Last season was a great ride and was fantastic how things happened, but this year we'll have opportunities to deal with adversity,

Last year, as great as it was, it was like a fairy tale season. I think we appreciate this a heck of a lot more than we did the Fiesta Bowl bid last year.

Had he not had a bad ankle this year, I'm telling you he would have caught 90 balls. That's how good he is. He missed a third of the year essentially.

Starting the season at Daytona is always enjoyable for me. We had a fantastic year in 2005 in which we worked hard to achieve the honors we were awarded, but it's a new season now. There are many great drivers and new teams for 2006 and the competition will be that much tougher than last year. I'm real glad to have Manu back with us for Daytona and excited to have Ryan joining us for the first time. He's a great young talent.

[The prize] comes during a fantastic year and crowns the season,

It's a month left in the season, and I still remember what happened last year, and here we go again. Because I know it's a lot of people that have been waiting for me to go off again. I know that. And you know what? To be ruining what I've come so far this year, trying to clean my image, for somebody to write negative stuff that's not true, it's really hurting my career.