Race 2 Win: Basha's Supermarkets 200 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

NASCAR Busch Series

Basha's Supermarkets 200 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Phoenix:
O’Quinn Jr. 14th
McFarland 16th
Lamar 19th
Kauffman 30th
Gilliland 33rd
Andretti 34th
Kluever 42nd
Hines 43rd

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings:
Lamar 99
Kluever 78
O’Quinn Jr. 75
Andretti 74
McFarland 74
Kauffman 47
Hines 42
Foyt IV 38
Goeters 15
Gilliland 15
Wimmer 14
Conway 6

TRACY HINES, No. 14 DODGE: “We just had a vibration all weekend. We just couldn’t get it out of the car. I don’t know where it was located but we couldn’t fix it all weekend. There’s no reason to chase something that might end up hurting the car worse.”

TODD KLUEVER, No. 06 3M FORD: “We were a lap car. We have been terrible all weekend. We were just trying to survive and get home. We were a lap down and I was just trying to stay out of the way and the 20 car just came up and dumped us. It’s really unfortunate. I wasn’t trying to get in anybody’s way and that’s what happens. This car has been evil since we unloaded it anywhere this year. It looks like it’s done now and we won’t have to bring it to the racetrack anymore. We’ve got new racecars coming up here for the next couple of weeks. I’m really excited about that and we’ll get back running up front.” WHAT WERE YOU STRUGGLING WITH THIS WEEKEND? “We’ve struggled with that car everywhere it’s been. That’s the same car that ran terrible at Las Vegas, same car that tested terrible at Richmond. We finished 12th with it at California but we were not very good there either. The car has been a handful everywhere we’ve ever taken it. We can never make it work. It doesn’t react to anything. We were just trying to get through this weekend, get it back to the shop. We wanted to learn from it. We wanted to know why. Unfortunately we’re not going to learn anything from it now. Every time we’ve had another racecar at the racetrack besides this one are the weekends that we practice well, we qualify good, we run in the front. We’ve got new racecars coming up for the next couple of weeks and I’m really excited about that. I think we’ll be running up front where our 3M Ford Fusion belongs here pretty quick.”

DANNY O’QUINN JR. IN THE No. 50 WORLD FINANCIAL GROUP FORD WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT PHOENIX.
Notes:

O’Quinn finished 14th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season.

Burney Lamar continues to UNOFFICIALLY lead the Raybestos Rookie standings over Todd Kluever (99-78).

Lamar is UNOFFICIALLY ninth in the Busch Series championship standings, 25 behind eighth-place Kyle Busch. Lamar leads 10th-place Greg Biffle by eight points.

O’QUINN: YOU RAN WELL TONIGHT. “I felt like we were a lot better than where we qualified. I messed up qualifying. The car was awesome. I was pushing the car up a little too much there towards the end and by the time we got it all adjusted back where we needed to we were just buried in track position and we couldn’t get a long enough green flag run. Overall, considering the way things have went this weekend, we’re going to take that and be happy with that. The crew had awesome pit stops. Everything went really well today. I’ve got to thank World Financial and everybody. It’s nice to finally get Raybestos Rookie of the Race.” HOW MANY CARS DID YOU PASS? “A few [smiles]. We come from the back quite a few times there. We were definitely passing cars tonight. That was a good feeling.” HOW WAS RACING HERE AT PHOENIX? “It was definitely what I expected. I think that showed, the way we ran out there tonight. I could get in there and pass cars. It was more like a short track, what I’m used to. I love this racetrack and I’m looking forward to coming back in the fall.” DID RACING AT NIGHT AFTER DAYTIME PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING THROW YOU OFF? “It most definitely did. Fortunately, our car seemed to do a lot better at night but definitely didn’t know what to expect but now we’ll have a good idea for what the car does as it gets darker. And that’s typical for a lot of racetracks. I think this is our first night race so we can take this and learn from it.” WHAT IS THE MAIN THING THAT YOU LEARNED TONIGHT THAT WILL HELP YOU IN THE FUTURE? “Definitely coming back here next time we’re going to know things that we can do to the car and adjustment wise. When the car gets to feeling like it was out there and we make a certain adjustment, I’m getting that feeling in the car knowing more and more what we need to do.”

BURNEY LAMAR, No. 77 DOLLAR GENERAL CHEVROLET: “We don’t like this car. We made it through this race and we’ll take it and go home. It just doesn’t respond like a racecar. It was like that off the trailer. The guys did a good job getting it close. We made it back in one piece and we’ll take it and go on.”

JOHN ANDRETTI, No. 10 FREEDOM ROADS/CAMPING WORLD FORD: “We had a good car there coming to the end. We really did some good adjustments. I went underneath Casey and he was sliding up in the middle pretty far. I got my car underneath him. I thought I had a pretty good spot underneath him and he must have not seen me, his spotter must have not told him. When he came down it got me sideways. I’ve seen people hit the end of that pit wall so I tried to keep it down but I didn’t want to go all the way down and end up t-boning the end of the pit wall so I thought I’d take my chances. I locked it down and slide back up and unfortunately a couple of guys got into me. I feel bad for the guys because we threw away a good finish but we made some big gains this weekend so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. I’ve always been looking forward to the rest of the season. I told them July or August we’ll be there.”

MARK MCFARLAND, No. 88 NAVY CHEVROLET: “The NAVY Chevrolet had a great starting position today. I qualified 13th, the best start for the team this year. I got off to a good start, however the car was a little loose there at the beginning. We lost a bunch of spots but we came in and made some adjustments. The guys worked really hard in the pits today and I’m very proud of them. We got the car back running well and got a good finish. We’ll move on from here and head to Talladega next week.”

DAVID GILLILAND, No. 84 HYPE MANUFACTURING CHEVROLET: “I just run out of racetrack. We were coming up through there and had a pretty good car and just came up short on the lucky dog deal two or three times in a row. At the end there we were just coming up through there trying to gain some more spots trying to get a good finish and just run out of racetrack. We’ll come back at Richmond and try to do good there. I feel like our team is progressing and we’re getting better. That’s the whole thing for a new team, I guess.” AFTER YOU HIT THE WALL IT LOOKED LIKE YOU COULDN’T STEER THE CAR. “That’s what happened. Once the tires go down, you can get on the brakes but it’s like sliding on the metal, like a sled. I couldn’t really get it slowed down in time to not hit the wall. It was just kind of a bad deal.”