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NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 17, 2007

TRACEY JUDD: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's NASCAR teleconference in advance of Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race, the Gateway 250, which will be held at Gateway International Raceway under the lights.
We have three guests today who are involved in three different NASCAR series. NASCAR Busch Series veteran Jason Keller, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points leader Mike Skinner and NASCAR Grand National Division Busch East Series driver Peyton Sellers. All three gentlemen are scheduled to join us today.
We do have one of those gentlemen with us. That would be Jason Keller. Jason, welcome, thanks for joining us.
JASON KELLER: Thanks for having me today. I look forward to some exciting questions and answers today.
TRACEY JUDD: 2007 is shaping up to be quite an exciting season for you. First you're back in the NASCAR Busch Series. Saturday night at Gateway you'll once again set a new career earnings mark when you surpass $11 million in career winnings. If your schedule holds as it is, come October at Lowe's Motor Speedway, you look to become the series all-time starts leader with 418, breaking that long-standing mark held by Tommy Houston. Once again, you're quietly stepping into the record books.
How appropriate is it that one of your marks should be falling at Gateway, which is located in the home city of our series sponsor, Anheuser-Busch?
JASON KELLER: Well, I don't think of any better place. I can't think of any better place. Anheuser-Busch has been such a great mainstay in NASCAR for so many years. It's nice to be able to go. I'm going to be spending some time with the Anheuser-Busch guys on Thursday. I'm looking forward to that.
It's great. The CJM team, we talked a couple months ago about how things may could play out over the next couple of months to maybe try to break the record. I was very adamant. I mean, I would love -- if I am going to break this record, I want to break it when it's still the Busch Series. I want to be known as the driver with the most Busch Series starts. That was one of the things is important to me. Hopefully we can do that come October. If not then, late October.
Just looking forward to every race as we run it. But that was some of the things popped up over the last couple of months that's very near and dear to my heart.
TRACEY JUDD: You're the first driver in series history to $9 million in earnings, then $10 million in earnings, now $11 million in earnings over a career that expands 17 years. But again just at 37 years of age, what does that mean to you to have that much earnings power, if you will, over a long period of time, yet still at such a young age having so much more to give to this sport?
JASON KELLER: I appreciate you clarifying my age. A lot of people think because I've been in the Busch Series for so long, I would be in the over 40, 45 ranks. I often laugh about it. I was kind of a young gun when the young guns weren't cool.
I've had a long and great career in the Busch Series. I've never viewed the Busch Series as a steppingstone. I've always viewed the Busch Series as a great place to race and a great opportunity to be able to race for a living.
It's been good to me over the years. You'll have to ask my wife the earnings questions. I don't know how much money I make. She seems to keep up with that. All in all, it's been great. I'm glad to be back part of the series that I love so much, and to be back on a regular basis. I know I've been kind of in and out sporadic over the last 12 months. It was important to get back in the series that I really, really love. Looking forward to hopefully 400 more starts if it all works right.
TRACEY JUDD: Let's go to questions from the media for Jason Keller

Q. NASCAR is increasingly vigilant about enforcing the rule book this year. How do you and your team balance staying within the rules with showing ingenuity and finding an edge?
JASON KELLER: Well, that's something that we've battled for a long time. I just think NASCAR has gotten more strict, so to speak, on what they do to you after they catch you.
I think as much as anything now NASCAR is setting a precedent in the Cup Series with the Car of Tomorrow. They're not having many gray areas. It's black and white. You can touch the car here, but you can't touch the car there.
I think as much as anything it's just NASCAR making sure that they set the precedent of how this new Car of Tomorrow, how the new era of NASCAR is going to be handled.
Knock on wood. We haven't seen a whole lot of difference in how they handle the Busch Series per se. The Cup Series has definitely seen a difference in how they handle those infractions.

Q. Do you think there's still a place in this sport for ingenuity?
JASON KELLER: Oh, most definitely. That's why you see some teams running good and some teams running bad. There's a lot of areas that are still available for development and to try to gain an edge. That's why you see some of the teams running really good and some of them struggling a little bit.
Some people have classified it maybe they don't want to see it become an IROC Series or something on that note. But I don't think we're anywhere close to that. Aerodynamically you might be a little closer to that because of the Car of Tomorrow package. Mechanically I think there's still a long ways to go.

Q. You've been in the Busch Series a lot of years. What are the biggest changes you've seen over the time you've driven the series?
JASON KELLER: Well, one is that we race west of the Mississippi. When I came into the series, I can remember going to Las Vegas for the first time, having to get on an airplane, flying out to Las Vegas. It was such a huge deal. Now it's old hat to us.
We race all over the country, even internationally. I think probably the biggest thing for me is just that the series has expanded so much. We're going into markets that I never would have thought we would be in when I first started the Busch Series. A little bit of that is disappointment. Although I know the markets are very important, I miss some of the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina races, I miss some of the smaller venues because that's kind of what I started out racing.
With growth comes some things that you have to just get over. The series has definitely, definitely grown geographically is probably the biggest thing.

Q. Busch races in Mexico, Montréal. Do you see a team when NASCAR might be a global sport?
JASON KELLER: I would think there's NASCAR fans -- well, I know there are NASCAR fans all over the world. I don't know how much more it can grow. When you start trying to expand to different continents, I think we're pretty limited of how many -- there's not a lot of open weekends now. To start trying to maybe model yourself after the Formula One concept where you race in different continents on different weeks, they don't race near as many races as NASCAR does per year.
You may have to ask someone in NASCAR, but from where I'm sitting, I just don't know how feasible that will be. I never thought we'd be racing in Mexico City either. They proved me wrong there. It's been very successful. Wherever they throw the green flag, hopefully I'll be part of it.

Q. I'm assuming there's probably going to be a new title sponsor coming to the series right away. Do you see that as an opportunity to do something, shake up the format like they did in Cup when NEXTEL came along?
JASON KELLER: It would definitely be the time period to do something if that comes about.
It is very exciting, the Chase. It's very exciting. I say that from a fan perspective. I find myself really following who's going to make the Chase or who isn't going to make the Chase. Then I find myself following the last schedule races there a little bit closer than I used to.
I don't know. If they do do something in the Busch Series, whatever the name's gonna be, I would hope they incorporate something that doesn't have 10 Cup drivers part of the Chase or whatever it may be. I don't know what the scenario would be. I would hope that somehow, some way it can still be a Busch Series championship, so to speak, and hopefully we can continue. I don't mind the shake-up, but I just hope it doesn't cater to just the Cup teams.

Q. If you could dictate what was going to happen yourself, what would you suggest?
JASON KELLER: Anybody with ever over 400 starts automatically makes the Chase (laughter). That would be me. No, I'm just kidding.
I don't know. I've said all along, kind of goes back a little bit, I don't mind the Cup guys being part of the series. I think they have to compete against themselves somehow not to override the series, maybe limit how many of the Cup drivers can make a Chase, if you're in the top 30 in points or top 35 in points, maybe limit to how many can make the Chase. I don't mind racing against those guys, but it's hard when you've got so many of them.
The format in the Cup Series is working really good. They tweak it every year. Every year they get a lot of criticism that they're changing it up, maybe not going to make it as exciting. But it seems to gain excitement every year, gain notoriety. That format's worked pretty good. I just don't think it will be as cut and dry in the Busch Series. I think it would have to have some type of limitation on how many Cup drivers can make it.

Q. Going back, you're a two-time winner at O'Reilly Raceway Park, first Busch Series win there. How eager are you to get back out for the Kroger 200? What do you like about coming to Indianapolis?
JASON KELLER: I'm not going to fault you for talking about a place that I really enjoy. I guess the official name is ORP. I have two trophies in my office that say IRP. Looking very much forward to getting back to Indianapolis. Any time you got the memories I have at that place, it's very special.
Had a great run last year. I filled in for one of the Brewco cars. We were running in the top five, got in a bang-up about two-thirds of the race. I think that breeds my confidence as much as anything.
I mean, I go there with so much confidence that I can go there and run well and even have a shot at winning the race.

Q. Talk about Gateway this weekend. What is it about that place that's so unique, akin to Pocono on the Cup circuit?
JASON KELLER: I think just the differences of the shape. The shape is different. Because it's so different in turns one and two, which is very tight and really, really wide and sweeping in three and four, you can never get into a rhythm and get your car working great on both ends. I never have.
I know the times that I've run really well there, I've been really, really loose on one end and really, really good on the other. I think that's what really poses such a challenge there at St. Louis is because you have these really long straightaways and then you've got such a tight corner in one and two. A lot of drivers don't like it because it's so different on one end compared to the other.
I think it brings an element in that keeps you on your toes and keeps you really, really with an open mind to make sure you don't get your car so good on one end and not as well on the other.
Just brings a lot of different elements in.

Q. With you joining the season as late as you have, trying to get this team off and running, how has your work come along so far this season and how much more do you think you need to bring to the table?
JASON KELLER: The CJM team that I'm driving the limited schedule for this year has been fantastic. I mean, we actually did not even start talking about the concept of putting this team together till March. To go from really just an idea to here we are five races into what we've done together, and we've had some success. We've been able to run well on several different occasions.
It's just a testimony to what type people we have at CJM. A lot of the CJM players, so to speak, the people working there, they're former people that have worked with me. It was no surprise. I think that's what has really helped bridge the gap, so to speak. This weekend at St. Louis, next week at IRP, I'll be back in a Brewco car. I had already committed to Brewco early in the season to run some of the races, which I was very glad to be able to have some races scheduled.
I've been kind of jumping back and forth from the Brewco program to the CJM program. One thing I can say, both teams have given me such a true effort in that they've really put their heart and soul into it, haven't just viewed me as a plug-in driver. I feel very good about both opportunities and look forward to building both of them.

Q. Do you think it will ever get back to a time when guys come into the series and say I like the Busch concept, I like the schedule, they'll just be totally committed to the Busch Series?
JASON KELLER: I sure hope so. That's one of the things that I miss the most. People in the Busch Series, different people have always had different agendas. Some have merely used it as a practice for their Sunday race. Some have used it for driver development for maybe a year to get a little bit of seat time to move to Cup. It used to have that element where some of us, myself, Randy LaJoie, Elton Sawyer, some of these guys used it for a home. We were comfortable being there. We loved the schedule. We were able to represent great sponsors.
The third element I'm talking about has gone away a little bit, but I hope that doesn't go away entirely. I hope I'm one of the ones that can carry the flag and get it back as part of a key element of the Busch Series.
Only time will tell. Trends of the series have come and gone. Hopefully that trend will kind of come back. You have to look at it, and one of the reasons I say it's not a trend any more is because some of the people that would probably do that and structure that are maybe Todd Bodine, Ted Musgrave, and they've been able to do that in the Truck Series, Jack Sprague, those guys. It's not that the Busch Series is not healthy, it's just there's another avenue for people to find a home that don't have to race on Sunday.
Hopefully we can get some more of the guys that view the Busch Series as a solid racing series that we can make our home and not just use it as a steppingstone.

Q. With your experience, the teams you've driven for, what kind of collection do you have? Do you have enough mementos to start your own museum?
JASON KELLER: I tell you what, I've got a lot for sure. I'm kind of a helmet and suit collector. I've got one of my helmets and suits from all the teams I've driven for. All my sponsors, been very blessed to have great sponsors. I've got a lot of mementos. I've building a little room now at the house so hopefully I can get all that displayed.
It's nice to go back. I'm making myself feel old here a little bit. It's nice to go back and look how I've been able to move to this point. It's not over by any means. I'm looking forward to gaining many more, collecting many more items, but it's definitely nice to be able to look at those and think about the good times as well as the bad. It's all part of growing.

Q. Have you heard anything about NASCAR starting to talk about the Busch Series getting their own Car of Tomorrow? Would you lobby for that?
JASON KELLER: I think right now I would lobby against it. The reason being I think the Busch Series its own identity away from the Cup Series. I think that was one of the things -- I don't think it was NASCAR's malicious intent to make the cars really close to the same. But over the years they've kind of evolved to where the Cup cars and the Busch Series cars are very close in how they drive, how they feel, a lot of the key elements.
Now with the Cup Car of Tomorrow, I've talked to numerous Cup drivers. They say they feel totally different. They drive differently. They feel different. Some of the information you get on the Busch car doesn't translate to the Cup car.
I was talking about the trends of the series. I think that's maybe what will pull us back around to where you'll always have Cup drivers driving the Busch Series, but it won't be quite so dominated by the Cup Series drivers and the Cup Series teams. I'm not so worried about the drivers as I am about the influx of the Cup Series teams, so to speak.
I would hope that NASCAR would leave the Busch Series right now as is, let us separate ourselves a little bit technically from the Cup Series. If they do that, do that a couple years down the road.

Q. When you started your career, you probably started go-kart racing, dirt tracks. With the way NASCAR is headed with all the technology, seems like a young person, because we in the media get questions by young people, eight or 10 years old, you almost have to tell them you better become a mechanical engineer.
JASON KELLER: I think NASCAR has moved to the point of definitely needing -- that you have to be just more optional. You can't just be a great driver. You have to be able to have the skills to drive. You have to have the skills to market yourself. You have to have the skills mechanically to be able to communicate about the car.
I think NASCAR has gotten more technical. You have to have a larger notebook, so to speak. You have to have more value. You've got to be able to not just be one of those but be a lot of things. It's only because it's gotten so competitive. It used to be your pool was a lot smaller to pull from. Now it's very large. When you got people like Juan Montoya, Pablo, wanting to come, a lot of Canadian driver interest, too. It's not like you're just pulling from the Southeast pool of drivers. You're pulling from a lot of different drivers. It is very difficult to establish yourself and get yourself into any NASCAR series, not just one of the top ones.
TRACEY JUDD: Jason, we appreciate you taking the time to join us today. We wish you the best of luck on Saturday. See you at Gateway.
JASON KELLER: As always, thank you. Look forward to St. Louis this weekend.
TRACEY JUDD: We're now joined by our second guest, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points leader Mike Skinner, who is fresh off his series-leading fourth win of the season last Saturday at Kentucky Speedway. Thanks for joining us today.
MIKE SKINNER: No problem.
TRACEY JUDD: Are you still here in Daytona with this thunderstorm as we are?
MIKE SKINNER: I am. I'm hoping it don't mess the telephone up.
TRACEY JUDD: The trucks are off this weekend, which is probably good news for your competitors since you've built a 164-point lead through the first half of the season. What is your team's plan to maintain that lead through the second half of the year?
MIKE SKINNER: Well, basically we just need to do the same thing we've done since we went in the gates at Daytona back in February. I use the phrase: Keep the train on the tracks. We're not desperate to win a pole. We're not desperate to win a race. We're not desperate for anything.
We have the ability to hopefully with any luck at all race a little smarter, just try to get top-10 finishes. That's kind of what we've done all year. We found ourselves in position to win three or four races. Two of the races we put a dominant performance on. One of them we were about a third-place truck and ended up in Victory Lane. The other one we worked really hard and won.
It's been a great season for us.
TRACEY JUDD: We'll go to some questions for Mike Skinner, please.

Q. At this stage of your career, do you think you're a smarter and more mature competitor?
MIKE SKINNER: I hope so. I've never been labeled as a smart competitor before prior to this year. Since the first time I ever got in a race car back in the mid to later '70s, I've always been win, crash or blow, and basically take-no-prisoners kind of guy. I've been able to win three dirt track championships, late model championships and a truck championship. It's never been from being a smart competitor. It's been from running hard and winning races.
I think in this day and time, you know, that works really good if you're running a limited schedule. But if you're trying to race for points, you've got to change your attitude a little bit and that's what we're trying to do.

Q. Are you comfortable in this change? Obviously you're successful.
MIKE SKINNER: No, it's not my style. It's really not. I have to praise Gayle Davis, Bill Davis, my wife Angie, my spotter Mike Swaim, Jeff Hensley, all these people got this bit in my mouth. Every time I start to get out of whack a little bit, they pull it back like they're pulling a horse to back up.
It's not really my style. I think it's working for us. We've had a great season. I guess when the day comes I say, Okay, this is my last year, I can go back and just have fun. I told Jeff, I said, Build lots of trucks, let's get lots of sponsor money to pay fines (laughter).

Q. Back in a familiar place: up top. When you got into this going on 12 years ago, how did you look at it? What's different between then and now? Did you think you'd get maybe one or two championships after winning that first one?
MIKE SKINNER: Like most drivers at that stage of my career, the Truck Series was a steppingstone. We were fortunate enough to win a championship. Then I wanted to be in the Winston Cup, now NEXTEL Cup Series. We did that.
Unfortunately along the way we got hurt a couple times really bad. That hurt my Cup career. I took a little time and healed up, had the opportunity to get my act back together. The U.S. Army car really helped me a lot with my career when Jerry Nadeau got hurt, they put me in that car. We ran up front, got poles, was a threat to win races. That really helped me.
That full-time premiere ride just wasn't out there for us. We got the opportunity to go back and race trucks again. When they said Toyota was interested in us, they were going to be the sponsor on the truck, I said, Heck, yeah, let's go. We've been having a blast ever since.

Q. A lot of competitors are still looking for the championship, but still saying it's yours to lose at this point. Talk about how you feel about that and comparing your '95 championship season to how you're running right now.
MIKE SKINNER: First of all, I certainly hope they're right. 1995 I was an aggressive driver that wanted to prove to the world that I needed to be in the Cup Series, that in top-notch equipment I could get the job done. It was a different attitude. It was a different period in my racing career.
Now coming back and doing this, I don't have to prove myself every week. I don't feel like my job's on the line. I don't feel like you're only as good as your last race to this organization.
That's a really good comfortable level. I actually think it makes you more productive knowing that you don't have to go out there and feel like your job's on the line every time you get in the race car. I'm enjoying this more.

Q. Talk about racing at IRP. What is so difficult about it?
MIKE SKINNER: I look back in the years, Butch Miller, when we had some good races there. He could run right around the bottom of that place. Only guy I could ever see that could run around the bottom of it. Every year I try to set my truck up where if I have to go down there, I can, especially in three and four.
At the end of the day, ORP is exactly what it is. It's just another racetrack that we have to survive. It's good to have a have a victory this past week, to go there and say, we don't need to win this race, we need to finish in the top 10, we don't have to force the issue, knock the fenders off our truck. We don't feel like we're that desperate.
Hopefully that works out. We'll see.

Q. You talked about a different comfort level with racing. Guys talk about how much fun it is to race in the Truck Series. Some guys are working their way up. There's champions using it as a part-time deal. Where you are in your career, how much of racing in this series is this is where you're going to be to the end or do you hold out feelings you could still get it done and move back up to the Cup level?
MIKE SKINNER: I know I can still get it done in the Cup level. I don't have any question about it. It's a matter of where your comfort level is. This is where my comfort level is. No one can get it done in the Cup level without super strong race teams. If we could take this race team over and run a handful of Cup races, I feel like we'd be competitive.
What my goal is in the next couple, two, three years is basically if we could run four or five Cup races a year, I would be very, very content. I don't really have a big desire to go back and run the full schedule. The only way I would do that is it would have to be a top-notch team with top-notch equipment. That's the only way I'd even consider it.

Q. How much longer do you feel like you can race like you're doing now in the Truck Series?
MIKE SKINNER: My gosh, the day after my birthday party I thought it might be that week. Thought that might have been it. We celebrated an awful lot for an old man.
I don't really know. I had planned to retire when I was 50. Bill Davis, along with the Toyota folks agreeing to sponsor us for three more years, let us drive their branded truck, they talked me into doing three more years. We got one half of one of those years done now.
I think the last year of this contract, we'll really evaluate first of all am I still competitive, and second of all am I still having fun. First and foremost, if they're interested in going a little bit farther, we're still having as much fun as we're having today, we might extend it a couple more.
How healthy am I and are we still competitive is the biggest things.

Q. Have you thought about what you might do when your driving days are over?
MIKE SKINNER: There's several things I'd love to do. It goes from going in the booth. I don't have a big interest in ownership. It's too much like a real job and too many hours. I feel like I'd be really, really good at being like a driving coach or a consultant for all the Toyota teams, maybe still hopefully do something in the Toyota family. If not, find a position similar to that that you can take 35 years of experience and spread it out.
Those are some of my real big goals right there. We just kind of got to see what happens. I don't really know what I'm going to do when I grow up, that's just what I'd like to do.

Q. You have a comfortable lead right now. The history of this series has shown nothing is really comfortable. As you look at the second half of the season, how do you see things shaping up? Do you expect guys to make pushes now that you're going back to these tracks a second time?
MIKE SKINNER: I tell you, historically the 5 team has been stronger the second half of the year than they have been on the first half. Gosh, I just hope that that's true to fact for this year.
We're not comfortable. I don't think you can ever get comfortable in this thing until it's mathematically impossible for somebody to catch you. I don't see that happening probably until the checkered flag drops at Homestead.
No, we're not comfortable. That's exactly why we're out testing, trying different setups, searching for more speed, more downforce, better engines. The whole organization is definitely not sitting here, All we got to do is just kind of finish races now. We're working hard.

Q. Do you wish sometimes when you go to Indy, you'd like to have maybe a couple cracks on that track on a truck?
MIKE SKINNER: Oh, heck yes. I mean, you know, I don't know that that will ever happen just because of ORP being so close there, such a good Craftsman Truck Series race at that racetrack every year. I don't know if you remember when they first built Homestead, it was like a shrunk-down version of Indy. I loved it. We did get to run the trucks there. We ran exceptionally well.
Yeah, I'd love to take that pickup truck over there and just see how quick it would get around that place.

Q. Toyota's first year in the Cup. You have had experience with them in the Truck Series. How do you guys in the Truck Series that drive Toyotas view the foibles, ups and downs that Toyota is having in the Cup Series?
MIKE SKINNER: Well, I honestly -- my personal feelings is there's nothing wrong with the car, there's nothing wrong with the motor. It's the fact of getting the race teams to gel together. The only established team that they have was the Caterpillar car. Other than a series of horrible, horrible luck for Dave Blaney and the Caterpillar car, they've pretty much carried the torch.
As far as the Toyota goes itself, I'm not so sure that we can look at the manufacturer side of it as much as we need to get these teams a little more time together, let them make all the adjustments at the end of this year they think they need to make. I think there's a lot better things to look forward to in the future.
We don't have a Rick Hendrick organization or a Jack Roush huge organization with unlimited money. We don't have that in any of our Toyota teams. Red Bull is as close as you're going to get to that and they're a start-up team. They'll be strong, it's just going to take some time.

Q. Do you ever see having the trucks on a track like Infineon in Sonoma?
MIKE SKINNER: Well, we did race Infineon when the Truck Series started. It was one of my favorite racetracks. It's actually one of my favorite places to go. My wife and I actually have a lot of friends out in the wine country. We go out there on vacation sometimes.
I would love to see us race the trucks again on the road courses there or Watkins Glen, either one. We used to go to two or three of them. I really miss going to the road courses.
TRACEY JUDD: Mike, we appreciate your time today. Congratulations for making it through the thunderstorm. Want to wish you best of luck in the second half. Thanks for taking some time out for us.
MIKE SKINNER: You bet. No problem. Bye-bye.
TRACEY JUDD: We're now joined by our final guest today, NASCAR Grand National Division Busch East Series driver Peyton Sellers, who also won the 2005 NASCAR Weekly Series National Championship. To take you through some question and answers with Peyton, we'll turn over the moderation to our manager of communications for NASCAR's developmental series Jason Christley.
JASON CHRISTLEY: You are currently fourth place in points in the series standings as the series heads to the Music City Motorplex in Nashville for Sunday's Music City 150. You are in a unique situation, running essentially a one-car operation. Can you talk about having to haul home from Connecticut from last weekend, getting the car ready, turn it around to take to Tennessee?
PEYTON SELLERS: I tell you, this year has been a good year for us performance-wise. We've had a lot of good runs. Results haven't quite been where we wanted, but we're still hanging on right there in the top five in points. Very pleased with that.
It is kind of tough being a one-car team. This is just the point in the season where it's toughest on the small guy because we have a three-week stretch going from Thompson, Connecticut, to Nashville, back to New York. It's a lot of logistics involved in that. It's tough on us right now.
We got in a little accident on Saturday night, got quite a bit of damage to the car. We're thrashing on it pretty good right here in North Carolina today trying to get everything ready to go for this weekend. Fortunately we have a seven-day week this week as far as having Saturday to finish the car up and get it to Nashville. We don't have to race till Sunday, which is a good deal.
As far as the one-car team, NASCAR has done a great job over the off-season of implementing the spec engine, some of the pit stop rules with just taking two tires, then taking fuel on another pit stop. That has been a big help for the small guy because it takes your pit crews out of the way. The only thing I would like to have right now is another car. As far as NASCAR, they've done their part to help equalize the rules.
JASON CHRISTLEY: We'll take questions for Peyton Sellers.

Q. You've had the opportunity to race in both the Grand National West Series in California and now you're over in the Eastern side. What do you see as the differences between the two series?
PEYTON SELLERS: I've had an opportunity now to run for one of the highest-funded teams on the West Coast with Bill last year, then to come back and do my own deal this year on one of the lowest-funded teams, it's been a lot of fun both ways. I came back home and I worked with a whole lot of people on the East Coast. But definitely enjoyed the West Coast a lot last year.
It's pretty unique to my situation to see both sides of the table and understand what Bill was having to do last year to make budgets work out. Now I'm seeing it firsthand for myself this year.
As far as the competition level, there's not a lot of difference. That's proved this past year when we went to the Showdown East versus West. You had Sean Caisse and Matt Kobyluck from the East Coast going against Eric Holmes and even Brian Ickler was running well last year in the Showdown.
I think every year that the East comes out to the West, the gap in competition is getting closer and closer each year because the East Coast, this is racing country, this is where it all began, so therefore there's more technology here with more Cup teams. It's bleeding over to the West Coast pretty quick.

Q. There were some races where you had the combined fields. It is a lot of travel. Did it feel like an old home thing where you know these teams?
PEYTON SELLERS: It was definitely a homecoming, seeing those guys I raced with last year on the West Coast, then racing with the guys I run with on the East Coast. It was a lot of fun. NASCAR done a good job with that. At first I just thought it was going to be a crazy weekend that didn't make sense logistics-wise. At the end of the day, it turned out it was real successful, it run smoothly. The two tracks were unique in their own different ways with Iowa and Minnesota. Really put on for good racing.

Q. How much could the teams that have ties to the NEXTEL Cup mega teams, how much of an advantage do they have? Is it like the Busch Series, like they're Busch whackers?
PEYTON SELLERS: It is. I tell you fortunately I've got a little bit of experience. I was able to run the Grand National Series last year. A lot of these tracks we're going to are new tracks, but I'm very familiar with the car. That's a big help. These Cup teams moved in with development drivers that don't have the experience. That's the equalizing factor. These drivers are coming into the series with cars that are capable of winning Busch races in the Busch East Series, but the drivers just don't have the experience yet, and that's keeping some of them back.
There is a big disadvantage. There again, we're going to short tracks every week, end of the day isn't going to relate to what these Cup guys are doing. They're running setups that work on mile-and-a-half tracks, big tracks. It puts us at a bigger disadvantage at a track like Loudon or Dover than Thompson or Adirondack or even Nashville this weekend.
It's a lot of fun racing against those teams because you know that they're bringing the best they have every single week so you know how you stack up.

Q. Weren't you sponsored by Clarence's Steakhouse in Martinsville?
PEYTON SELLERS: Yes, sir. Clarence's Steakhouse, they sponsored my late model team for four years, continue to sponsor me now even in the Busch East Series. Clarence helped me a lot at the short tracks at the start of the season like South Boston, Greenville, which are closer to home for us. When we go to Thompson, Connecticut, New Hampshire, places like that, he wouldn't get any benefit out of it.
Clarence continues to sponsor my late model which I ran once this year. He's now currently sponsoring Phillip Morris, who is the 2006 national champion. They're a long-time supporters of me as long as racing in general. Sponsored modifieds back in the '60s and continue to sponsor cars now.

Q. Could you talk about the common hurdles and learning curves that you encounter regularly in your career.
PEYTON SELLERS: Biggest thing is just being adaptable. Every car that you race is going to be completely different. You race late models week in, week out, growing up at short tracks, quarter mile in Stockton, California, five-eighths mile in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They're unique tracks but they're small tracks. They teach you how to race door-to-door. You have to learn how to conserve tires because you run the same set of tires the entire race in a late model show. Then when you move up to Grand National Division where we're at now, a lot of tracks we have the opportunity to come down pit road, get two tires. It teaches you how to make pit stops, learning pit road speed, just learning the format.
Every time you go to a different series or move up to the next level, there's a different format on how the race is run and how the directors do things.
That's a learning curve in itself. But you go from a short track where you grew up racing, you go out and you get local $500,000 sponsors, little small sponsors, you don't really have to do much for them, trying to go launch for that $5 million sponsor to run the Busch Series where you have to do a lot of follow-up work, a lot of shows, autograph sessions, things like that.
A driver constantly goes through changes, growing pains you may call it, throughout his whole career. These are some of the things I'm seeing firsthand right now. Being 23 years old, I've seen a lot of things. NASCAR has done a lot with the weekly series. Gets you a lot of exposure by running that week in and week out. That is a big help getting an opportunity to go to Nashville, go to New York, do things like that, gets you opened up to the media, helps you with some of that as far as growing in the sport of racing.

Q. Is there a best way to handle the ups and downs of racing in your attempt to move up?
PEYTON SELLERS: I tell you, the best way I've found to handle any problems as far as that goes is just believing in the Lord, keeping your faith through the good and the bad. I think life is constantly throwing you angles, seeing how you adapt to them. Just keep your faith. I grew up going to church. Continue to do so. Somebody that's talking to the Lord is something I'm confident doing, keeping the faith, give you somebody to lean on a little bit.
JASON CHRISTLEY: You almost got the win at South Boston. Going to Music City, Nashville, which has probably one of the most unique trophies in auto racing, how much would it mean for you to get that guitar as your first Busch East win?
PEYTON SELLERS: That would be awesome. I tell you, I got an opportunity to get a Sam Ash guitar through the national championship banquet in '05. To be able to get a second one to add to the collection would be unbelievable. Our results this past weekend didn't show our performance. We've got our No. 83 car running good right now. Got my brother as my crew chief, same crew that won the national championship. We're going through some good times right now. We're having some struggles along the way with (indiscernible) here and there. That's what you get when you short track race week in and week out.
I'm looking forward to going to Nashville this week. We've got our car worked out really good right now. We got in a little altercation this past weekend. Just kept us from having a shot at that win. We're looking forward to it. Have a lot of momentum. Have a lot of people pulling for me right now. Looking forward to it.
JASON CHRISTLEY: Thanks. Good luck Sunday in Nashville.
PEYTON SELLERS: Thank you.
JASON CHRISTLEY: Thank you to all our guests and participants. Have a good week.

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