Telcel-Motorola 200 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes

Denny Hamlin Drives Monte Carlo SS to the Win; Chevy takes 6 of top 7 Finishes

DENNY HAMLIN, SCORED HIS FIRST CAREER WIN OF A NASCAR POINTS-PAYING RACE IN THE NO. 20 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"I can't say enough for this entire crew. Everybody knows how good Joe Gibbs's stuff is on road courses and all I did was turn the wheel. Dave Rogers (crew chief), I can't be more happy than to drive for him. This whole Rockwell team -- it's been a while since they've gotten a win and I'm glad I could give it to them. I never imagined my first win would be on a road course but it just seems like these flat tracks seem to fit me and we had a great car."

ON THE LAST FEW RESTARTS: "I knew if I could just get away, I'd be in good shape. The problem is just getting away. We were strong on restarts as well as on long runs and I was just able to pull away and just run my line."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 21 U.S. COAST GUARD CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - Busch Series point leader - finished 3rd:

DID YOU EVER HAVE ANYTHING FOR HAMLIN? "The U.S. Coast Guard Chevrolet was pretty good. We just couldn't get off the corners and accelerate like the No. 20 (Hamlin) could. I felt like we were probably as good as the No. 9 (Boris Said), but he just got by me."

EVEN THOUGH YOU DIDN'T WIN, THIRD PLACE IS STILL GOOD FOR POINTS: "Well, we want to win. If we're in contention to win, the points are going to take care of themselves because you're going to be in the front. So it was a good day for us."

J.J. YELEY, NO. 18 HOME DEPOT / VIGORO CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 4th:

AFTER AN EARLY RACE INCIDENT YOU STILL CAME HOME IN 4TH. WAS THIS A GOOD DAY FOR YOU? "It was. We definitely didn't need that in lap two or three or whatever that was, getting turned around there. But we had good pit strategy and it got us back. We had a really fast race car and I think we definitely had a shot at running in the top two. Denny (Hamlin) is really good on the road courses. Any time we go anywhere to test, he seems to find about a tenth or two more than I can. He can really push the race car hard. But congratulations to those guys. I couldn't get by Harvick there at the end. It was close."

PAUL MENARD, NO. 11 MENARDS / HOT SHOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 5th:

WHEN THE CHECKERED FLEW, YOU WERE ONLY 3 SECOND BEHIND THE WINNER: "Yeah, we just needed a good solid run after the start of our year. Daytona and California didn't really go how we'd hoped. We came out here with the Hot Shot Chevrolet and we're pretty happy. We were looking forward to this race and we'll take a top five."

WAS IT DIFFICULT MAINTAINING A TOP FIVE? "Our car was awesome once we got rolling. The first two laps probably after a restart, we weren't that good and that's when you really need to get going to capitalize on some passing. But our hat's off to Denny Hamlin and his first win."

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ, NO. 57 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 12th:

"It was a wild day. That's the only way I can describe it. What a great car. We went to third straight away. I felt good. The car was pushing a little bit more than I wanted, but we were waiting for a correction in the pits. After that we pitted on lap 7. That was our strategy. It was good until I was going behind (Jamie) McMurray. A few times I tried to pass him. And then one time he really made a mistake -- a big mistake coming out of the fast chicane. I saw him on the grass, but I came behind him with a run. That was the problem. I was going to pass him. So I came out of the chicane very fast as he went off. I had no time to do anything.

"It was very hard because first the steering was to the right. Nothing felt good. The car felt really weird. And then we came through the field. A lot of things happened that I don't even remember. It was loose turning right and pushing quite a bit turning left. Somebody hit me that almost spun me around on the banking and then somebody else hit me really hard behind me in one of the corners. So that was really bad. I could feel my car was really damaged. And then there was a big crash in one of the corners and as we were coming through, there was a lot of dust. I didn't know where to go and I almost hit him head on. Basically I touched him on the left side. It was basically a miracle that I didn't hit him."

WAS IT A FUN DAY? "It was a fun day. It was just unfortunate. At the end I just couldn't fight -- when Kyle (Busch) was coming through and all that. I didn't want to have the yellows at the end. I knew my brakes, I flat spotted them at one point. I just couldn't drive the car like we had it right at the beginning."

ON THE INCIDENT WITH JAMIE MCMURRAY "When McMurray came back to the track and hit me, it really jerked the steering wheel to the side and hit my right thumb. And I felt it. I felt a lot of pain there. Amazingly I knew how to drive like that through the whole way. I was having a lot of pain every time I was shifting. I tried to get just my fingers to shift, but it's not as quick and it was hard to just stay with them. But as much as I wanted to do, I felt that my car and myself were injured. It was just our pride to try to get us to the front. I was hard. It was a shame that we lost those positions at the end. But there is always next time. That's racing."

DO YOU WANT TO COME BACK NEXT TIME? "Yes, definitely. It's a track that I enjoy racing. Unfortunately, there are always a lot of things that happened. We were not even part of those crashes but we just got hit."

Denny Hamlin Scores First NASCAR Career Points Victory in Monte Carlo SS - Post Race Press Conference

DENNY HAMLIN RACES HIS NO. 20 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS TO HIS FIRST NASCAR CAREER POINTS WIN: Note - This was his first NASCAR Busch Series career victory in 39 starts. He is one of seven drivers who is running full time in both the Busch and Cup Series this year.

"We pretty much executed perfectly -- everything from our pit strategy to on the race track. We just didn't have any altercations at all. We chose to come in on Lap 6 for our first pit stop and that put us in a window where we could go to half way and then pit again. So, it was a great job by Dave Rogers, my crew chief. I give a lot of credit to him for getting me that track position. I told him before the race started to try not to put me in a situation where I have to drive to the front. That just leads to a lot of problems as you saw with Kyle Busch. When you've got to drive to the front, you risk yourself. We were just real patient. There at the end, I just said in my head that it was 50 laps to go, not five laps; and it's 20 laps to go, not two. I just kind of put that in my mind. To beat Boris Said is a huge accomplishment. The guy is flawless and what can I say? We just had a great car."

ON MEXICO CITY BEING THE SITE OF HIS FIRST WIN? "I tell you, there is no other place I'd rather have it than here in Mexico. It's a race track I was looking forward to going to. This track just fits my driving style perfectly and it's a great race track. The fans are great. Everybody in the Busch Series feels very welcome."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT YOU LIKE SO MUCH? "There are a lot of different things about this track that are put into one. I like road course racing. I like going left and right. But it's also tight corners, so it's a short track. But it's also a flat track because there are no elevation changes. Those three tracks right there -- all put into one. It's laid out on a platter for me. All I've got to do is execute and that's what we did today."

DID YOU HAVE ANY CLOSE CALLS? "The only one we had was when the No. 15 (Michel Jourdain Jr.) and the No. 5 (Kyle Busch) got together off of Turn 4. There was just a lot of smoke. But we knew we had to be patient. I think Kyle was in a big hurry to get to the front, which is understandable. Once you get there, it's hard to pass. So he wanted to get there probably a little bit too soon. We just sat back there and saved and saved and saved. When I had a big enough cushion, I just backed it down quite a bit. That way, if we ever came down to a green-white-checkered (finish) I had enough tires to pull away. And that's what we did."

ON HIS PIT STRATEGY "If I see somebody else doing something, I start to panic and I wonder what's going on and why they are doing that. When Boris stayed out there for as long as he did, I started to wonder what he was doing. Is there something that he doesn't know, or is there something that we don't know? Fortunately, our pit strategy, I think all the cars that finished around us are guys who were on the same strategy as we were. You can win on strategy, but you also have to have a great can and make no mistakes and that's what we did today."

ON THE CHICANE "If I would have had a mid-pack car, I probably would have been more concerned. But when you're up front and you're in the top two or three, the cars are spread out enough to where you can see around. However, on restarts, it is extremely hard to see around another car to see where the chicane is. Hopefully next year they'll cut them down a little bit, but not too much to where you can blow right over the top of them. It didn't really affect me too much, but I'm not really sure how anybody else's race was either."

ON HAVING THE MEXICAN FANS RECOGNIZE THE AMERICAN DRIVERS "I think they definitely know our names a whole lot better this year. Just walking through the garage and they call me by my name and I don't even have my suit on, that's a great thing. I hope they look forward to us coming as much as we look forward to coming here. If we're here from now on, that would suit me just fine."

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON NASCAR THROWING THE YELLOW FLAGS? SHOULDN'T THERE BE CONSISTENCY WITH THAT? "Yeah, it's hard to tell. I didn't even see one spin the entire race from where I was. But a lot of times a caution would come out and I'd ask what it was for. But I didn't want to see cautions there at the end. But they try to make the best judgment calls they can, but I'd hate to be in their shoes."

ON RACING OUTSIDE OF THE U.S. "I think racing out of the country is definitely broadening NASCAR's future. I think a lot of people didn't want to go out of the country. They were afraid it would get out of hand. But it's just great. It's got new media here. It's a great deal for everyone -- for Mexico and for the U.S."

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MEXICAN DRIVERS IN GENERAL? "They're so hard to beat. They know this race track like the back of their hand. It's amazing how well they do in race cars they don't race very much. I know how hard it was last year getting in a Busch car coming here for my third race and not really knowing what I was doing. But those guys can adapt that quick. It's amazing."

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE CUP SERIES COME TO MEXICO CITY? "Since I run both Cup and Busch, I'd love to come here. I think it won't be long before NASCAR reaches out and goes somewhere outside the country. Hopefully they'll pick this race track. It's a great race track and you've got everything you need here. On top of that, we've got great hotel accommodations. It's a fun place to be."