Ron Lewis photo

We are in this big, we're not making changes so I don't think you are going to see them happen. I think Goodyear is going to have to...just like this Goodyear tire test we had in Darlington this week.  The three teams that were there, the No. 12 (Ryan Newman), the No. 24 and the No. 16 (Greg Biffle), we all worked really hard together to try and evaluate what was going on. We worked hard with Goodyear. John Darby and Robin Pemberton were down there. We had a group session. We talked about where we were at, what was taking place and came up with a plan. We ran through it the rest of that day. I thought it was really productive, well put together.  And, we said, if we have to come back here to verify some of these things, then maybe that is the best thing we need to do.  I was glad to be a part of it and I don't want drivers or anybody to be disappointed in the tire when we go back there. With the new re-pave, it is a very tough situation to be in, but I do think we made the best of it."

: What’s up with the No. 48?

JG: As far as I am concerned, the No. 88 and me have been running real good and things aren't really off track that much. We are all kind of scratching our heads trying to figure out what is going on with the No. 48. I will say it is early, it is a new car and they have been so good, I can't really tell you other than they have been trying some different things that haven't been working out for them. At California, they had my setup because they had been struggling. Jimmie just wasn't getting the feel and wasn't comfortable. They put our setup in or something very close to it, and then they were fast and very happy with it. I think those are the better guys to go to ask.

I just know they have been the same things that they always do. Those guys are solid, they are a great team and it just hasn't been working for them. To me, you never count those guys out. They may be struggling right now, but it...our organization is strong, those guys are strong. That team is strong, they will get it.

: What do you think about the hot topic of a driver’s union and having an official driver’s spokesman?

Tim Marshall photo

JG: Oh boy. Breathe. Yeah, breathe, think. My opinion on this is that I believe that a group coming together to make good decisions is a positive thing. I’ve seen unions run things into the ground. It bugs the heck out of me when I think of the strikes that have happened in baseball. Look at the strike that just happened, you know the writer’s strike in Hollywood, and while there are positives for the people that are representing, sometimes as a whole if you look at the sport or the industry I’ve seen where it’s done a lot of damage. I see it happening right now with General Motors. So to me a union can be a good thing if the right people are managing it, the people have the right intent, but you don’t know that going into it or when it gets formed. You don’t know that’s going to happen properly. I think that we all have so many different agendas and ideas that to see them all try to come together as one can be tough. What I would like to do, I would like to see NASCAR have like a quarterly meeting where they bring all the drivers into a room and bring up hot topics and talk about things and allow us to vent, or allow us to share our opinions and just listen to us. This going up into the trailer one at a time and one guy says the exact opposite of what the next guy comes in, I think all it does is confuse them and so we’re not going anywhere. I believe communication is key in every business and every team and we’re together with them, we’re partners in this whole thing and I would love to work with them further on that but I’m out of breath doing it individually because it doesn’t go anywhere.”