Carl Edwards wins the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. (/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

How far has your team come this year?

We’ve come a long ways in the last year, right out of the gate winning those races at the mile-and-a-half tracks was huge at the beginning of the year, and then to be able to win at Bristol and run really well at Martinsville with Robbie (substitute crew chief Reiser) up on the box says a lot about the team and how everybody has been working. But this thing kind of goes in waves and people figure things out. Now you’re seeing Jimmie (Johnson) run really well after they were struggling a little bit at the beginning of the year, but you just have to peak right there in the Case. You hope the engineers and everyone work and find that thing for the Chase.

What kind of statement did Johnson make last week?

Jimmie’s car was unbelievable last week. That’s a big statement. There are a lot of race tracks that are big, mile-and-a-half, big tracks in the Chase, so I thought that was pretty huge, and for us to kind of struggle there a little bit was a little bit frustrating.

How much has your teammate David Ragan improved?

David’s a real strong person, I think. I feel like he’s got a lot of confidence in himself. He’s one of those guys that, I think, is gonna be great and how he has matured over the last couple of years – in my eyes just from the outside looking in – it looks like he’s on a real steep curve and he’s gonna be great.

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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