Dollar General 300 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes

KYLE BUSCH: It was a good night for us. The Stay Green Winterizer was pretty cool. We were pretty good there in the middle part of the race. I thought we were the car to beat; and coming up the middle there making the topside work for us and everybody jumped up a little bit and got their cars working and seemed to go away where everybody equaled out for us. But all in all, coming up there starting as deep as we did was a good night for us; and getting up there and to battle with Junior and Jeff Burton Burton we didn't have enough for him. He was really, really good on the short runs and it took our car like 20, 25 laps, like Junior's, to get going.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I had a pretty good car. We got in a wall and messed it up. I was about to come in the pits and just get out; but I got it going again a little bit and we found some speed, fixed the fender and my pit stops were amazing. We would get like six or seven spots on pit road, my guys come in tenth and come out third once, and that's how I got out there. A couple guys wrecked this front of us, the 16 and 2, and then I raced with the 29 and the clean air out front made my car even better; and Jeff broke out and I thought we could race him and try to win but once the caution came out we were just too tight on the short run and I got passed by Kyle. I got passed by 18, too, but finally got going there with about three to go and got back by the 18.

Q. So Dale, did the Speedy Dry at all affect your high lineup there any? Because on TV they seemed to speculate that's what the problem might have been.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: It was all over the corner and sometimes, it's dirty but it wasn't dirty. It just looks like it is. Still gripped up there, my car was just not good on the short run. And that caution was so long, it gave the 29 a chance to cool his tires up; and he was so good out front he just took off, about three laps he would shoot out there about 20 car lengths and everybody would run the same speed. But three or four laps, he was turning really, really good and that's where he beat everybody.

Q. Dale, just how close was it on turn four? It looked like you just about got Burton's bumper when you came up behind him.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don't know, some of the stuff that happened out there, I can't remember every little thing. I got on him off 2 after the caution come out. That's the first race I ever felt like I knew I was going to win and didn't. Because I just knew we was going to win because the 29 was giving up; his car was tightening up pretty bad before that caution; and my car was starting to turn better and better, and he had not even tried to run at top yet. And I got right to him and I knew if he ran at top, it would take about two corners to figure out and I would have a chance to get by him.

Q. Your crew chief was saying you were pretty excited in the race car, having a lot of fun; how much fun was it tonight?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: It's always good to run in the Busch Series. I don't do it that much because I really don't like to, but it makes a long weekend and I don't like to work no more than I have to. It is fun to run Charlotte. It's fun to run Bristol. There's tracks that me and Kyle like running some other drivers do like running in the Busch Series. It's kind of fun to get in there and beat up on them guys but now there's so many Cup guys in there, you end up beating up on Busch guys half the race, and the other half the of the race you end up getting beat by Cup regulars. It was fun. Tonight was good. Like I said, I thought it was over with when I hit the wall. I was real close to bottom and I was sliding around on the bottom and I was like, man, I don't need to park; these guys will think I'm an idiot if I park, and got going again and I ran another hundred laps. The car was pick picking up speed, and fixed the fender. It was fun, though

Q. Are you doing any more Busch races this year?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don't know. I really don't know until like somebody knows, but I don't. I thought maybe Homestead might be on the deal no, I don't have anymore? Okay, that was it. (Laughter) that was my last Busch race with DEI.

Q. So how cool would it have been to have won?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: It's always cool to win and it would have been fun. I was trying really, really hard, believe me, to win. Because when you're running second and you think you have a shot at it I was just really trying hard. And I want to thank Menards for working with me and for working with the Busch Series at DEI for the last couple of years. That whole family has been great to DEI and great to me and helped me a lot. And I want to thank DEI and anyone who has ever had their hands in the Busch program since I even started there; that's been a lot of fun. Every time I drove that car, I've always been treated well and always enjoyed it. I've never really walked out of that car angry or pissed at anyone. The team has always enjoyed the experience and so have I, so I just want to thank everybody for that.

Q. The track was a little treacherous out there for some of the guys running up front. How do you think it's going to be tomorrow night, and how racy do you think this joint is going to be?

KYLE BUSCH: I think it will be fine. As long as you've got car control and your car underneath you, it's fine. Tonight for most of us there it wasn't that big a deal. I don't know what happened with Jimmie there. I think it was just a matter of, you know, loosening up his car because his car was a little bit tight and then fresh tires on a restart you're always a little bit loose. Just trying to run around the topside around some lap cars, you get even looser That was just a product of a restart. But, you know, I think that if you have your car underneath you and you're capable enough of driving it, you'll be fine

Q. Before the race, you said that if you were in Vegas, you would have put all your money on Jeff Burton for tonight, and you were right. Care to make any predictions for tomorrow night?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Not really. I think I've got a really good chance. We were really good in practice and I was real happy with my car. I've got a good chance again tomorrow. We've been running good here the last couple times so I feel like we've got a shot.

THE MODERATOR: A come from behind victory to win, Richard Childress Racing is building on its owner's lead with the victory tonight, 160 points ahead of the No. 20 team of Job Gibbs Racing, and 180 now ahead of Roush Racing. Jeff, why don't you talk about your run, especially coming behind and also joined by Richard Childress.

JEFF BURTON: Obviously real happy with tonight. We broke an engine yesterday, which I can't remember the last time we broke an engine in a Busch car, but we broke an engine. And our guys, we started in the back and our guys did a great job of changing, and not only did we change the engine, but changed the oil lines and whole system and went out cold turkey and obviously everything was good. So real proud of that effort. Any time you start in the back and can win the race, it's really rewarding. This to me is one of the biggest here in Darlington, as far as the Busch Series goes, the two biggest races we run, a real honor to win here tonight. Tommy Houston was here tonight and that's one of my heroes and just a fun night.

THE MODERATOR: RC, you want to talk about the victory and talk about building on that owner point lead in the Busch Series?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Like Jeff said, for the team to come back after having a problem with our engine, and we had some water get in the oil, they changed it; and him starting from the rear having to come from the rear actually twice, I was really proud of them. And right there at the end, Junior was coming and that caution gave us time to cool the tires a little and I knew Jeff, when they dropped a green, I knew he was going to be good.

Q. About the third restart from the finish, Junior had a run up on your tail and dove up underneath you, and coming up to four, he wiggled and just about took both of you out; did you realize how close he was when he came up behind you?

JEFF BURTON: Yeah, I heard him give the gas and I didn't give him a lot of room. When he rolled up behind me, it was close enough where it pulled the air off the car and my car kind of turned side ways. I knew it was pretty close. It was amazing how fast the restarts were and he could run wide open all the way through one and two, and almost wide open through three and four. I went wide open through one and two and he was still next to me. I'm like, how did you do that? It was close, but I heard him the throttle. These cars just to make them run good later, you have to be loose to start, and he was too free right there which is why he was good later in the run, but it was a close call.

Q. Richard, you saw a number of Chase drivers crash out tonight in a race that really didn't mean anything to them, except that it was a Busch race. Do you have any reservation about letting your guys run in a Busch race in the height of the Chase season?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Not really. These guys are all professionals and they know what they are doing. You could get hurt driving home tonight in your car. I don't have think about it and that's what we all do for a living, and it's just racing, you know.

Q. A lot of accidents out there, how close were you to anything, especially having to come from the back?

JEFF BURTON: The one where Clint spun getting off four, we were really close to that one. We were just far enough behind to be able to miss it and that was that was by far the closest call we had, had to go through the grass, and luckily didn't hit anything. So that was the closest. I don't remember being in another one that we got that was a wreck. It was some close calls but that's one that I remember

Q. And what exactly was wrong with the engine yesterday?

JEFF BURTON: I'm a driver. I don't know. Water was in the oil. That's never good.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We were thinking he might have had gas leaking and they just replaced it to be safe, so they did the right call.

Q. Jeff, earlier this year there was a lot of speculation about when the Busch Series and the Truck Series are so different that not as many people would run. However, I've been listening to people talk, and I'm thinking that maybe you guys love those cars and you're going to miss them so much that it might cause a lot of people to run them.

JEFF BURTON: Well, they do drive pretty good compared to the Car of Tomorrow, there's no question. It's going to be interesting to see moving into the future how many people do run the Busch Series. I know that I'm going to. I'm going to pull my schedule back a little bit but I'm definitely going to run. I really think there's rumor that kind of the COT program is going to roll over to the Busch Series, too, that's the rumor going around. That will just suck everybody back in. But I think that's good. I think it's good for the sport. I think the Cup drivers in the Busch Series is really good. I mean, there is a limit, you know, and we're pushing that limit right now for sure. I don't know. As long as it's like Richard said, and the question earlier; the only negative is the possibility of getting hurt. But, you know, I think it's I mean, we didn't run all that great today in the Cup car and we had to come out here tonight and win the Busch race and that does a tremendous amount for me from a confidence standpoint. You know, there's some pluses there that are hard to weigh.

Q. Have you been able to pin down what your schedule is next year for your Busch program and who is going to drive?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We're working on it and hopefully going to announce something in a couple weeks. Right now we're going to run two full time cars for sure and maybe a part time, maybe three. As an owner I really enjoy the Busch Series. It's a lot of fun and I think we've been able to get watching the Cup drivers in it, and watching guys like Kevin Harvick out run him when he was a Busch driver; and Clint Bowyer; it's good to see these guys race against the Cup guys, and that's how you want to pick a driver. And the crews, you see them out there, like the 29 tonight, we have a lot of young guys that come from the Busch Series that we will move up, and most of our Cup teams came from our Busch Series. So the Busch is really a good feeder system for all the Cup teams.

Q. Just how important would it be to win the owner's championship, maybe compare that to Kevin's driver championship last year?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, we've won it once before. Any time you win any kind of a championship, it gives all the guys that work so hard an amount of pride to win, and they set that goal early in the year. And I would just be proud if they would win it, and I would be proud for all of the guys and ladies that pulled it off.

Q. Richard, talk about a possibility of a split title with you getting the owner and Carl getting the driver; how does that really kind of all sink in when you both can claim the championship?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Well, I guess it was two or three years ago, we won, when Brian Vickers won the championship and Hendricks, and we won the championship I think it was with Kevin and Johnny Sauder. It was special. We all had a fun time. I think our party was a lot bigger and better than theirs, so we won the party side of it, too.

JEFF BURTON: That's important.