Funai 250 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

SCOTT RIGGS-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Finished 29th) - "The first thing I have to do is thank Ron Hornaday for continuing to prove that he is the most disrespectful driver on the race track. That's where it all started. We had a great race car. You've got somebody like him who thinks somehow somebody put him as the king of restarts, so all of a sudden he should do something spectacular on every restart. His spectacular thing on that restart was to run the 10 car into the wall. Great job by him by proving how disrespectful he is and what a true coward of a driver he is and doesn't know how to race anybody clean and really know how to drive a race car. After that, it was just downhill for us. I want to thank all of the guys; they did a good job and never let their spirits down and never gave up. I had a flat tire after that. We kept working on the car and almost thought that we were going to have a pretty decent finish, unfortunately, we had another right-front tire go flat there and tried to get in the pits and Mike Bliss was already have a terrible day. I think he's a magnet for bad luck, so I hate it for him too. It's good for everyday here to see how disrespectful Ron Hornaday is."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus (Finished 3rd) - "The run was great. It all goes back to the guys. Harold Holly has an excellent record here, and I'm fortunate enough to drive this race car. As far as what happened in front of us, the spotters kept telling us it's no over with yet, so be careful. Every time you'd see them smoke you had to lift, and the 5 car was coming and everybody was coming, so it was a real braintease. I don't what they found, but the 43 found something because they were fast tonight." WHEN THEY WENT THREE-WIDE DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO VICTORY LANE? "That's what I was hoping for, but it didn't work out. I had a run on Kevin at the very end and just slipped a little bit and it was just real hard racing. The top three of us were right there tight. If one slipped I gained, and if I slipped the 2 in front of me pulled off. It was just an excellent run for all of my guys. Pit stops were great and we'll take it."

KASEY KAHNE-38-Great Clips Ford Taurus (Finished 12th) - "I don't know what was going on in front of us, but I was trying not to wreck myself the whole race. The car was so good in that practice and so bad in the race, I don't know what happened to it. We just couldn't pass a car, we just couldn't pass and had to stay in line. It was kind of rough in turn two and that makes it a little hard to get a run on people. The top is so good and he bottom is not as good, and I couldn't pass anybody on the bottom."

MATT KENSETH-17-Alka-Seltzer Morning Relief Ford Taurus (Finished 6th) - WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE RACE? "It was a good race. Everybody has a different perspective here. He got a bad restart and I got up alongside of him, and he got loose and got off the bottom and hit me in the door pretty hard. I hit him a little bit under yellow, which I should not have done. I didn't mean to get into him as hard as I did. When it went back green I passed him fair and square and he just plain drove into the back of me for the win. I don't really agree with that, but I raced him as clean as I could and gave him a lot of room and he didn't give it back." THERE WAS SOME GOOD SIDE-BY-SIDE RACING BEFORE THAT. "It was a great race to watch. It was a good race, don't get me wrong, we didn't get wrecked or anything. But, I felt like I gave him plenty of race track and he didn't need to run into the back of me. I felt like I gave him two car lengths on the bottom and gave him all the room he needed. It was a good race; it was fun." WHAT WAS THE DISCUSSION BETWEEN YOU AND HARVICK AT THE END? "He was mad at me I guess because in the 43's way. I don't know. He slowed down for the yellow and I did get into the back of him. I really shouldn't have and I didn't mean to that much. Kevin got into the back of me and then just brake checked onto pit road. He was mad because I should have got out of the way because it was only his second win."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR PRESS CONFERENCE

"Hat's off to all of my guys. They worked in the shop night and day to get this car done. This was our short-track car and it paid off. The last couple of weeks we've been a fourth and we were third today. We just ran across some bad luck over the last two or three races and lost a lot of points, but it's time to get it back and get it back to where we're supposed to be."

"When I saw the 43 coming, and I have excellent spotters, and everybody on the radio was keeping me abreast of times. He was the class of the field, so there was no point in trying to hold him up. I just moved up and let him go and hoped for the best. He could have easily been in one of those deals of trying to race you and take you out and you'd lose all kind of points. Tonight, we lost one position and finished third."

TALK ABOUT SEEING THOSE GUYS GO THREE WIDE IN FRONT OF YOU. "I thought that was going to be it. I just figured they would go in there and wreck or wash up and I could get on the bottom. You had two Winston Cup great drivers, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth, and then you had the 43 which ran extremely well. They weren't going to make too many mistakes so you were just hoping and praying that you could just survive it and we ended up third. I drove my butt off and the guys did excellent pit stops an this is where we end up."

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win