Food City 250 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Bristol:
K. Busch, 3rd
J.J. Yeley, 15th
P. Menard, 36th

PAUL MENARD, #11 TURTLE WAX/ MENARDS CHEVROLET: "The car was actually coming around. We made some adjustments and it was pretty good. I guess it was the 36 that got down on the apron, lost it, and got into us. It's nobody's fault, really. He was trying to get out of our way, got down on the apron and he got loose. It was on of those deals. We started off and we were really good. We drove our way into the top 10. It was a little bit loose and we tightened it up that first pit stop and got too tight in the middle and was a little loose getting in. So we came back on our adjustments a little bit that last time and it was as good or better than it was at the beginning. I was looking forward to a good top10 finish. The right front corner hit real hard. We're not running for points or anything so we just loaded 'er up."

KYLE BUSCH IN THE #5 LOWE'S/ BRIGGS & STRATTON CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT BRISTOL. BUSCH FINISHED THIRD, HIS 11TH TOP-FIVE OF THE 2004 SEASON. UNOFFICIALLY, BUSCH LEAVES BRISTOL 78 POINTS BEHIND MARTIN TRUEX JR. IN THE BUSCH SERIES STANDINGS. "We had an awesome car all night long. We were just a little bit tight and a little bit loose leaving so we had to work with it a little bit there at the end. I'm glad we came out third. Two wins in a row with a third place here at Bristol, that's something to be proud of and we're ready to go on to California." YOU PICKED YOUR WAY THROUGH SEVERAL CAUTIONS TONIGHT. "You've got to concentrate on your restarts and not messing up and missing a shift and having guys clobber you and spin out and stuff like that. It's all about how to work your car. On the restarts I was really tight the first time through one and two so we had to work it through there." YOU HAD A GOOD RUN AND A DRAMATIC FINISH. "It was definitely a great race. This car ran awesome all night long. We're happy after two wins and a third. We came out third-best but first-best in class with the Busch guys. Hopefully we can go to California and take it to these guys. I wish I had a little bit better restart than what I had. I got really tight through one and two the first time through there so I had to kind of make sure I checked up and held the bottom so the 21 didn't get back by us. All in all it was a pretty solid night." ARE YOU GLAD TO GET THIS RACE OUT OF THE WAY? "Yeah [smiles]. That was definitely a bullet that we missed. The next 11 bullets that are shot at us we're going to be able to dodge them. It was an awesome night for us. I can't say enough about all these guys. They give it to me every week." YOU GAINED A FEW MORE POINTS ON TRUEX. "A few more. You keep chiseling away at and sooner or later you're going to have a circle."

J.J. YELEY, #18 VIGORO/ THE HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET: YOU LED THE RACE LATE. WHAT HAPPENED FROM THERE? "We brought a different package here than what we qualified and we just weren't very good. My hat is off to the crew. They worked their butts off to change the entire racecar. The car started out tight and we kept working on it. We took a quick pit stop on tires and we did our second set there pretty early. When everyone else pitted we didn't have any more tires. We just had to ride it out. Before that restart where Michael moved me up out front I was tight but I could keep it on the bottom, which was pretty good. Without being on the bottom the car was tight to stay up high. Michael ran back underneath me and shoved me up the racetrack and I just started falling back. At this place if you get off the bottom you're in trouble and the car was so tight that once I got up it was two or three cars at a time."

BUSCH POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

IS IT FRUSTRATING TO HAVE SO MANY CAUTIONS AND NOT HAVE THE LONG GREEN RUN THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE NEEDED? "The Lowe's Chevrolet ran pretty good all night long. We fought a little tight condition on the center and a little loose leaving and that's kind of a tradition at this place. You try to back up your corner to get rolling through the center. We made some fine adjustments to it in order to make it a little bit better and they seemed to work. On that long run before we came in on that last pit stop I felt that we had a pretty good car. I don't think we changed anything. I think we might have changed a few air pressures. We were pretty good on restarts, just like Kenseth was. I think both of our cars were pretty decent but he was able to get back by me. I just couldn't come up off the corners anymore and put the gas down. It's pretty good to come home here third again. After two straight wins and a third here it definitely means a lot for this team and gives us a lot of momentum in order to go to California." WHEN YOU HEARD EARLIER IN THE RACE THAT TRUEX HAD AN ACCIDENT, DID YOU THINK YOU MIGHT MAKE UP MORE GROUND IN THE POINTS? "To tell you the truth, I didn't even know that he had got into a crash. I was too busy worried about missing the stuff in front of me when Biffle was doing his stuff and the 39 spinning out. I had no clue that he got caught up in anything because I saw him up front later. He must have short pitted in order to get track position."