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John's Comments on California 

“I think the idea is to save some money for the teams.  Some of it is because you are not on the race track burning up extra tires, burning off fuel or other different things.  I think on the other hand you are not working as hard doing specialty setups just for qualifying.  You are not spending time with qualifying lubricants or hubs, and all the kinds of things you do to make the car its absolute quickest.  That’s all good and hopefully will cut cost.

            “The only problem that I might see is for a team like us.  I don’t think it’s really good to be used for any of the first five races.  Under the current rules, and the qualifying procedures that we have now, I think it would be better if it was the other way.  I don’t think there should be any impound races in the first five races.  I think it’s unfair for the guys outside the top 35 in last season’s owner’s points. 

“You know, we are still trying to earn our way in.  After the first five races I think it’s everyone on their own terms, but for these first five races to have an impound weekend really hurts you.   You are going to have guys show up that are just going to put qualifying stuff on their car to make the race- not even worried about the race itself.  They are going to say, ‘Well we are just going to go out and qualify.’  Then, here we are, a team that is concerned about having a good race car too.  I don’t know if it’s the greatest way to go about it, but it is what it is, so we’ll live by it. 

“I think we’ve got an awfully good car for California.   Hopefully as we come out of California, we’ll learn how to make a good car for Vegas too.  We had a much better test at California.  I think we have a lot more to gain than others as we head into California too. 

“We have had three or four cars taken to the wind tunnel. We know where this car is at and we know the balance of it.  We’re also coming along with other cars that will be more aligned because they will be more updated to what everyone else tested.  I feel like we should be getting better.

            “At California in January I really felt good about that test.  I thought we had a great car, and I thought we had a great test.  I’m looking forward to getting back there.  However it shakes out, I think we’re going to be in really good shape.  We’re out of Daytona and we’re looking ahead to California, and seeing what we can do with this VB/APlus at Sunoco Ford.”