Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Jeremy Mayfield

Friday, August 6, 2004

MODERATOR: We have with us Kasey Kahne who drives the No. 48 UAW Dodge. He was eighth in practice today. He has had four poles this season, six top-fives, seven top-10s and he sits twelve in points. He is 69 out of being 10th place. Kasey, just give us an idea, this is your first time running at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You seem so comfortable to have run well here and then the differences in IRP versus here.

KASEY KAHNE: You know, this track we came and tested at about three weeks ago, and that definitely helped. I mean, it's really cool to be here and to get to race here finally at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's somewhere I always wanted to go, and I've watched a lot of races here. So I've kind of always watched the track and knew a little bit what to expect. Then when you get on it, you can learn a lot more. So I really feel pretty good today. I feel like we're pretty close. We got a little loose there at the end. The front of our car is really good, and the back just slid all over the racetrack. We'll fix that for tomorrow morning and go out 23rd and see if we can't qualify in the top five.

MODERATOR: Your practice run obviously should encourage you somewhat being your first time on the track and the fact you're only 69 points out of being in 10th place. What's your focus going to be tomorrow for qualifying?

KAHNE: Just try to -- to get a Bud Pole here at Indianapolis would be the ultimate goal. We haven't got one in a while, and this would be probably the greatest track to start first on. It would be pretty neat. I think it matters a lot when you go out and if there's a cloud of how the track is at that time, if the sun's really been beating down on the track. So we'll just have to see how it ends up in the morning. I think to go for a pole would be what we have to do.

MODERATOR: I'm going to open it up for questions. Do we have any questions for Kasey? No? No questions? You have a question, sir?

Q: At this point of the season, do you feel like you're racing for that 10th spot or are you racing for first and did that seem odd with the new chase for the Nextel Cup?

KAHNE: Obviously we can't race for first right now, we're too far behind. But to 10 races, but once we get to those 10 races, if we're in the top 10, then, yeah, we can race for that. It is definitely, it's a little different trying to race for 10th. Actually, I think we're racing, I'm looking all the way to sixth place because that's only 150 points away. If we can run really good, we can end up sixth by the time of the next 10 races, start over and be 14th. You don't know, you just have to -- but definitely run for the top 10 right now.

MODERATOR: Do we have any other questions for Kasey?

Q: Kasey, how far after Homestead did you officially take the job that you have now with Evernham?

KAHNE: Officially it was during the NASCAR banquet a day before that in New York, the Cup banquet there. So that was when it was all official. I don't know the date, middle of December.

MODERATOR: Do we have any more questions for Kasey? No? OK, good job today and good luck tomorrow qualifying, Kasey.

KAHNE: Thanks.

MODERATOR: We'll start with Jeremy Mayfield, also Kasey's teammate. Jeremy was sixth fastest in practice today. Thus far this season he's had one pole, three top fives, eight top 10s, and is 11th in point standings with only 40 points being out of 10th place. And also right behind, as we just mentioned, Kasey is 69 points, so there's a tight race between teammates. He's finished consistently, three straight top-10s over the last three weeks obviously and nine races here, though, he's only finished in the top 10 once. Based on that, what are you going to have to do tomorrow, more so Sunday to have a top-10 finish?

JEREMY MAYFIELD: That's something we've been working on a lot of places just trying to finish not just top 10 but top five. Indy's been weird for me. I've run here good in the past and had good cars, but it seems like something happened, something would break, a wreck in practice or not even be able to run the race. I feel real good about it this time. We had a great test, car handled great and we came back today and unloaded off the truck. So usually when you do that, everything is going our way so far. So we just have to wait and see what happens. But the main thing is we're trying to stay focused on what we've got going on and not let everything around us get to us as far as how well someone else is running; or if we're running bad, we just keep doing what we've been doing and I think we'll be OK, you know, and not get hyped up about - Indy is so big that sometimes you come here overhype yourself and get all stressed out over how big it is and what a prestigious race it is to try to win. We're going to try to treat it like a normal race and do the best we can.

MODERATOR: Do you feel like at this point in the season you're racing for that 10th spot or are you going to race Sunday for a win here? Are you going to play it safe?

MAYFIELD: We're not going to play it safe. We've come here with everything we've got. I think that's the difference between being 11th or 12th or 13th or whatever in back right now than being in the top 10. If you're sixth, seven, eighth, ninth and 10th, you're probably a little safer than we're going to be. We have nothing to lose really. We've got to run hard, we've got to try to win the race. If we know our car is not capable of winning, you've got to get the best finish you can out of that day. That's our goal and that's our plan, and we'll try to stick to that and not get wrapped up in trying to win the race and mess ourself up.

Q: As you have your logo there, were you surprised to see that Jimmie was fined last week?

MAYFIELD: I know that Mike (Helton) said in the driver's meeting a couple weeks ago, be respectful to the items on the car there in Victory Lane or anything around Victory Lane. I heard that, and I had no idea that it was going to become fines and all that stuff. That's pretty crazy, because if you stop and think about that, you look at the guy in Victory Lane and you see, let's say it's Jimmie, for example, he's got logos on his car and if there's competitive sponsors on top of his car that didn't help him get there, if I was the guy at Lowe's, I'd be mad, too. I'd be pretty pissed off because Victory Lane is all about what got you there, who got you there. It's not fair, let's say for example, the Dodge car would be in Victory Lane and have a Chevrolet emblem on top of it. Chevrolet didn't do nothing to help him get there. That's kind of the same thing I'm looking at there. I'm not sure what their problem was there, what he did. But I can say that maybe we need to stop and look at Victory Lane itself. If a company that's competitive to your sponsor, they shouldn't be on your car anyway; and maybe NASCAR needs to look at that side of it instead of just saying it's OK and let's be respectful. I mean, that's not respectful, either, putting your competitor's product or whatever on top of the car that's in Victory Lane. That's not very respectful in their area.

Q: Jeremy, I guess this thing with the points depends on where you are in the standings. Might not be very rewarding for Jimmie, but can you talk about that and if you could be in charge of NASCAR for a day, what would you do?

MAYFIELD: First of all, if I was in charge of NASCAR for a day -- I don't know if you want to repeat that question --

MODERATOR: He's so excited. The question was referring to the new changes in the points standings. For Jimmie this could be his worst nightmare but for you it could be a dream come true. What would you do if you --

MAYFIELD: What I would do first of all is give Dodge more downforce, bigger carburetor intake. (Laughter) I guess you'd say if you had to change it, at the beginning of the year when they first came up with this deal, I was like, I was just open-minded about it because we were back in the points, we were 19th last year. So you really don't know how it's going to help or hurt you at that point where we were at. Now that we're going into it, I have to say I like the system, I love it. Yeah, it's bad for Jimmie, but that's part of the deal, you know. For us it's going to be good because what we can -- we're sitting here going, OK, we're on the edge of being in the top 10 and still have a chance to win a championship with 10 races to go. I think that's great for the sport. At the beginning of the year, you didn't hear the hype about all the new points system, we all wanted to know how it was going to work out, I think we all were. Not real for sure how it was going to happen, and now that it's getting down to the wire, it's making it more exciting, and I think the fans are liking it, and more people are talking about it. I think it's great, that's going to be my answer. I'm sure Jimmie will differ a little bit, if he's not already been here. He's probably not liking it. That's what's going to make it exciting, because with 10 to go, you're not going to know who's going to win the championship. I think it's going to be cool for an underdog like myself to come in there running 11th right now, come back and win the championship.

Q: Jeremy, a little bit off the beaten path, I don't know if you've had much of a chance to think about this, but next year Dodge will go to the Charger instead of the Intrepid, what's your thoughts on that? Are you worried?

MAYFIELD: I'm not really worried. I've seen the car. If you see it, you won't be worried either because it looks real good. It's a great race car, something they've been working on for a while. It's not something that just happened overnight. That's the good thing about Dodge I've noticed is how involved they are in motorsports and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup racing, they give us all the support and resources we need, and they're already working on the stuff for the future. That's what's got them so competitive so early in the sport right now when they came back in. The Charger is going to be great, I'm excited about it. It's awesome. It's pretty mean looking. If I was a guy driving anything else but that and look up in the mirror and see this thing, it's going to be pretty cool. We know what our balance numbers needs to be now and about where we need to be aero-wise, and I know that NASCAR is going to help them if they're off any get where it needs to be, too.

Q: Having a muscle car in there.

MAYFIELD: That's what I am excited about, it's not an Intrepid, something that's just a street rod, this is a hot rod and the brand of hot rod, so it's going to be cool for us.

MODERATOR: Just a side note, it's not necessarily a Charger or Intrepid yet, they have not identified the actual name of the car. It is the Dodge, 2005 Dodge.

MAYFIELD: I didn't even know that, so sorry. All I know, it looks mean.

Q: Two years ago Evernham received a win here, a very hot day. Cooler weather this weekend. Can you use any of the information from two years ago to try and pick up a win here?

MAYFIELD: I think so. I don't know if you use any information from that, but we've built off that. We've been building off that same program for a long time and just keep getting better and better and better and better. We still are back, we're kind of running the same type setup but we've made things a little bit better along the way downforce-wise and drag-wise and all the way. Temperature-wise I think it's going to be great, it's going to be good. It's going to be a different race than you've seen here because of the weather. It's going to be more grip, run more faster, you'll probably see faster qualifying speeds tomorrow. You look at some of it, which is a baseline you had a long time ago that you built off of but I'd say we're going to be pretty far off of that come Sunday.

Q: Jeremy, how much does momentum play week to week? Even if you have a bad week you have another race, but you've got a good streak, bad streak.

MODERATOR: The question is how much does momentum play in your success week in and week out? If you have a bad week, can you come back and do well?

MAYFIELD: I think it's the most important thing anymore in this type of racing is that it's all about people anymore and to keep the morale up and keep the excitement up and enthusiasm up in the shop and around you, that's what it's all about. Every car has good race cars, great teams, great motors, and it's all about the good teams working together through thick and thin. Ray and I kind of struggled the first year, year and a half with our team and each other. We made it through that. That's nothing that was any harder when you're starting over and trying to get that momentum going. Now that we got that going, I don't see it ever going back to where it was. I think it's probably, if I had to say, OK, what's the main thing you need in a NASCAR Nextel Cup team to win races and championships, it's people. Like I said, we've all got the resources and everything else, so that people thing is part of the momentum. When you have a good run, OK, you go back and have another good run, another good run, then when you have the bad run, that's when people come into play, because you don't have any finger pointing. You don't have anybody going I can't do this or whatever. It could take one person to change a whole race team. I think that's how important momentum is. That's what you're talking about and referring to. Once you get on a roll like that, I seen Jeff Gordon get on that a while back, two or three poles in a row and a couple wins and it's just all about getting the thing going. You see the 24 team, they might not run well a couple weeks, they'll come right back and have it again. That's the sign of a good race team.

MODERATOR: Are there any more questions? Good luck on Sunday.

MAYFIELD: You want me to play Jimmie for a while? Chad has got my car messed up and -- no. (Laughter) I would like to thank Home Depot and Dodge. (Laughter)

MODERATOR: We're joined now by Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet. He's had four wins this season, including last weekend's dominating performance at Pocono. He is leading the points, 232 ahead of his teammate Jeff Gordon.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I hope that doesn't cost me anything.

MODERATOR: In his two races here he's finished ninth in 2002 and 18th in 2003. This time around he was fourth in practice. Basically with your performance here, what are you guys going to have to do on Sunday to obviously crack into the top five or either have a solid top-10 finish?

JOHNSON: I think we've really learned some stuff at Pocono. You know, in the spring race and rule change was made that we had to go back to the drawing board and find something again. We found something obviously real good last week in a different area to find speed in the race car. So bringing that here, very excited, and I think that we're very optimistic on the Lowe's team. To be fourth on the board with only 13 laps on the track this year, we didn't test up here, this is one of the most difficult tracks, I feel, from a driver's standpoint to find your marks. The last two times I've raced here, I had two days of testing prior to the race weekend to sort things out. I still don't feel like I'm doing my job right or sorting out a brand new race car that hasn't been raced all year long with 13 laps on both of us and being fourth on the board, I'm very happy with that. I'd hope, we drew late in qualifying, so it's going to hurt us some, but I think once we get into race practice and get into the race, we're definitely hoping we have a performance like we did at Pocono.

MODERATOR: Thus far this season your team has been consistent at diverse tracks, whether superspeedways, mile tracks, short tracks, it doesn't matter, and despite the conditions you seem to finish consistently. What are you doing to your program so that each week you're pretty much ensured that you're going to have a good finish?

JOHNSON: You know, it's, I think -- I think a lot of that, the changes from the years past and seeing the diversity out of the 48 car has a lot to do with me getting more experience on the smaller tracks and also restrictor-plate races and really at all the tracks in general. I've been fast at tracks with a lot of banking and grip where you can drive aggressive. Over time with more and more experience I think I've been able to understand what I need to do in the car to be faster everywhere. I think our foundation has always been there. You look at Jeff's success, it doesn't matter if it's a road course, superspeedway, Martinsville, Bristol, here. Wherever it is, he's always fast. I think it just takes a little bit of time to hit the rhythm for all the tracks. Now year three, more experience, more time, I've seen the tracks six, seven times now, it's made a big difference.

Q: Jimmie, former winners here, Dale Jarrett and even Kevin Harvick today are talking about the two Hendrick cars have got everybody covered so much, especially if you can't translate a lot of Pocono to here. Do you and Jeff go in feeling like the clear favorites in this race, the guys to beat? And do you feel you have a psyche advantage over the rest of the guys going in?

MODERATOR: The question is former winners here have said that the two Hendrick cars, yourself and Jeff, are the teams to beat. Do you feel like coming into Sunday's race you have a psychological advantage but also your car is just a better car, do you feel like that?

JOHNSON: We definitely come in high and confident, especially the 48 team after the performance at Pocono. But I think between the 24 and the 48, we have seen our success on the track, and from our team we've noticed that we maybe do have a small advantage mentally on the competition. That's very tough to do, and in most cases it's usually short-lived. So we're hoping we can keep that. The sport is too aggressive and too much changes in a short period of time. In the beginning of the year, I think the 9 car probably had everybody mentally, had an advantage on everyone mentally. You have a new driver on the car, he's knocking down seconds left and right and that was the car we had our eyes on. We've hit our stride, and hopefully we can hang on to it and have a final 10 and get it when it's really important.

Q: Jimmie, I'm sure you've been asked this question a few times, with the points, Jeremy was in here earlier, he's very happy about the system.

MODERATOR: The question is regarding with the new point system, come September after Richmond, obviously the situation is going to change dramatically, whereas with Jeremy it would benefit him and with you it still may or it may not.

JOHNSON: Yeah, I've been pretty vocal about it before the season, throughout the season, especially now I have the points lead. But we are in a great position, and even if it was the old rule system, there's still a lot of racing to be done. In some ways people have given us a lot of credit and say we'll be the champion. But there's a lot of racing left. So with that in mind, looking at the point system, there's a lot of racing left until that final 10, and there's a lot of teams excited about this new point system. For me it's not -- when I watch all the broadcasts now, everything is for the drivers from eighth to 15th. And in any form of sports, I don't think you look at the eighth-place team in NFL and wonder is he going to win the Super Bowl this year or the 15th-place team. So it's something different for me, and I'm not a fan of. It's created a lot of excitement for the fans and lots to talk about. So there are people in favor of it; but for myself, to win a championship in this sport is very tough to do. In the past it was something that was always done over the course of 36 or whatever the number was over the past years, and that's what I've always been a fan of and still am. Then my points situation definitely makes that even more concrete. So to make a long story short, it's what it is, and I've got to race and try to win the championship just like all the other competitors do regardless of the point system and, you know, if it turns out that we don't have our best 10 at the end of the year and we're not the champions, you have a lot to write about.

Q: Jimmie, would you tell us about your relationship with (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) and your relationship and communication and all that that's led to the success?

MODERATOR: The question is, will you comment on your relationship with Chad and that's led to your success so far.

JOHNSON: I think communications and chemistry on a race team is everything. You have a lot of relationships in this garage area. If you counted them all up, you could take the top 20 cars and look at four car owners possibly and that would be the top 20 teams. What makes the teams different, what separates team to team, I personally think it's communication, and it's, you know, it's within the team and how the guys communicate, that connection that you have to do that. Chad and I have been able to really see each other eye to eye. I believe in him; he believes in me. Today he sent me out with a whole new package that he wasn't sure it was going to work entirely like he had dreamed of and was very -- thanked me for believing in him and just giving something off the wall a shot today. You've got to have that confidence in one another, and the communication is everything. It's so cool that I can describe what I feel. I don't have to worry about what he's put being in around me because I believe in him. I just describe what I'm feeling, where I need some help, where the car may not be right and he can visualize what I'm saying and fix it. It's really an amazing deal.

Q: Jimmie, you talk about going on 40th tomorrow, do you worry about being set back by luck of the draw, a place that typically changes as the day gets hotter?

JOHNSON: Yeah, it's definitely going to hurt us. You know, you roll the dice like that. I think the Lowe's Motor Speedway earlier this year, it's another track that's sensitive to the sun, we drew dead last, and it worked in our favor. Here we're going out near last, and it's the opposite because we're starting qualifying first thing in the morning. So sometimes they work for you, sometimes they don't. I wish I had an early draw, but I can't do anything about that. We just worked on getting our car to drive good today in the hot weather so that we can hopefully be in the top 10. Tomorrow our goal is it to be in the top 10 to get a good pit stall down towards Turn 1.

MODERATOR: The question is have you gotten much feedback from your fellow drivers about the fine handed down this week?

JOHNSON: Haven't had a chance to run into everybody yet; a few walking through the garage. I think there's been some chuckling about it and laughing about it. But, you know, it is what it is. I was trying to defend my sponsor and do what I could there. NASCAR had to do what they had to do to honor relationships that they have with people that sponsor them. So I guess we're all doing our job to look good for our sponsors and it's given us something to talk about.

Q: Have you and Ed Scheul talked about a strong chance for you getting in Victory Lane again Sunday, and have you and Ed talked about any sort of strategy?

MODERATOR: The question is have you talked to Ed Scheul, I'm assuming he's from Gatorade, about your Victory Lane plan if you visit Victory Lane on Sunday?

JOHNSON: No, absolutely not. I haven't been contacted from any of my sponsors to handle Victory Lane in a certain way. What's taking place has just been something that I've decided on my own to do and what I wanted to do to defend my sponsors and not endorse people that are competitors of my sponsors. So from six months ago until today, I have not received a phone call from anyone at Gatorade saying we would like you to do this or that. They appreciate the fact that I look out for them, but there's no one pushing anywhere to do that stuff.

Q: Is there any chance they would pay the fine for you?

JOHNSON: There's been lots of -- many people have offered to help pay that fine. I might make some money on this. (Laughter)

Q: You talked earlier about possibly having a small advantage over the competition, mental advantage. How do you see that or can you further explain that and maybe I guess talk a little more about how Kasey Kahne's mental advantage played on you guys earlier?

MODERATOR: The question is earlier you mentioned having a small mental advantage over the competition. Can you explain that but then if Kasey has a mental advantage as well?

JOHNSON: It's kind of a hard thing to explain. But I'm trying to think back to maybe past champions or people who have been able to win a lot of races. You look at Ryan Newman last year, maybe when he'd qualify, he hits the track and, OK, here comes the 12 and, boom, he does it. We're qualifying for second. And last year he won eight races, so it's like 'Newman won again.' I think Kasey Kahne led us all to think that at the beginning of the year. The guy couldn't stop finishing second and third and just running incredible. So, you know, I think when you're able to put together a stretch of races like that, competitors know that, they see that; and it's not that they don't expect it, but when it happens, like, OK, there's just a small thing there. I really don't even know how to describe it, but there's something little there. But again it's usually short lived. In our sport, you'll race at Talladega one weekend and be at Martinsville the next weekend, and it takes a totally different package, totally different style of driving to do that. So it usually grounds itself from week to week. We've had a few big tracks that have played into one another here that kind of gives us an upper hand coming here. But once qualifying starts, I usually think that whatever mental advantage that did exist is usually gone unless you backed it up and sat on the pole.

Q: You guys had strong runs the last couple years, have you noticed any perceived advantage different now as opposed to other years or do you kind of get the same sense?

MODERATOR: The question is you've had some strong runs over the last few years. Do you notice a perceived advantage now versus other years?

Q: Is it about the same thing or is it any different?

JOHNSON: I think it's about the same. I think what's different is maybe the duration that we've been able to be on our game as a race team. Where we would hit it every once in a while in the rookie year and last year we had maybe a little longer stretch of it. This year we've been pretty solid from the beginning. So I think that thought, if there is such an advantage does exist maybe, it's been over a longer period of time this year instead of just flashes of it.

Q: Can you recall the story when you were 8 years old going for a motocross championship?

JOHNSON: In my first championship that I won, I broke my knee and had reconstructive knee surgery on my left leg at, of all things, on my eighth birthday. There was I think four or five more races left in the season, and I needed -- the way it worked out after I got home from the doctor's office and everything, there was two races left, and you had a starting point if you started the event. I didn't want to lose my championship, I was upset about that. My dad looked at the points and figured out that if I started the last two events and rode one lap and got the starting point, that I would tie with the other kid in points and then the tie-breaker would then go to the one who won the most races during the season; and I would win it on the tie-breaker. He asked me if I was up for it, and I said absolutely. We went down the street to the local place where we would ride and tried it out one day, built a bracket that held my leg in the cast and everything and let me ride around on the track and figured it out and started the races, the two races. Rode around and did what I needed to do and almost killed my dad from having him chase me around the whole track and won my first championship. I still have that trophy and the pictures.

Q: Jimmie, do you think they can change the schedule? It's essentially a two-day event here, can it be put to better use?

JOHNSON: I think so. I think what changes the schedule here is that only the Cup cars run. If we could bring the Busch cars over and have them run here, also, I think it would be more of a jam-packed day and wouldn't seem to have so many dead spots throughout the weekend. But without any other competitors here, it's tough to stay occupied. We've been sitting around all day doing nothing.

Q: When you look at tomorrow's schedule, I mean 10:10 qualifying and then you've got a 2:00 and 4:00 practice. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a 9:00 practice and 1:00 qualifying and 4:00 practice?

JOHNSON: Yeah, I think so. I think putting everything on one day for qualifying, even if we come in today and did it. The biggest thing I have trouble with is the racetrack sits all night long, and then tomorrow the first guy goes out without any traffic on the track; and the track is dirty, so the first four or five or six guys are track cleaners. Then on top of that you have such a huge advantage from going at 10:00 versus going out, we'll go 41st at noon, 1:00 or whatever that is. Personally, I would like to see it all in one day or in a little different format so that we didn't have that big dead spot from practice to qualifying. Having to go home and go to sleep -- or go to the bus and go to sleep and kind of forget about today and wake up and everything's on the line with one lap, first lap, first time by tomorrow in qualifying. That's pretty tough.

Q: On that same subject Jimmie, even though it might not work for this big a race at this racetrack, might a Saturday/Sunday format for Cup be a good thing as you try to cut away from this grueling schedule for your everyday rank-and-file racer, would you like to see if you're just running Cup, you come in and practice and qualify on Saturday and race on Sunday and that's it, would it help the week for everybody?

JOHNSON: Yeah, I think any day at home would help. The thing that probably a lot of us don't factor in would be the amount of time we're here at the track and the days the track is open. So I think there's some other issues with putting people in the stands and stuff like that that probably keeps that decision from taking place. Here we come to one of the biggest races of the year and have a short schedule and you don't have all the hype and buildup, it probably wouldn't work here. You need to have it drawn out to a point and have a lot of excitement around it because it's the Brickyard. I think they could do it in a better way and even bring the Busch cars over, I think would help us a lot to make the days go by. I'm in favor of any more days home. Even if it's one, it doesn't matter.

Q: Other tracks and/or lesser races?

JOHNSON: Any days home. An extra day home, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. It would be awesome.

Q: Jimmie, can you make a comment on racing a four-time champion and also your car owner for this year's championship?

JOHNSON: I've got a lot of views on it. First of all, it's great for motorsports to have two cars competing for a championship. Rick (Hendrick) would really like to have all four cars competing but to have two this year is a huge accomplishment and says a lot for the organization. You know, another way I look at it is in order to be the best you have to beat the best. So I want to race against these guys and the best in the business. If I am able to win a championship, I want to beat them when they all have a great year and it's a great dogfight to the end. You know, both cars being assembled in the same shop, it's really hard for the 24 to have an advantage on the 48 or vice versa. I mean you have the same guys assembling the cars, open notebook on setup. So it's really tough to find an advantage over the 24 and same for Jeff over me. You look at different situations, and there's some that really equalize us, there's others that are very cool and respectful. I mean, it's just a mixed bag. It's hard to really nail it. But I think at the end of the day I'm happy for Rick to have two cars competing for the championship. If it does come down to it and I have to race my teammate, I think that would be the best situation possible. I know I'm going to be racing with someone that I can trust, be door to door with, and put on a good show and not be in a situation to be wrecked or taken out in order for somebody to win that championship. So we've got a lot of racing to get to that point before that would play out. But if it does get to that scenario, I think it may be a problem, but it's a good one.

MODERATOR: Good luck qualifying tomorrow. Thank you.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

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