"Messing around'' by one team ending; Johnson says pressure good for Dale Jr.

Kyle Busch enters this weekend 10th in the points and now the true work begins. While many focus on his older brother's climb in the points with crew chief Steve Addington, most overlook that Kyle is in the top 10 with Rogers, who had never worked with this car before moving up to Cup last year.

Rogers admits he still has much to learn about this car.

"It's all the fun I expected it to be,'' said Rogers, who moved up from the Nationwide series. "It's still difficult. It's the most difficult car I've ever worked with. You're in such a tight box. There are so many interactions between changes, it's a whole lot less forgiving than the Nationwide car. We've done a lot of R&D. We've raced different concepts every race this year. Bump-rubber configurations, spring configurations, different shock packages. Each race we've gone down a different path, trying to see which one works better for us.

"Essentially testing at the track, using each race as a test to see if we can hit on something. We've had similar results at all the races, we've been about a 7th-10th place car at most races except at Bristol where we were off. Conceptually, they're all different packages. We're going to start to hone in on one package to do more fine-tuning.

"I think it's time to stop messing around and pick a package and fine-tuning. We're headed down that path now.''

Said Kyle Busch about how things have started this season: "We're fighting for all we've got. I'm actually surprised that we're as high in points as we are wtih the finishes that we've had. It's a good surprising because all you do is build consistency and you run well, you run top-14, top-15 every week and you'll be there.

"Our on-track performance may8be hasn't been quite as good as we would have liked, but I feel like the team's a lot closer together. It hink the team's gelling a lot better. I look at Brian Pattie's situation mostly (Pattie is the crew chief for Montoya). He came in as a really good Nationwide crew chief and was good, decent out of the box, but really took him about a year to learn this. Once he learned the car, you look at Juan and he's on top of the sheets every week. I hope it doesn't take that long with Dave. I don't feel like we have that time. Dave's a smart enough crew chief that we'll get goign pretty good and, hopefully, we'll be a force to be reckoned with come down to race number 20, we'll be solidly in the top 12 and looking to make the Chase come Richmond. Then really peak in the final 10 (races).''

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Kevin Harvick tested at North  Wilkesboro on Thursday and here's what he had to say about the venerable track that has some races scheduled later this season:

"The surface is fine. They've done a really good job of cleaning it up,'' Harvick said. "Obviously, they still have a lot to do with some of the facility. Obviously, they're working on the surface to fix some of the cracks and things. We were one of the first ones there just trying to feel out what it would be useful for and things like that. Still wears tires out and still drives around, I guess, like it used to. That's the first time that I'd ever been there. It looks like any race track going around it.''

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Jimmie Johnson talking about teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s climb to the top 10 in points after being so far off last year and how Dale Jr has changed.

"From my perspective, he's always walked into the meetings and applied himself and has been in a positive mood. I tend to hear more outside our environment about lack of confidence and things than what I see from myself. I can also say that with the changes and really combining the 88 and 5 car, the shops, the setups and cars and all the stuff, I think it's been good for him to have that mark -- literally have Mark -- have that car to follow and chase and adapt and come out of his comfort zone in some ways.

"I saw where Lance jumped on him in the race last weekend. (Dale Jr) is letting people push him and he's pushing himself in areas that aren't comfortable and that is helping him a lot this year.''

"I know Lance jumped on him, "don't lay down on me,'' and being pushed liket that, that pressure sparks things in people. He kept his composure and stayed up on the wheel and drove up and got a top-10 finish. I think it's good to be pushed. Chad (Knaus) does it to me. He'll drive me freaking crazy, telling me to lay off, you're using the brakes too much, do this, do that, but as much as it annoys me and I hate to hear it, it's good to have that pressure. I think that this year (Dale Jr.) has put more pressure on himself. The fact that the two cars are the same, now there's more inherent pressure through that and I think that Lance is also applying more pressure and that's helping him continue down the road and development and fall into our system better.''

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