NASCAR NCS (HOMESTEAD) - Ford 300 Post-Race Press Conference

AN INTERVIEW WITH:

DAVID RAGAN MARK MARTIN MATT KENSETH

MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and take some questions. I'll start with you David, your thoughts about being named the Rookie of the Year?

DAVID RAGAN: Wish we could have had a little better night tonight. I would have been a lot better to end the night with a good top 5, possible a win. But certainly this is what we set out to do in the spring time. This is one of our goals we had this year to finish in the top 10 in points and win Rookie of the Year. And we finished fifth in points and I'm the Rookie of the Year. So two of the three we got to cross off. A little disappointed we didn't win a race this year, we were pretty close a few times, but it gives us something to look forward to next year. But very cool to be the Rookie of the Year. Jack Roush has got a niche for finding younger guys and that are able to come into this sport and do this. Carl Edwards, Greg, my teammate last year. We were all able to do that and so it's pretty cool to follow those guys. And hopefully we'll continue on and win some races and win some championships of other forms.

MODERATOR: Mark, you're the all time wins leader in this series, obviously we have got a new sponsor coming in next year, but your thoughts on running in the final what would be known as the NASCAR Busch Series Rees race here tonight.

MARK MARTIN: Well it was cool. It meant a lot to me. I've been around the whole time that the Busch Series has been around. I didn't race the first five years, that Busch was involved, but I was a spectator. So I saw it from a distance. And it means a lot to me. But what really means so much to me is that Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motor Sports put me in a race car like they did tonight. And like they did the or two times this year.

I can't tell you what it means to have that opportunity and Rick and I really wanted to get a win and get that trophy. And I really appreciate having the opportunity. And we were pretty close tonight but we just pull it off with Jeff running the way he was. But we gave it, man, we gave it everything we had.

So he was proud to be racing with Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth there at the end for it. And with Carl. It was a great race. Had a couple of runs on Jeff, but I just didn't get him clear. Then Carl got up on us and kind of mixed it all up.

So for me, it's an honor and a privilege to be at this point in my career and have people give me the kind of stuff that I get to drive with that 5 car.

MODERATOR: Matt you battled back, had some tough luck early in the race, battled back very strong there towards the stretch run. Your thoughts about tonight's race.

MATT KENSETH: It was we had a great finish. We didn't run very good. I was really confident, probably overly confident after Friday's practice, I thought our car was going to be really good. And we didn't qualify overly great and really didn't run that great. So we blew that tire and we were able to get our lap back and then because of that, we were in the back and we pitted the race a little different and a lot of guys had to pit under green and we didn't. We stayed out and that's what got us the traction and really got us the finish. So my guys did a great job. I had a lot of fun. Wish I would have got a few more wins. But I had a few good runs and looking forward to next year.

MODERATOR: Take questions now.

Q. Mark and Matt, Jeff talks about how he always just wanted to be a Busch Series driver because he grew up watching the Busch Series as a local guy. Can you guys talk about what the Busch Series meant to you. I know mark you were racing when it first got started.

MARK MARTIN: Well, you know, first of all, Jeff Burton is a major class act. And he, when he was little he looked at the Busch Series as something that might be obtainable in his life time and spent time watching that racing. And he's a real class act.

It's been a pleasure to have the opportunity to race with him and to have it look like with 10 to go that it might be decided between he and I was pretty cool.

The Busch Series is something that it evolved over time. It wouldn't, when I first got involved with it it was quite different than it is now. But it's still it still holds a dear place in my heart.

Q. There are a lot of cautions tonight. Was there anything out there that was causing all that and what was the like to have to drive through all that stuff?

MATT KENSETH: Most likely it was things probably the drivers running into each other. Usually that's what causes wrecks and cautions. I know I had a flat tire, David did. There was a couple of cautions and the rest of them I wasn't really around except for one more when I saw somebody spin out. So I don't really know but that's usually more of the cause of them than not.

MARK MARTIN: Too many accidents. (Laughter.)

Q. Mark, we did a little research the first race the Budweiser Sportsman Series in 1982, you finished 26 and you won $650. Do you remember that and what you might have done with the money?

MARK MARTIN: Was that IRP? Yeah, I remember running that race. The reason I ran IRP is because I was from ASA Racing, up that way. And so I got a ride to run that track because I was familiar with it. And I was just getting started in NASCAR at the time and, yeah, I remember if you want to know the truth, I remember what compound tires we ran, we ran the hard tires, the S 16 Goodyears on the left side and everybody else ran the 11s. And it was a softer compound. And we would have run better if we would have run the soft ones. I think it was a poor choice. But we still that was our first race. So believe it or not, I remember more than most of you might think. And we were like 2139s was the part number. The last two numbers were 39s on the Goodyear tire. And that was 1982. So I don't remember my name half the time, but I can remember stuff like springs or shocks or gearhead stuff.

Q. Mark, when you're battling Burton and Kenseth, and Harvick there, who was up there for awhile too, do you, are you cognizant at all about the history of that and the sense I think that all the four of you are in the top 6 of wins in this series.

MARK MARTIN: Well, I knew it was Jeff Burton. And that made me comfortable that we could race major hard, really hard. But, no, to be honest with you, you know, the historical impact and the depth of all of that is not at the front part of your mind. It's buried kind of down in there and it's the fire, the competitive desire and you're just trying to I was trying to figure out a way that I could get in front of him. I got beside him I think twice. But it was going to take more than that to win the race. I was going to have to get clear of him. Being on the inside kind of makes you loose and it pulls the back end around. And getting on the inside of him was one step, but I was trying to figure out how I was going to get on the rest of the way out in front.

Q. Matt, do you have any comments about that?

MATT KENSETH: Mark's always been my mentor and really got me into Roush Racing and I met him when I first started the Busch Series and shortly thereafter I met Jeff and really them are the two guys besides Jack that are probably as responsible or the most responsible for Roush Racing and what it is today and for the opportunities that gave me and David and Greg and everybody. So I always think about that. I always think about when they were teammates and still great friend and I really enjoy racing with them. I don't really think about win number totals. But I know they're the best in the business. So when you're out there racing with them it's definitely fun. So it's cool to see them up there.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

AN INTERVIEW WITH:

RICHARD CHILDRESS JEFF BURTON SCOTT WIMMER PAT SMITH

MODERATOR: Pleased to be joined with double winners, NASCAR Busch Series Car Owner Champion, Richard Childress. We got our race winner, Jeff Burton. And also Scott Wimmer, who guided this number 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet to this car owner championship this year a long with crew chief Pat Smith. Congratulations to the four of you. Great team effort. You're truly a great champion. Richard, we'll start with you, it is your fourth NASCAR Busch Series car owner championship. How does it feel to win this one this year?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: It was great. To have Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer involved, Pat Smith, there are other guys behind the scenes. He's been involved with everyone of them. We're really excited about the wining the race tonight and being able to close out an era for Busch Beer.

They meant so much to the sport and I can't thank them enough and NASCAR and the relationship that's been there. I think Dale won the very first one of these. Guys that know the numbers can tell us, but I think Dale won the very first Busch race and for RCR to win the last one, that was really special. And to have Jeff Burton behind the wheel and the job Scott did this year, I can't say enough about them all.

Just proud to be here and proud of everybody that made this happen.

MODERATOR: Let's go now to our race winner, Jeff Burton. This is his 27th victory in the NASCAR Busch Series. Jeff, talk about this win and talk about the significance of it being the final race in what we have known as the in a car Busch Series

JEFF BURTON: Pat has done a great job this year. Richard said about all the guys behind the scenes that have done a great job. We won the Owner Championship with this team, but I believe the other team finished third or fourth. And that's a heck of a year.

So real proud of all the effort. Pat has, Pat and I had a conversation early in the year, Pat said, man, we're going to step it up. And honestly, they stepped it up. And I'm real proud of that.

To be part of this, when Richard told me Scott was going to be part of this program, I got real excited about that. Because Scott's a proven winner, can win races, has helped our Cup program with all he's done. And this has just been a good deal and I'm proud to be part of it.

I'll be honest I grew up wanting to be a Busch driver. To me this series has been the Busch Series and that's who I grew up idolizing. Jack Ingram and Tommy Ellis and Sam and those guys. And to be part of this, to win the last race as the Busch Series, it means a hell of a lot to me. It really does.

I honestly love being in this series and Busch has been an incredible part of it. And it means a great deal.

MODERATOR: Scott, your thoughts, you played a big role in this team ownership championship this season with that 29 car. Your thoughts.

SCOTT WIMMER: Just excited about the way the whole season went. Me personally it's the first time I've been involved in a multi car organization with teammates. It's just an unbelievable place to race at. Everybody at the shop, Pat Smith, Will, everybody has just done an amazing job with these Busch Series cars. I think to win 13 races this year and all the top 5s and top 10s and to bring a championship home, that means a lot to us. It's been a great year for me. I learned a ton racing with Jeff. On and off the track he's the greatest teammate a guy could have in this sport.

So I'm really privileged to be here. The last season for the Busch Series, it's something special. This is where I got my start and won some races here. And we're real sad to see them go. But they have done such a great deal for this sport to get it to the level it's at. And to have drivers come in and race in this series and improve their skills and hopefully he moving up to Nextel Cup. So it's been a great 26 years and we're sad to see them go. But grateful for all they have done.

MODERATOR: Pat, you've been the quarterback of this 29 team all season. What do you think the key has been to all its success?

PAT SMITH: With Jeff and Scott the consistency that has been there. We have had our heartaches and our pains. We wrecked some cars, we have blown a few engines. But for the most part for both of those guys I know if I put something underneath them each week we're going to have the chance to win. But with the length of time or the last year, the passion that Richard has for his Busch teams is anything less is a disappointment. So we like to go out each week a with an opportunity to win and drivers give us that ability.

MODERATOR: Take questions now.

Q. Richard and Jeff, although this has happened before with you getting split championships, you being the team owner, another guy winning the drivers title, do you think it's kind of a hollow feeling a little bit for the winner of the drivers title that he didn't have the team that won it all?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We won it a couple of years ago and at and Hendricks won it. It's just racing. That's the reason I think NASCAR has two champions. An owner and a driver, in case a situation like this comes up. Where if a driver would get hurt or get out or something. And I think it's a great thing to have it gives our guys back at the shop when we had our meeting back in January, this is one of the goals we set was to win races and to win the championship. It gives the guys when we have to do a split year like we did this year, it gives everybody an opportunity to have something to really go after and do besides just winning races and I was really proud of everybody.

JEFF BURTON: I'm sure that in their world I'm sure they would prefer to have won both. I mean that's just how it is. I mean Carl would say the same thing. But Carl's had, they have done a good job. They have run well, won lot of races. And I wouldn't call it a hollow feeling. But I'm sure that they would prefer to have won both. But like Richard said, I think that, I mean I think it's important to have a car owner, this thing shouldn't just be about the drivers. The, you know, we can't have races without car owners. And we can't have the things that we do without car owners and having a Car Owner Championship I think is very important to this series and every series. The driver gets injured or something like that happens, it shouldn't take the car owner out of having the opportunity to succeed. And I'm a huge supporter of car owner points, rather than driver points. I'm a huge supporter of Car Owner Championships rather than Driver Championships because I believe the car owners are the ones that make the investment and they're the ones that they deserve a championship.

SCOTT WIMMER: Same feeling as Jeff. I think it's really important to the sport to have owners championship and it really reflects on the team that drives. No matter who Pat Smith puts in his race cars and Mr. Childress puts in his race cars they're going to be fast and run up front and he should be rewarded for that. And that's really what it's all about. It's about the team and the people around it. And we're really fortunate at RCR to have that. And Carl ran exceptionally well at the beginning of the year, but stumbled a little bit and won the driver points by a mile, but there was, you know, that Car Owners Championship was really between three cars, but all the way until this weekend and I think it put a lot of excitement in it and kept it interesting all the way to Homestead here. Actually the Car Owner Championship was won last year, Richard won the car Owner Championship with the 21 car, which Jeff actually drove five races, and it was kind of overlooked a little bit with Kevin winning the championship, but it was the car owner.

Q. Richard, during this race you had, at times, Jeff up near the lead and you had Mark Martin, all time series winner and Harvick whose won a bunch of times. Are you watching this at all and thinking that this is kind of cool and in a historic sense or are you just paying attention to what your cars and what they're doing?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I was watching, I know how close Jeff and Mark are. And to watch those two guys racing and to know what Mark's meant to the Busch Series and to see him and Jeff racing and I know how much Mark probably wanted to win this last race. Because he has done so much for the Busch Series. And Kevin's won a lot and watching, yeah, I did think about it. Mostly when I was watching Jeff and Mark racing out there. It went through my mind about I could see the old 60 Winn Dixie car and a lot of seasons from the past really.

JEFF BURTON: I thought about that too. Mark was leading and that was the two all time leading Busch winners there. And to me that's really cool. And I did notice that. I know in the cautions I almost said to the owner well I didn't really say anything, but I thought that was really cool.

Q. Scott, for you, you drove the most races in the car this year, but was it a little bit strange to be out there tonight watching your teammate win this championship?

SCOTT WIMMER: Yeah, it definitely was. I was nervous for some reason. I was sitting up on the pit box with Pat and any time I've got a really good relationship with all of the guys on the team and they work together and we just worked really hard at this. Everybody on the team. And you know, we were able to have a real good run at Phoenix and come here with a pretty comfortable points lead to where if something did happen, we still had a pretty good shot at winning it. So it was fun being a part of the team all year. I only drove half the races, but still it's a phenomenal place to be with, to be associated with, and I'm looking forward to next year. They're going to up my races a little bit. I think I'm going to run 23, Jeff is going to run 12. So hopefully we can have the same success we had this year. It was, right at the beginning of the year it was a little hard getting in and out of the car, but as the summer went on, we got a lot of consistency, a lot of momentum going and we were able to get a lot of points and get us to this position.

Q. (No microphone.)

JEFF BURTON: First of all, there's this, I've done this for a long time and there's always been a discussion of whether Cup drivers should be involved in this sport, in this series rather. I'm not sure this series is broken. There's a long, there's a lot of conversation about this series needs to be something different. But the reality of it is that I'm not sure that I believe that. I think the fans like to see Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. I think they like to see it. I also believe that they like to see that young guy that's getting a chance to go up and race against them. I think they like to see a situation like Scott's been in, where he's won races and then got out of something that was good enough to win and now is back in it. And I think they like to see people like to see Scott. I think they like to see Dale Earnhardt, Junior racing, but they also want to see the next Mark Martin. And we, I don't know how to entice car owners to want to hire younger drivers that don't have as much success or haven't had as much success, but the series is not broken. If we could find a way to have more young guys that are making their name and can be competitive, I think that would be a great thing. But it's very difficult thing to do. It's kind of a double edge sword. But again I don't think the series is broken. It would be great to have more young guys feeling their way through it the way I did when I came in. But on the other hand, it seems to work pretty well.

Q. Richard, can you you were talking about Dale Earnhardt winning that first Busch race and I want to say it was one of the other cars, but did you have, were you associated with it at all? Did you help them out with anything or was it one of the cars that they built and totally separate?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I can't remember back then. I just know that he had won the first race or I knew he was right there and we did a lot of engines for him. I don't remember if we did that engine or if that was probably another engine. I'm pretty sure. But back to what Jeff said, the thing about having the Cup drivers in the Busch Series, I think it's really important. It shows a car owner that you take a Clint Boyer or Kevin Harvick when I seen Kevin Harvick out there racing wheel to wheel with Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth and some of the guys and Jeff I think was still driving Busch then. And that made me know that Kevin Harvick could race. And when I seen Clint Boyer, Johnny Stoddard, these guys racing and beating the Cup drivers, I think that's what the Busch Series is all about. We have got about all of our pit crews in the Cup series came from our Busch Series. The crew chiefs, Todd, Gill Martin, these guys have moved up. It's really, really an important series. And like Jeff said, I don't think it's broken. I think we got a lot, a great future in the Busch Series, which will become the Nationwide Series in the future. We welcome them also.

Q. Even though it was a different team that won the title last night, it's still your driver who drives for that team. So how did you kind of feel about, you got Kevin Harvick racing for you in the Cup series, and you got him out there competing against you in other series. Just what's, what was your feeling to see him win the Truck title

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I was happy for them to win that and I knew how much it meant for Kevin to win that. It's no different than when Dale drove for me and won it for Ron Hornaday. I know what it meant to him and these guys work hard for what they want to do. And if that's the road they want to pave for the future then you want to help support them.

Q. (No microphone.)

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Right now. It doesn't get better than winning championships and winning races. So sure I got some great, great moments to look back through, because I was probably involved in it, I ran the Busch Series and I ran the old Grand National Series before it was the Busch Series. And but, you know, you savor the moment and that's what we're doing right now.

PAT SMITH: I grew up in Colorado with a lot of local racing. And ESPN started carrying the Busch Series and watching Tommy Ellis and Tommy Houston and some of those guys, you know, no one in Colorado knew who they were, but I did. And I grew up watching it. And I remember the first Busch race I ever went to was with Rick and it didn't make the show. And at that point I idolized the series and was real proud to be where I am today.

SCOTT WIMMER: I would say right now. Winning the Owners Championship and just being with this team is probably the most memorable to me. Yeah, I grew up in Wisconsin and I watched Mark Martin racing since I can remember. I probably watched him race more than a lot of people have. And, you know, what he made this series when he came into it. And I watched Matt Kenseth come up into it and a lot of drivers from Wisconsin went through the Busch Series. And it just really left a Mark on me how competitive it is. There's great drivers in it, we got Jason Keller that's been in it for 700 some starts and Randy, all these great drivers that have come through this series and made their marks on the series, all the way back to Jack Ingram and Tommy Houston. And those are the memories for me, what those guys did and what Mr. Childress has done winning four titles. And that's pretty memorable when a car owner can do that with so many different drivers and, you know, those are the memories that are probably the most memorable to me.

JEFF BURTON: This is my first involvement in the championship. I was involved in, like Pat said earlier, I was involved in the thing last year, but I only ran five races. And this is, like I said earlier, all I ever wanted to be was a Busch driver. And to be part of the championship means just an incredible amount to me.

One of the things that I really miss about the Busch Series is when we used to go to South Boston and Orange County and Hickory and those kind of places and Robert Pressley and guys like that that would run a local racetrack, they would also have a Busch car. And the Busch field would be 38 people trying to go for 28 spots or whatever it was. I can't remember how exactly it worked, but that was really cool. Because you would have guys that just have one Busch car and one engine and took their late model guys and went out and ran the Busch Series. And that's what I did. And that was so cool to be part of it. To me that's what I'll always remember about the Busch Series is being a late model drive and having two trailers at the racetrack on one night with your late model car and your Busch car there. And having a chance to run against Jack Ingram and Tommy Ellis and that to me was just, that was just incredible. And that's what I always will remember about the Busch Series.

Q. Richard, this question is for you. It was mentioned about the younger drivers and we know what the 29's doing next year and the two's doing next year and you rotated a couple young guys in the 21 this year. So what are your plans next year with the 21 car?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We're going to announce it pretty soon. We have a driver lined up for it. And we're getting ready to announce it. It's, we're excited about it. It's going to be a lot of fun. I would like to tell you right now but I don't think I'm supposed to. We're excited about it. So it's going to be fun. Fastscripts by ASAP Sports.

AN INTERVIEW WITH:

JACK ROUSH PIERRE KUETTEL CARL EDWARDS

MODERATOR: Jack, comment about winning this final championship in what we have known as the Busch Series. Your thoughts?

JACK ROUSH: We have been pretty fortunate to win the some of these championships. The Nextel Cup Championship, the next, one of the last ones, of course, Matt Kenseth won and Curt Busch came along and won the first Nextel Cup. So I'm hoping that trend will continue and we'll be able to win the first Nationwide Championship going forward. Of course, then the challenge will be to see if we can win two in a row in the same series with the same name. But it was a great honor to be involved with Ford this year. They gave us good support for our Ford Fusion. P.K., he did a great job, our crew chief, he's been a great guy in the business for a long time. Certainly deserved it. Carl has got great potential. He was, did a nice job last year and got the experience he needed to close the deal.

We I'm feeling that somehow I let the team down. I'm not sure what I did different from helping Carl win the Drivers Championship to not being able to win the Owner Championship myself. But I'll have to work on that. I think that there's, I missed something along the way. But congratulations to Richard Childress and what he did with his bunch. They certainly put cars out there that were fast and a number of people drove them and did a real nice job with them. But we had an unbelievable first half to our season and then, of course, came off the track there a little bit. And we had some crashes and we broke some parts. Just had to give some of that good luck back. We had, fortunately, there wasn't one Childress driver in there that was the whole time or we would have been in trouble.

MODERATOR: P.K., your thoughts? You were the quarterback of this team. Your thoughts about winning this title.

PIERRE KUETTEL: Sure means a lot. This is great to win the final Busch Series title and have finish that 26 year run out. Those guys, Busch people, have done a fantastic job in sponsoring this series and supporting it and it is just to be great to be a part of it.

MODERATOR: We're also pleased right now to be joined by our 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Champion and that's Carl Edwards. Carl, your thoughts about winning the championship and the significance of winning the final Busch Series Championship.

CARL EDWARDS: I'm very pleased, obviously, to be the champion. That's great. I don't know what else to say. I can't thank Jack enough for giving me the opportunities that he has in my career. P.K. for working so hard. I know that his hair was pretty gray when we started, but it's shiny silver now. And we have been working pretty hard. And I appreciate all the guys efforts. And really have to congratulate Jeff Burton and Richard Childress Racing. They showed tonight how strong they can be. They did a great job winning the Owners Championship. It will be fun to, I mean, they're a good group to share this with. And I'm just excited. I can't wait to do it again next year. We're gearing up hopefully we can have a season next year all year like the beginning of this season where we just, we were really on a roll. So very excited about next year. Hopefully we got a big clawed monkey off our back that Jack talked about. And I think tonight was a good run for us. It was a great rebound from the beginning of the race and that, that will be something that we can hang our hats on for the winter time.

MODERATOR: Take questions now.

Q. Carl, you came in here last year after the last race of the season and talked about this whopping margin that Kevin Harvick had won the title with. And you said it may well have been a thousand points the way things have gone. But you win the title by a pretty big margin. Just talk about the satisfaction level of that.

CARL EDWARDS: I'm glad Kevin didn't compete in every race this year. Those guys do a great job. We were off to a better start I believe than he was even last year at the beginning of the season. We just were on an unbelievable roll. And it's just fun to be part of it something like that. The first half of this season I think we made it to the 11th race before we ever ran outside the top 10. And that's what this team's capable of. So it's about that time they started talking about the championship being a run away and I'm just glad that I was the guy leading the thing. It's not very often that you get to have runs like that. So I'm just glad to be driving this race car.

Q. Jack, this being NASCAR everything gets talked about and there's been a lot of talk about the Busch Series, Nationwide Series now, being broken or needing solutions. In your opinion, is it broken and if so, what would you do and if it's not broken, I guess we can continue as normal.

JACK ROUSH: I guess the simplest think that I can start with is to say that for the sponsors I've talked to and for the NASCAR officials I've talked to, everybody agrees that we need to have the Cup drivers to help attract attention and relevance to the Busch Series or the Nationwide Series. And we need to have the Cup sponsors and they're doing their part as well.

It's not real easy to separate that. I guess if you didn't want the Cup people involved, you would have it at South Boston and a number of other places where you don't have Cup races. And you don't have a Cup crowd.

I had conversation with Robin Pemberton and regarding the rumors that were out there that the Cup drivers were going to be excluded and Cup teams would be excluded in competing for a championship. And he assured me that would not be the case in 2008. That they were, however, looking at the prospect of how they can engage Busch or Nationwide drivers that didn't compete in the Cup series to a greater extent. The suggestion I made was that they have a chase not unlike what we have for the Cup series. Take as many as you want, eight, 10, 12, 15 drivers to that to compete for the championship run. And then when you assign the points, you assign the additional points for drivers that haven't competed seven times in the Cup series, then give them more points. And if you think you need to weight the Cup drivers down with 50 points or a 100 point burden or whatever it is, do that, and then let the Cup drivers come from the back and see if they could overtake with their experience and with their arguable advantages, be able to see if they could overtake the Nationwide regulars. He didn't comment on that. He said he would consider it. But I think there's a way to make competition between the Cup guys if this was a horse race and you had somebody that was too fast, you just put a little more weight on the jockey that was going too fast.

Q. Carl, were you cognizant at all of the kind of the historical significance or kind of the way the race unfolded with guys like Burton and Martin and Kenseth who all are in the top 6 in all time wins in the series, out there battling with you.

CARL EDWARDS: I didn't know that. That's cool though. I mean, obviously, to be up there racing with Jeff Burton and Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth, guys that, the closest I got to those guys before was getting the same RC car bodies like their cars back in the day. So it's very cool to be able to race with those guys, to be up there fighting for a win with them. And especially Mark, that was neat at the end of the race to be able to race with him like that. Just because of how much he's done for my career personally and before I even knew him how much he inspired me to work hard. And so that is pretty neat.

Q. Carl, we all know that you're a fitness buff and you're in great shape, but how much longer can you keep up the pace of doing both series full time?

CARL EDWARDS: The racing part is easy. I mean I love it. The time I get to do what I really love to do is then. So that part is easy. And Jack and everybody's been, P.K., and all the people that work around me have been doing a great job of making things as easy as they can be on me. I still voluntarily take on more stuff, more marketing partners and stuff like that because we have got everything tidied up enough that I have extra time and energy. So and I'm working on getting a faster airplane. Which will open up a whole bunch more time, so we can do more stuff. But it's fine, man. I mean this is the third full year now. Crazy how fast it goes. But I just, I'm enjoying it

Q. A shameless plug here, but that classified ad you took out in Speed Sport, what was it? '98? Was that like one of the, you know, the best expenses you ever came out with to help get your career off the ground?

CARL EDWARDS: It's crazy, that was pretty cool. Speed Sport has this thing where I think it was 28 dollars to put a picture in with like four lines of text. Just before to put four lines of text in it was like 7.50 or 7 dollars a week or something like that. I didn't realize that you could just pay the one time the 28 dollars and you got to keep your picture in there until you changed the picture. So I was pumped it was like the deal of all deals. And that's pretty cool. And it's, I'm very proud that all the people that have helped me and stuff, and I said it out there, it's, if you have something that you dream about doing, all you got to do is just keep your head down and work and don't listen to what anybody says. People always try to bring you down. People always have negative things to say. And you just got to keep plugging away. And I'm very glad that people taught me that lesson early and I got a chance to do this.

Q. (No microphone.)

CARL EDWARDS: I never heard from any owners. I cannot tell you how many race car drivers called me up and said, hey, does that ad work? I said, place an ad for yourself and find out. Or I told them, no, it just doesn't work. Don't do it. But it's cool, it took me a lot of time. A lot of people laughed at me. A ton of people, I mean people in this garage right now that I walk by every day working on these crews, one guy in particular I see an awful lot, I shared a hotel room with him one time when I was about 17 years old working for Kenny. And he laughed at me, told me I would never make it in racing, it's too hard. So it feels good to accomplish something.

Q. Jack, those couple years ago at Daytona, I don't remember what press conference, but you laid it out when you said one of your career goals for Carl was to win the Busch Series title. And now he did. And now so what's next on your list for him?

JACK ROUSH: Well, he's in his second year in the Cup series, finished tied for second in points with Greg. Because he had won one less race they declared him third. But we kind of learned from that. That we got to do better. We missed the Chase last year but then, of course, made the Chase but didn't make much of it this year as it turned out. But he's a championship contender and with the changes that we made in the organization, with Robby taking the helm for general managership, we think that some of the, there will be some cross pollination of the things at 17 that we're doing that will help Bob Osborne and help the team and so I'm anxious to really accentuate all the positives and try to get a Cup championship for Carl before he's 30 years old.

Q. (No microphone.)

PIERRE KUETTEL: About 20 minutes ago out on the stage I'm kind of tied to the Busch Series. Two years ago I came into this deal and watched it from afar and it's always been the Busch Series ever since I've known it. And it's great. To come in here and top it all off with that standing on the stage out there.

MODERATOR: Carl?

CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, that is a huge highlight. I think for me personally as a participant in the Busch Series, the win at Gateway was the biggest moment for me. That was the neatest thing in the world to win that close to home. To see the whole crowd stick around for the interviews afterwards. And I just felt like that was one of the neatest moments of my career and I'm glad I got to be a part of that.

MODERATOR: Jack?

JACK ROUSH: Most of my history in the Busch Series has been with Mark Martin in one of our Busch cars. He was a staple there for so long. 18 years he was with the team. And he was in the Busch Series I think with me all but maybe two years of that. And when he achieved the, broke the record for winning the most races in the Busch Series, I really felt the weight of that. And I was really proud to have been with him for all that time and felt glad for the support that the Busch Brewery Company had made of the series, so that it was there for us to race. That was really a big deal.

Q. Carl, you're a guy who likes to test yourself physically, so no more races for a few months, what are you going to do? Like go climb Mount Everest or something?

CARL EDWARDS: I watched show on that last night. That looks like a tough deal. I don't know if I will ever do that. But we got a pretty good training program going for the guys from CTS, they got me on a really tough regimen for the winter time. So hopefully I'll just do a lot of that. And we're going on a vacation somewhere, me and a couple of my buddies, I think we're going to go somewhere real, real far away where they don't speak English and ride our bikes around and explore a little bit and have a good time. We're going to have a good time. So hopefully get to spend a little bit of time off and, but the big thing is just to prepare for next season. I want to win two championships, the Busch Series and the Cup series and that's my mission. Nobody has ever done that and I would like to be the guy. So whatever it takes to get that done, that's what we'll be working on.