MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST IMPALA SS, FINISHED 4TH:
“It was awesome. Man, my team did such a great job today. Brought me an awesome race car. They were spot on all weekend. Man, I am just so proud of them and proud to drive that No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevy. It was just an awesome run. I just couldn’t ask more. We were right there, within striking distance so I am proud.”
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST AND FOURTH TODAY?
“Well we were real close. I’m real proud of our Kellogg’s/Carquest Chevrolet and our team. Man these guys are so awesome. They brought me all weekend a great race car. Great job, great adjustments and you know we made progress with the race car. There was a time when we could go out front but we were right there. I’m just proud. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be driving that No. 5 car.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE IMPALA SS, FINISHED 5TH:
“It was making chicken salad out of chicken you know what. We were pretty fortunate to get a couple of breaks there when we needed them. We just had to fight for the track position there at the end.
“At the end, we had to be there on the bottom but we were best on the top after about 15 laps. It just would not take off on the beginning of a run. It took a lot of time for our air pressures to build up and get the car solid. But, once it would we could get to the top and run pretty quick.
“We have a lot of racing left. I am really proud of Darian Grubb (crew chief) and all the guys on this Office Depot/Old Spice team. We weren’t quite as good as we wanted to be today. It shows there is no quit in this team at all. We just keep digging. We got our car good at the end of the day. We just lost so much track position and we had to fight to get it back. A lot of guys that had solid days toward the end got their cars hurt so we will take a top-five.
“The way yesterday went (in the Nationwide Series race) they didn’t cautions. The cautions were from people running over stuff. They have spotters out here for a reason they see something, they try to call it. Especially after yesterday they weren’t going to take any chances.
“We never got to the top-five there until the end. I am really proud of our guys, our car got better and better. In the run that we had the speeding penalty and had to come in and got a lap down, we were running laps the same as the leader there but were a lap down with it. We got the car better at the end we just never got a chance to do anything until there in the end.
“I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care if we have to go 12 laps down and have the right side knocked off of it if it gets us a top-five at the end of the day, that is what we have to do the rest of the season.”
YOU GUYS CAME OVER FROM BEING A LAP DOWN TO FINISH FIFTH.
“This team never quits and never will. That’s the attitude at Office Depot and Old Spice and everybody at U.S. Army, Coke and Stewart-Haas Racing. It was a long day for sure. We got a couple of really lucky breaks that helped us there at the end getting us back on the lead lap. When we were on pit lane there and got the caution it got us our track position back. We had a good enough car to get back we just could not get going at the beginning of a run for anything. It took us six or eight laps to get going every time.”
CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 PRILOSEC OTC-WALMART IMPALA SS – Finished 9th:
ON THE RACE:
“It was just a long day. We were tight all day. We just fought grip. We finally figured out our air pressures and where the car wanted to be happy and made the best of it. We got a top ten, but it wasn’t what we wanted.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS, FINISHED 10TH:
“We had a good day, just a bad decision there at the end on the pit call. Should have come and got tires. Came back and made something out of it. I had a good Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet today. Just a little frustrated that we didn’t finish it off.”
CASEY MEARS, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS IMPALA SS, FINISHED 11TH:
“We had a good Jack Daniel’s Chevy. We had good pit stops today, everything was pretty solid. We’ve had really good cars the last few weekends and it just seems like we make the wrong decision at the end. Or, if I make the wrong decision or what. We’ve always been in that spot whether we should take tires or not. Right there at the end, we didn’t finish probably where we should have, but we had a good car all day. I am proud of everybody for working hard.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION/US ARMY IMPALA SS Finished 15th:
WHAT CAUSED THE FLAT TIRE AND COMING BACK FROM THAT? “I think we must have hit a piece of debris or something and cut it - not sure what happened. But the guys did a good job in the pits all day we really just struggled with track position. I feel like we were a top 10 car all day, we just never could get the track position.”
TALK ABOUT THE FINAL TWO RESTARTS:
“We got from 10th to fifth on that next to last restart there, and I think we showed how strong our Haas Automation Chevy was. We had the inside line on that last restart and that was kind of the doom of death for us.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS, FINISHED 25TH -
INVOLVED IN MULTI-CAR ACCIDENT ON LAP 246 AFTER RUNNING IN THE TOP-10: “We are doing whatever we can to stay positive. We had a top 10 car today and it’s unfortunate that a lot of good cars got tore up there at the end.”
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