TALK US THROUGH THE RACE AND JUST HOW STRONG YOUR CAR WAS:
“First of all I have to thank this race team for having the strength and mental attitude and everything that they do to bounce back last week, to show up and put a butt-kickin’ on everybody today (LAUGHS) Very proud of Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and the guys. Great stops, great car. At the start of the race we were a little loose but still running second and third.
“When we put new tires on, the car came to life and then we had a couple of small adjustments that really really helped it. I could get out to a nice comfortable lead and ride and protect what I had and work my way through traffic. Not with ease, but better than the other guys. Had a great finish.”
THERE WAS THE ONE TIME DENNY HAMLIN REELED YOU IN A BIT AND THEN HERE COMES JEFF BURTON, WERE YOU CONCERNED?
“I was trying to be smart through traffic and the No. 20 car, I am not sure if he was just trying hard to stay just two laps down and didn’t want to go a third lap down or if he was really trying to help his teammate out, but either way, the No. 11 car caught me. Once I cleared him, I got back going and everything was fine but the No. 20 car wasn’t being all that friendly.”
LOOKING AHEAD, 108 POINT LEAD, JUST HAVE TO FINISH 25TH OR BETTER, THAT IS EASY FOR US TO SAY THAT, HOW DO YOU APPROACH NEXT WEEKEND?
“I think last weekend (Texas Motor Speedway) qualifying 12th even though that is a good qualifying spot, put us in harm’s way. I was maybe a little cautious in qualifying on Friday. So we need to show up down there (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and treat it like any other race. The further forward we start, the better we are going to be track position wise. Better pit stall selection we are going to have so until we get in the race and see what we really have, we’re going to treat it like any other race and just go as fast as we can.”
WOW THREE IN A ROW HERE IN THE FALL WHEN IT COUNTS THE MOST JIMMIE.
“Thankfully, yeah. What a great car. What a great race team. We could have easily been beat down and certainly there were some dark moments over the last week worrying about the points lead and what we lost. These guys can bounce back. We’ve always been good at it. To come, bounce back and qualify strong, run well in practice, great stops all day long, dominate this race so I’m very proud of these guys. Obviously one more race to go. We saw in Texas anything can happen so we don’t need to get too excited about things. One-o-something is better than 73. I’m very excited about it and I hope all the employee owners at Lowe’s are excited. I hope all the No. 48 fans and everyone at store 2852, that’s good stuff.”
WHAT WAS THE FEELING TODAY AFTER THE FIRST PIT STOP?
“I was good. In that first run the car was real loose and then after that the car was pretty dang good. The No. 2 was really strong which I expected to see, the No. 11. Although I was falling off and they were going to come get me at some point but their cars fell off more and off we went. This was just an awesome performance. I want to thank everyone at Hendrick Motorsports engine shop, chassis, bodies, this entire No. 48 race team and everybody at Lowe’s.”
WERE YOU THINKING WHAT WE WERE THINKING, IF HE CAN DO THIS ITS GOING TO LOOK AWFULLY GOOD IN HOMESTEAD?
“I knew Mark (Martin) was having a good day. I could see him coming up through the back at the start and I just really tried to ignore what he was doing because he’s Mark Martin and I know he and that time were going to finish well. I just had to get all I could and lead as many laps as possible and try to win the race and just do everything I could on my end and I did.”
IF MARK DOES EVERYTHING HE CAN NEXT WEEK YOU STILL ONLY NEED TO FINISH 25TH OR BETTER, HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?
“That’s a great position to be in. We finished 38th last week so I can’t put my guard down. Anything and everything that could go wrong last week did. Going into this next week we just need to show up and race smart and do our thing.”
CAN YOU PLAY IT SAFE AT ALL OR GO FOR IT ALL THE WAY AND DO WHAT YOU DID HERE?
“Truthfully I feel that my 12th-place qualifying effort in Texas put me in harm’s way and I was just trying to drive a smart lap in qualifying and not do anything stupid and that put me in harm’s way. So going into the race next weekend, I need to show up Friday ready to sit on the pole and then go from there and run up front. The safest place is up front in the top-two or three and if we can stay there we’ll be in good shape.”
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