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

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.

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

He's been fantastic through the end of the season and through the playoffs. We would not be here without him.

We're doing much better away from home this season and that's why we can get a result at Old Trafford. We're more solid, more compact and more consistent in our results.

Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them.