NASCAR NCTS (HOMESTEAD) - Ford 200 Post-Race Press Conference

An Interview With:

RON HORNADAY, JR. RICK REN KEVIN HARVICK DELANA HARVICK KYLE BUSCH WILLIE ALLEN RICK CRAWFORD JOHNNY BENSON

THE MODERATOR: We are pleased now to be joined by the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and his crew chief, and that's Ron Hornaday, Jr., and Rick Ren. Ron, how does it feel to win the Championship?

RON HORNADAY: Hold on, I've got to pinch. This is an unbelievable year. No matter what happened today, it was a great year. I mean, any other year there would have been about 400 points in the points lead, but coming down here, as tough as Skinner was and their team, made us drive that much harder, make Rick Ren turn grayer and made it that much harder. It made our whole team excel. When we unloaded we had to have our best equipment there, and Rick Ren stepped up to the plate.

I keep bringing up Wally Rogers because Kevin Harvick, Incorporated, wouldn't be where it's at if it wasn't for Wally Rogers starting that truck team, moving onto the Busch deal and Rick Ren coming in and crossing the Ts and dotting the Is on this truck deal. He's brought so much to the table.

What RCR has done with their motor program just to help us out, I'd whine every weekend and they'd change manifolds or change headers just for a certain track. There's a lot to racing, and to come down to the third championship, to beat Mike Skinner in the fashion we did is pretty cool.

THE MODERATOR: Rick, your thoughts about this race tonight and winning this championship.

RON HORNADAY: When Skinner was in late I wish we had 25 more yellows so I can catch him.

It's probably the weirdest one I've ever won because Rick Ren, he's got a problem when I say something, hold on, Hornaday, I'm checking tires, on hold on, I'm checking this. He just won't give me what I want so I've got to yell at him for ten laps and it makes me drive that much harder and it gets me that much madder.

He's got more notes. The first time I met him, he's got a whole you've got to picture a hauler with all the chairs sitting there, and he's got all the notes sitting out there because our truck was missing something and he's going to find it, and he found it back in '95, and he put it in our truck and it was fast.

Q. Rick, your thoughts about winning this title?

RICK REN: I don't know what to say. I mean, it's what everybody wants to talk about. It's what everybody's dream is. Actually to put it all together and make it happen is like just unbelievable. You've got a bunch of young guys and you try to mold them and teach them if you just believe in what we tell you to do, if you'll just do that, it'll all work out.

I asked Horn when this is going to soak in. I don't know. I'll tell you what, when we got done with practice today, I wasn't happy with the truck, Ron wasn't happy with the truck. I pulled out the so called notes and made some adjustments, got the truck good enough we were on the lead lap.

Sorry that Mike and his guys had a problem because they're a great bunch of guys. As a matter of fact, a bunch of those guys on those race teams, some of them worked at KHI before. Quite a few of them I have worked together with on other race teams before. We all talk and get along and we race hard, and it's a shame that they had a problem.

RON HORNADAY: But that's the only way we were going to win it. Mike and I talked five weeks ago, one of us are going to have to have a problem to win this championship, and his came at the wrong time.

RICK REN: I told him the racing gods are going to determine who wins this race, and that's just the way it worked out. Hung around, stayed on the lead lap and just kind of hung in there. We've raced really hard all year.

You know, I told Ron earlier tonight we have had ten top two finishes this year, and going into this night, 24 races, to finish in the top two ten times is a pretty stellar year in anybody's book, and it's just been a phenomenal year.

Q. Ron, when you win a championship you don't know when or if the next championship is going to be. Were you beginning to wonder, God, what have I got to do to win another one of these?

RON HORNADAY: No, I mean, I felt that Wally Rogers put everything together at Kevin Harvick, Incorporated, and Kevin seen what we were doing last year and he says I'm going to fix these things. I can see what's going on, and Rick Corelli and Rick Ren sat down and he came over to work for us. It's kind of ironic he used to work for Bill Davis and took a lot of good notes and put it to ours, and everything just seemed to work out.

I mean, this is cool. We've won at some racetracks that Rick has never won and at he's won at racetracks I've never won at. I won the championship for Rick Ren, Kevin Harvick, Incorporated. This is just really special.

Q. And the other question is when Skinner first pitted because he thought he had a flat tire, went down a lap and then later when he lost the wheel, that's the guy you've got to beat for the title, so do you kind of sit there in the truck and go, yeah?

RON HORNADAY: No, because I didn't know what happened. I mean, when he slowed down, I thought he was just letting Johnny Benson go by, and then all of a sudden he didn't get back up to speed. I got to turn 1 and looked up there and he was like 15 trucks behind, and I was like, well, is he flat because he came off the corner and all I heard was something, did he lose a cylinder. It took about five laps before Rick Ren figured out what his notes were to tell me what he was going to say (laughing) because what he told me, he says, don't worry about it, Skinner just had a low tire, he's all right, you've just got to drive hard, keep on driving. All of a sudden, yellow is out with five to go or whatever it was.

RICK REN: Yeah, three to go or something like that.

RON HORNADAY: I don't know, there was stuff going everywhere.

That's the only way we were going to win it. That's the only way we were going to win this championship, Mike is going to have problems. He's very good on tracks like this, and he took off leading the race and they had the force there. Johnny Benson was in front of me, Blaney was in back of me. They had me surrounded where if he didn't have a problem they were going to win the championship, and Rick Ren has put some great guys together in this Camping World Chevrolet and they excelled when the other guys were slipping.

Q. Ron, there were times on the radio where you were asking about where am I, where am I, and you heard silence and you got frustrated about that.

RON HORNADAY: I do that every week.

Q. But I mean particularly with everything at stake, how frustrated were you getting with that, and Rick, was that intentional just to keep him focused on just running?

RON HORNADAY: Rick Ren tries to wind me up any way he can. If he could get a cattle prod and poke me in the truck he'd do that because he loves the way I race.

If he didn't set the trucks up the way I like them, Kevin Harvick would fire him and I because Kevin Harvick is just the biggest fan of my driving. He came to me and just smiled after we went three wide or however wide we went and I got loose.

We came into this championship to race hard, to win races and the points will fall where they fall, and that's why Rick Ren gave me them trucks, and we'll do that.

RICK REN: We made a deal that we were going to race to win every week, it didn't matter tonight.

As far as kind of holding back a little information, you know, you've got to realize Mike is going to be ten laps down. But if we got a flat tire or we got in a wreck or we ran out of fuel and we lose two laps, we're going to lose the Championship because there were so many trucks only one lap down.

He needed to run as hard as he could run, and I wasn't real comfortable saying, you know, it's not time to ride. It's not time. I saw it slip away from them tonight. It could have turned tides on us with five laps to go. It's just not time to ride.

RON HORNADAY: And the way it was vibrating, it was about to.

Q. Ron, can you talk about when you took Kevin in and he was sleeping on your couch? What was it like to have him around? Why did you take a chance on him, and what do you remember from those times?

RON HORNADAY: Those are questions for my wife because I have no idea why I did it. I guess Kevin, he was kind of looking to rent a house and all that stuff, and it was stupid for him to come down here. I talked to him to help him get into Richard Childress, I talked to Wayne Spears and stuff like that.

When Kevin was going to come to North Carolina, I said, stay at the house for a while. It didn't mean to show up that way, just our dinner parties were longer, less dinner, it was more he had to spend the night and ended up being the couch because he couldn't walk upstairs only kidding (laughter).

I have no idea how it worked. He found a house around the corner and bought it. That's the same deal with Jimmie Johnson. He had Blake Feese staying there, we've had Augie Vidovich staying there. My wife and I are fortunate enough the guy across the street passed away, and we've got a 7,400 square foot house with four dogs, and we don't need that big a house, so if they want to join us, come on. I said that last time and about ten fans showed up, so I'm not going to say that again.

Q. Ron, is that couch still in the house? Is it going to go into the Hall of Fame?

RON HORNADAY: It's funny, it was a sectional, kind of, and it was the biggest leather one, but everybody slept on the small one so they didn't fall off or something, I don't know why. I've got it in my office, and Blake Feese, he says Jimmie Johnson has made it, Kevin Harvick has made it, I'm going to sleep on that couch tonight. He slept on that couch that Friday night; that Monday morning he got fired from Mr. Hendricks. So he says, your couch is junk.

But they were going into problems there, Jimmie couldn't drive the car, nobody could drive the car there. Blake Feese is one of my bust buddies. If I can help him get anything, he is an awesome little driver and you can see what he does. The couch is still pretty good, it's just he got underminded (sic).

Q. And secondly, did you see anything in Kevin back then, and can you talk a little bit about how he's progressed to where he is now, being your championship truck owner?

RON HORNADAY: I don't pay attention to them things. I don't think I have too many people I dislike. Me and my wife go my motto is "live every day like it's Saturday," and I live that way and I live wide open no matter what I do. You can ask my grandkids, you can ask anybody. When I do things, I like to do it big and have fun.

Kevin and I, when we raced back in the days and we never had a run in. The best picture, Kevin Harvick has got it in the office, he's driving a Spears truck and I'm driving our truck, driving for Dale Earnhardt, and my left front fender and my hood was kinked the same way as Kevin Harvick's was. So right then when somebody needed to talk to him, I think his name was Richard Childress couldn't talk to him because Kevin was under contract, I talked to Kevin to get a hold of Richard and that's kind of how that thing worked out.

Q. You've ran Busch, you tried Cup, but it really seems like this series was really made for Ron Hornaday, Jr. What is it about the Truck Series that it seems like guys like you and Benson and Skinner just fit so well in this series?

RON HORNADAY: Why don't you talk to Kevin Harvick and have him build a Busch Car and have Rick Ren crew chief it and I'll drive it and we'll show you that we can still do it. The trucks are fun. I mean, these things got a lot of downforce. Rick Ren is very, very sharp about what he does. It is an honor to have Rick Ren for your crew chief.

Ten years ago we couldn't work together. He was really strong headed, and I'm really strong headed, and you probably heard that on the radio tonight, but we understand that.

That's why when we're all said and done, Rick Corelli is probably the worst guy that takes a beating. He's got a lot of he's probably learned more words from me than he's ever heard in his life. That's what it takes for a good team, and Rick Ren has put a great team together that his big shoulders, and when we leave that shop they leave their feelings at home because we're there to do one thing and that's to win races.

Q. When you were having a little bit of trouble there, a lull in your career, and Kevin hired you, can you just talk about

RON HORNADAY: With who? I never had a lull in my career, other than A.J. Foyt, racing for him. That was his problem letting somebody else run his team and not knowing where his money is going, his funding was going. When you tried to tell him that he had to make a change because he was paying me good money, I understand that.

The lull in my career was when he fired me I didn't have a job, and I got with the Dr. Pepper car Dave Carroll, and he gave me that opportunity which opened a lot of doors up. It started with Mr. Hendricks taking the showroom truck off of the floor of Ricky Hendricks, and I go down to Daytona and I think I qualified second and we were running good and the wheel got loose, and that's when I told NASCAR they done great things the second year they run at Trucks.

Then Ricky got hurt and broke his shoulder, whatever, and I ran this for five years. I never had a lull in my career, it's just I never had the equipment what I've got over here at Kevin Harvick, Incorporated.

Q. I was just going to ask you about Kevin hiring you. Can you talk about that opportunity and how that came about?

RON HORNADAY: I got offered more money to go other places, but when Kevin asked me to do it, we never talked about price. I just said, yes, I'll do it. He asked me to do Busch races, I don't ask him how much he pays me, I'm just going to do it because we win races, he'll take care of me, and that's what I always felt. Money will fall where it falls.

If I get an opportunity to win, I know Kevin Harvick, what he's done with his dad and what they've done in their racing career when Kevin Harvick was the kid for seven years at Bakersfield, they've had classes of equipment. When Kevin built that shop and he came down to Phoenix and whipped everybody's butt in a truck, I knew it was going to run good. When he gave me that phone call, him personally himself, and I got hired over the phone, I didn't even have to go see him.

THE MODERATOR: We are very pleased to be joined in our media center by our championship team owners. Winning their first, which I'm sure will be the first of many, championships for them as owners, Kevin Harvick, Incorporated, and that's Delana and Kevin Harvick. Congratulations on the season championship.

And Delana, I'm going to ask you first to give your comments about winning this 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship.

DELANA HARVICK: Well, it's not sunk in yet, and I've been fortunate to be a part of championships with Kevin, but there's nothing that can quite describe the feeling that you have when it's your own and your own team because we're there every day with these guys and we see how hard they work.

Coming into this race I told Kevin, it's got to be over for me. I can't go up and down any more. My emotions were completely shot. I don't know how these guys do what they do every weekend because for me being a competitor is emotionally draining. To watch this race unfold was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life.

The 33 team, they've been so resilient and they're so determined, and Ron Hornaday, what can you say about him? To watch him battle like he has, and to battle Mike Skinner, they mean so much to the Truck Series. That's what's so cool for Kevin and I is Ron has done so much for Kevin, and to be able to give back to him, that's just not a feeling that you can describe.

THE MODERATOR: Kevin your thoughts about this team Championship?

KYLE BUSCH: Well, I think for me it's obviously very personal. You know, I slept on Ron's couch for a number of years not a number of years, a number of months, just trying to get a break in this sport. Lindy and Ron basically took me into their house and made me part of their family. When Ron was kind of out in the cold there looking for something to do, we had our Truck team going and really wanted to go forward, I felt like Ron was the right person to put in there.

You know, he's been as a part of our company as he was when I was sleeping on his couch. I mean, Ron Hornaday is the same type of person now as he was then, and that's what's so great about him.

For me it's obviously a little bit more personal than it probably has been for a lot of other people, but to share that moment with him on the back stretch and be the first one to congratulate him, that's something I'll never forget.

Q. Kevin, I don't know how I can exactly phrase it, but you're talking about somebody that did so much for you and now you have this feeling that you're able to give it back to them with interest, I guess. I mean, what is that like? Is it pride, is it just satisfaction? I mean, how can you put that into words?

KYLE BUSCH: I mean, it's pride, it's satisfaction, it's the most rewarding thing that you can do as a person. To be able to give something back to somebody is I mean, you can't put a price on it. You really can't you can put all those words on it.

When somebody goes out of their way to help you and Hornaday was the one who basically kind of brokered the deal back and forth between myself and Childress because I had a contract and he was the one who made it all happen. I grew up on the West Coast racing with Hornaday, and he just I really don't know how to put it into words, other than all of the above, other than it's rewarding, it's satisfying, and when you can give back to somebody and be successful it's probably the most rewarding thing that you can ever be a part of.

Q. Ron's personality is kind of unique to say the least. I mean, he's a guy that's always kind of wide open, having fun and all that. How important is that to kind of have a guy that's so loose like that all the time? Even when things don't go right he's still kind of tweaking you and doing crazy things like that.

KYLE BUSCH: He's always been the guy that can run over the top of you, run into the side of you, spin you out, and an hour after the race you're over there drinking a beer with him and he's explaining to you what you did wrong. He's just that type of guy. He's just a hard core racer. He grew up at Saugus Speedway racing on a third mile. He raced for everything that he's got. They made a living off of racing, they went in debt off of racing, they did everything that they did from racing. It's just always how he's been.

He's been more relaxed the last couple weeks just being behind. He's actually been more relaxed for whatever reason. Even when he was leading the points I shouldn't say that, he wasn't near as relaxed as he was the last couple weeks.

After Texas he didn't really know what to think about after that race, and I told him after Texas and I told him again tonight, I said, the reason that we are here is because you race as hard as you can race every lap, and we wouldn't expect anything different. If we would have lost tonight, he would have kept going back to Texas. I kept telling him, this is why you're here, because of your racing.

Q. You were very eloquent in expressing what it meant to you for you to win the Championship for Ron. What does it mean to you and Delana to win the Championship for you guys and to hang that banner on the wall in the shop?

KYLE BUSCH: You know, I tell had I guys, my people, and Delana and I talk about this a lot, owning a race team is a lot like owning any other sports franchise, and it's taken us six years to get our truck team to where it's at. A lot of people want to know why your Busch team isn't running as well. Three years ago the Busch team was about where the Truck team is. We got the right people in there this year with Rick Ren, and from that point all the pieces were in place, we just had to have the right people.

To employ 80 people, somewhere around 80 people, is something that's you're responsible for a lot of people. And to see it start from one truck, a bunch of guys from RCR, and evolve into 70,000 square feet, four race teams, is something that's also very rewarding to be a part of that as you've built it from basically dirt, from scratch, and see it evolve into a championship winning organization is very gratifying.

Q. Delana, I'm wondering if you could speak to the same thing that Kevin was just talking about, and also, if you could talk about, were there times in building an organization that things become so difficult that you wonder if you're ever going to get to this point?

DELANA HARVICK: You do, because like Kevin said and there are days that I questioned Kevin, why are we doing this? It's odd because when I'm down, he's not, and when he's down, I'm not. I think that's been the best part of how we've kind of evolved and made it through this process of building a company. It's moments like this that you realize why you do it.

You can't put into words what it means to watch these guys every day, every night. They're there until early in the morning sometimes because they have to and they care so much about it, and it's hard to find people that care as much about your company as you do. But we've found those people and we're starting to put them in the right places. It's all about the people, it's not about having the fastest trucks. It is, but if you don't have the right people in the right place it's never going to work.

And that's probably been the most difficult part of what we've had to do is learn how to manage people. We're just kind of a couple kids who wanted to start a race team, and it's evolved. We've just been fortunate to have good people and people that believe in what we're doing.

Just to watch these guys and to watch Ron Hornaday, like Kevin said, we told him after Texas if we're going down, we're going down racing, and that's kind of our motto, and that's Ron Hornaday's motto, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Q. Drivers in the Nextel Cup garage always talk about the demands that are on them, driving the car, testing the car, the personal appearances, sponsor commitments. You've got all that, plus all this, too, so really how do you keep all that straight? How do you even find time for the two of you to just be husband and wife?

KYLE BUSCH: Well, we spend a lot of time together at home, and even if it's at work, she has an office right down the hall from mine, and we wind up going to we work out together every morning, we go home every night. We don't spend a bunch of time with all the fluff and buff and wherever you go I don't even know where you go on vacation. I don't know where a place is to go. I don't play golf. I like to shoot my guns, that's one thing I like to do, and ride my go karts. I just like to race, and sometimes it's a fault.

I told those guys in the shop, I said, I'll pretty much do whatever it takes to win a Championship, and some of them look at me like I'm half nuts. This is what my whole life is around. This is what our whole life is around, and this is what I enjoy about racing, and that's winning and winning championships and there's nothing else that I enjoy any more than sitting right here and calling yourselves champions. That's what we're all here for.

Q. What do you remember about sleeping in the basement and the couch? Was it just what was down there? Was it like real junky? What was it like?

KYLE BUSCH: It was kind of like a frat house, and I had never been to college. I slept on the couch next to the pool table in the trophy room, so I don't know if that was on purpose, if he just put me in the trophy room just so I could look at all those trophies or what the deal was.

I remember sitting at home watching the Daytona race and seeing Hornaday come home with stitches in his chin the first time that he went to Daytona and raced. Taking the stitches out of his chin at the house and putting them in a plastic baggy, and I'll guarantee Lindy still has those stitches somewhere in a bag in her house.

We used to chase Lindy around the house with a water hose. In the summertime I'd just chase her in the house, around the house, she'd chase me around with a plunger. It's just that deep of a relationship, and it was always a good time and still is. It's just so many memories. Lindy bought my first house. She went with me to buy the first house that I ever owned.

It's a lot deeper than that Championship trophy sitting outside.

Q. You've won Busch, now Truck; is the next progression now Cup for you as a couple, to maybe explore that? Is this Championship giving you that itch to think about going that route now, or is that something you just would rather put off and continue focusing your efforts at this level?

KEVIN HARVICK: I think for right now, I think the focus is the driving force is still the driving of the Nextel Cup car. I enjoy that, I enjoy the Busch Car, I enjoy the Truck, but the competitor in me still likes to sit in the driver's seat and go out and race for wins and race for races on the racetrack. I'd have been a nervous wreck tonight sitting up on top of that pit box as an owner. It's almost a relief for me to sit in that truck.

But Cup racing is something that I think for us is we really enjoy what we're doing right now and really seem to be able to manage our time and manage our businesses and manage a lot of the things that go on, and Cup racing can be so not fun, so much of a burden from an owner's side of it, and you see how much Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick and all these guys put in. There's no way right now that I could be as competitive driving and be a part of Nextel Cup teams.

Q. When you think about when you started this, did you have a timetable in mind to be a player? And now that you've won the Championship, does it seem like it's happening pretty much when you thought it would, or sooner?

KYLE BUSCH: That's a great question. Really our Truck team started just for the fact that I never really felt like I had the stuff I needed to to go out and win a Truck race. That's really the only reason we built our first Truck. The first time we went to the racetrack we had two dualies, two fifth wheel trailers and about eight people that went to the racetrack. It really evolved from there.

The only reason we got involved in Busch racing was because Tony Stewart wanted to drive some Busch races and he wanted to go out and do it different than just going to drive for Joe Gibbs and being a part of that team. He had a big part to do with where the evolution of the company and how it evolved into what it is today just because he wanted to drive those Busch cars and he wanted to drive them on our team.

But the company started, I guess, more out of my ego, I guess, not being able to win in the Truck series and wanting to go out and put that equipment together.

When I was growing up, my father and I, we had late models and we had stuff that was kind of halfway put together, and I never felt like we really got a fair shot with the proper financing and the proper stuff to do it right, and when I had that opportunity to go out and buy the right race vehicles and build the right shop and have all the tools that you need to go out and race, that was something that I never got to do. So that was always a goal of mine, to go out and be able to accomplish winning the Truck race, and that's really the only reason that we started the whole company.

Q. Things haven't quite gone your way in Nextel Cup but you won the Daytona 500, so to win that race, does it almost kind of give you the satisfaction the rest of the year that no matter what happens, I've had a great year, I won the Daytona 500?

KYLE BUSCH: Well, we've been fortunate enough to win the 500, we won the All Star race, and I'd love to sit up here and tell you that winning the Daytona 500 was a lot of people would say that if I don't do anything else this year, fine. But the competitor in me is just foul, I guess you could say. I guess my gut just tells me that that's not good enough, and you want to go out and you want to win the Daytona 500, you want to win the All Star race, you want to win the Brickyard 400 and you want to win the Championship and every race in between. We all know we can't do that, but that's your goal in your mind is to every week go out and win the race.

We've been fortunate to win the 500 and we've been fortunate to win the Brickyard, the All Star race, Championships. You know, it hasn't been a great year, but I look at it like this: We've been able to accomplish those things. We've had everything under the sun go wrong, and we've still been able to be a part of the Chase and be competitive with everything that hasn't gone right.

You know, I look at 2002 and I compare it to this year, and they're very similar years but we're a more mature team to make the results better.

Q. Next year you're going to have two guys with six Championships between them. How are you going to keep them both on the straight and narrow, and who's going to be the alpha driver?

KYLE BUSCH: Well, I think it's a lot like my teammates that I have now. Having a good teammate helps make you better. It helps drive you. If their truck is running faster, you want to run faster. If their truck looks nicer, you want your truck to look nicer. I didn't really realize to be honest with you how good of friends that Ron and Jack were, not knowing that that situation really until we got into this, this second truck.

It's something that I feel like they're going to drive each other and make each other better. The teams are going to make each other better. We basically run both Truck teams right now this year anyway, so I feel like we're going to have a good start on our fleet.

I really think they're going to drive each other to make each other better, and I think they'll respect each other they do respect each other enough to really make it right.

THE MODERATOR: We have in here our runner up for tonight's race, Kyle Busch. Kyle drives the #51 Miccosukee Resorts Chevrolet Truck. Kyle, talk about your run and your thoughts about the race tonight.

KYLE BUSCH: Well, the biggest thing was just in the beginning of the race we were horrible, and absolutely couldn't even run 20th or anything like that. Just a really bad beginning for us, but we were able to come in the pits and make some adjustments on it and caught that caution luckily when we had just about come down Pit Road with fuel, tires and everything and we got everybody a lap down being able to stay out like we did.

That was our saving grace. We came in and made some more adjustments to the truck and all the adjustments really seemed to help and free it up. We were just battling really tight. Just being able to make those adjustments, got us out front and got us out in clean air and we were able to pull away from everybody, keep it up there, battling Harvick right there for a while, but just disappointed in NASCAR's decision there to throw a caution at the end of the race there with a truck that got real sideways. I don't think it was any worse than what Greg Biffle or Kyle Busch ever do. It's really sad that they threw a caution for a truck that didn't even spin out, all it did was make a little bit of a smoke show. It cost us the race.

Johnny had a better truck than we did and was able to prove it there at the end in those final two laps, he got by us, but we'll build some new ones for next year and try and get back after him again.

Q. What happened on that last lap? It looked like you just got it to the wall, or just when they threw the caution what was going through your mind and what happened with the truck?

KYLE BUSCH: Well, when they threw the caution I was wondering what it was for because I didn't see anything on the racetrack. I saw the replay of a truck that got real sideways off turn 4 and just laid a little bit of smoke down but didn't spin out or anything like that, so I was pretty disappointed. I mean, not necessarily angry, but devastated that NASCAR would throw a caution like that. But I guess it's in the interest of safety and they wanted to check everything out and make sure it was all good.

There in that last restart I got a good jump, but Johnny was able to get his truck lower on the corner than mine, mine was just too tight, and was able to power past us, and there in that last lap going into 3 and 4 I just held it wide open, I didn't care if I ran through the wall and went out in the parking lot, I was just going to try to win the race.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, good luck. Appreciate it.

We're also pleased now to be joined by the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year. Congratulations goes out to the driver of the #13 ThorSport Chevrolet, that's Willie Allen. Congratulations on being named Rookie of the Year. How does it feel?

WILLIE ALLEN: It feels real good to be Rookie of the Year. Definitely it was a goal of ours at the first of the year. I think everyone who's a rookie wants to win it, especially in the Truck Series it's such a coveted honor and a lot of the guys have moved on to the Cup Series and really made a name for themselves, and I'm just glad to be in that list of drivers.

THE MODERATOR: Willie, I think you covered the bases. I think people will understand how big this is for you. Congratulations.

We're going to continue with our post race press conferences for the Ford 200, and we bring in our third place finisher in tonight's race, and that is Rick Crawford. Rick drives the #14 Power Stroke Diesel International Ford. Rick, tell us about your run out there tonight and how you thought the race unfolded.

RICK CRAWFORD: It started out a little difficult. We started 23rd on the field, and we stayed hovering back there around 20th for even after the first pit stop. I think that was the call of the race was pit on the first caution, 15 laps left in the race. That extended our fuel mileage to when the next guys had to sit on the green.

Pitting the second time under the next caution we caught a lot of guys, two laps down, that had really been in the hunt all night. Track position is everything. We found a groove for the Ford Power Stroke Diesel International to run good in, and that engine under the hood did its job and carried us to a third place finish.

Great call by Kevin "Cowboy" Starland on the pit box, good job by the Circle Bar crew in the pits, and I've had a lot of fun in 2007.

Q. Those final laps, the green white checkered, what were you thinking? I asked this of Kyle Busch, but did you think he had a chance there?

RICK CRAWFORD: What did he say?

Q. He didn't like the caution.

RICK CRAWFORD: No, he possibly had the race won had it not been for the caution. For me the first thing I think about is who's behind me, and that's Kevin Harvick, and we all know how he runs with a restart going on. So that was a concern. So I had a good start. Me and Johnny did get a good start. Me and Johnny was able to get on the inside of Kyle.

In my mind as a racer it ain't over until the checkered flag falls. So I didn't think I was out of it until I seen the checkered flag, and there was Kyle up on the outside wall, Johnny wasn't in the race, and at any minute the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race things can change. Johnny could have hit Kyle and 14 Truck could have won the race and won races for six straight years in a row, but we didn't. But I can go ahead and guarantee it now, the 14 Truck will be in victory lane next year.

Q. Were you surprised by that caution?

RICK CRAWFORD: No, NASCAR don't surprise me throwing cautions anymore.

THE MODERATOR: We're going to proceed now with our race winner. You we've got Johnny Benson won this race here tonight. He's driver of the #23 Exide Batteries Toyota, came from behind there in the closing laps to beat Kyle Busch. Johnny, congratulations. Talk about your win tonight.

JOHNNY BENSON: Appreciate it. Our win was great. We were really dominant early on and was just trying to play it cool there. I couldn't figure out how we got so far behind there in the cautions. But we worked our way back up, it looked like we were probably more than likely pretty sure going to run second until that last caution.

I was good enough to catch him but I couldn't really work around him until I got my tires cooled off. I was getting loose and I was gaining on him, but at that time I couldn't do anything about it. So the green white checkered actually worked out in our favor this time. That was pretty cool.

I've really got to say thanks to Exide Batteries for being on board for this race and everybody at Toyota Certified Used Vehicles, all the Tundra Toyota people and Havoline and Bosch, and just everybody that was involved in Bill Davis racing. It was a great night.

You know, I know Mike Skinner had his problems, but right when his left rear come off, mine was ready to come off, too, so that caution was timely for us. You know, the rest just made for an exciting finish.

Q. You challenged for the title last year. Where do you see your chances are next season?

JOHNNY BENSON: You know, hopefully great. Trip Bruce and the guys have done a tremendous job for us, too. I believe we ended up third. It was a really good year if you really considered what happened. When Rick Ren came on board we worked six months together before we ran into the year. We ran second last year.

Trip came about two days before we left to go to Daytona to test, so for us to have the year that we had with four wins and ended up where we did, it's been a tremendous year. We've been competitive. Mainly all year we've probably had three or four races that we weren't as competitive as we needed to be and we'll work on that stuff over the winter and hopefully we can be a championship contender next year for sure.

Q. Kyle was pretty upset that they threw that caution flag and felt that they should not have because it wasn't that big a deal. What are your thoughts on that?

JOHNNY BENSON: Well, I saw a wrecked truck. I don't know how much you need a caution for. It depends how big a piece of debris you need. I think a whole truck probably classifies for one. I'm not sure, maybe they're looking for small pieces.

You know, I don't know. I wasn't the one that threw the caution. That's his gripe with whoever, but it sure made a great event for those fans in those grandstands and the people on TV. He's been on both sides of those deals. He's made up ground before I'm sure on a green and white checkered deal, and he's lost on them.

Obviously this race here we were able to take advantage of it. He spun the wheels pretty bad, I spun the wheels pretty bad on the restart. At first I didn't think he wanted to be on the outside for sure. I needed to go to the bottom, and I don't think he felt that I was going to be as good on the bottom as what I was, but I was really good all day long down there. I was running top trying to save the tires a little bit.

But he's right, I would have run second had it gone green, but it didn't go green, and we had a green white checker and I was able to get by him.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

JOHNNY BENSON: Actually I can. He had a good time, right?

Q. (Indiscernible.)

JOHNNY BENSON: I'm sure he didn't look real happy obviously losing the title. That's something that's eluded them for a while, and you know, it just came down to the last race and they had some issues that probably hurt the deal. But Jeff Hensley and their whole crew and Mike Skinner had had a tremendous year. I think Bill Davis Racing can be proud of what they accomplished and what they did in their whole season. Hopefully it's the same way with the 23 team. I just hope that next year comes down to just myself and Mike instead of anybody else in the mix, and I think that'll be a great year hopefully next year for Bill Davis Racing for sure.

Q. Bruce kind of asked the question I was going to ask, but as a teammate how do you feel about that? It had to bother you when you see that kind of misfortune.

JOHNNY BENSON: Absolutely. I wanted to see Mike win this thing as bad as anybody, even though through our whole deal last week I wanted to see him win this. It was something that they needed to race the last couple of races really hard to get it, and I know he caused a little friction last week. It puts it in a very tough situation, but with the problems that he had, it actually got us up in the third spot.

It's things that you need to do you know, you can go through every race and find fine points that you either threw it away or that somebody else took from you. It's probably just ill timing last week on our deal.

But Mike and those guys had a tremendous season. You know the Championship comes down to the last race, and unfortunately he had some issues. Yeah, my heart feels for him that they didn't win it because they deserved to win it. But Ron Hornaday and those guys had a great season, also, and they deserved it. So however it ended up, one side is going to be happy and the other side is not.

Q. Could you have imagined it coming down to that, though, wheel coming off, a broken stud?

JOHNNY BENSON: Well, we've seen stranger things. It can be a number of things that happen, and it just happened to happen to them. Like I say, you can pick any race during the year and it can cost you X amount of points because it does take the whole season for the points championship, at least in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series because they count every race; they don't have the Chase. It's unfortunate that it had to happen on the last race for sure.