Ford F-150 drivers Travis Kvapil and No. 21 Bush's Baked Beans Ford call Wisconsin home.  All three drivers discuss memories of the Milwaukee Mile and the thrill of racing here in the NASCAR Truck and Busch Series.

Travis Kvapil - No. 6 K&N Filters Ford F-150
A few generic questions about the Milwaukee Mile, since you are a Wisconsinite: did you ever come to the Milwaukee Mile when you were a kid?  If so, please share a memory.  And what it would mean to win at the Milwaukee Mile. "Yes, I did come here quite a bit.  I remember coming here watching ASA races watching all the legendary short track guys and always looked up to those guys when we came over here.  Probably the best memories of it was, growing up going to little quarter miles and remember coming here and thinking how huge this place was. And if you ever got a chance to run here, then you must be pretty special.  So, I think my Mom always gave the family a hard time because I think the ASA race might have been on Mother's Day and I remember that we always spent Mother's Day over here at The Mile watching ASA races."

In the morning practice session, you were 10th for most of the sessions, and then all of a sudden, you were top of the board.  What did you do? "We just kept working on it.  We unloaded and nothing spectacular, I guess.  Just a 10th place truck, just kind of average.  We were really loose in the morning and the guys just did a great job.  I don't know if I've ever been in a two-hour practice session where we changed so much stuff.  They just kept working away on it and I just kept trying to give them good feedback and in return they're making good changes.  Finally in that second session, we made some changes that really didn't show-up on the speed track chart our tires were pretty old and hot and everything.  But I told them my truck is really good right there and we hit on some things.  Then we did a mock qualifying run at the end and it kind of backed up a little bit.  The truck drove real good and had a lot of speed through the corner and put up a good number.  I'm looking forward to it."

What sort of challenges are there with the temperature changes today? "Ted might have a little better idea, it's been a few years since I raced here.  I think what my guys said about the last couple of years, guys like David Ragan, they would say they'd fight being free throughout the day and get into the race at night and be tight.  So, I don't know what it will look like.  I think we're fighting the same thing.  Our truck was loose during the day.  That's something we need to be aware of and maybe after qualifying, we'll keep that in the back of our mind."

Kelly Bires - No. 21 Bush's Baked Beans Ford F-150
You're pulling double-duty here this weekend in Truck and Busch.  If you could, please share your experiences about the Milwaukee Mile. "We'll, I've only been here one time.  It was last year and I raced in ASA and ended up winning it. This is the first time being here in a heavy car.  I'm in the truck today.  We brought a brand new truck today, never tested so we are working out the bugs.  We got it better, I don't know if we have a winning truck, but a top-10 truck.  We'll see how the adjustments go and see what we've got." 

Did you ever come to the track as a kid? "I watched a good half dozen Truck and Busch races here when I was younger growing up."

Tell a little bit on how your expectations have changes for this year.  "Well, I think we've got about eight races under our belt this year between the Truck and a couple of Busch races.  I really didn't know what to expect coming in.  I set really high goals for myself entering into this stuff.  But it is a different world and different race cars. There's a lot more people involved that really need to be on the same page to run good.  We seem like the truck program that we're missing a little bit on short tracks and superspeedway. We've got a pretty good mile and a half package where we run competitive and have a shot at winning. As you've seen with Mark , he's been pretty close this year.   Getting into this Busch car lately, I guess you could say the odds are against me because I never really a chance - well, Nashville was the first chance where I really got to sit in the Busch car in that practice.  I'm trying to do really good and run well and get good results, yet I lack a lot of experience.  I've got to pull my reins back at bit and try to get the best finish.  There might be more to the car, I'm still to new to know."

Getting all the laps you'll get this weekend in the truck and Busch car, will that speed up the learning process? "Yes, I think so.  I don't think it will hurt me.  Running this truck race will give us some information that we can pass over to tomorrow to make sure how loose we need to be to start the race.  I'm not sure how loose we need to be for tonight; we're just going to have to guess at it, not running here ever before.  This trucks run a little bit different than the Busch car and stuff, yet you can probably translate the adjustments with how tight or free you need to be."

You are still early in your career.  Do you have a timetable or expectations that you would like to see? "Yes, at the start of this year, I was scheduled to run 19 truck races, that was the deal; Mark Martin was running six races.  And that's all I knew coming into this year.  The Busch races the last two weekends and this is the third straight race that my schedule is unknown, depending on Jon's condition.  Whether I go to Loudon or Memphis next week is to be determined, I have yet to be told.  But, ideally I'd like to be in a Busch car full time next year.  If it happens that we run a lot of races this year; that is cool.  It will get me a jump on my season next year and get me learning and used to the crew chief that I'll be working.  That always seems to help if you can work with them and run with them for a while before the season and beyond.  It's coming faster than I thought.  Getting used to these cars and getting them up to speed and stuff.  Trying not to do the wrong thing.  I'm just trying to keep everything in the up position and steadily rising."