Ronda Greer Photo

IROC Racing: "It's time to get back to some fun.  I am really glad we are having another IROC race this week in Richmond.  It seems like forever since we raced them, well it was April in Texas.  It has been one of the best things I've done this year and the best part of winning the championship.  I'm testing them on Wednesday and then I'll try my hand in the IROC race and then straight to the Craftsman Truck race on Thursday.  Richmond is one of my favorite tracks, so this should be fun."

Owning Teams with Young Talent: "Right now, we're still pretty fortunate or unfortunate should I say, that the veterans are the guys that log the most points and stay in the top-five in points at all times.  In my case, as the owner, it looks good for me to be able to train the person that I want to my liking.  I can get help from Ted Musgrave on that because even though he's a competitor, he's still with the Dodge organization.  So a lot of us work jointly as a Dodge group to get some young drivers in here."

Timothy Peters: "He's fast and he gives good input and he definitely gets along with my people real well.  He's got a ton of want.  He's had a couple of bad things to happen to him.  This is not knocking him at all; it takes time to learn how to race.  When you've got Todd Bodine on the verge of winning a race, you don't run on the outside of him with him on the inside because he doesn't know if he's loose or not.  That's what took Timothy out at Charlotte.  Todd felt bad about it.  He said 'Have you had any problem with him?' and I said no, I refuse to run on the outside of him because he doesn't know when he's loose.  What I mean is that you learn that as you go.  He and Robert Pressley had a skirmish at Nashville last week and he's like 'How come you never get in stuff like that?' and I said it's because I never let anyone have my right rear.  If I'm up under a man and I'm going into the next corner I just stay equal beside him.  I don't give him the opportunity to get front or rear.  You have the same length as his truck and it usually doesn't do anything because I know I'm going to pass him in the next corner.  It's just little things like that he has to learn.  He wants it so bad and he's so aggressive.  He hasn't quite learned how to race defensive but I'm definitely willing to put the time in for him to learn that."

Notes:

• Hamilton will be racing Slim Shady in Richmond.
• Last year Hamilton slid up and hit the wall at Richmond International Raceway on lap two, but went on to finish the event in the 26th position.

Driver Development Programs: "There have been so many people on Music Row in Nashville to go out and find the next Patsy Cline or the next Hank Williams and they were 14 years old and guess what happened at 19 and 20? Their voice changed.  When you get into youth it gets to be a very tough thing because it's hard to find a person at a very young age that doesn't get into the distractions.  Everybody is looking for Jeff Gordon and he's not out there.  Everybody is still looking for him.  They'll say 'We've got Jamie McMurray and we've got this and we've got that, but nobody has Jeff Gordon yet.  Not yet they don't, not one person, I don't care what anybody says because when he came up he was very disciplined, very dedicated to the sport and was a great spokesperson for the sport.  He's very good at what he does on and off the racetrack.  We just can't find them young like that anymore."