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JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS IMPALA SS:
“We finished second in the spring so as excited as I am for myself going back to Texas Motor Speedway, I know Jeff (Gordon) and the No. 24 team won there and Mark (Martin) has been super strong on the mile and a half tracks all season. As of right now, before the Talladega race, those are the two guys that are closest to us and I am paying attention to the most. We’ll have to see. I know Texas will be a good race for me, but at the same time, it will be a good race for my teammates.
“Texas Motor Speedway does a great job taking care of all of us and making us feel comfortable and at home. The track is aging and doing well, so we have a nice wide groove to race on as the Chase winds down.”
MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 CARQUEST/ KELLOGG’S IMPALA SS:
“I look forward to it (going back to Texas Motor Speedway). We did get a chance to show what we had at Charlotte and we didn’t have enough that particular weekend. We were second fast in every practice. We were second fast in qualifying but in the race we didn’t perform quite like we wanted to so we get another chance. Texas is a different race track and a different day. It’s been a good place before but this is the time when we need to land on both feet.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS:
“We are anxious to get back there. It was obviously a huge win for us as a team going there so many times and from being so close and not getting the win to having just horrendous, terrible days. We ran bad or hit the wall or had a failure, whatever may have happened. It was just one of those tracks that I typically left there wanting to forget as quick as I could.
“Now I can’t wait to get back there because we had such a strong car. We had worked so hard over the off season because of what we learned there in November last year to come back to be strong in Texas, knowing that it is a Chase race and it is a race that has haunted us for the last several years. To turn that around was fantastic. I can’t wait to get back there.
“Plus we are going to be giving our Corvette away for the Jeff Gordon Foundation. So it is always a real special weekend for us.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET IMPALA SS:
“You can only do the best you can, we are doing the best we can every week. We just think about what we have got to do. Just put yourself in a good position and look after the car all day for the end of the race. I think we are there every week. We have probably been the closest car to be competitive against the No. 48. But, ifs and buts don’t count. If you could get 10 points for every if, and 20 points for every but, it would be a lot different. But, you don’t. You look at what this team has accomplished, everybody says you need to have a four-car team, big this and a big that and a big thing. We have shown that you just have hard working and determined people to get the job done and we have got all that.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE IMPALA SS:
““This track, the grooves have moved around, especially in the last couple of years. We’ve seen the track start getting wider and Eddie (Gossage, track president) took the initiative to try to get the bumps smoother in (turns) one and two. A lot of promoters wouldn’t have done that. They wouldn’t have taken that much time and effort, but it’s made it to where you can move around on the race track and where you can run the top side or the bottom side. It’s nice from a driver’s perspective to be able to have that flexibility behind the steering wheel, knowing that if your car’s not driving exactly the way you want it to, you can move around the race track and find a spot the car likes better.
“Anytime you put more seasons on a race track, the better it gets because it seems like the pavement wears out on the bottom and it makes it to where you can run the top and be fast and you can run the bottom and be fast. It makes the whole race track, speed-wise, about the same, versus when they pave a race track and the only groove is right on the bottom. The fastest way is the shortest way, because it all has the same amount of grip, so the shorter distance is faster. Every year that we come here I think the racing just gets better and better, as far as being able to move around on the race track and guys not having to just follow each other and get stuck behind each other. You can actually pass. You can race. You can get away from guys if your car’s fast.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION/U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS:
“Well I think going back to Texas for two things, number one its usually and more so now because the asphalt has aged it’s gotten to be a better race but secondly the first time there with double-file restarts I think is going to be another bundle of excitement as we’ve seen most every race track this year. The bigger the race track, the wider the race track the more the double-file restarts have an impact.
“You know I saw very little difference at Martinsville compared to the way it used to be. But I think when you go to a place like Texas it definitely adds to some multiple levels of excitement and I think it’s a great place for it. I love the speed. It’s a fast race track. The weather should be cool so hopefully we can haul mail.”
