Q. Two tracks, Martinsville and Pocono, announced they're switching qualifying to Saturdays, and it sounds like other tracks are considering that. Are you considering qualifying being on Saturdays for the majority of 2011? What's the impetus for that, and will those become now impound races the way they were when qualifying was Saturday?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: You know, the effort is put forth to actually get a better show, better ticket for the fans that are there at the racetracks on Saturday. I don't think we are anticipating all the tracks moving to that.
As far as the impound goes, more than likely it will be a qualifying session and it won't be an impound. The guys will get the cars back and will be able to work on them and put race setups under them like we do many times this year or last year. It's something that we're working with the tracks and really just trying to get a little bit better show for everybody on Saturday afternoon, a little more content.
Q. Mike, can you reflect a little bit, a more bigger-picture question on where you were with safety 10 years ago versus where you are now, and do you think the needle would have moved as quickly as it did if not for the unfortunate events that happened with the death of Dale Earnhardt?
MIKE HELTON: Well, it's – I will remind everybody that one of the key legs of the stool that encouraged Bill [France] Sr. to create NASCAR and found NASCAR was driver and spectator safety. He felt very compelled to be sure that something he loved doing was better off for the competitors and the stakeholders, so every day since 1947 we've worked on safety.
But certainly as time goes on and you have the opportunity to capitalize on technology and synergy, then you can advance. And there has been a lot of advancements that I think have happened over – actually, the way I look at it, it's actually since 2000 when we had the unfortunate string between Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper, and, oh, by the way, led a lot of businesses, a lot of people, a lot of individuals, a lot of companies to want to do better.
And with the development of the R & D Center and with the different levels of opportunities that we have able to be the nucleus of a lot of energy, then all motorsports I think has improved vastly over the last 10 years.
Q. I realize some of this is still in flux, but can you talk about possible changes to the Chase, and might one of those be some drivers qualifying based strictly on wins versus points?
MIKE HELTON: We do have models around the Chase that – and I would say models, I'd say a couple, that we're tweaking through these conversations that again goes back to the earlier question about focusing on wins and how do you enhance the importance of winning that would be reflective in setting the Chase field.
Q. You've talked a lot about credibility with the points changes and what you guys are looking at doing. Was there any concern if – like Carl Edwards said, his current plan is to run the whole series anyway. What if he goes out and wins 10 races? Is there any concern about credibility there if the champion were to, say, win one?
MIKE HELTON: No, because, whoever's car he's driving is going to be in good shape. But it also goes back, I think, to the driving force behind this is to force more exposure and attention to drivers that are developing in that series. Same thing could happen in either Trucks or in the Nationwide Series.
So the effort is worth it to get more attention paid and exposure to the developing personalities coming into the sport, oh, by the way, while they're competing against the legendary names of the sport. And you can debate and argue that, "OK, if I win 10 or 12 races and don't win the championship, what's the championship worth?" Well, it's still the championship. It's still a big old trophy, still a nice check, still a guy who went out there and competed against 43 teams and became the champion of that series. So I think it's still a NASCAR national series championship, which I think is valuable and credible.
Q. Is there a time line for fuel injection yet? Do you expect to see it this year? And starting times for races, are they going to remain 1pm, 3pm, 7:30pm this year?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: We're working through our fuel injection program right now. We've made some great strides in the last 60 days or so. We don't anticipate any points races this year or races with fuel injection. It'll be a year dedicated to fine-tuning and getting the process down, whether it be inspection or the team side of it with building engines. That's going along quite well.
MIKE HELTON: Last year we adjusted to earlier start times and tried to format them to where it was consistent. One of the things that we have learned, or have been reminded of, is that we have a very long season, and so what we're looking at for 2011 is trying to be consistent with start times but also the fact that we have a very long season, is there a little bit of tweaking along the way that fits better into that long season. So we're still working on that.