ANDRETTI: “It’s just a great run for us. We built this car and we debated whether we were going to build a new car or not and built this car. That’s what the team decided to do, the organization. Freedom Roads, Camping World, RVs.com, it’s just a great day for us and I couldn’t be more proud. I want to thanks Martin Truex. I think he helped me a lot. There at the end he protected me and really treated me good and that’s what I needed. We’ve been saying that we’ve been one lap off all season. It seemed like if we get lapped the caution comes out when we’re not the lucky dog, just something odd happens, a tire goes across pit road and nothing ever seemed to go our way. But today everything did and again I want to thank Martin Truex Jr. I think he was back there protecting me more than he was racing me [smiles], at least it seemed that way. I really have a lot of respect for him and really want to thank him for that. Top-five is a good run for us, especially after the last couple of weeks.” HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO HOLD OFF THOSE GUYS BEHIND YOU AND NOT MAKE A MISTAKE? “We had a really good car which makes it easier. I was leaving a gap between me and the guys in front because they were fighting like dogs. First and second were beating each other and second and third were kind of watching that but they were kind of aggressive on each other, too. I just wanted to see what was going on and I didn’t want to get slowed down because that’s when I’d get passed. Martin Truex really has a lot to do, I think, with where we are, too because I raced him and he raced me really fair. I think he gave us a bit of a cushion and he had a really fast race car. But it would have been a lot of work for to get around us so therefore I think he protected us. I was kind of nice [laughs].” YOU HAD A GOOD CAR ALL WEEKEND. WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THE CONFIDENCE OF THIS TEAM? “What happened is we had this car on the surface plate. We’re a small organization and we were deciding whether we were going to build it or not because we had to move some other cars around to get it built. It’s a brand new race car. The organization, and I wasn’t in the meeting, they said ‘We think John Andretti can with that race. Let’s build a race car for him’ and that's what we did. We went testing one day at VIR. When we unloaded we weren’t all that quick but Rick Gay [crew chief] and the guys did a great job and got it fast.”

RICK GAY, CREW CHIEF, No. 10 RVs.COM/CAMPING WORLD FORD: “We built this car brand new last month. It was kind of an experimental piece, something that we thought would be a good thing to come up here to Watkins Glen with and it proved to be true.” WHAT DOES THIS RUN DO FOR THE CONFIDENCE OF THE TEAM? “It’s tremendous. We’ve had a lot of things not go our way this year, as other teams have too. When something like this happens, it’s instant rejuvenation. Everybody gets a little pep in their step and we’re all looking forward to going on to Michigan.” DO YOU THINK YOU’RE STARTING TO GAIN ON EVERTHING AND GET TO WHERE YOU WANT THIS TEAM TO BE? “Yeah, we are, definitely. It’s new for John coming into the Busch Series. He hasn’t driven these cars before. It’s new for me working with John and all these guys. They are all a really good bunch of guys and they’ve won championships, they’ve won races, they know how to win. As soon as we get a few more little things worked out I think we’re going to be a forced to be reckoned with.” DID THE LATE CAUTION HELP YOU? “It actually hurt us. Our car was better the longer we went green flag. Earlier in the race we ran our fastest lap time of the race on 45-lap tires. We really think that caution hurt us at the end.”

DANNY O’QUINN JR., No. 50 ROUSH RACING FORD: “I kind of didn’t know what to expect coming in here. It’s only me second ever road course and not even anything like Mexico so I learned a lot. We definitely picked up a lot at the end of the race there. We got caught a lap down there early the way we pitted and kind of messed us up the rest of the race. We ended up getting back on the lead lap there at the end and had a pretty fast car. Track position at these places is key but we learned a lot. All these guys did a good job giving me a good car and this gives us a little bit of promise for next time we come back.”

TODD KLUEVER, No. 06 3M FORD: “Honestly, I missed one downshift going into the chicane there and blew it. I broke it. We never have any problems with our transmissions at all. Those guys do a really good job. The only time they break on me is when we come to road course so that tells me it’s my problem. I missed a shift and tried to force it in and that was it. I knew the next two turns after that that it was going to break. It was just a matter of when. I tried to limp it around. It broke on me when I grabbed fourth gear going through the esses.”

More Notes:

ANDRETTI PRESS CONFERENCE

ANDRETTI: “First of all, Robby Gordon never saves his equipment and secondly, he flipped me off, too. I guess he said it took him too long to get around me. I told him that’s what happens when you’re on the same lap [laughter]. That was a good race today. It was a lot of fun racing with these guys. It’s usually clean racing. I saw them beating on each other a little bit and it looked like fun. I was kind of hoping that they would take each other out because that’s a couple of gifts. But they were hard racing and it looked like it was great. Martin Truex really treated me good at the end of the race. I think that he held his on and he probably could have dive-bombed in but he didn’t. I’m real proud of my guys. We built this car brand new and brought it here. We had a lot of help from a lot of different people and tested it one day. We had problems with it at the test and then we had a little bit of problems with it here but then it came right. I can’t say enough about my team. I’m really proud of them.”

WHEN ARE YOU BRINGING THIS SHOW TO MONTREAL? “I think it would be a great circuit for us. I’ve been up there before and watched the Formula One race. It’s got long straightaways with some passing opportunities. That’s what’s so good about Watkins Glen. It gives you a lot of passing opportunities. You have three good solid ones unlike Sears Point where there’s one kind of half passing opportunity unless somebody goes off or makes a huge mistake. You’d see a lot of good racing up there. You’d sell the seats out down at that hairpin. Hopefully they’d keep it cleaner than they did for the Formula One cars. I think it would be a good race, plus I like Montreal. I think it’s a cool city.”