AMBROSE: “I can’t complain about a top-10 and being the top Raybestos Rookie. This is the first time that I’ve raced against these NEXTEL Cup guys on an oval, toe to toe. I’m just so proud of my guys and Kingsford Charcoal for supporting us and Ford Racing and friends and family who committed a lot to let me come over here. It’s not just me. It’s my whole family that has made sacrifices and days like today make it all worth while.” THIS WAS ANOTHER GOOD POINTS DAY. “It really was. It was big. We spun out there with a set of tires that just weren’t matched right and we dug ourselves out of a hole. We got ourselves back on the lead lap and away we went. It was just fantastic.” YOU WERE LUCKY TO NOT HIT ANYTHING WHEN YOU SPUN. “That’s all skill, man [smiles]. What are you talking about luck? I hit the pit box trying to park the car after the race and that’s about all I hit. It was loose racing. Those tires are so hard and the track was really slippery. We just fought all day.” YOU JUST STAYED OUT OF TROUBLE ALL DAY. “Yeah, we tried to. We got ourselves bad tires there the middle part of the race, went a lap down, and once we got the good tires back on we were good to go. We just had to fight our way back onto the lead lap and the rest is history.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE A GOOD START TO THE SEASON? “This is a dream start. I never dreamt it would be like this. It’s just brilliant.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “It was a long day. To start with it was horrible. We had a bad car and we got a puncture and went two laps down and twice we got caught when the leader passed us and it went yellow. It was horrible but that’s what we had. We worked hard all day and tried to make the car better and at the end it was more competitive.” IT WAS A WILD RACE. DID YOU HAVE ANY CLOSE CALLS? “Not really, but twice, once when the 1 got into the wall it was really close and with the 9 as well. The car is in one piece which is good.” HOW MUCH DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU IN THE CUP RACE? “Hopefully a lot [smiles].”

JUSTIN DIERCKS, No. 70 FORETRAVEL/BIOMET CHEVROLET: “We stayed out of trouble and we did what we said we wanted to do. We logged the laps, we learned, we made the car better at the end and that’s all I can ask for. We’re still quite a bit off but it’s all I can ask for is for us to come to the racetrack and make the race and finish the race. For right now that’s all I can ask for and the guys did that. My spotter Mark Green did an awesome job today keeping me out of trouble and I’m real happy with it. It’s not the best finish in the world but we’ll take it.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AMERICA’S TIRE FORD: “There are a few things that we’ve learned today that will help me for tomorrow. Man, this car was a handful for the first couple of laps. I felt like I was at a dirt track is South Georgia. The team worked their guts out today. I just had to take it easy for a little while. I think we run our best lap of the race with like 40 to go or something like that. When you are trying to throw a car together without a lot of practice it just makes it tough and we’re going to go about things a little different preparing our backup car. It was decent day today just to finish.”

BRAD COLEMAN, No. 18 Z-LINE DESIGNS CHEVROLET: “This tire is pretty unpredictable. We had a great car and we were passing a lot of people. We were passing some of them on the outside. I don’t know if anyone was right behind me or what but it all of a sudden just snapped out and I mean it was gone, no saving it. My crew did a good job trying to fix the car but it just wasn’t the same.” WHAT WAS THE MAIN THING THAT YOU LEARNED TODAY? “I learned that aerodynamics is a huge and important thing. When the tires are bad you’ve just got to take care of it. I made a rookie mistake in the pits but just sliding through the pit box. I learned not to go in so hard so I learned a lot today.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 23 OKLAHOMA CENTENNIAL CHEVROLET: “We had a strong Chevrolet and I can’t thank the guys enough for that. I got caught up in one of those wrecks there. We slowed down and the guys behind us didn’t and that happens. You’ve got to move on and go to the next week. I feel good that at least we ran well and that’s what we need to do. I think a lot of people saw how strong we can run and how capable we are of doing it. It’s a good first step. I’m just sorry about what happened.” YOU DIDN’T QUALIFY WELL BUT YOU RAN WELL IN THE RACE. “That’s very encouraging. I think it’s really hard to qualify well with the situation last night but today in the sun it was more about handling. I thought I was able to do more to make the car run successful.”