Sharpie 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Bristol:
S. Riggs, 17th
B. Vickers, 20th
K. Kahne, 21st
B. Gaughan, 35th
S. Wimmer, 36th

SCOTT WIMMER, #22 CATERPILLAR DODGE: "The 32 car got into the back of me a little bit off of four. I couldn't quite save it, got into the outside wall and came back across the track and tore up a couple cars when I was coming back across the track. It's unfortunate. It was a pretty short day for us but it's Bristol and that stuff happens here. When you're back in traffic like that it's hard to get any passing done. We were unfortunate."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, #77 KODAK EASY SHARE/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: "This is Bristol, man. Nothing went wrong. I don't really know what happened. There were about five, six, seven, eight cars in front of us. It's the night race, man, and you're going to have cars bouncing off each other. My guys worked so hard. We had a really good Dodge. We were running really good times and we were catching people. We were as fast as the leaders so we had a good Dodge tonight. My guys rebuilt it great and I love 'em. They did a great job putting my racecar back together and they did an awesome job in the pits."

SCOTT RIGGS IN THE #10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT BRISTOL. Notes: Riggs finished 17th and took top Raybestos Rookie honors for the second time this season. He was also the top rookie finisher at the June 6 MBNA 400 at Dover International Speedway. "We had a big hill to climb tonight. We unloaded and had some brake trouble and didn't really find it until practice was almost over so that put us behind all day. By the time we finally figured out what it was and got it fixed we had no idea where the balance of the car was. We went out and qualified and we were way too loose and qualified way at the back. We took another provisional, the third one we've had this year. We were disappointed; didn't want to do that. Everybody just kept working hard. The main thing that we were going to do tonight was survive and finish and see the checkered flag and that's what we did. We let guys go that came up there that were faster than us. Luckily when I got back to 'em on fresher tires and I was faster than them they let me go, so I think I earned a lot of respect this first part of the year. I'm glad to get a whole race here under my belt here at Bristol." YOU STARTED AT THE BACK BUT STILL MANAGED TO POST A DECENT FINISH. DOES THAT GIVE YOU AND THE TEAM A CONFIDENCE BOOST? "We didn't finish well, we just finished. We were one of the few guys that didn't get caught up in a wreck and that's what you get when you come to Bristol. If you don't wreck you'll finish somewhere up there where we did. We learned a lot. We really missed the handling on our racecar because we lost so much practice time. I've got to give all my guys an A+ who keep giving me good pit stops and trying their best to adjust everything they can. Crew chief Doug Randolph never gave up, kept throwing stuff at it and I just kept driving it." WHAT WAS THE CLOSEST CALL THAT YOU HAD? "I think when they had that big pileup in turns one and two on that restart. I was at the very back and I just bailed off into one and the spotter didn't see it in time and I just slid the front tires. I had to come in and get four more tires because we flat spotted 'em. That was probably the closest call."

BRIAN VICKERS, #25 GMAC CHEVROLET: "All the GMAC guys did a good job. We kind of took a chance on that long green flag run, stayed out hoping to get track position and the race kept going green. I could not believe it. I could not believe that it stayed green that long. That was unbelievable for Bristol but I guess that everybody was fairly calm tonight. We had a real good car at times. We were trying to get the center better there at the end and we hurt the exit a little bit too much but we'll take it." YOU STARTED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD. HOW HARD WAS IT TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE? IS IT JUST A MATTER OF PURE LUCK? "A lot of times it is. No doubt it's very difficult to stay out of trouble at a place like this, especially when you start where we did [20th]. That's a good job by everybody to keep everything clean. The spotter and everybody did a good job." WAS THIS THE TOUGHEST RACE PHYSICALLY FOR YOU THIS YEAR? "I'd probably say so. It's pretty close."