"With any luck this thing will stay top-10 and we'll get a decent starting spot out of this. At Dover we had a pretty decent racecar just got in a racing deal that you couldn't miss. But here at Michigan there's a lot of room to miss things and if you stay up front for most of the day you can miss a lot more just by being up front. We're starting off good, we'll see if we can't finish it. We're looking for a good run for the Jasper yellow color. The Jasper Engines Dodge hasn't done quite as well as we have in the Kodak Dodge. We want to look good for the Jasper folks."

IS THIS THE SAME CAR YOU RAN AT CALFORNIA?
"We couldn't bring the California car; that's the one that crashed in happy hour at Charlotte. It was painted up with the Kodak Easy Share colors and I think it's already done but we had to go with the Jasper paint scheme this weekend so we went with car 25."

YOU STRUGGLED LAST WEEKEND AT POCONO BUT BOUNCED BACK STRONG HERE TODAY.
"This is a great race team. We've got a lot of great people, lot of good help with Rusty and Ryan's teams. Matt Lukas and Shane Wilson, my engineer and crew chief, Roy McCauley, the other engineers, have done a great job of putting this thing together. Michigan was good to me last year in the trucks and we'll see if we can't make it good to us in the cars."

YOU WON THE TRUCK RACE LAST YEAR. HOW MUCH DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK?
"It's a fun place. It's close to Mr. Penske's home and also close to our Jasper Engines home in Jasper, Indiana. The Midwest is a big market for both of those guys; they both like to race here. Roger has done very well here in the past. Ryan and I would love to continue that work and I wouldn't mind putting my name in the hat with it. Our truck was really dominant here last year. We had a great Dodge and it really kicked butt around this place. Right now, I'd just like to have the Jasper Engines car be as balanced. That's what made it so nice last year: it was balanced. It had nothing to do with being a Raybestos Rookie or not being a rookie. It was balanced and when racecars are good, the balance comes easy. This is a good racecar here. We're pretty happy. The car feels fairly good. We've got a little quirkiness in it that I'm unhappy with but as a driver we're always unhappy. That Orleans Dodge that I won Texas with four times [in the truck series] I was never happy with [smiles]. I'm never going to be happy until we've got a lead like Jimmie or Ryan and then I'll say maybe it's OK."

YOU PICKED UP TWO-TENTHS FROM PRACTICE.
"Some guys are picking up, some guys are slowing down. This year as a Raybestos Rookie I'm the only guy that can gain a second in qualifying and four-tenths on his second lap. Roy McCauley our engineer says 'OK, look: the second lap thing I can do but when you change three springs and four shocks right before you go qualify you're got to feel it out the first lap.' We showed up here pretty close and had a good practice. It only took two-tenths to get where we needed to be and I do still like qualifying."

ARE YOU SURPRISED TO RUN SO WELL WITH THIS CAR?
"We only ran this Dodge once before this year and it was when we were struggling with a lot of other issues. The guys at the shop did a great job putting it together. Took that extra fine tune massage and put into it and when it rolls off at the racetrack it's so much easier to be decent and make it better than to be out to lunch and try to just get it in the ballgame. This one was decent at the start. We were able to get it in the ballgame pretty easy. I'm pretty fired up."