BRISTOL

KYLE BUSCH AND ALAN GUSTAFSTON, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG'S IMPALA SS, AND RICK HENDRICK, OWNER OF HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS

>> RICK HENDRICK ON THE WIN:

"Any time you win at Bristol it's pretty special and we had a lot riding on the race today. It was the first race for the Impala, Chevrolet was looking for their 600th win and we were trying to get 200. I'm just real proud of the guys. Alan (Gustafsson) works hard and Kyle drove a smart race and a hard race. They adjusted the car all day long and we were pretty good. I don't think anyone had anything for Tony. But at the end of the day it was a good race. I'm real proud of the organization and I'm real proud of Kyle. He did a heck of a job."

>> ALAN GUSTAFSON ON THE PIT CALLS AND THE WIN TODAY:

"It's just such a huge accomplishment for Hendrick Motorsports and Kyle Busch and the Car Quest Colors guys, the 5/25 car shop with the car coming out .it's been such a huge load on those guys. I'm real happy for them, I'm real happy they got this win and the 200th for Hendrick Motorsports and the 600th for Chevrolet, the first race for the Impala SS - a lot of good things. The pit calls: Bristol is pretty much a four-tire race track - that makes things a little easier on me. Kyle gave me a lot of good input today on adjustments, we made good adjustments all day. We were in the right place at the right time. The pit crew, we really struggled last week at Atlanta. We came back this week with a chip on our shoulder and won the race. So I'm proud of them too."

>> KYLE BUSCH ON HIS WIN TODAY:

"I was a good race from my perspective. It wasn't all that great. We definitely have some work to do. We certainly weren't the class of the field. Tony Stewart was that. Denny Hamlin was awfully strong as well and the Evernham cars were really good too. They just had bad breaks and had trouble. It's a hard thing to try to come out with a new car and take the Impala SS and make it run right first time out. We kind of hard everything fall out right for us and to get to Victory Lane. But those other guys were definitely better than us, they just didn't have things fall the right way."

WHY FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE WASN'T IT A GOOD RACE?

"When I got up front and I was in the top six, Tony Stewart was gone, he was checked out. Second place was five car lengths ahead of third place, which was three car lengths ahead of fourth. We all got kind of strung out. I was 10th, 11th or 12th and I looked up and nothing was going on. I thought "this is a great race" and then the spotter came on and said there's a real logjam behind me. There's a log jam because people can't turn, they're sliding up the track and bumping into one another or whatever, trying to make way through traffic and stuff. But when you're out front, you know, you can't pass well. For me, I got tight in traffic and then when I got out front and when Denny (Hamlin) came up and passed me I was loose. So at Bristol that's not cool."

ON A DAY WHEN THE GIBBS CAR WERE CLEARLY THE CLASS OF THE FIELD BUT YOU WON AND TOOK A THIRD PLACE, DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD TO GET THE WIN OR NOT GOOD THAT YOU HAVE MORE WORK TO DO?

RICK HENDRICK:

"We've been in positions like at Daytona and in the Busch car and several times where we've been in position to win and it didn't happen. We realize we have some work to do but I think that what you have to do in these situations is try to be there at the end, do the best you can, work on your car and adjust as the day goes on. Then if things happen to fall your way you take them and you go on. Every time we've been to the track. We'll go back home and work on the cars and we'll get better. It was a situation where we weren't just terrible but we were definitely not the class of the field but our guys adjusted on the car and had good input from the drivers and we had a real good finish with all of our cars. We'll take it at Bristol. I've been here and run all day long and then on the last lap get dumped. It's one of these tracks where you want to survive and come out of here with some points. We're going to learn every time we run this car. I'm not disappointed. I would have liked to have run better but I'll take the results and go home and let these guys work on the car and we'll be better the next time we come to town."

KYLE, TAKE US THROUGH THE GREEN/WHITE/CHECKERED FLAG:

"I was definitely worried at the end of the race. Even so, on that second to last restart when Denny was behind me and Biffle was behind him, they were pleading to come down pit road and those other guys did I knew that if I could get far enough out, hopefully it would be far enough that they couldn't catch me. I got a great jump. I didn't look in my mirror for a lap and all of a sudden I did and thought "Is there a caution out? Where did everyone go?" I was a straightaway ahead. I just tried to hit my marks and run my line. The thing was so tight, I just couldn't get it to turn through the corner. I think I was trying too hard but those guys were really gaining on me pretty quick. I knew that if we got to the white flag and a caution came out we'd be okay. But I wasn't sure I could hold them to the checkered. I'm not glad that caution came out, but I am glad that we won the race.

"On that last restart, I knew that if I could get a good jump on those guys and beat them down into one and two I knew that my car would shoot out of the hole down the straightaway and I might have a bit of breathing room. But that wasn't the case. I spun my tires down the front straightaway just because they were so cold - I did so on the previous restart too - but it all sort of came together and having Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, two class acts behind me, that raced me clean that gave me the sort of room I needed to race definitely helped out. They could have very easily made their way to Victory Lane and made our day harder."

KYLE, BEARING IN MIND HOW COMMONPLACE IT HAS BECOME TO USE THE BUMPER TO MOVE SOMEONE OUT OF THE WAY AND WIN, WERE YOU SURPRISED IT DIDN'T COME AND WOULD YOU HAVE USED IT IF THE ROLES HAD BEEN REVERSED?

"I knew that Jeff (Gordon) would have got an earful if he had laid a fender on us. So I figured I had a little room there but I didn't know about Jeff Burton if he got clear of Gordon. So Burton got through there and was right on me and I knew that he could very easily do it. I wasn't necessarily expecting it as I know he's a better race driver than that. He gave me the room to race clean and I don't know if that was some sort of payback for Las Vegas; he didn't do anything wrong there but I lost the race and I raced him clean and gave him some room. I gave him some room here. I figured if I left some room down low, he could get his nose in there and body slam his way through. But I tried not to leave anything on the bottom open. And if the roles were reversed . I don't know . I would probably try a little harder but if I couldn't get under him without moving him out of the way I probably have done the same thing. It's not fair to race that way. If you had a better car or something like that for the race. But I knew I didn't have a better car and I knew I didn't have better tires so that's the way it worked out."

KYLE, DO YOU KNOW MUCH MORE ABOUT THE NEW RACE CAR NOW? IF SO, WHAT ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS?

"We do know a lot more about it. But it's the same as we already knew. It still doesn't turn. For me it's not a fun car, it's a hard car to race around the race track with other competitors as you don't have the maneuverability, you can't really pass all that well. With the old car if you were tight at least you could go up the race track and then come back down and then shoot out of the hole. But with this thing whenever you started to slide the front tires it continued to slide so it's almost like you're on skis out there. Another problem that perhaps nobody thought of is that if you have a front tire go down and there's no rubber on the race track you're just going to slide on that ski and into the fence. I think we saw that with a couple of competitors today. It's a hard car to set up and it's a hard car to drive. Maybe if we learn more about it it will become better but I don't really remember anyone complaining about the old one we had, so.. We'll just have to work hard on our Impala SS and see if we can make it better."

ALAN, TELL US MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU HAD TO DO TO THE CAR TO MAKE IT WIN THE RACE.

"We have to run a lot of different type configurations of car now at the 5/25 shop. We've got a speedway car that we've got to work on, we've got a downforce-intermediate car we've got to work on and co-develop and we've got an Impala SS we've got to work on and co-develop. We've also taken a Busch car in-house and those guys have really worked their tails off, a lot of hours, a lot of Saturdays, a lot of late nights to give us the best chance to win the race. And unfortunately, especially with that Busch car, we've had a lot of opportunities that haven't come through. We got the right result today and it's due to their hard work and it's due to Kyle Busch and it's due to the race cars, what Mr. Hendrick gives us to work with. I'm real happy for those guys and I'm real happy with the win. They got it and they deserve it. I'm really happy for them."

KYLE, CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE IRONY OF YOU NOT LIKING THE NEW CAR AND YET WINNING THE RACE?

"I told Alan as early as the test that I just can't stand to drive this thing. It's terrible and I hope we can just go out there and win the race and then tell everybody how terrible it is. I'm glad we were able to do it. I'm serious. I told him that (laughs). I don't know; I'm done talking about it. It's hard; it's terrible. With the Busch car, it's been fun; it's been great. Like Alan said, we took it in-house and we worked on it and we worked on that program and I think we turned it around. It's a lot better to run well on Saturday to learn things and to be able to transfer that on to Sunday. Even though the cars are different you can still learn a little bit about the race track. That's always going to be said. The more track time, the better even though the cars are different. That's why I run Truck Series races. The biggest thing for me to do on Saturday is to run as well as we can for our sponsors for Mr. H and for all those guys that work so hard at the shop and build those things."

RICK, AFTER THIS RACE WE HEAR ABOUT RACING CLEAN, ETC. BUT THIS IS BRISTOL WHICH IS NOT KNOWN FOR THAT. IS THIS A NEW ERA OF RACING?

"Well, I don't know. I guess we're going to have to wait until the next Bristol race. I think these guys have a lot of respect for each other, especially when you are teammates and you're working together. I was in Martinsville running one and two and took both of them out and it's hard to work in these shops together. I think everybody would like to race and have the best car win and finish the race. I think if it would have been two or three more laps it might have been different with the old tires. I think these guys work so hard and the field is so tight and I think I heard Jeff Burton say it in his last interview, if you've got a guy who races you clean you're going to race him clean. If you've got a guy who's always nudging you. I think you've seen a couple paybacks already this year and that doesn't help anybody. It knocks people out of points. Everybody wants to win the championship and you can make friends out here out here at Bristol or you can make a lot of enemies and then your payback might come in the last 10 races of the Chase. We've got to figure out a way to race two abreast and let the good car pass the other car without having to wreck people and I think everybody feels better about that when they go home. I hope that's the way it's going to be."

RICK, WHAT WAS THE COST OF THIS CAR, TO MAKE A WINNER OUT OF IT?

"I think that everybody is in the same boat. We're building intermediate cars and we've got to build these cars. When you're running parallel programs and you're working on different chassis and waiting for the chassis to be approved, it's a chore. We'll run a couple races and we'll go back to our intermediate cars. If we had a wreck, if somebody had a car that wasn't as good as it should be in Atlanta, we're getting a lot of work done to go to Texas. So it's hard to run these different cars but it's just part of the program. When the decision's been made that we're going to bring this car along, I think everybody's trying to work to make sure we do the best we can. I think definitely it was the right thing to do to bring it to the short tracks first because we're going to probably have some rule changes and some things are going to happen as we get to intermediates and probably to speedways too. It's going to be something that's going to develop over time and it's never easy when you've got. nobody would like to have to come out with a whole new fleet either so I think NASCAR did the best they could after the decision was made to race it to bring it to short tracks first. But these teams are working harder than they've ever worked. If we could come test more it would probably be a bit different. Having to go to places that you're not going to race to try to learn doesn't give you much time to really tune the car up."

KYLE, WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOU MIND DURING YOUR PASS OF HAMLIN FOR THE LEAD?

"Coming out of turn four down the front straightaway there I saw the in the middle of turns one and two, the No. 48 car was having a little bit of trouble there. I don't know what happened to him; I'm not sure if it was a flat tire or what. I knew that there was going to be some jumbling up going down the back straightaway so I just kept looking out my windshield as far as I could see. I saw Denny looking low off of turn two and I saw that Jimmie was trying to get down low and I saw some other slow cars down there so I just stuck it on the top and kept my foot in it. I was able to clear him and get by him and got through turns three and four and then the caution came out. Just being on top of the wheel as well as looking far enough ahead just made me get through there. That probably gave us the win, of course, being able to get up front like that."

KYLE, YOU SAID THIS CAR IS HARDER TO DRIVE. HOW MIGHT THIS FORCE YOU TO CHANGE AS A DRIVER?

"It's harder to tune which makes it harder to drive. Because you're telling the crew chief this and you're telling him that and we can't fix it. We've tried everything. And any time you try to help the center you kill the entry and exit. You want to get the car to turn through the center of the corner then it's spinning out getting in and coming off the corners. Any time we fix the entry and the exit now I'm plowing through the center again. It's just so hard to tune. That's what made it hard to drive. Because you're searching all over the place and you can't find anything - nothing works. So you're just sitting there struggling with the thing. I just go off into the corner today, when I had it good on entry, I just go off into the corner and full-lock left the thing and judge my turning ability by how fast I needed to go through the corner. If it was turning good then I'd speed up a little bit. If it wasn't I'd slow down a little bit. You just hold the wheel full-lock. It's not very fun. There's no maneuverability with the thing. That's my take."

ALAN, HOW HARD WAS IT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE CAR WANTED SINCE YOU HADN'T YET GONE THROUGH A RACE WITH IT?

"I think to answer that question correctly you've got to step back a little bit. We don't have the ability to get these cars into the race track like we used to. They don't make as much downforce, the suspension configurations limit us, the spring rules, the splitter travel limit us as to what we can do so what happens is drivers, by nature, want to drive their cars very hard. That's what they're paid to do. They want to go fast. With this car, that's not the way it is. You have to be smooth and very consistent to be fast. I think that's where Kyle's frustration comes and as for me tuning it, it will change. You can definitely over-drive the car and things will happen. We all want that pie in the sky - we want it to handle perfect. I want it to be perfect for Kyle when he's driving 100%. Unfortunately we weren't able to achieve that so that makes it tough to tune. As far as the adjustments in tire pressures, wedge, track bars; that's all physics. It still works the same way, it just works to a lesser extent because these cars don't have the same grip."

KYLE, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW LOOK?

"Whatever (laughs). Rick hasn't told me to cut it off yet so I'm alright, I guess - so far. As long as I keep acting nice and doing the right thing."

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR ON HOW TO RACE OTHER DRIVERS?

KYLE BUSCH:

"It's just getting time and spending time with everybody. There in New York when we did the top 10 stuff in September, I got to get around those guys a little bit more and we all have some of the same interests. You're so busy all the time that you just want to go home and sit on the couch. So you don't really get together much. You race these guys every week. When I raced growing up, I'd race it for a year and then jump to the next division. So I got to the Busch Series and I won races and then I left. I got to the Cup Series and that's where you stay. This is it. You're done. You're at the top. You're done moving up. So I came in trying to win races and roughing people up and moving them out of the way. And I thought about it and I thought, I've got to race these guys for the next 15 or 20 years. It's going to be a while. So, I decided to step back a little and try to make some friends and try to gain some ground on being allies with everybody and not having many enemies."

ON THE COMEBACK OF THE NO. 24 TEAM TODAY AND WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR DRIVERS WHEN THEY ARE RUNNING ONE-TWO?

RICK HENDRICK:

"I'm really proud of Stevie (Letarte, crew chief) and Jeff (Gordon) because t one point, Jeff (Gordon) was probably the worst car on the track and really struggling. You see a guy that's so good here have that problem, you know there is some kind of problem. You know there is something wrong. But they didn't give up. I was really proud of their effort. Anymore when you have multi-car team, you have a lot of information. I was proud all three drivers came to victory lane today. If Kyle and Jeff had had a problem at the end of the race and crashed, it would be a real problem for Stevie and Alan to work together next week. We want to beat the other 40 cars that are out there. It's hard. You've got smart guys that work together. I've been in a situation where my two teams are fighting on pit road and trying to drive back to the airport in a van and trying to keep from getting hit in the middle. I don't enjoy that. But I don't expect the guys not to race, either. There is a way to race them clean. I mentioned to Kyle and to Jeff on the radio to think about the big picture and they did and there wasn't any problem."

IF NASCAR CAN TURN THE NEW CAR INTO ONE THAT CAN RUN ON EVERY STYLE OF TRACK ON THE CIRCUIT, WHAT FINANCIAL RELIEF WILL THAT PROVIDE?

"We'll see how that turns out. I know NASCAR is concerned. They want a good show. The fans want a good show. They want people to race. We've been doing this a long time and we've adapted. We added rear windows to Monte Carlos when they didn't have downforce. NASCAR would come up with rules changes to make the cars more competitive. And they work with the crew chiefs to try to find the fix for things. So I'm confident that NASCAR is not going to let the car be a problem with the show. There are a lot of smart people with all these teams. NASCAR is going to keep working with these guys. Once you say you're going to run it, now we've got to fix it. We've got to make it what it needs to be. You're not going to do that the first race out of the box. They're going to try to stick to the plan to keep the costs down and the car safe. It's also got to be competitive. Everybody will work together. We're all in this together and we've got a lot of work to do. But I think we'll get it done."

WAS THERE ANY TIME THIS WEEKEND WHERE YOU WERE ABLE TO ADJUST OR FIX A PROBLEM WITH THIS CAR THAT YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO DO IN THE PAST? IF NASCAR TAKES YOUR CAR BACK TO THE R&D CENTER, WHAT WILL THAT DO TO YOUR FLEET?

ALAN GUSTAFSON:

"Our fleet is two cars and they're both in our trailer. So I hope they don't take this car or we're going to be one short at Martinsville. We need this for our back-up. As everybody has done, we've struggled learning this race car. We have less tools to work on and less tools to adjust with. During the history of Hendrick Motorsports and the eight years I've been there were all the engines and tools we've used to go fast. They've kind of gone away a little bit and we've got to reevaluate what we do. During the course of the weekend, we were constantly learning. I felt like I was in school there for a while - just trying to figure out what we need. Kyle did a great job in adjusting his driving style in what he has to do in those cars. Our engineering staff at Hendrick Motorsports did a great job to give us the tools, but it's harder because there is not as much you can do. You're more boxed in the corner and we're still paid by Mr. Hendrick to get an advantage so we've got to work that much harder to get an advantage. Our guys at Hendrick Motorsports and all the guys on the No. 5 Carquest/Kellogg's Chevrolet deserve the credit because after 500 laps, we were the best. We were the team who adapted to the new car the best. Kyle adapted to the race track and the new car the best. We got the trophy and I'm real proud of that."

IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR CAR THAT THE NEW RACE CAR REMINDS YOU OF?

"No, I haven't ever driven anything that I haven't been able to work on or fix or anything like that. Legends cars you can fix -- Late Models, Dirt Modifieds, Pavement Modifieds - everything I've been able to work on. You're in a box. The tools you have are limited. There are rules, but you can get around some stuff. With this thing, they want everybody to be equal. They want parity. They want the Michael Waltrips to be able to win races. It's going to take time to develop it and research it."

YOU SEEM LIKE A MOST UNHAPPY WINNER. IS THERE ANY PRIDE TO BEING THE FIRST WINNER OF A COT RACE?

"I'm very proud of out whole team and that we were able to pull through and get the job done. But it wasn't easy for us or for anybody else. Everybody has had to build these things. Everybody has worked their hearts out but we were able to prevail today. I'm glad we were able to get the victory today. Hey, I'm a happy winner. I'm the happiest I've been in a while because of all my Busch Series races and being so close and having stuff happen. It wasn't a fun day. Yesterday was a fun day. I had fun racing those cars. But I just didn't have fun racing this thing today."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT BRISTOL THAT WORKS FOR YOU?

"It's a fun place to race. It's a great place. It's hard to get a ticket here. It's sold out for years. I don't know what it is about this place that makes Kurt (Busch) or I run good here. I've had three third place finishes in the Busch Series. One second-place finish in the Cup Series and I won here today, so I've had some more recent success than I've had in the past just getting accustomed to everything. But that's all out the window now because they're tearing this place up as soon as everybody leaves."

ON THE 200 WINS FOR RICK HENDRICK AND 600 WINS FOR CHEVROLET:

"On the Hendrick wins, all that goes to Rick Hendrick. He's a great individual - not only a great boss. He's the best owner. He's the best person to work for. When you work for a guy like him who gives you all the tools and all the opportunities. It's great. He believed in me when I was nobody. He deserves all the credit for the 150 wins and for the 200 wins.

And Chevrolet is obviously a great partner of ours. They've supported us through thick and thin. They supported us in 2000 when we were pretty bad and won maybe two or three races that year. They've always been there. For them to get 600 means a lot. We're real proud of the fact that we were able to give that to Chevrolet in the new Impala SS, which is great. I know that's important to them because they need to sell cars on Monday. I'm real happy and proud to be affiliated with them."

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