MBNA America 200 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

ROBERT PRESSLEY-47-Clorox/Wisk Ford Taurus (Finished 15th) - HOW DIFFERENT WERE THE TRACK CONDITIONS TODAY FROM WHEN THE RACE WAS HALTED ON SATURDAY? "It was pretty much your typical Dover today. Everything stayed the same. This thing got a little tight on the exit once the rubber got down. We made a couple of adjustments, and the adjustments we made were exactly how it went. The biggest thing today was to have track position." HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO GET A RHYTHM WITH ALL OF THE CAUTIONS? "That's what's bad about Dover, there are so many cautions. You know there's a chance of getting tore up. If you're out front, cautions aren't that bad, but if you're in the back, you know this track cleans itself. You don't know whether to dive for the wreck or lay back a little bit and go." WERE THE EARLY CAUTIONS A REELECTION OF THE TEAMS NOT BEING ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE CAR PRIOR TO THE RESTART? "I don't think so. I think what really started the wrecks today that I saw were cars that were in the wrecks on Saturday that were on the inside Monday holding the traffic up."

GREG BIFFLE-60-Charter Communications Ford Taurus (Finished 1st) - WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE ON THE LAST RUN THAT ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE IT TO THE FRONT? "The guys tightened the chassis up there at the end, lowered the track bar, put some air in the right-front tire and it really took off there at the end. What a day. The fans really hung out and went through a lot, the rain on Saturday and to come back today. I saw a lot of fans up in the stands. I think they saw a really good race today and I'm really excited for this Charter team. We just hope to get some wins in the NEXTEL Cup Series to go along with some more wins in this Charter car. These guys did a great job in the pits. What I asked for they got it right on the nail head, and thank goodness what I asked for was enough. It was just barely enough. I was pretty loose trying to catch the 37. The 37 was having trouble, so once I got there he kinda let me go. It was just a good run for us today. I hate it that the 2 car got spun out on Saturday; I feel real bad about that and I apologize about that." IT APPEARED THAT CLEAN AIR WAS THE KEY TODAY? "Yeah, it was. My car was real loose, so I was pretty good behind cars. Out front, you can use the whole race track to your advantage, and that's what we did."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus (Finished 4th) - WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FIRST PIT STOP? "When we came in, I was trying to hit right on the sign to give the 37 room so we wouldn't get blocked in. I was about a foot or two off of it they said, and it put us over the black line. Harold kept saying, 'Go ahead, go ahead.' I thought he meant go ahead and leave, so I put it in first, they dropped the jack, I took off and the wheels flew off of it. But, the way the day started and the way the day ended, I'm tickled with it. We were the fastest the other day even before the rain. I kinda wish we would have gotten that in because we just had to stay on top of the track a little bit. We started out a little bit loose and started having to work all of the traffic. If the driver wouldn't have gone brain dead we probably could have won this thing." HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO GET BACK IN THE CAR TODAY? "It was real tough today because the track was nowhere near the same. It was real, real loose, and with what started the day off, we had to battle through traffic. But it could have been a lot worse." HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO AVOID ALL OF THE WRECKS TO GET BACK TO THE FRONT? "It was just a good spotter. The big one, I was right in the middle of it and he kept me informed of what was going on behind me. He said, 'You're clear from behind,' so I didn't even have to look in the mirror and just kept driving my way through it. You just have to get lucky enough to get through there."

MATT KENSETH-17-One-A-Day Carb Smart Ford Taurus (Finished 35th) - WHAT HAPPENED? "I was just racing Kevin (Harvick) real hard and my car was loose underneath him like it always is. I got a run a couple of times and couldn't quite clear him. In that particular corner I thought I had a run good enough to clear him, and I'll have to see, maybe I did, I was getting real loose off of four when I was underneath somebody. I thought he slid high enough up the hill and I got in the gas early enough to get in front of him, but I must not have had enough room."

JASON KELLER-22-Miller High Life Ford Taurus (Finished 13th) - "It seemed like we could never get any rubber laid down on the race track. We could get a little bit of rubber laid down and then all of a sudden because of the hot tires under caution, we'd pick it back up and go back to green and it would be real slick again. We made a lot of ground from the other day. We started off pretty bad on Saturday, but just maybe not quite enough adjustments today. We made a little bit of headway." WERE THE EARLY CAUTIONS A REELECTION OF THE TEAMS NOT BEING ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE CAR PRIOR TO THE RESTART? "I thought there would be a lot of rubber down from yesterday, but there really wasn't. There was hardly any rubber down. They just blew it all off. Usually when this place blacks up it usually stays black. There were a lot of cautions, but we've been cooped up for a couple of days and the adrenaline was flowing pretty good; it's just the way it goes."

STACY COMPTON-59-Kingsford/Busch's Beans Ford Taurus (Finished 17th) - "The guys made some great calls and we're gaining on it. The Kingsford Ford was pretty good. We just got bottled up in traffic on that last restart. The guys had great pit stops all day and the motor ran good, so that made up for a little bit of the handling problems. We didn't finish quite as high as we wanted to, but I think this is the first weekend that we've made gains on the race car. I'm pretty excited about that." HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO AVOID ALL OF THE CAUTIONS TODAY? "It seemed like we were in the middle of all of them. We started in the back and having to come to the front and then go to the back and come to the front, we were right in the middle of everything. You just know that this is a self-cleaning race track and you just try to remember that when the cars get to sliding, and usually you come out OK. The guys did a great job, and I'm happy with the progress we've made. We still have to get some better finishes out of it."

GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE

"Today's race was pretty good for us. I had a good car. It was really difficult to pass. I want to make a comment on Saturday's race. I got in the back of the 2 car a little bit. He thought he was giving me the bottom and came down in front of me, and I couldn't get my momentum slowed up enough and barely touched him. I put a little scratch on the helicopter tape on the nose of the car. Not even a mark on it hardly, but I apologize to those guys for getting him turned around. But today, the Charter/BASS car was really good. The guys did a good job in the pits. The thing handled good all day. I was really good in the middle part of the race. I was running down the 8 like mad, four-tenths a lap. Then we didn't make any changes and just put tires on it and I was way too loose and going backwards pretty fast. When the caution came again, I had to come in and make a change and tightened it up just barely enough. I was still pretty loose, but I was able to get going there and I saw the 8 was too tight and falling back, so we were pretty happy."

"We hate sitting around and waiting all that time; it's frustrating. I think a lot of people get a little over-aggressive, and I think maybe we saw some of that at the beginning of the race. We saw a couple of wrecks. Your anxiety from sitting around, you're just ready to go. By now, I'm not a wily veteran, but I've been in a lot of rain delays and you've got just to wait until it's time to go."

"It certainly has. It's kind of funny, one weekend we'll run good in the Busch car and the next weekend we'll run good in the NEXTEL Cup car and not run good in the Busch car, and vice-versa. It kinda keeps you going. It keeps your hopes up that some day you'll get them both right in the same weekend and win both of the them, or win one and run real good in the other. We had a pretty good National Guard car yesterday. I don't know if something happened. One set of tires we got our lap back and then the dang thing wouldn't go at all. In just 20 laps I was already a lap down, and then the rest of the day ran fine. It's just my luck that that would happen in that particular spot. We had a pretty good car until we got in that wreck. I feel good that we ran decent in both cars, unfortunately we got in that wreck. It does help running in both of them."

"For me, it was kind of a no-brainer, I was coming for four. We watched how long it took Kyle Busch to come from the back with four tires. It made us nervous with only 40-something to go, how far it was going to be. We were going to kinda commit to that, and if nobody came, I probably would have stayed out, but once I saw half the people coming, I was going to come. I saw a lot of guys dropping down, and, of course, the 8 was coming, so I thought at that point to go ahead and come. I was so loose I couldn't drive it. I was wrecking loose. I could barely keep it under me, so I had to do something."

"It's exciting to win anywhere, but to win at a place like this, we won a couple of years ago in a Busch car. It's really neat. A neat victory I had also this year was Darlington. I think here and Darlington are tough places. You have to be on your game all the time and you have to have a pretty free race car, and you have to keep it turning good to win here. It's pretty special to win anywhere."

"It's been real good or horrible. We've run really good, and we've had stupid stuff happen. A lot of people said for a long that we were having bad luck, but I don't think it's luck. It's stuff not being done the way it should be. If you leave a wheel loose and you go two laps down and have to make up two and finish seventh and have the fastest car by two tenths, that's not bad luck in my opinion. We had more than a tremendous amount of engine failure this season. I can't believe that we've had as many problems as we've had. It kind of shocks me, but that's the new-race-team-blues right there. That's what that's caused from. How many people think the 60 has been racing for 10 years in the Busch Series? It's really a brand new team this year. All of the cars got wrecked last year. There weren't any cars left really. We started from scratch and Brad (Parrott) came over there with a new group of guys, and half of the guys never worked on a Busch car before, at least two or three of them. There is going to be a learning curve there. But, the engine shop, I don't think there's any excuse for that. There is no reason they should be off their game. I expressed to Jack that I was pretty unhappy about that, and Jack really stepped up and responded to that and brought some guys down from Michigan that did all of the 17 motors last year when they were making the championship run. He brought those guys down to straighten out the engine shop. I think we're still down on power a little bit. They may not be as good as they need to be, but maybe they are. Maybe it's just the way our cars are handling. I think there are big improvements from the beginning of the season, and I can't be happier right now because it seems like those problems are behind us."

"I'm still committed. We've talked about maybe not doing it (double duty). The reason why we're doing it is to win the championship, and I'm the guy who wanted to do it. I didn't want to run all but six races and not win the points. We're kind of out of the championship right now with the oil pump belt coming off and all of the motors blowing up, and all of those things happening to us. At that point, not saying we're going to quit. We'd still certainly run the car maybe with a different driver or something, but the championship is kind of out of touch, and for us, it's kinda win or nothing. We're not shooting for third in points, or fifth. We want to win the championship, and if not, we're going to win as many races as we can and run the entire season with the 60 car. No decisions have been made not to do that. I'm running at Nashville next week, from Pocono to Nashville. If that tells you anything, we're still on."