FRANCHITTI: “A great job by the whole Fastenal crew. The car was a little bit tighter than we had experienced in practice. We spent most of the day freeing it off. Brad [Parrott, crew chief] and the boys did a good call with the pit strategy and that got us definitely a couple of places today. It was kind of to have been out there on used tires and everybody else was on new but we were further up than we would have been so a great call by those guys. I’m really, really pleased for the whole team. Tomorrow is going to be more difficult with our Target Dodge. I don’t feel quite so confident about that one yet but we’ll give it our best.” DID THE CAUTION THERE AT THE END HELP YOU? “The caution came out just at the right time for the guys that needed to pit which was kind of ironic. We’d have liked to have seen an earlier caution. I think that would have put us in even better shape but it is what it is. We’ll take our sixth-place finish and move on to next week.” DID YOU HAVE GOOD FUEL MILEAGE ALL DAY? “Yeah, I’ve won a few Indy car races with fuel mileage before so we were making good fuel mileage there where we were running, where we were lifting really early and trying to make as good fuel mileage as we could to extend that and I think we did okay.” YOU MUST BE PUMPED UP ABOUT THE RACE HERE TOMORROW AND NEXT WEEK IN ATLANTA. “I think last week was probably the best the car has felt and I really felt we were on for a solid top-10 but we had a loose lug nut which was very unfortunate. So between then and this week I felt really, really confident with it so that’s good and we’ll keep pushing.” WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO GET BETTER? “Laps, got to do laps, got to get used to driving it when it’s a little free and we’ve got to work hard, especially on the Sprint Cup side, we’ve got to make sure that the cars are a little bit closer to the pace so that makes my job a little bit easier because right now I’m working hard [smiles].”

FRANCHITTI PRESS CONFERENCE

“It was a good day for us. Last week in California we were very happy with the Fastenal Dodge. We had a loose lug nut that put us a lap down near the end so we kind of continued that form into this weekend and who knows? I was pretty happy with it. We were a little tight to start with but Brad and the boys freed it off. Once it got a little bit better then we took a gamble on the strategy. I guess if you’re going to gamble Vegas is the place to do it so we came in and had to start making fuel mileage. That worked out for us. But the things that didn’t work out, the yellow came right at the point that these other guys needed it so they were all sitting behind me on new tires and I was a sitting duck from that point but I just hung on. That was a good call in the end because it got us a few spots. I was very happy with my day in the Fastenal Dodge.” HOW WAS THE TRANSITION FROM INDY TO NASCAR AND LAS VEGAS? “In the Nationwide side, it’s not too bad. I think we know the cars very well, the team knows the cars very well so they’re helping me out by giving me pretty good cars. They’ve got a little bit more downforce. When I get into the Sprint Cup car right now I think as a team we’re struggling to figure those cars out. That makes my job a lot more difficult and also makes my crew chief’s job a lot more difficult because I’m struggling when the car is very loose to hang on to it. I can tell when it’s tight, free, which part of the corner it’s rolling over, those sort of things, but I’m not at the stage yet that I can feel I need a bit of track bar or any of those things. I’d say right now a little tougher for us on the Cup side of things with the Target Dodge. The other drivers have been great. It’s perfect. You park next to each other in the lot there and you all hang out and see each other and have a chat and that kind of stuff and get on the track and you go at it. What more could you ask for? It’s great.” BEING ON OLD TIRES, WERE YOU CONCERED THAT YOU MIGHT BE IN A TOUCHY SITUATION? “I haven’t been in that situation before so I didn’t really know what to expect. I just went into Turn 1 and 2 as hard as I could and I was sliding around when other guys with new tires had a bit more grip. From that point I knew the situation and I just did what I could.”

BRAD PARROTT, CREW CHIEF, No. 40 FASTENAL DODGE: YOU RAN AMONG THE TOP-15 ALL DAY THEN FINISHED SIXTH. HOW DID YOU DO THAT? “Pit strategy. We come in and got two tires, I’m not even sure what lap it was – I believe it was 126, then we come back at 139 and got gas only. My strategy from the time we got here with this hard tire, the car is the best out of gas and on old tires. This is the same tire we’ll basically take to Charlotte. So that’s been my strategy for two years at Charlotte and brought it here this weekend and it paid off. Dario Franchitti did a great job all day long, kept the car clean. He had some issues with the faster cars and everything but sixth-place is pretty much a win for us. To come here and start sixth in Vegas and finish sixth and roll the dice here in Vegas, we came out with a Royal Flush, I guess.” WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT FUEL MILEAGE WAS A FACTOR WITH ALL THE CAUTIONS TODAY? “That was the whole plan. We were going to be probably a lap short, or half a lap short. The 88 car was going to win the race and we were going to be right there in second-place, hopefully. But it didn’t pan out that way. The caution came out and I kept him out there. For a guy who just ran his seventh Nationwide Series race, to put him out in front of Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick is pretty intimidating for him. But that was the plan I had from the time we got here and it paid off this time with that caution there at the end. He didn’t lose a spot on that last green-white-checkered. Phenomenal job by the whole Fastenal Dodge team. I’m just really excited to go to Atlanta.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO THIS TEAM TO HAVE SUCH A GOOD RUN EARLY IN THE SEASON? “For Dario it’s just going to make him better tomorrow. He’s got confidence that he can get the job done. We ran 15th and probably would have finished 12th if the scenario wouldn’t have played out but that’s why Chip pays me the big bucks they say [smiles]. I would do it for free to have finishes like that with Dario Franchitti.”