Bi-Lo 200 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Darlington:
P. Meanard, 12th
C. Bowyer, 15th
K. Busch, 33rd

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE BI-LO 200 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES RACE AT DARLINGTON RACEWAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2004.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 LOWE'S/SHOP VAC CHEVROLET: "It could have been a lot better but I got myself into some bad spots today and really put us in a bad situation. We tried to overcome it and we just couldn't. We were trying to stay out there and get track position, which was probably going to be a good idea, but here at Darlington tires overcome track position any day." WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU, RON HORNADAY AND GREG BIFFLE? Basically, all that happened was that I was trying to pass Hornaday. It was probably a bad idea on my part. I wasn't far enough along side of him but he could have just gave me room and let me go. It's that early in the race and I thought he would have done that. I put my nose in there and got him a little bit loose getting into the corner and he didn't appreciate it so he brake checked me and ruined three people's day and just killed us. That's what got us behind and had to do the tire strategy the way we did." DID THE CAR JUST GET LOOSE WHEN YOU SPUN IN TURN 4? "It was just so terrible loose. We started out a little bit tight, just hanging in there. We were going to go for second and see if we couldn't catch down Harvick for the lead and just lead a lap. I was just trying to hang on and hang on. There was not much more I could do. There were a few times that I probably should have spun it in turn 3 but the wall caught me. I was like 'Well dang it, I could at least get a caution here' but the wall kept catching me so I wasn't able to get a caution. I probably could have hung on to it for a few more laps but we would have went two laps down and our day would have been over anyway." WHEN YOU PLAYED PIT STRATEGY AND GOT THE LEAD, WERE YOU HOPING FOR A CAUTION IN A FEW MORE LAPS? "That would have been perfect, if we would have had a caution within 20 or 25 laps, everybody would have came back down pit road because that would have been in a perfect window in order to come down for our third set of tires. So it would have worked out great for us. But every time we've tried to do that this year it's always bit us in the butt and it did it again this weekend."

LANCE MCGREW, CREW CHIEF, No. 5 LOWE'S/SHOP VAC CHEVROLET: WHEN KYLE WENT BEHIND THE WALL, THIS TEAM DID A LOT OF WORK ON THE CAR IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. "It didn't mean a whole lot except for the stat sheet. We don't like DNFs [laughs]. We were a bunch of laps down but the effort was there to get the car back and he just kind of stayed out of the way for those 15 or 20 laps." COMMENT ON THE PIT STRATEGY THAT GAVE YOU THE LEAD. YOU STAYED OUT UNDER THE YELLOW BUT WERE HOPING FOR ANOTHER CAUTION A FEW LAPS LATER. "There had been so many cautions that you take it for granted that there's going to be some more. It just wasn't the case. We stayed out and were hoping for like a 10 or 15 lap run, 20 lap run, something to make some people think about coming in and putting some tires on and we could come back in sequence. When you get behind the eight ball like that on a track like this, especially in the Busch Series where you're limited on the amount of tires you can put on the racecar, it's a gamble. It just didn't pay off for us. It's just racing at Darlington. The car was really good up until the time we got into the back of Hornaday. I don't know all what happened there but that's just kind of how it goes." WAS THERE SOME DAMAGE TO THE CAR IN THE INCIDENT WITH HORNADAY? "Not really. It was more cosmetic. It stopped us so quick that Biffle got into the back of us and broke the bumper bar out and a few things like that. It might have got the toe or something like that but mainly it was grill damage and we had to come in and get some tires on it because he slid the tires and pull some tape off because it was going to overheat."

PAUL MENARD IN THE No. 11 MENARDS/MOEN CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT DARLINGTON. Notes: Menard took top Raybestos Rookie honors for the second time this season. "The guys worked real hard to get the car back to where it was. I didn't know that we were missing a right front fender. That explains why it was pushing so bad. After practice on Friday, I was really looking forward to the race. I was kind of taking it easy the first couple of laps and we just got caught up in somebody else's mistake. The guys really kept digging and got me a pretty good finish." WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE? "I saw the 43 car sideways. I was up on the outside so I couldn't get down and ran into the back of the guy in front of me and then somebody hit me in the back." YOU MADE SEVERAL PIT STOPS BUT STAYED ON THE LEAD LAP. "The car drove pretty good. The toe was off a little bit so something was bent in the right front and obviously we didn't have the aero that we needed because we were missing the right front fender. All in all the guys busted their butts. They made probably six pit stops there and every time did something more and made it a little bit better. We finished a lot better than we did in the spring even though we had a torn up racecar. I really like this place. I feel real comfortable here. It's a fun place to drive and I'm looking forward to racing here again."