"I'm sure Philippe and I will work on strategy for the rest of the year. I'm sure he'll continue to talk to Steve. Next year when we start the five races with Junior and the next year when we run all of the races, I'll probably just go back and forth between them and try to understand strategy and see who can help who and who's running better on stickers and who's running better on scuffs and where we are on our fuel mileage. I think Tony and the guys are interested in coming to Winston Cup racing. On the other hand, they've got Busch races to do next year. I'll go to the test with Tony testing with Junior, but when they race the Winston Cup car, it'll be on a weekend I think that's not in partnership with a Busch race. I'll be able to focus entirely on that. It's real similar to what Buddy Parrott does with Jimmy Fennig and Frankie Stoddard.

"We're going to work hard on that '99 Monte Carlo. I'm real excited about the '99 Monte Carlo. We're going to be working together with a number of other Chevrolet teams and develop that thing so we come out of the box as strong as possible. We want to get back to a level playing field, and I'm hoping our team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., will strengthen the hold on the number of strong teams Chevrolet has. Ford has a number of great race teams, and Chevrolet also has a number of great race teams. If we can be one more, it would be one more Chevrolet those Fords have to beat. A number of good Chevrolet teams are just this close to doing it. I hope we can influence that a little bit. The '99 Monte Carlo should make the Chevrolet Busch teams better, too. I think it's going to be a heck of a race car, and I think the Taurus is a heck of a race car. Chevrolet is really doing the right thing. They're taking their time. I thought we had to have 'em ready for Daytona. Now I hear it's later in the season, which I think is wise. Everybody will be able to go to Daytona with proven stuff and run up front. I think that's the right thing to do. Here in the next six or eight months we can develop that car into a real nice race car. We can get Dale Jr. some Winston Cup testing, we can go to the wind tunnel, we can take some of the day-to-day load off Philippe and his guys by me being able to go testing with Steve. Hopefully, it'll be an improvement for the whole company.

"I've been watching Dale Jr. I was his biggest fan two years ago. In fact Don Hawk said, 'you told us that kid was good two years ago.' I knew he would be a whale of a race car driver. Winston Cup racing has proven lately to be a huge step from Busch. Matt Kenseth did a whale of a job last week, and that might be some type of aberration. You'd have to do that week in and week out to prove to me that you could come right from Busch to Winston Cup. If anyone could do it, probably the Matt Kenseths and Dale Earnhardt Jrs. can. We're going to be realistic about it. Dale and Dale both talk a lot and they understand what's expected. We'll do a workmanlike job and eventually get up toward the front.

"Steve Park is a great talent, too. Two years ago, I was looking around to see if we could talk to him about driving one of Jack's cars and he had already signed with Dale. He's a great talent. He got hurt earlier in the year and that's unfortunate. He came back out of the box at Indy and ran great. He ran great at Michigan. He ran great at Watkins Glen. He's had a couple of tough races the past couple of weeks, but I thought he did an outstanding job at Dover. Mark had a dominant car and all but lapped the field and here's this kid (Park) running 11th, the first car a lap down. He's driven a Winston Cup car one time here and he did a great job with it. We have to temper our enthusiasm and understand he doesn't have a lot of experience, but he's going to be a superstar.

"I want to do this until I'm about 60. I want to do it as long as Dale Inman did and he swears I can't, but I'm going to try. When you get with a laid back group, a confident group with the chemistry level this company has, I think you can go a long with them for a long time. This is what I know to do. I didn't enjoy myself sitting at home on the couch the last three weeks. I want to be involved with big-time auto racing and the only way to do it is to just go do it as hard as you can.

"Dale's new shop is such a beautiful shop, it's almost disconcerting when you walk in. You wonder if it's just a show place or are you going to work there. I spent the entire day there yesterday and they do a lot of work there. They're all enthusiastic. They worry about having light cars and fast cars and making a lot of downforce. They take care of each other. Their spirits are high. It's just a terrific. It looks like a showplace and it is, but it's also a heck of a work place.

"I'm going to wander. I'll be in the fab shop worrying about what we're going to take to the wind tunnel, and I'll be talking to the engine guys to make sure we've got engine supplies and they've got what they need. I'll work with Tony and Philippe and enjoy just wandering around and be something of a guiding force. I won't call meetings and tell the guys this is the way you've got to do this. I'll just make sure everything is going the way it should. I'll report to Ty Norris.

"Earnhardt (Sr.) is a cool guy to work with. I was nervous going to him to talk and in the first five minutes I new I could talk to him. You could have a fist fight with him and wouldn't have any hard feelings about it. You tell him what you think, and he tells you what he thinks and then you go on about your business. There's no mystery to it. You know where you stand and I think that's important.

"We can be a good team. Two things will influence that. We've got good race drivers and a great owner and sponsors and the other is that these 41 and 42 and 43-year-old drivers won't be as good in five years as they are now. We're going to fall into a slot that's just perfect. I couldn't imagine the timing being any better for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

"Mark Martin is a great race driver and I'm sure he'll do it forever. Jeff Gordon is much younger than Mark, but the sport has changed a lot in the last 10 years and I'm sure it'll continue to change over the next 10 years. People are going to get tired and the schedule is going to get longer. How we handle and how we manage the people is going to be more important than how we manage the hardware. We're going to try to be progressive along those lines. It may end up that a group of people goes on the weekend and have a couple of days off during the week. We haven't even talked about it. I think the trouble Winston Cup racing is going to run into is the labor pool is going to not shrink, but the teams are getting bigger and there aren't as many people to go around. Quality people are hard to find. You look and see the Busch people who are laying on the ground working on the race cars. You find the truck driver that gets it there the quickest. You go find race car drivers like Steve Park and Dale Jr. who do a great job in anything you put them in. Even then, you've got the chemistry issue. That's the hardest part. Experience together means a lot. We'll get that as much as we race. We'll be surprised when Atlanta is over. We're nervous thinking about how it's going to go at Martinsville in September. Atlanta in November, we'll be like we've been together a hundred years. It'll happen quickly and it'll shake out fast. I think we'll be pretty effective."

"My Impala SS needs an oil change, so I was kinda hoping Steve could run by the house and take care of that and maybe wash the windows while he's at it (said with laughter). I think with his experience, he can help me from the driver's standpoint as far as seeing things on the race track with an experienced eye that I might not be feeling in the race car. He can also be another person to be able to communicate to about the handling characteristics and what kind of changes need to be made from his past experience. It's like anything else, two minds are better than one. With his personality, he seems to fit right in. He works well with Philippe and everyone in the shop. It'll be just another intelligent mind to try to overcome the day in and out battles of Winston Cup racing.

"We feel we've had some competitive runs this year at places we've tested and have some experience at. Some of the places we've had less experience we've had less performance. We're hoping his experience can help us at that standpoint and be the guy, who might not help us contend for a win right off the bat week in and week out, but make us a consistent top 15 car. When we can do that, we'll make ourselves available to win. He's got the same accent (New York) I've got, so that's pretty neat. I remember when he (Hmiel) used to drive a truck for Jerry Cook when I'd go racing with my dad way back when. Tell me that's not a pretty cool story. When my dad ran on the modified circuit with Jerry Cook and Richie Evans and those guys, Steve Hmiel was with Jerry Cook. We've known each other for a long time. We've grown up together in this sport. It's nice to have a fellow New Yorker on our team.

"My leg is 100 percent, but I hurt my back that Monday in Homestead and I'm still struggling from that a little bit. I got through Dover OK, so I took it easy on Monday and Tuesday. The guys went testing down at Talladega and the doctors wanted me to take it easy and rest my back. We took a couple of days off last week and got healed up for this weekend. I'm still a little stiff and sore. They said it would be three weeks before the stiffness and soreness comes out of it, but I was in pretty good pain at Dover. The way the Monster Mile treats your body isn't much fun, but I hope Martinsville will be a little more kind. It'll be some bumping and banging, but that's good old short track racing, and I'm looking forward to it."