“It’s good to be back and it’s really good to be back in the Snickers Ford Fusion and to team back with Robert Yates Racing. I’m really looking forward to the upcoming ‘07 season and having a teammate to work with is something that I haven’t had the luxury of in quite some time. We’ve already practiced a couple times with David Gilliland and hit it off real well, so I’m really looking forward to the new season and can’t thank the Masterfoods Company enough for participating and stepping up and sponsoring both cars at Robert Yates Racing and, again, thanks to Robert Yates and all of his family for having me back.”

YOUR THOUGHTS ON NEXT YEAR?

“I’m really looking forward to it. I had plenty of time off to decide what I wanted to do and it’s the right opportunity. I saw the fire in Robert’s eyes when I met him the other day. He’s ready to get this operation turned around and the whole operation is hungry. I couldn’t be back at better opportune time than right now, especially with Snickers coming on board to sponsor the car. We’re gonna have the funding to do it correctly. I know that Robert’s got a lot of great people and I know there’s a lot of re-grouping going on right now, but I’m excited about working with Butch Hylton. I’ve always had a lot of respect for him as a crew chief.”

YOU HAD SOME OTHER OPPORTUNITIES. WHAT APPEALED TO YOU ABOUT THIS DEAL?

“The desire. Robert Yates Racing did not have their best year last year. They’ve had plenty of good years in the past and once you sort of taste the success Robert has, when you don’t have a good year it makes you even hungrier. Robert tried to reorganize a little bit and change some things within the organization to make them a stronger outfit and it sort of backfired and went the other way. Now he’s regrouped. I understand Robert’s there almost every day opening the shop up, so, like I say, I think the biggest thing is that desire and the fire in his eyes when I met him. He’s bound and determined to get this thing turned around and you can’t have a car owner that’s more committed than Robert Yates, so I think that’s the key. The motor program is never an issue when you go to Robert Yates Racing. Motors are sort of taken for granted. They’re always there for you. And then also having the funding with Snickers coming on board. You’ve got everything it takes and it’s just up to us to get it organized and get it headed in the right direction and get it turned around.”

WHAT DID THE YEAR OFF DO FOR YOU?

“As far as coming back after taking the year off, what it did was give me a chance to really focus on what I really wanted to do. Racing is in my blood. It has been since I was a kid and for the time until I’m dead and in the grave I’m sure that desire will still be there, but it just came to a time after thirtysome years of on the schedule, doing the commitments and all, I needed a little bit of regrouping time. My dad passed away last year and it just sort of makes you re-evaluate things. The pace in racing is so aggressive that you really don’t have a chance to evaluate things. That was just a stepping back period for me to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. I got kind of hungry. I missed the competition. I was running go-kart races and running the dirt bikes daily, so the desire to go out and go fast and try to do good in motorsports never left. We went to Indianapolis and teamed up with a 16-year-old boy and won a huge go-kart race out there about a few months ago, so the desire to race never left, but the desire to have a chance to regroup was something that I needed to do. I feel like I’m more focused than ever by having the time off.”

IS RACING ENOUGH? ARE YOU PREPARED TO POSSIBLY RUN MID-PACK? IS THAT GOING TO BE ANY FUN?

“No, if you look at the nature of my make up, I’m just a very competitive person. Put it this way, I wouldn’t be back out here and Robert probably wouldn’t have me if our goals were to run mid-pack. My goals have always been to set your goals high and shoot for them and take what you can get, but I can’t see any reason why we can’t be competitive. When we were together in ‘02, up until midseason we were challenging for a championship. Just to go out there and make laps has never been part of my physical make up and I wouldn’t be back over there if I didn’t think there was an opportunity to win races at Robert Yates Racing and that’s one thing that was presented to me is the right opportunity. Having a teammate like David Gilliland, we’ve tested twice already and that’s something where I didn’t realize the importance of that until these two very brief test sessions we’ve been to. We’re the same size. We can hop in and out of each other’s cars and it’s nice to have a different opinion on cars. Again, we’ve got to roll our shirtsleeves up too because it’s not easy. It’s tough and there’s a lot of competition, but I’m prepared for the fight and that’s what it’s gonna be. It’s gonna be a fight.”

YOU AND ROBERT DIDN’T HAVE THE GREATEST PARTING. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SINCE THEN?

“I think part of it started coming back together even three years ago when I went to the Wood Brothers. Michael McSwain was our crew chief. I’m not really sure. I think what happened is that we had success and I wouldn’t say it came easily, but we had a lot of good things happen for us and I’m not so sure that that success wasn’t what maybe drove us apart. We were a fairly young team at that time and I’m not so sure that isn’t what helped to drive us apart, but I think I’m a smarter person right now than I was three or four years ago. I’ve still got that competitive nature that I had and I think a lot of things that go on in this sport is that you’re together almost more so than you are with your family. I’ve got brothers and sisters and I know we’ve bickered all our lives, but yet we still love each other. I like to compare it to something like that. You spend so much time around each other that you can’t help but to have disagreements and I think maybe the way we handled those disagreements, we might face them a little earlier instead of letting them fester like maybe we did last time - bring them to the table and let’s discuss them and that’s something we probably didn’t do a very good job of last time.”

WHEN DID THIS POSSSIBILITY COME UP AND HOW LONG CAN YOU CONTINUE TO DRIVE?

“I’m not really sure. It’s amazing the power the internet has because about the time we started talking was about the time it started showing up a couple of weeks ago. We had some really brief conversations probably even six months ago and really, at that time, I was non-committal and teams were really working hard to put their operations together. The ones that maybe were gonna have changes were making them back as far as early spring last year. At that time, I was not ready to commit, so I couldn’t expect any team to sort of wait for me to make my decisions. It’s kind of ironic the way it ends up. I guess Dale, I’m not sure exactly when Jarrett decided to make his change, but that left an open seat in one of the powerhouse organizations late in the season when a lot of operations were wrapped up at that point. Anyway, I’m happy the way the timing worked out, but as far as how much longer I want to do this, I don’t really think I can put a time on it. Obviously age, I’m 50 years old, but my dad lived to be 80 and was still running bulldozers up until about two weeks before he died and could really do a good job with them, so I think until your skills start to slip. Is that at 51, 52? Is that 61? I’m not really sure. But during the time off I was able to really focus on what I really wanted to do and that’s to drive competitive race cars and be competitive and I don’t think I can put a time limit on it. I think I’ll know when that day is ready for me to step out, but it’s not right now.”

HOW DO LINDA AND LANDON FEEL ABOUT THIS?

“I definitely had a lot of good home time. I think the other day when I was gonna go test, a few days ahead of time she wanted to know if she could pack my bag for me and wanted to make sure I didn’t need to go early and get a hotel room, so I think maybe I get the hint that maybe she needs me to go back on the road (joking). But being serious, that’s probably the big thing that will be the toughest is being gone on the weekends when I have time to spend with the family. We’ll make things work some kind of way and just beg, borrow or rob time to steal to spend time together as a family. It’s getting more and more difficult as racing has become more and more popular. The demands on the drivers and teams has become more of a time schedule juggling act than it ever has been in the past.”

HAVE YOU MADE ARRANGEMENTS TO GET YOUR LAWN CUT?

“I’m gonna do things different. I used to do a lot of it myself and I’m actually gonna make some arrangements to get some people to fill in with all the smaller tasks just so I can have some more home time.”

HOW MUCH CAN YOU HELP RYR CATCH UP WITH THE CAR OF TOMORROW BECAUSE YOU’VE TESTED IN THAT CAR?

“We went to Rockingham the other day and tested and David was there and he drove the car and it amazes me how guys who have never seen the race track before can get out and go fast right out of the box without any real previous track experience. One thing that David would not know, and there’s no way for him to know that, is what the history of that race track is. When is a car really good and when is it bad and when do you need to work on it. That’s something from an experience level that David would not know because he never raced Rockingham and I know the characteristics of that race track. I think that’s gonna be pretty valuable experience, especially in working out the car of tomorrow. When is this car really good and when does it need to continue to be worked on. It’s nice to have somebody to bounce ideas off of and it’s nice to have somebody fit in the same seat and we can go out there and sort of help each other. It’s not always a one-way street with me helping him. David’s a pretty sharp guy when it comes to the chassis. He grew up building his own race cars and he’s a smart chassis guy. That’s something most guys today don’t really bring to the table because they came up a different way than David did, so I’m kind of excited to have a chance to work with him.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CAR?

“I don’t really know. We’ve been to a short track half-mile and Rockingham, and I don’t see where the cars are really that much different driving than what I’ve driven in the past. They tend to slide around a little bit more. They’re very stable getting in the corner, but we have yet to get on a bigger track and I think you really need to get on a mile-and-a-half track before you can really evaluate those things. Certainly we got a good feel of it at Talladega. We tested that Toyota down at Talladega several months ago and it was very stable. It’s just a little bit different animal. A lot of the things that used to work on cars say a few years back, now you can kind of dig up some of the old notebooks and start applying some of that to it because the cars are different. They don’t corner quite as good as the old cars, but yet everyone is gonna be equal. They’re a little bit bigger car. I was telling Robert earlier, I said, ‘We need to bring a lot of extra right side decals,’ because I still catch myself feeling for the wall on the straightaways. You want to get out there as close as you can, but yet it is a bigger, wider car and you’re sort of trying to feel your way along. I think we’re gonna put some curb feelers on it so we can feel the wall and won’t tear all the decals off.”

YOU AND WARD BURTON ARE BACK SO DOES THIS SHOW THERE IS ROOM FOR OLDER GUYS IN THIS SPORT?

“I think we’re just gonna sort of take it a year at a time. If we come out of the box and we pick up the pace and we’re competitive, I don’t think there is a time limit on this. I think it’s more about being open-minded and let’s take it a year at a time. As far as can an older driver compete, I think racing is different than a lot of sports. Obviously, I probably couldn’t go out there and compete in the NFL because of how physical it is and with all the hits your body just couldn’t take it. In these race cars, a lot of it is mental. I really don’t think age is a handicap. I’m just very happy that we’ve got sponsors that happen to fit in with their brand and you’re not considered over-the-hill from a marketing standpoint at the age of 35. The Snickers brand has taken me into their family and found room for an old guy. So it’s more about the sponsorship and the television perception of the age thing than it is actually can the older driver get the job done. I don’t think that’s the issue as much as it is from the marketing standpoint.”

WHAT IS LANDON’S INTEREST IN THE SPORT?

“It’s unusual. He has a tremendous amount of ability to run four-wheelers and dirt bikes and cars very fast, but he doesn’t have that desire. He might wake up one day and say, ‘Hey, I think I want to try to make a career out of this,’ but right now I see no signs of that. That’s great. I’ll support him in whatever he wants to do. I guess the hard part about that is if he didn’t have the ability or the talent you would say, ‘Let’s go play golf,’ but I’m sitting there on the sidelines saying, ‘Man, this kid’s got a lot of talent. I’d love to see him pursue it,’ but that’s his call. I don’t really look for him to be behind the wheel of a car and that’s his choice. Whatever he chooses in life, I’ll support him. He’s a pretty smart kid.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SENTIMENTAL VALUE OF THE 28 NUMBER?

“I can probably touch on that real briefly, but I think Robert can probably answer that question the best. Just from a driver’s standpoint, I always was proud to drive the 28 just because of the history of that number with Davey and Robert when they began that team, and then on with Ernie Irvan and all the great drivers that have driven that car - Kenny Irwin - I guess if I had a personal preference, I like the 28 just because of the history of it, but I’m sure Robert has a better answer for you on that.”

DID YOU EVER REQUEST A PARTIAL SCHEDULE?

“At one time I was considering a part-time deal. While they were racing, they were out trying to pursue sponsors at one time to see if they could make something work on a part-time schedule and that team there would not have been prepared to run a full schedule. There’s a big difference between a part-time schedule versus a full-time schedule with Robert Yates Racing. I think you have to be in the trenches week in and week out on a real regular basis. Obviously, you’ve got to compete in all of them to try to win the championship and that’s something that has eluded me for all these years in racing and you’ve got to run them all together to try to do that. For a long time I was actually turning down some opportunities because they were full-time rides at the time and I got to doing a lot of thinking about it. I think if you’re gonna do this thing, you need to do it right and you need to do it full time.”