also teams we have a good relationship with."

(IS THERE A LEGITIMATE GRIPE WITH DRIVERS ON THE SPONSORSHIP SITUATION?) "I don't really think there is a big issue. We deal with conflicts with sponsors all the time, every race we go to or Victory Lane we go to. For me personally and our race team, we had Pepsi sign before Powerade was ever introduced and signed. I still feel adamant we should have been grandfathered in some way somehow into that agreement. When that agreement was put in place, I questioned it and was asked how I should handle it. I've been handling it the last couple of years the way I was told too which is take those bottles off the roof. Now the bottle went from being about six inches tall to two feet. That's when the knocking of the bottle came about. I believe we do have to work with NASCAR, with the race tracks, as well as them working with us in trying to get rid of the differences and working together. It is important to have all these sponsors and I understand that. We have to take care of our sponsors and they have to take care of theirs. We're going to try and do the best job of that as we can going forward. Right now I don't see any big issues with that."

(IS THERE CONCERN THAT DRIVERS WILL TAKE EXTRA CHANCES SCRAMBLING FOR THAT 10th SPOT?) "All of us have a race we're after. Some of us are out there just racing to win. Some of us are out there trying to win and focused on points and other cars that we're racing. That's the thing I think I like about the points right now that really has it very exciting is that it makes six or seventh through 15th very interesting. That's something we never really focused this much on before. Now there is that focus. It's taking some of the focus off the guys in the top four or five but those are usually the guys that are battling for the wins so they still get some focus on them as well. Depending on how far out of 10th that you are, the more risks you're going to take to get there. Those guys that are in the 9th, 10th, 11th place, those are the guys that have to be solid week in and week out. I don't think they can take too big of risks. I think they know that first you got to finish, then you got to worry about where you're going to finish and get the best solid finish that you can and think about those guys you are racing. I don't think it's time yet. I think the last race leading into the top ten or the last two is when you're going to see guys get riskier and riskier."

(YOUR ROOKIE TEAMMATE HAS RECENTLY CAUSED SOME WRECKS. IS THERE MORE PRESSURE ON ROOKIES THIS YEAR WITH THE CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP?) "My toughest year I've ever had in this series is my rookie year. Even if there isn't a lot of focus on you, you feel like there is. You're a rookie. You're trying to make a good impression. You want to come in and turn heads. You want to do everything right. You don't want to make anybody mad. You don't want to make mistakes. By having all those things on your mind is when you make mistakes and when you feel the pressure. It's just intensified as a rookie. You feel like everything is riding on that first year. It's like first impressions are so important. I made a lot of mistakes. I tore up a lot of race cars. I felt extreme pressure. The following year was such a relief to me to get that rookie season out of the way. I felt like I could really start focusing on what I needed to focus on which is running solid races week in and week out. Brian (Vickers) and I are definitely friends and teammates. I've certainly talked to him. I feel like he's pushing a little bit harder than he needs to at times. He's aggressive. He's a great race car driver. He qualifies very well. He's just trying to get into his rhythm in the races. He's made some mistakes. Nobody is taking the heat more than he is. It's been unfortunate of who he has gotten in these wrecks with. I think he recognizes that and feels awful about it. That's a team that is not only trying to bring a rookie driver in, it's a team that's really trying to get their own rhythm going. These things have only continued to disrupt that for them as well as disrupt some of these other runs that some of these other guys have had going on. They're definitely feeling the heat, feeling the pressure. Hopefully they'll get back on track and get some of those things behind him."

(WILL DO YOU DO THINGS DIFFERENT ON SATURDAY WHEN YOU DON'T GET TRACK TIME ON FRIDAY?) "Only if we qualified poorly. If you qualify good or if we're starting up front because of points, then the approach we're going to take is more of a clean air approach meaning that we're not stuck in the middle of a pack where we have to set the car up a lot freer because we're going to get the aero push and have to try to pass cars and things like that. I think we could really just put our car out there in less traffic in tomorrow's practice and really work on the balance and the feel I'm looking for. If I was not starting up front, I'd get in the middle of more cars and work on how I could pass cars, how I am behind cars or in front of cars."

(IS IT GETTING MORE COMPETITIVE WITH JIMMIE THE CLOSER YOU TWO GET IN POINTS? HAS THE DYNAMIC CHANGED?) "It's probably a better question for Robbie (Loomis) and for Chad (Knaus) because those guys are in the shop day in and day out. I know the intensity is building in that shop. Those guys love the fact that both teams are where they're at. At the same time, if they a wear a 48 shirt or a 24 shirt on the weekends, then that's the team they're with and who they want to be on top. Right now it's early enough in the season. If it continues like this down the closing few races, then it's definitely going to get interesting. All I can really compare it too was me and Terry (Labonte). We weren't under the same roof."

(DOES BEING UNDER THE SAME ROOF CHANGE IT?) "Definitely. I wasn't as close to Terry as I am with Jimmie. The 24 car had just come off of a championship the year before. There was definitely some heavy rivalry going on within the organization. It got very intense. Rick Hendrick will be the first to tell you it was a great kind of intensity. It's the kind of intensity he really likes. I don't think we'll ever stop sharing information or stop being teammates. It will be interesting to see how that goes along. I feel comfortable because I feel like I know Jimmie and he knows me. We're generally going to be happy for one another no matter the results are. We're both very competitive people. That competitiveness just comes out. It's not something you have think about or work on. It's just the way it is whether we're racing for a win this weekend or that championship at the end of the season."

(DO YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE AFTER WINNING SEVERAL TIMES?) "I think it does help that by winning championships. When you haven't won a championship you want it so bad. You want to feel what it's like to be a champion. When you've been the champion you don't want anything else but the championship. Second, third, fourth of fifth really doesn't matter to you. They both have their advantages. I just know that those guys want it bad. We want it bad. The advantages that we have is that right now Hendrick Motorsports and those two teams are really strong and still continue to work together. Our philosophy - this is the way Rick leads us - is let's decide it between the two of us. In order to that we've got to work together all the way to the end to make sure that the two of us are in that hunt or at least one of us are in that hunt for the championship. The best way for us to make that happen is to work very closely together and not give that up."

(HOW WOULD YOU TWEAK THE NEW CHAMPIONSHIP TO MAKE IT MORE LIKE THE OLD SCHOOL?) "I don't know if it's really about old school. I've always said that I think we pay the same points from 30th on back every weekend. I think there should be a bigger gap between the positions. If we want to keep these things exciting and keep winning being a premium, we need to pay more points to the winners. We've seen a little bit of that this year but I think it could go even further. I think this Chase for the Championship is something that I'm gradually becoming more comfortable with or liking a little bit more. I think it's great for the sport. What I don't like is that if you have two, three or four guys that really have a hold on the season and then you narrow it down to 10 people and the gap you have is 45 to 50 points, which is nothing. You can have a guy that sneaks in the top ten at the end season and all of the sudden some guys have some bad luck and he wins the championship. I don't think that's right. I don't think that that is fair to the guys who have been up there all year long. I would just change where those top guys are. They talk about 400 points. I think if you're not within 400 points of the lead, you don't even race for the championship. Maybe it's not a top ten, maybe it's top five or top six. I have a lot of theories on it. I still think we can win this championship and when we do it's still going to be very special."

(DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ON WINNING AS AN OWNER?) "Not as good as a driver, but the next best thing. As long as I'm behind the wheel of that race car, I'm always going to want my team that I'm driving for to be the number one car. If we can't win it with the 24 car then I want the 48 (to win it) for sure. I think it would be very special. I think it would awesome. I don't even know if I've thought about it because I've put so much focus on our program. That's why it works for me. The position that Rick Hendrick has put me into as an owner, I don't really focus on it right now as a driver. For me that's something that's really more for my future which I'm very proud to be a part of that and look forward to that. I think all the years I've had at Hendrick, the success I've had, the role I've played in pushing for Jimmie to be and the role I've played trying to get the sponsors to get on board, he's graced me in being a partner in that position. I still think of myself as a driver. I really don't think of myself as an owner. I'd still be very proud if it happened. Someday when I'm not driving, that will be my number one priority is to put that the team that I'm an owner with to be number one."