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Greg Zipadelli: It's unexplainable.

John Roberts: We saw you take a deep breath as you walked onto the stage.

Greg Zipadelli: Yeah, absolutely. It's different than 2002 obviously. But the same pressures were there of not making mistakes and not giving it away. I felt like it was ours, and we earned it. We just needed to continue doing the same things that we've done all year.

Kenny Wallace: You beat the behemoth team, Roush Racing. They were coming at you hard. You were the only multicar team that could battle these guys. What does this say for Gibbs' organization? You're the only team that could race them.

Greg Zipadelli: We've got Tony Stewart. What else can you say? We've got a bunch of good guys. We've got a lot of racers. And all year long, everybody has worked hard at the shop, trying to adjust. This was a big year. I think you as a driver and everybody knows things have changed an awful lot and you had to be very aggressive and from the way we ended last year to the way we ended this year. And the things that we do with these race cars, how you build them. Chassis stuff. And I couldn't be prouder of everybody back at the shop, Joe Gibbs Racing. You go home and Monday morning meetings are six, eight hours. And you complain that the car doesn't turn, this and that. And they listen to you. They go back, and they go to work. They helped us. It was a total team effort.

Jimmy Spencer: I'm going to be the first one to ask you. You did not win one of the last 10 (races) so what do you think they're going to say about that? I don't give a darn. I think you guys had the best year, and you deserve rightfully to be the Nextel Cup champion. But how are you going to counter that.

Greg Zipadelli: I think we'll come back next year and try and win a couple and win a championship. If you look at our year, we should have won Loudon. We should have won Talladega. We should have won Charlotte. I don't know if "should have". We could have. That's probably the right thing to say. That was most important. Last year we made the Chase, we weren't that good. We weren't able to step it up and go in and lead laps and put ourselves in position to try to win races. This year, we did. We just didn't win races in the last 10. But people knew we were there. Martinsville. We had a lot of really good race cars, and that's what it takes. Because the people we were racing had some awesome race cars.

Jimmy Spencer: The thing that I have to say is you're always going to hear these critics say this and that in the point systems, but to me, I think that there was a changing of what happened this year for you guys. I believe it came around Daytona. It looked like something happened. You turned the light switch on, Zippy, and you guys just started and hauled the mail. You just dominated all the road courses and everywhere you went. What was that?

Nan Zipadelli (left), husband and No. 20 crew chief Greg Zipadelli and son Zachary Charles look on as Tony Stewart gets a check from Nextel for winning the title (Darrell Ingham / Getty Images)

Greg Zipadelli: That was going to Michigan. Being frustrated with where we were which wasn't terrible. Sitting in the trailer, closing the door and saying, "Is the glass half-full or is the glass half-empty?"

Kenny Wallace: During a test, Zippy?

Greg Zipadelli: We went to Michigan and had a good test. Took a new car, the car that we wrecked at the all-star race and had a good car that night. Took it home, fixed it, went to Michigan to test and learned a lot. Took a lot of people from the shop, went and just worked and worked and worked. Had an OK test, but we learned a lot. We were able to come home, look at it. I was able to put a package together, go back to the race track and run second. Before that race, it was the normal deal. Me and Tony talked, and I basically said, "We can look at it and say the glass is half-full or the glass is half-empty." I was believing that we were close. We were better than we ever had been. We could have, should have won Daytona (in February). We had a car more than capable at a bunch of races and didn't do it. I said, "It's only me and you that's going to make the difference as far as our attitudes because it all bleeds down to the guys behind us. We've got all the people we need to go win races. We've got the support. It's just making the right calls, us staying on the same page, believing in each other and going after it."

John Roberts: Hey Zippy, people may think after you win a championship in Nextel Cup racing that the next thing you do is go celebrate all night and go lay on the beach for two weeks. But you guys have to go right back to testing. There are guys that go directly back to the shop and put in a full, long day. Monday is a work day for you guys, isn't it?

Greg Zipadelli: (Monday) will be a work day. We will be at the shop.

Kenny Wallace: Are you crazy?

Greg Zipadelli: I will not be there at 6:30 (a.m.), but I will be there (Monday) morning.

Kenny Wallace: In the morning?

Greg Zipadelli: Yes, sir.