Aaron’s 499 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 26th) - "The 12 car had a tire go down - a right-rear or a left-rear. I was just in the right spot, man. A few feet further ahead or further back and I would have been alright, but I just can't believe it. The Viagra team has been so fast on the race track this year and we just can't get going. Everytime I turn around it's something else. It's too bad. We had a good car and we just got started. The race just started, but it wasn't anybody's fault." WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP THIS KIND OF WRECK? "I'm not a big fan of all the stuff that we do here, but this was a flat tire. I mean, it wasn't anybody's fault. You can't point your finger anywhere on this one, it was just unfortunate." WHAT DID YOU SEE? "The 12 had a left-rear or right-rear tire go down. It wasn't anybody's fault and there wasn't anything anybody could do, it was just a wild ride from there."

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 CITGO Taurus (Finished 35th) - "Mark told me Ryan had a problem with a tire. I didn't know what happened, I just saw him going really fast out of control. He took quite a ride. I saw him get out of the car, so that's a good thing. It's just everybody in one pack. I saw the wreck from the very start and saw it headed to the wall and all I could do was slow down. The guys behind me couldn't get slowed down and I'm sure the guys behind them couldn't get slowed down. It's just everybody in a big pack. It's been like that since plates have been here and it will be like that as long as we run plates here." NOBODY'S FAULT JUST TYPICAL TALLADEGA? "That's the problem is that it is typical Talladega. It's fun to watch and it's fun to do, but there has to be a better way. We've got to build some racing where, when something happens, not everybody gets in it and that's what we've got right now."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 42nd) - "It's just a shame, really. I guess it was a cut tire that somebody had, but I didn't see it. I was just trying to avoid all the spinning cars and stuff. I obviously didn't do a real good job of that because I was swept up in the middle of it." FRUSTRATING TO GET CAUGHT UP SO EARLY? "There's not a whole lot you can do about it when you've got five, six, seven, eight, 10 cars wrecking. You try to pick a hole and then when you get there it closes up so quick. It's typical Talladega racing. I'm not glad that it was a tire that went, but I'm just glad somebody didn't make a major mistake this early in the race." ARE YOU OK? "Yeah, I'm actually in good shape. I took some hard hits, but all of that new safety gear did the job. I can count three times I got the wind knocked out of me. I can count at least three hard hits I had, but, actually, I'm pretty good. I'm kind of upset like everybody else that we didn't get a chance to run no longer than we did."

TODD BODINE - No. 54 National Guard Taurus (Finished 28th) - "It was the same as yesterday. Ryan cut down a left-rear and he was toward the front just like Jay (Sauter) was yesterday. There's nothing you can do, you just start piling in. We would have made it through, but coming through the tri-oval I decided to go to the middle. If I would have stayed on the bottom where I was, we probably would have made it through but I didn't. At least it's not as bad as some. The bumper went back and put a hole in the radiator, so we've got to change that and then we'll just go back out and ride around." THESE WRECKS CAN HAPPEN EARLY OR LATE IN A RACE. "Yeah, once the tire went down there was nothing he could do. You're going so fast that when something like that happens you want to be right behind it. You don't want to be five cars behind it because that fifth car is gonna get it. Once that starts, then everybody gets into it."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (Finished 3rd) - "Man, I tell you what, I am so worn out but so happy. This M&M's Ford Taurus, Coca-Cola, Raybestos, we really wanted to win one down here in Alabama. We've got a lot of Robert Yates fans down here, but I drove my heart out. I push Junior up there to the front, so it was pretty cool to see him win another one. I'm really happy with third. They gave me a great race car." YOU GOT BANGED AROUND A LOT OUT THERE. "That's one thing about this race team, it never gives up and never gets upset. They stay calm and keep me calm on the radio. Brett (Griffin) did a great job spotting and I owe this all to them. I'm the lucky one that's driving this thing every week." HOW WAS THE CAR AFTER YOU GOT HIT BY WALTRIP'S SPIN? DID IT HURT? "I don't think so, in fact, it might have made it better. It seemed like it ran better there at the end than it had all day. I mean, they took their time and really repaired the car as best you can. I'm just so happy to be driving for this race team. I thought I was gonna get shuffled back with two laps to go and just stayed tough and beat around a little bit to get us a great finish." DID IT LOOK LIKE JUNIOR WENT BELOW THE YELLOW LINE TO MAKE THE PASS? "I was the one pushing him and they ran him down. He had to do that or cause a big wreck, so it was a smart move again. He's just like his dad driving that car. He kept giving me the 'come on, push' sign in the window and I pushed him all I could. We almost had a one-two finish, but we'll take third right now." YOU'VE PUSHED MICHAEL WALTRIP TO A WIN AT DAYTONA AND NOW JUNIOR HERE. ONE DAY SOMEONE'S GOING TO PUSH YOU, RIGHT? "I hope so. Again, those Chevrolets are tough. I'm so proud of these guys. After Daytona they made a big commitment to come here and really be strong in our restrictor plate program and it worked out."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Finished 12th) - YOU HAD SOME OVERHEATING PROBLEMS? "It wouldn't run and didn't drive very good, either. That's a bad combination. It just wasn't a very good race car. We tried to build a good, new car to bring here but we didn't succeed. I was getting outrun by cars that were wrecked. It's just unfortunate that half the field got taken out and I can't finish any better than 12th here."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 9th) - THE LAST FEW LAPS WERE PRETTY HECTIC. HOW DID YOU SEE THINGS? "Junior got under me and passed me for the lead and had a run on me and I just couldn't get down in front of him. Then the 29 was pushing me really good and we had a run to the outside of the 8 and he kind of faked right like he was gonna go with me and then went behind the 8. I shouldn't expect that. There's nothing wrong with that because everybody has to make their own decisions, but I couldn't win the race without anyone pushing me. That's just the way it works, but if you line up behind the 8, it's hard to beat him." IT WAS PROBABLY HARD TO TELL FROM WHERE YOU WERE AT BUT DID YOU THINK THE 8 WENT BELOW THE YELLOW LINE TO COMPLETE THE PASS ON YOU? "I have no idea. I couldn't see it at all. I have no idea."

DAVE BLANEY - No. 77 Jasper Engines Taurus (Finished 23rd) - THE BIG WRECK KIND OF RUINED YOUR DAY. "Yeah, I couldn't see anything. I was three-quarters of the way through it and finally hit somebody. That killed our car enough and we had to spend seven or eight laps fixing it. It was a short day."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus (Finished 22nd) - YOU HAD A GOOD CAR EVEN WHEN IT WAS BANGED UP. "Yeah, we had a really good car. We had a top-five, for sure, coming. I was just being real patient, but the lower ball joint just busted out of the lower A-frame. That must have been from that very first crash down there. Obviously, it took a hit and then came apart. Then I got together with my teammate coming off of four. We need to work better together out there because it was a restart and if everybody fans out four-wide, that's not gonna get us up to speed fast enough. Anybody can get a run on somebody and pass them on a restart, but I thought we had established the inside lane there. He didn't have anybody with him, so I don't know. I wished he would have gotten on the brakes a little and not had that happen. I'm not pointing fingers. I moved up there in front of him because I assumed he wanted to go up and get a draft off the outside lane of cars and he just caught me on my rear bumper and turned me."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Rubbermaid Taurus (Finished 19th) - "We skated through the big wreck at the beginning. We were on the lead lap and my deal was I had a 10-mile-an-hour run on my teammate and he pulled out in front of me. That's fine, but we ended up running out of race track and we wrecked. I had a pretty good run and didn't expect him to come up like that." TONY STEWART HAD SOME WORDS WITH YOU AFTER THE RACE. "Yeah, he ended up on my outside when Biffle pinched me up against him. It wasn't like I ended up running into him purposely, it was just an accident. My teammate pulled out in front of me and I didn't have enough time to make a move to get around him. If I would have slammed on the brakes, we would have lost the draft."

ELLIOTT SADLER PRESS CONFERENCE - "I had a great race car all day. We had some problems and got in a wreck or two and beat up the front end a little bit. We had some overheating problems, but, man, we had some great calls in the pits again. I am so proud of Raymond (Fox). He's not acting like a first-year crew chief at all. He's making some great, smart decisions giving us track position every week and they just built me a great race car. I learned a very important lesson today, I stayed wherever that 8 went at the end. I knew he was going to the front. When I pushed him by everybody on the backstretch, both of us had so much momentum that he pulled me right into second. Kevin got by us and we ended up third, but I'm really proud of my guys. That's a brand new car. It's never seen a race track until this weekend and to finish third with it is great." THAT LOOKED PRETTY NERVEWRACKING ON TV. WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE CAR? "As far as thinking third was possible, not really - until it got seven or eight laps to go. When you looked in front, you had the four Hendrick cars and you know they're gonna work together and, of course, the 8 car was up there and a lot of team cars. We're thinking, 'Man, this is not gonna be good. We're gonna be lucky with a top 10.' Yes, it was very nerve-wracking because everybody is learning you can run three-wide here and everybody is learning that the closer you sandwich people, the more momentum you're gonna give yourself and slow theirs down. It was pretty nerve-wracking the last few laps, but everybody used their head and drove safe. I'm just glad we ended up where we did. We feel very fortunate." WHAT ABOUT JUNIOR'S PASS AT THE END? "I was so far up his spoiler that I couldn't see where we were at. Sometimes you get so close to the cars in front of you that you're just following them. You hope they're on the track because you're gonna turn with them. All I could really see was his windshield. I was pushing him as hard as I could push him because I wanted to go too and we had so much momentum we went into first and second. If I was below the yellow line, we must have been fine when we got back because we didn't get in the apron or anything. If he was, I don't know. I hadn't seen it either. I'm like Kevin (Harvick), I'm not worried about that right now. We're just happy with the finish we got and we'll leave the decisions like that to somebody else." AFTER THE RACE A FEW DRIVERS SAID THIS WAS FUN AND INTENSE RACE COMPARED TO THE LAST COUPLE. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT? "Well, it's probably fun for both of us because we finished second and third, I guess. Yeah, I think it was very intense, especially at the end running three-wide and people really crowding each other trying to get air off each other's cars onto other people's spoilers. I probably ran closer today in the middle than I had in a long time in the draft, but the guys used their heads. That's why we're professionals. You can get that close without causing a big wreck. I saw a few doughnuts put in each other's side, but that's all part of NASCAR Winston Cup racing. So, to me, it was a pretty intense race." DID YOU STICK WITH JUNIOR BECAUSE HE HAD THE BEST CAR OR DID THE BEST JOB OF DRIVING? "I think because he's won the last three races in a row, so if you stick close to him you know you're gonna be somewhere near the front. I think when I got to him we were like seventh and eighth and I just stayed with him wherever he went. I think the finishing move down the backstretch, Kevin was pushing me on the bottom and I was pushing Junior. We pushed him by whoever was leading at the time to put all three of us in a position to win the race. Everytime you come down here you know that car is gonna be somewhere near the front, so if you stay close to it or try to push as much as you can, you feel like you're gonna give yourself a chance to win when it comes down to the end of the race." DID IT APPEAR JUNIOR WOULD HAVE HAD A CRASH WITH KENSETH IF HE HAD NOT TRIED TO GO BELOW THE YELLOW LINE? "First of all, I'm like Kevin, I have not seen a tape or anything of the race so I don't know where he was or not. I think Dale, Jr. is a smart enough person because when you hit here, you hit pretty hard. If you think you're gonna either cause a wreck or make a good pass, I think you'd rather choose to make a good pass. As far as commenting on the yellow line deal, I haven't seen the tape so I can't comment on that. I was too close to him. I know it sounds weird, but all I could see was his hand waving and his rear-view mirror. That's all I could see." DO YOU KNOW IF THEY WERE CLOSE AT ALL? "I know this sounds stupid, but when you're so close to the car in front of you all you can really see is the back windshield. I know it's hard to explain, but when you're pushing people you're not looking around - you're trying to look kind of through his windshield also. At the end of a run that gets all dirty too. When you're pushing somebody, you really can't see that far."

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