HOW MUCH LONGER WILL YOU BE ON CRUTCHES, AND HOW DIFFICULT HAS THIS BEEN FOR YOU? “Just one more week on the crutches, and, trust me, I can’t wait. That’s fine. It’s not a factor in the car, just getting around.”

 

YOUR THOUGHTS ON KANSAS SPEEDWAY? “To come to Kansas – I woke up in Columbia (Missouri) this morning and drove to the race track. It’s nice to be this close to home. So many people come out here to support me. It’s neat to race this close to home. To me, this is my home track on the Cup side, there’s nothing closer. It’s really special.”

 

ROUSH FENWAY RACING TRADITIONALLY HAS DONE WELL AT 1½-MILE TRACKS. EVEN THOUGH THIS HAS BEEN A DIFFICULT SEASON, IS THERE SOME COMFORT IN RETURNING TO A 1½-MILE TRACK, LIKE KANSAS, THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, we run really well at these mile-and-a-halfs, usually. We ran really well here last year. Greg’s won here. It couldn’t be a better track for us to come to right now. We need to turn this thing around, we need to run better. I think we were leading the points a year ago when we came in here, and we’re 150-something out, so we need to pick it up right away, and this is a good track to do that at. Hopefully, we can run like we did before.”

 

WITH 1½-MILE AND 2-MILE TRACKS COMING UP, DOES THAT GIVE YOU AT LEAST A SLIVER OF HOPE? “Like I was saying, we do run better at these style of tracks, historically, so we need to tap into that right now, we need to run well – here, California – those are pretty good tracks for us, hopefully.”

 

IF THIS WEEKEND’S RACE COMES DOWN TO THE WIRE, DO YOU HAVE A BONZAI MOVE, OR SOMETHING BETTER THIS YEAR? “I don’t have anything better than what I did last year. It just came to me at the moment. So, hopefully, I’m close enough to try something. That would be nice to be competing for a win at the end of this thing.”