ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) – “This is the day where the crews shine.  Everybody in the engine shop and the fab shop, the driver can’t really make much of a difference today.  I just think that these guys put a lot of effort in our restrictor plate program.  We had a great week at Daytona.  We need a good weekend here at Talladega, so to get a good top five starting position, I think we’re gonna be in the top five pretty easily.  That will be good.  I think that would be great for the team.  We need this right now and it’s good to come in here and qualify good again.”  YOU’VE GOT RICHMOND AND DARLINGTON COMING UP.  “Yeah, we ran pretty good at Richmond last year and we had a great test there a couple weeks ago, so I’m looking forward to going there, and Darlington we’ve always run good.  This last two weeks has gotten us a little frustrated and a little down because we’ve just had bad luck and not being at the right place at the right time, but we’ve got some good tracks coming up for us and we always run good when we get to Lowe’s Motor Speedway too, so we’ve got a couple of good tracks coming up for us.  But this is real special for us.  Robert really loves coming down here to Talladega.  He’s got a lot of friends in this area and Davey was from here, so he always puts a lot of effort into coming down to this race and we want to do a good job for him, so hopefully the M&M’s Fusion will be near the front and we’ll go from there.”

MARK MARTIN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 10th) – WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN THE RACE.  WILL THERE BE JUST AS MUCH BUMP DRAFTING?  “It’ll be tamer, but the race won’t be tamer.  We’re gonna figure out another way to be reckless and make smoke and have disaster.  That’s the nature of this Talladega business, but our AAA Fusion was better in practice yesterday than I’ve had probably in 10 years here, so with that I’m a little more optimistic of being ahead of the crash instead of in the middle of it, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”  HOW WAS THE LAP?  “There are a lot of fast cars yet to go that are gonna knock us back, but it was a good run.  Our AAA Fusion yesterday in practice was better than I’ve had here probably in 10 years, so wherever we qualify doesn’t really matter.  It definitely should race well if it races like it practiced on Friday.”  DOES THE WIND PLAY A BIG ROLE?  “It depends on who gets the best wind will get the best qualifying lap, but it was a good run for us.  I’m real happy with my car so far and I’m cautiously optimistic about Sunday’s race.” 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 12th) – “The car is OK.  That should be in the top 20 hopefully and I was pretty happy with how the car was in the draft, so it should be OK.  I don’t think qualifying really matters.  If you’re on the pole, that’s great and if you’re in the top five, you get a good pit position.  But, other than that, it doesn’t really matter here.  With the way the draft works you go from the front to the back and vice versa, so qualifying is probably least important here than any track we go to.”  WHAT ABOUT IF THE WEATHER IS LIKE THIS TOMORROW WITH THE DRAFT?  “In a big pack I don’t think it matters much.  If you’re by yourself it will slow you up a little bit when it’s blowing around, but I don’t think it makes much difference when you’re in a pack.”  WILL THE SOFT BUMPER MAKE A DIFFERENCE?  “I think it will be about the same.  You can still do some bump drafting and help somebody pick some speed up and push them along a little bit, which is good.  You just probably can’t crash into somebody really hard, which is good too.  I don’t think it’s gonna really affect the racing.  You’re still gonna be able to bump draft and do the things you used to be able to do.”

DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 4th) – “I think Elliott’s is pretty safe for sure.  There could be some cars get in between Elliott’s time and myself.  He’s distanced himself from the rest of the field right now.  It’s a great effort on their part, but we’re up there and that just shows the effort Robert Yates Racing and Doug Yates and his people in the engine shop put forth in trying to get us good race cars and good engines here at Talladega.  This is their adopted home track.  A lot of the fans here remember back to the Davey Allison days and that’s kind of what got things started and Elliott and I are fortunate to benefit from being a part of this organization.  They do a great job everywhere that we go, but in particular at these restrictor plate tracks and give us an opportunity to win races like we did here last year.”  IS A TOYOTA DEALERSHIP IN YOUR FUTURE?  “I’ll talk about Talladega right now.”  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THESE RUMORS?  “Rumors don’t concern me.  What people have to say and speculate on doesn’t bother me at all.  My job is to drive this race car and try to make us better.  We sit just outside the top 10 and we haven’t performed yet like we’re capable of, so we know that we’ve got an opportunity to get ourselves in the chase this year and we’re gonna try to take advantage of that.”  YOU WON LAST YEAR HERE.  HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU?  “I know that we have good equipment here, good engines, and we have the pieces here for us to challenge to win again.  It’s obviously a matter of getting myself in the right position at the right time as I did last year and I think we know how to do that, so it does give us confidence coming back.”  WILL SOFT BUMPERS HELP?  “Just a little bit.  I think we know what we have there.  I don’t think it’s gonna change the racing a whole lot.  I think because everybody is aware of it, you may see the first half or three-quarters of this race people not hitting quite as hard, but when you get down to the end this is about winning and people are gonna do whatever they can to try to get themselves in that position and move forward.”  DOES IT AGGRAVATE YOU THAT MICHAEL WALTRIP SAID YESTERDAY THAT HE HAD OFFERED YOU A RIDE?   “No.  I said a number of weeks ago that I’ve had quite a few people talking to me over the last five or six months and that’s no secret.  People know when the last year of your contract is, so they start talking and seeing what your interests are, especially in my case.  Am I gonna continue to drive and, if so, how long?  That’s kind of why I made the statement that I was gonna drive through 2008 and everybody that I’ve talked with understands that.  We’ll see who it works out the best for in that scenario.”  YOU’VE BEEN WITH FORD FOR SO LONG.  WOULD YOU LIKE TO FINISH YOUR CAREER THERE?  “That would be great.  Ford Motor Company and Robert Yates have been great to me, so that would be nice.”  THE LAST TIME YOU MADE A TEAM CHANGE YOU SAID THAT YOUR LIFE AND EVERYBODY’S LIFE IS DAY TO DAY.  IT’S STILL DAY TO DAY?  “It’s still day to day.  Just like I think I said then too, I’m the person that has to look after what’s best for my welfare and for my family and that’s what I’ve been taking into consideration over the last five or six months in looking at what decision I’ll make here probably in the next two or three weeks.”  WHAT IS THE STATUS OF UPS?  WOULD THEY GO WITH YOU?  “I have no idea with that.  That’s Robert’s sponsor.  They came here because of what we accomplished at Robert Yates Racing and that hasn’t been a factor in determining what I’m gonna do.  The offers that I have had from everybody else aren’t contingent upon bringing a sponsor.  That doesn’t have anything to do with it.  That would be between Robert and UPS to decide what they’re gonna do in the future.”

KEVIN LEPAGE – No. 61 State Water Heaters Ford (Qualified 23rd) – “I’ve got to thank Statewide Heaters for coming aboard this weekend.  They were on the car at Martinsville.  We missed the race and they were kind enough to come back and give us a second chance.  Right ow I think that will be OK.  We’ll be in the show and that’s the biggest thing.  I’ve got to thank Doug Yates and Jack Roush and Robert Yates.  All of the guys in the motor department worked real hard on this motor and Greg and the guys got this car together for this race.  I like these restrictor plate races and hopefully on Sunday we can put the Statewide Heater Ford up front and see what it shows.”  YOU’VE HAD A CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP.  “I really hate it for Jeff (Stec) and his staff.  He really wanted to be a Nextel Cup owner, but it’s just a financial burden.  Between the Fitness Centers (Peak Fitness) and everything that was going on, I’m not saying it was a big nut to crack, but I think it was a small nut for him to crack.  I wish him the best in whatever he does, but now we’ve got a new owner in Bob Jenkins and he’s really excited about the program.  I think he’s got some visions from being in the sport as long as he has.  I think he’s got some visions on what he wants this team to do and get this team back in the top 35.  We’re just looking forward to getting through this weekend.  It’s been a tough couple of weeks with who is gonna buy it?  Who is not buying it?  Where are we moving to?  What’s going on?  All of a sudden everything has come together in the last couple of days and a lot of good people have put it together, so I’m looking forward to it.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Qualified 3rd) – “I think the wind might be helping.  It’s just right.  I think it helped me a little bit down the backstretch and it only hurt me in that one little spot there.  I’ve just got to thank the guys and the whole Office Depot team.  We didn’t make a qualifying run and they said second, so that’s pretty awesome for us at a restrictor plate track.  I just want to say thanks to all the guys at the shop and everybody for working so hard.”  HOW WAS YOUR RUN?  “We didn’t expect that.  Our Office Depot team has worked real hard.  As a driver you just get in the car and try not to move that wheel.  The wind is picking up a little bit, but it was a good lap.  It wasn’t nice of Tony to knock us off the front row.  That would have been nice, but I’m just happy to have a fast car here at Talladega.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Irwin/Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) – “All of the Roush cars are really strong right now and it looks like everybody with a Roush-Yates engine is strong, so I felt really good going out after seeing how fast all of my teammates went.  They said all the cars are very similar in the wind tunnel and the chassis dyno, so I feel good about our car this weekend.  This has been a pretty good race track for me and I’m obviously looking forward to working with Bob Osborne again.  This is gonna be our second race together, so we’re still learning each other a little bit.  I really like Bob.  We get along well and have had a pretty good time the last few weeks.” 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Subway/National Guard Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) – “It was a pretty good lap.  We didn’t really know what to expect because we didn’t make a qualifying lap.  To get the Subway/National Guard car up there and be in the top 10 right now, I’m pretty excited about that.  That will give us a good pit spot on pit road and we’ll just see what we can do from there.” WHY ARE ALL THE ROUSH AND FORDS UP FRONT?  “I was really nervous about how the wind is blowing right now.  It’s just good engines and good aerodynamics I guess.  It’s probably mostly the power underneath the hood.  These cars run really, really strong and we’re real fortunate to have the engine program that we do.  That’s probably one of the reasons why we’re up near the front.”

ELLIOTT SADLER POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE – HOW WERE YOUR LAPS?  “It’s a great qualifying effort for us.  This is my Daytona car that we qualified pretty well with at Daytona and won the Duel race with and finished in the top five with it in the 500, so we knew coming down here we were gonna be pretty close.  We made about a 20-lap run yesterday in race trim and we thought, ‘Man, this is as good as we can get it.’  I knew the guys, when we rolled off today, we were gonna be in good shape.  Going early was an advantage because it was not as windy and to be able to get the pole like we did is just great.  I’m the lucky one sitting up here talking to you guys, but Doug Yates and his engine shop are just doing an unbelievable job.  I think he’s got three out of the top five and six out of the top 10 are his motors, so that’s just a lot of hard work.  Tom Gant and the guys have done a good job back at the shop in getting these motors prepared for this race.  I’m the lucky one to drive it today.  Today shows off how much hard work is going on with all the engine stuff and all the body and chassis work that these guys do.  It’s just an honor to be able to drive a car that’s that fast.” 

DO THEY DO ANYTHING BACK AT THE TRUCK STOP WHEN YOU WIN A POLE OR RACE ANYMORE?  “No, I don’t know if they do anything at the truck stop, but everybody that knows my dad usually says he gives better deals on cars if I run good on a weekend.  If I have a bad weekend, don’t go try to buy a car that week.  Wait until we have a good weekend.  That’s the only thing I know my dad does.  I don’t know how much stuff they do at the truck stop or not.” 

DOES A POLE COUNT?  “I don’t know if winning a pole counts or not.  I’ll ask him that because he still runs the show at home and I don’t want to open my mouth and not be able to back it up.  Let me get back to you on that.” 

HOW DO YOU LIKE TALLADEGA AND RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING OVERALL?  “Talladega is a good place to come if you drive for Robert Yates Racing.  Everytime we unload down here we’re gonna be fast.  Our cars are gonna drive good.  Our motors are gonna be good, so as far as a company standpoint, this is a good place to come race for us.  Restrictor plate racing to me is still just tough racing.  We’re all up on top of each other for 500 miles.  It’s hard for us to race like that.  It’s hard to ask 43 human beings to be perfect for three and a half hours.  It’s just tough racing.  I wish there was another way to create great racing here and at Daytona, but right now this is what we have to work with so we’re gonna make the most of it.  Yes, Talladega has been feast or famine for me.  We’re gonna be running good and be in the top five or 10.  We’re either gonna try to make it to the end or we’re gonna end up doing something spectacular.  Hopefully my Evil Knievel days are behind us and we’ve got brighter days ahead.  I really would like to finish sunny side up.  It’s a pretty race car and there’s a nice paint job on it.  I really don’t want to scuff it up too bad tomorrow.” 

THE WIND GOT STRONGER AFTER YOU RAN.  DID YOU BREATHE EASIER AT THAT POINT?  “I think you’re right.  The couple poles that we’ve had here, we all went out early in the lineup.  We’re drawing good down here.  I knew when I went out early it was an advantage because my rear end gear and stuff was gonna be a little bit warmer maybe than everybody else’s of the first 10-15 guys.  That’s a little bit of an advantage and the wind always gets up a little bit here at Talladega in the afternoons and it was really windy this afternoon, so those guys were gonna have to lay down a really good lap as windy as it was to get close to us.  When I kept feeling the wind getting up, Robert and I were talking about it on top of the trailer which way it was actually blowing.  It was more of a head wind for those guys than it was for me.  It was more blowing across when I ran, so everything fell into place for us today.  The stars lined up and we were able to take advantage of it.”

ARE YOU ABLE TO FORGIVE AND FORGET WHAT HAPPENED HERE LAST TIME WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON?  “Yeah, I was very, very disappointed last year in October.  I think I had the best chance of winning a restrictor plate race I’d ever had.  I had an unbelievable race car.  As a driver you don’t ever know.  What do you do?  Do you drive around in the back for 400 miles?  Do you try to lead laps?  Everybody has a different mentality of what they want to do and my car was so fast last year I thought if I was leading the race I was in the safest spot.  I never thought I’d get wrecked leading the race the way I did.  Jimmie and I had a talk about it.  Do I hold a grudge with him?  No, because I have to race against him every week.  He’s a great guy and a friend of mine, but I was frustrated at the moment on what happened and the way we raced each other that time.  You forgive and forget.  He might be my best friend tomorrow and maybe push me for a while.  You never know what happens.  My mentality tomorrow, because I think my car is as good this weekend as it was last October, is to try to stay up front and stay out of trouble and hopefully keep the wrecks behind us.” 

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO USE THE FRONT BUMPER?  “I tell you what guys, it’s not night and day between the front bumper we had at Daytona and the front bumper we have now.  It’s pretty stiff, the front bumper we have now.  I think you’re gonna see guys maybe be a little bit more careful maybe the first 50 percent of the race, and then I think when it gets down towards the end it’s gonna be the same old bump drafting that you’ve always seen.  I tested mine out a little bit during practice yesterday.  I did a little bump drafting with the 66 car just to see.  I knew how hard I hit him and how far I pushed him and then I could get out and look at it and my fabricators could look at it, so now I know mentally in the back of my mind how much I can use mine without pushing it in or things like that.  I think a couple of drivers did that, but I think you’re gonna see the same old bump drafting and everything you see when it gets down to time to go.  That’s just the way this type of racing is.” 

HOW DO YOU TRY TO NOT GET TOO EXCITED THIS WEEK WHEN YOU HAVEN’T HAD THAT ALL THE TIME?  “It’s weird for me to say this with the bad wrecks we’ve had at Talladega, but I’m excited to be here and you know why?  This is my best chance to date to win a race.  We have a great, great car and I think it’s gonna drive good.  You throw out Daytona, the other restrictor plate race, this is my best chance to win a race – this weekend – that we’ve had.  So I’m excited about this weekend.  I think we can get it done.  Even if we don’t win, if we run in the top 10, top 15, I think we can lead some laps and be impressive and run in the top 10 all day, and just have a good showing tomorrow.  We need that right now as a company.  We need that.  The problems we had at Texas.  The problems we had at Phoenix.  Everybody was a little down because we’ve fallen out of the top 10 in points, but to get back on the pole today – we knew we were gonna be fast.  This is a good shot in the arm for our company and for our team.  Not only ourselves, but the 88 needs it to to kind of get back going and get the ball back rolling.  We’re going to some tracks I really like.  Darlington is coming up.  Charlotte is coming up.  Pocono – some places I really like racing at – so maybe this is a good momentum builder that we can build off of and that’s the way we’re gonna try use it.” 

WILL IT BE AGONIZING FOR YOU TO WATCH DALE MAKE THIS DECISION OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS ON WHETHER TO JOIN MICHAEL WALTRIP OR NOT?  “That’s probably gonna be tough on the teams involved and probably Dale to race.  He’s trying to make a decision right now on what he wants to do.  Me as a teammate and me as a friend will be there if he needs to ask me what my suggestions are or any opinions like that, I’ll do that as a friend.  But I’ve got to focus on what we’re doing in the 38 car.  Robert and Doug and I have been talking about our future together and I have been frustrated with the way we’ve been racing this year as far as our finishes, but I’m not frustrated on what I see as far as which way the team is going.  We’ve got a lot of new engineers and stuff on our team that are starting to work together more.  We’ve got two new crew chiefs.  Tommy is from Long Island and I’m from Virginia.  It took us a little while to understand each other, so we’re working on it, but I love the future of this company.  When I said in that deal that I was frustrated, I was frustrated with our finishes.  We’ve kind of just been middle of the pack and we don’t want to be that.  We want to be a little bit better.  As far as what’s going on with Dale and them, I want to be there as a friend and as a teammate on anything that he needs me to do, but I know as a race car driver and in my own life and my own little Elliott Sadler bubble, I have to do my best job with the 38 car and try to stay focused and do the things we need to do to be competitive.  That’s the fairest thing I can do as a driver and an employee for Robert Yates Racing.” 

YOU WERE IN THE RUMOR MILL TOO.  ARE YOU STAYING?  “A couple guys asked me about that yesterday and this is my opinion of it.  I have a job as a race car driver to go out and race and do the best job I can every week.  You guys have a job as media to report and dig up and get all the information you can on the sport and deliver it to fans and customers.  Somebody wrote this week that I was maybe moving on and I think they took what I said about being frustrated and kind of added to it and added to it that I might go somewhere else.  I am perfectly happy where I’m at at Robert Yates Racing.  I think we’ve got a great future together.  I think I’ve put too much time into this team and into this effort to just try to decide to do something else at this time of my career.  Right now at my age and my experience at this level, I’m really happy with the team I’m at.  I’ve got a great sponsor with M&M’s, who I think will be with us until the day I decide to retire.  I’ve got a great relationship with those guys and I just like where I’m at.  I love racing for Robert.  I love his intensity.  I love racing for Doug and that’s just where I need to be I think.  Somebody asked me yesterday if I get mad about it or take it personal when people try to report stuff on you.  No, you guys have a job to do just like I do.  It’s the way the world works.  It’s cool.  If it comes out to be true, you guys are like heroes.  If it doesn’t, well, we’ll try again next week.” 

HOW DO YOU THINK YATES IS STANDING COMPARED TO ROUSH AND HENDRICK?  “I think the advantage Roush Racing has right now and Hendrick has right now is Roush has five shots at it every week – different type of setups, different type of things technology-wise.  Hendrick has four shots at it every week.  We only have two shots at it.  Technology is changing each and every day in this sport.  There are more engineers involved in this sport now than we’ve ever had.  I think five years from now the crew chiefs in this sport are gonna be like engineers – they’re gonna be like Formula One guys.  When you get more chances at a track and more chances at a setup and more chances to make changes to your team to make them better, I think you’re gonna have better success.  Right now Roush and Hendrick are setting an example that you better have at least a three-car team and probably a four-car team if you want to try to win championships and be good in those areas.  We know that at Robert Yates Racing.  We’re working hard to maybe try to get a third team going.  NASCAR has told us that the limit is four teams, so maybe one day we’ll have four teams, but I think you’re gonna have to be in that area of having that many shots at it a week.  The old saying, ‘Two minds are better than one,’ that stands true for a lot of things.” 

HAS JUNIOR’S RUN SLOWED DOWN OR IS HE STILL THE MEASURING STICK AT THESE TRACKS?  “I think he is unbelievable as a driver here.  I think what has happened is that other companies have caught up to DEI.  Remember this now, DEI was the first company to go ahead and hire their own restrictor plate motor guys that worked on just restrictor plate motors all the time.  They did their own chassis and bodies and stuff all the time year round.  They were the first ones, so they kind of got a jump start on everybody.  That was a vision by Big E, so now other companies are catching up.  Hendrick cars have been very dominant lately on restrictor plate races.  We’ve done good with some poles and qualifying good and with Dale winning here last year, so I think as far as company wise and chassis wise and stuff, we have caught up to DEI.  We’re on more of a level playing field than we’ve ever been, but I still think and I think I’m one of the other 42 drivers who know that to win here on Sunday you’ve got to know where the 8 car is at.  You’re gonna have to know what line he’s in – he and the 24 are gonna be the two guys you better keep an eye on all day long.” 

DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE BETTER FROM A TEAM STANDPOINT NOW THAN A YEAR AGO?  “I don’t think we’re where we need to be as a team right now.  I don’t think we’ve hit up on the stuff like Gibbs has, like Childress has, Hendrick and Roush.  Those teams right there are very, very strong right now.  I don’t think we’re as good as those guys right now.  We know we’ve got some work to do.  I think we’re getting close.  Tommy and Slugger have brought some great ideas to this organization, but it just takes time.  It takes time to get all these things implemented.  There are only so many days in a week and with these new testing schedules, you kind of really have to test a little bit when you get to the track on Friday, so we’re playing catch-up right now.  It’s hard to compare it off of last year at this time because I think the racing game setup wise and technology wise has leapfrogged big time, more in the last 18 months than it has the last five years and we have not gotten up to that level where we need to be yet.  Are we gonna get there?  Yes.  Is it gonna take time?  Yes.  I think we’re gonna hit around the end of May, around June and July is when I think our company is gonna be where we need to be to be successful honestly.”